Inmagic, Inc. has announced the release of Inmagic Content Server, which combines the advantages of a database management environment with high speed search and categorization. Inmagic has been providing information management software and services for almost 20 years. Its popular DB/TextWorks-based solutions use textbases to organize, search, and retrieve text, images, and multimedia. The new product represents Inmagic's logical product progression from a proprietary technology to a standard database platform that can accommodate the scale requirements and functionality needs of enterprise users. It will allow current Inmagic customers to scale upwards and migrate their existing knowledgebases into the new system. And, Inmagic now has a product to sell into the larger enterprise market.Inmagic Content Server allows business users to create content as well as integrate existing content from internal and external sources, deploy that content to Web pages on intranets, extranets, and the Internet, and organize and manage information flow so the databases they create drive the content for end users to access. Content Server is built on Microsoft SQL Server and takes advantage of the scalability and reliability of this database platform.
Because Inmagic Content Server includes its own Textbase Engine for creating and maintaining the content, much of the database management functionality resides in this Textbase Engine and depends on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 primarily as a data store. This allows end users to create new textbases easily and quickly without requiring support from a database or systems administrator. Inmagic states that Content Server offers a "self-managed system" that can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively, with only minimal ongoing support from IT.
"Inmagic's products make it possible for organizations to deliver highly relevant and timely content to individual business users 24/7," said Phil Green, president and CEO of Inmagic. "Now, with Inmagic Content Server, organizations can enjoy our outstanding content management solutions in a far more scalable environment on a platform that is known and embraced by IT departments.
"This allows organizations to fully leverage the value of their information. We are currently working with a number of current customers who wish to expand the intranet-based knowledgebases they have created to broader audiences within their organizations. Content Server is the ideal solution for these customers."
The company said that a multinational pharmaceutical firm and one of the 50 largest law firms in the U.S. are the first organizations to purchase and install Content Server. Both have been longtime customers of Inmagic using the company's DB/Text product line.
Susan Stearns, Inmagic's vice president of marketing, stressed the easy migration to the new product. She also said that the core functional capabilities are still there and existing Web query forms and interfaces transfer, so end users are able to use a familiar product without additional training.
Inmagic Content Server is available in four system configurations:
- CS Workgroup-designed for a single server environment. Supports up to 5 - 10 concurrent Windows clients and a maximum of 15 total sessions
- CS Standard-for a single server environment running Microsoft SQL Server 2000
- CS Enterprise-for a single cluster of servers, all running Microsoft SQL Server 2000
- CS Unlimited-provides unlimited use across multiple servers in multiple locations, all running Microsoft SQL Server 2000
If an organization has invested in an enterprise-wide portal or information system, standards such as XML and SOAP allow Content Server to complement and interface with other corporate systems.
Inmagic's DB/Text product line is installed in more than 8,000 organizations in over 50 countries. Many of Inmagic's smaller customers will probably continue to use Inmagic DB/TextWorks to manage content collections ranging from litigation support documents to technical reports, digital and image libraries, and all manner of Web-based resources. But, as the nature of larger corporate libraries and enterprises has changed, Inmagic has changed to meet the needs. The company now offers a full range of products for organizations of all sizes and complexities.