July 1998
COLD Part II Brawny Systems Add Brains
by Gordon E.J. Hoke
COLD isn't just about speed and volumes any more. It's also about using the information intelligently once you've stored it.
The time has come for sensitive, New Age COLD. Bigger, faster and
more alluring is no longer enough to be the best. Today's information
technology administrators are no longer enchanted with sheer power -- the
ability to archive and index an infinite number of reports in an
infinitesimal length of time.
To stand head and shoulders above the pack, today's COLD system has to
offer intelligence, sophistication, compatibility, even sensitivity.
Unrefined brawn and brute force are as popular as a bully on a beach.
"There's nothing wrong with raw power," buyers are saying. "Let's just
civilize it."
That is the goal of today's COLD vendors. They offer seamless
integration between platforms, media and technologies. Internet access
makes COLD reports available anywhere, and data mining gleans invaluable
information from what was previously just raw data.
Anything Less
Wouldn't Be Civilized
For example, Feith (Fort Washington, PA 215-646-8000) was a pioneer in
document imaging. Over the years, Feith products have grown into The
Feith Document Database (FDD), a complete document management system
including COLD and workflow.
Recently Feith made a leap forward with FDD COLD, which automatically
combines COLD data with the graphic image of a form (a blank billing
statement, for example). This creates an eminently readable, Web-viewable
PDF file. The electronic forms-overlay makes electronic bill presentment
a reality.
Prices for server software range from $30,000 for FDD or COLD on an NT
platform to $70,000 for FDD and COLD bundled for any of seven Unix
flavors.
COLD guru Mason Grigsby, a partner in Imerge Consulting (San
Francisco, CA 415-775-4282), thinks that electronic bill presentment
could be a bigger market than document management. "Potentially every
business that bills is a prospect. COLD fills the needs of the
high-volume billers because it can have high-volume index databases
which, in turn, allow billers to provide faster customer service. It also
sets the stage for delivery of bills over the Internet," states Grigsby.
Feith recently introduced its data mining product, FDD COLDMiner.
Priced at $500 per station, COLDMiner uses the Monarch data analysis tool
to analyze raw data stored in COLD reports, revealing patterns and
relationships that may not be immediately evident. Users view, query,
filter, sort, print, analyze and send formatted data to spreadsheets,
databases, and other desktop applications. Unlike an older generation of
COLD, it creates and reiterates summaries, tables, charts, and graphs in
different formats. One can only wonder if the next generation product
will be called, "COLDMiner's Daughter."
Any Data, Anywhere
Gary Halleen, president of Com Squared (Atlanta, GA 770-263-4990)
continues to push for sophisticated, integrated information management.
Com Squared's flagship product, UNISearch, handles huge quantities of
data in a minimum of time.
Halleen puts his emphasis on customized solutions for data management
needs. UNISearch is really an umbrella for a suite of technological
modules -- any or all of which might be applied to answer a particular
business challenge. COLD is a highly popular module, and it is tightly
integrated with the rest of the client/server, document management
offerings. This high degree of integration is unusual.
Similarly noteworthy is Com Squared's remote access to COLD records
through the Internet without regard to platform. With NetSearch, people
query a variety of remote databases created from any of several
platforms. This solution features full, production-level abilities to
transmit and display both COLD and document images.
For example, Motorola wanted to link customer service centers in
Illinois and Maryland. The client computers were varied, and, while some
of the databases used Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), some did not. Com
Squared installed both COLD and an Internet-based delivery system that
overcame the geographical and technological obstacles to integration.
Capitalizing on its client/server strength, Com Squared is releasing a
Printer Control Language (PCL) interpreter for H-P-format print streams.
"This will give companies off-loading from their mainframes the access
to reports they are used to," predicts Halleen.
Market Leaders
Another leader in the COLD industry with 4,000 installations in 21
countries is Macrosoft (Rochester Hills, MI 248-853-7140). Like other
major vendors, Macrosoft lacks nothing in terms of power; its 32-bit
loading module reports and processes over 600,000 pages per hour.
When it comes to communicating retrieved COLD reports, Macrosoft notes
its new support for PCL format. Similarly, it touts its enhanced Dynamic
Job Descriptor Entries (DJDE) and Metacode processing modules featuring
improved speed and ease of use.
Macrosoft goes beyond power, however, with its Synergy product, which
delivers information regardless of medium or source. In addition to
COLD, Synergy unifies and manages document images, data mining, check
images, word processing documents, spreadsheets and full-motion video and
sound.
Metafile (Rochester, MN 507-286-9232), which launched a mainframe and
midrange imaging workbench in the 1980s, has metamorphosed into a force
in the integrated COLD market. In May, Metafile released MVR.net, a
Java-based application designed to give authorized users access to COLD
and imaging information from a Web browser. With an HTML front end, a
company can vary the interface and, hence, the security and level of user
access. The server sells for $10,000 while PC software runs $700 per
seat. Licenses for unlimited terminal access run from $4,500 to $10,500
"If a customer wants to check an invoice, they can simply enter their
ID, password and invoice number," explains Nick Sprau, Metafile vice
president. "Then they click on 'submit' and MVR.net compares these
variables to a predefined set of reports and images. This greatly reduces
the training burden while it makes important information available to a
much wider group of people."
Sprau also notes that Metafile's accelerated full-text indexing
quickly delivers successful searches from the scantiest of clues.
New Kids on the Block
Westbrook and Bell & Howell are relative newcomers to COLD technology.
Westbrook (Branford, CT 203-483-3350) markets Fortis, a 32-bit, ODBC,
client/server document management software suite. Recently they added
Fortis COLD, which sells either independently or as fully integrated
add-on to Fortis. Suite users get COLD with their familiar controls. The
intuitive user interface belies a powerful database back end.
Fortis users gain access to COLD documents, as well as database
reports, from anywhere in the world through a PowerWeb component. When
information needs to be distributed to non-Fortis users, a module
converts data streams for CD-ROM writers.
Fortis is sold exclusively through resellers, so street prices may
vary. Westbrook's list price for Fortis is $14,995.
Last year Bell & Howell, best known for their hardware, acquired
software developer Protocorp (Monroe, NC, 704-226-5608). Protocorp
provides COLD systems for the banking and finance industry under the
product name PCI/Reports.
Totally microcomputer based, PCI/ Reports runs with any host download
mechanism. As required by this vertical market, the software offers both
intense data mining capabilities and a high level of security.
MidAmerica Federal Savings Bank of Clarendon Hills, IL, uses
PCI/Reports to search and view reports produced by its host application
from any networked PC at over 20 branches. The ability to deal with the
data electronically has slashed the number of MidAmerica's internal paper
reports.
"We used to print approximately 30,000 pages of report information
every day, roughly 7.5 million pages per year for senior management and
the branches," recalls Ken Rusdal, senior vice president of operations
and information systems for MidAmerica. "It is hard to believe, but we
have eliminated almost all printed material from our offices. Now those
reports are distributed electronically."
PCI/Reports is fortified by a companion image product. Pricing is
based on the assets of the purchaser, ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.
Other Notables
OTG Software (Bethesda, MD 301-897-1400) offers ColdXtender, a 32-bit
Windows application featuring a high-speed extract/import module that
automatically extracts index information at up to 350,000 pages per hour.
ColdXtender supports a wide range of print streams and includes useful
utilities like error logging and debugging capabilities.
ColdXtender's price starts at just under $2,000 for a single seat.
Users say OTG's installation is among the quickest in the field.
Maximal (Clearwater, FL 813-539-7500) produces a high-powered COLD
solution -- but only as a complement to Docs Open document management
software from PC Docs.
By being product specific, Maximal's MaxRetriever software offers a
high degree of integration. It is also an efficient system: its COLD
Object ID refers to a document stored in Maximal's document library, not
to an actual physical file. Since many documents are stored in a single
file, the likelihood of file system overload is reduced.
MaxRetriever can be customized to specific application needs with
ActiveX Viewing of its PDF generated files. The entry price is $12,000
plus $150 per seat.
Computron's (Atlanta, GA 770-913-0303) COOL Docs tightly integrates
Computron's COLD product (which they call COOL, for Computer Output
Online) with imaging and document management. COOL Docs lets you store,
retrieve and distribute computer generated files (such as email, word
processing and spreadsheet files) along with files that started out as
paper (images and faxes) on Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 95 clients. It's
$20,000 for the server and $200 per seat.
Now it's a 16-bit package that works with Fujitsu's TeamWare Imaging
software and the TeamWare document management engine. Later this year a
32-bit version will work with any document management system, including
PC Docs and Documentum.
Genteel COLD
COLD has come a long way since the days when vendors vied to see who
could do the most pages in the shortest time. Now we see value being
placed on niceties such as flexibility in print streams. Buyers have to
be sure a product meets their integration needs, not just capacity needs.
COLD returns its cost so quickly that economics is seldom the key to
choosing a system. Questions of function are often the primary factors
that affect the choice of one product over another. COLD is likely to
continue its trend toward integration with other document and information
technologies.
Gordon E.J. Hoke is a journalist and consultant specializing in
document and knowledge management. He can be reached at (507) 534-2293
and <ghoke@mindspring.com>.
Related Articles:
