AVImage ($500/seat) from Data General (Westboro, MA 508-898-5000) is a fast, easy-to-use document management system and image viewer. It is an enterprise-wide client/server solution compatible with most databases. It runs on any TCP/IP network.
AVImage's most noticeable feature is its speed. Large multiple page documents load in seconds on client machines. This is achieved because only the document thumbnails and annotations are downloaded. The full resolution document and images are loaded only when they're specifically requested. When the user wants to view a piece of the image, AVImage sends only that portion of the image. This saves time and network bandwidth.
On the client side, AVImage provides a full set of image viewers and annotation tools. The magnification tools are exceptionally powerful. The search engine built into AVImage's document management tool, WIN-Track, is flexible. AVImage clients will run on all the popular desktop platforms as well as UNIX based workstations.
On-line OCR will soon be available. Users will be able to search for keywords in TIFF documents as well as in text files. It should also enable users to copy text from an image and add it to their own documents. Topping off the package is its low cost.
The server software runs under UNIX or Windows NT but shouldn't require much more than typical heavy duty PC-server hardware. The client software will run on a 386. AVImage is tuned to conserve as much bandwidth as possible. You can run it on slow inexpensive networks. You even get good performance over the Internet.
