Toshiba Uses WexTech AnswerWorks to Power Ask IRIS Online Support Site; AnswerWorks to Provide Cross-Lingual, Cross-Knowledge-Base, Natural-Language Help

Business Wire, Sept 4, 2002

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2002

Toshiba's Computer Systems Group (CSG) today announced that the company has launched WexTech's AnswerWorks(R) natural language search tool to power their Ask IRIS Online(TM) support site (http://askiris.toshiba.com).

The move to AnswerWorks allows Toshiba to add several enhancements to its support site, including the ability for a single query to simultaneously search both Toshiba and Microsoft knowledge bases, and support for questions asked in Spanish, as well as English.

"The transition to AnswerWorks has been seamless and very quick," said Gary Weaver, senior vice president of operations for Toshiba CSG. "WexTech was able to get the system up and running in less than two weeks from contract signing to user sign-on."

The ability to search both Toshiba and Microsoft content is an important addition for Toshiba customers, allowing them to resolve problems whether their concerns are hardware, Toshiba-specific software, or the operating system or other Microsoft-supplied software.

"When there's an issue with a computer, often it's not clear to the user exactly where the problem lies," said Steve Wexler, WexTech's founder and CEO. "Recognizing that fact, Toshiba wanted to make it as simple and painless as possible for their customers to find solutions, regardless of whether they reside on Toshiba's site or Microsoft's. AnswerWorks excels at searching multiple knowledge repositories, so we were able to readily accommodate them."

Although the support material is predominantly in English, Ask IRIS utilizes AnswerWorks' cross-lingual support to enable users to ask questions in either English or Spanish.

"More and more of our customers are native Spanish speakers who are familiar with English but may prefer Spanish," said Weaver. "With AnswerWorks, they can ask questions using either language they're most comfortable with, and we can give them great answers and great support both ways."

While the additions of cross-lingual and cross-knowledge-base support are very visible to end-users on the Toshiba site, the AnswerWorks Analytics reports are invisible to customers, who will benefit from them nonetheless.

The reports provide Toshiba CSG with traffic data analysis such as what questions are asked most frequently, what questions require additional information, and what products generate the most questions. One of the most important reports summarizes highlights from the others and outlines action items to resolve problems and improve product and system performance.

AnswerWorks currently supports local and server-based Help systems developed and deployed in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish, with additional language support under development.