Verity's Topic Architecture first to answer the challenge of providing ubiquitous access to publishing and retrieving information across the enterprise and the Internet; integration with Adobe Acrobat speeds availability of PDF documents across the global network

Business Wire, March 27, 1995

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 1995--Verity Inc., the leading developer of information management software products, Monday announced Topic Architecture -- the first client/server-based information retrieval system to provide users with ubiquitous access to electronic information from across the enterprise and the Internet.

The Topic Architecture provides users with a single interface through the combination of Topic Information Server, a real-time, multiplatform, multiformat server that is scaleable from CD-ROM and the desktop to the enterprise; and Topic Agents, which allows users to browse, search, and filter databases of unstructured information according to their specific needs.

Additionally, its tight integration with Adobe Acrobat hastens the speed with which PDF documents can be retrieved from the global network.

Answering the Challenge of Ubiquitous Access

According to Philippe Courtot, chairman and chief executive officer of Verity Inc., one of the greatest challenges facing large corporations today is how to deliver information that is scattered throughout the enterprise and the Internet to scattered users in a timely, relevant and cost-effective way.

"Topic Architecture answers that challenge," added Courtot.

Verity's Topic Architecture - Topic Information Server and Topic Agents

Verity's Topic Architecture allows easy organization of electronic information from across the enterprise and the Internet by both sources (marketing libraries, policies and procedures, technical documents...) and topics (my competitors, Fortune 500 mergers, new technology...). Users can then browse the information and create his/her own personal agents for filtering and immediate access to information. Its flexible architecture integrates seamlessly into a variety of applications including Lotus Notes, news services, RDBMS databases, etc., freeing users from being tied into a specific application or platform. With Topic Architecture corporations can now centrally publish information such as policies and procedures, real-time news, and product documentation to all users both within the enterprise and across the Internet with a single solution.

Topic Information Server is based on an open architecture and full text indexing process, with state-of-the-art relevance searching algorithms. Developed for real-time, around-the-clock, global production environments, its multiprocess design allows it to scale searches from the CD-ROM level up to very large environments, access multiple CPUs, support millions of documents, and conduct thousands of searches simultaneously. Topic Information Server runs on a broad spectrum of operating systems and hardware. Information is provided to Topic Agents applications via Windows, Macintosh, and Motif interfaces. The Server requires 16 MB RAM and 50 MB free disk space and is available on HP-UX, Sun Solaris, SunOS, IBM AIX and MS Windows NT.

Topic Agents utilize Verity's Topic Retrieval Engine and concept-based topics, letting users browse, search and filter databases of unstructured information. With Topic Agents users can actually personalize and automate their searches, guaranteeing that all relevant electronic information is delivered to their desktop in a timely, easy-to-understand format. Topic Agents require 8 MB RAM and 25 MB free disk space. It supports a Windows interface under MS Windows, MS Windows NT and OS/2 operations systems; a Macintosh interface under a Mac 7.0 operating systems; and Motif 2.0 under HP/UX, Sun Solaris, SunOS and IBM AIX operating systems.

"With Verity's solutions, our whole service model has shifted, resulting in happy customers and substantial savings amounting to more than $1 million a month," said Charles Baugh, director of Knowledge Products for Cisco Systems. "We are providing a state-of-the-art service that not only enables our service representatives to resolve inquiries smarter and faster, but our customers will be able to help themselves by quickly and easily accessing that same information on CD-ROM and with access to updates on our WEB server."

Integration with Adobe Acrobat

Topic Architecture's tight integration with Adobe Acrobat provides a launch of Acrobat Exchange or Exchange LE and gives the user a powerful search interface. It supports publishing of enterprise information in PDF format on the Internet and technology that allows PDF files to be broken down and delivered incrementally - considerably speeding up the retrieval of large PDF files across the network.

"Verity's search engine is quickly becoming very broadly adopted for groupware, document management, publishing and customer support through its ability to integrate and support a number of applications such as Acrobat, Lotus Notes, Documentum, and others," said John Warnock, chairman and CEO of Adobe. "Now PDF documents can be easily served across the enterprise and the Internet."

Pricing and Availability

Topic Information Server Release 1.0 will ship in April. Topic Agents Release 1.0 will ship in April under MS Windows interfaces and in May under Macintosh and Motif interfaces. Topic Information Server is priced at $14,995 and Topic Agents is priced from $95 to $495.