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ISYS, state of the art knowledge management software, is designed to create a single interface to a heterogeneous software environment. On the web or over the network, ISYS gives users the ability to search, access, collate and share structured and unstructured knowledge from global and personal e-mail folders, word processing documents, spreadsheets, SQL databases, PDFs, internet sites and Lotus Notes data quickly and efficiently.

ISYS Version 6 showcases a stylish new user interface (UI), with XML search and retrieval, native UNIX, Oracle and Lotus Notes, Rich SQL results display, multiple language support and a radically improved performance in terms of speed and capacity.

The ISYS range is all based on the core ISYS engine. This version 6 release encompasses ISYS:desktop for standalone and networks and ISYS:web for intranet and Internet sites. The ISYS:sdk (Software Developers' Kit) is also due for release at the end of the month.

Version 6 of ISYS has been substantially re-engineered to optimize performance. ISYS maintains a reputation for being lightening fast. "But we can't rest on our laurels," says Ian Davies, Managing Director of ISYS Search Software Worldwide. "We are constantly looking for improvement. The great thing about this release is that while we've added copious features to the product, the engineering overhaul has reduced memory footprint, increased index capacity and halved the indexing and load time. That doesn't often happen with a new release."

The new version is faster and smaller than ever. As an example, SQL indexing speed has been increased by a factor of 8 in some cases; the maximum index size is 6 times that of previously and the memory footprint is half the size.

Big on the buzzword list this year is XML, which is being touted as the best next generation data interchange format. "Traditionally, when large volumes of data are stored in XML, accessing and interacting with the data is very cumbersome and the aim is to load it into another tool before you can do anything with it," says Michael Blaszak, US Vice President. "Now, archiving in XML, or delays in transferring the data, has no negative effects on its usage. With ISYS, you can search and access XML data and even view it richly, in a format you design yourself." Because ISYS recognizes the XML documents as structured, searching occurs within the context of XML 'records'.

ISYS:desktop Version 6 takes a radical departure from Version 5 in look and feel, with a brand new UI. The new UI makes ISYS even easier to navigate and use. "The challenge was to renovate and extend the UI, without sacrificing the many benefits of the existing one," said R&D Manager, Iain Rayner. "And we're very happy with the results." Version 6 has a whole new range of wizards for easy set up of the data and one step indexing of the 'My Documents' directory. The result lists are customizable with twelve options including single click sorting, rules at a glance and fast start queries. The new interface is also designed to clearly differentiate between basic operating requirements and advanced user sections.

Version 6 of ISYS:desktop is closely integrated with Microsoft Internet Explorer and will identify and activate URLs within legacy documents in the ISYS browser. ISYS:desktop also offers personalized web indexing; everywhere the user visits on the Internet is added to a personalized knowledge base and users can instantly return to any page they've visited with a simple ISYS search.

ISYS:desktop Version 6 also provides search and retrieval of knowledge embedded in e-mail attachments. "This is a great new feature and something that our users, particularly recruiters, are very excited about. Version 6 identifies e-mail attachments and adds them to the knowledge base automatically," says Mr. Blaszak.

ISYS:web Version 6 encompasses all the engine enhancements of ISYS:desktop, including format support and indexing speed. ISYS:web is designed to act as a web server as well as dynamically convert legacy data to HTML on-the-fly. With Version 6 of ISYS:web, ISYS presents a far more robust and competitive web server with remote administration via the browser, PHP scripting support, Server Side Includes (SSI) support, the ability to execute CGI and ISAPI server extensions and NT security support.

"ISYS:web has been an excellent web-based search and display tool for many years," said Mr. Blaszak. "Now it becomes really competitive as a web server as well."

With both ISYS products, users are also able to search European and Asian languages independently or in conjunction with English terms. "With our expanding global economy, this proves to be a huge advantage," says Mr. Blaszak. "Search Spanish and English or French and English or even traditional or simplified Chinese. We have several companies in San Francisco that are already signing up for Version 6 just so they can maximize the potential of knowledge sharing with their Hong Kong offices."

Rich SQL is another significant new feature. Rich SQL presents databases through a template, designed by the user, displaying the records in a manner appropriate to the knowledge and thereby maximizing data comprehension. Version 6 also provides an HTML Editing Suite for creating and previewing Rich SQL templates. Add background pictures, define and layout fields, turn hit highlighting on and off, or change the color - the presentation is all in the hands of the user.

"One of the most important new features for us is native UNIX, Oracle and Lotus Notes support," says Mr. Blaszak. "We've been able to access these formats in Version 5, however, access has been optimized with Version 6. Our UNIX access is now via File Transfer Protocol (FTP), which has the added bonus of being an extremely common protocol and therefore provides admittance to additional operating systems, such as OS/400 or MVS."