Boss Logic - the highly customizable Boss Logic document and workflow management software from Boss Logic; one of a series of articles on work flow in groupware and applications for managing workflow

RELease 1.0, Sept 30, 1992

We faced an embarrassing situation vis-a-vis Boss Logic. We had been planning to write about the company for some time, and so instead of filing the information, we kept it in one of the piles near our desk. Well, of course, those piles keep proliferating, and we never could find the information ....

We ended up calling Boss Logic to ask them to send over a new set. On their end, of course, they keep all their documentation in Bose Logic, neatly organized by kind of document (spec sheet, price list, white paper, cover letter template for customer or press, follow-up letter and so forth).

Boss Logic offers a combination of low-end workflow and high-end information structuring, currently all based on Sybase's SQL Server and in the NeXT environment (with Windows early next year). Where Boss Logic differs from other more-or-less traditional document-management and image-flow systems is its support for compound documents. It is built in a clean, clear client-server architecture that makes it easy to understand, modify and extend (and will make it easy to move off its current NeXT platform). The current version is written for Sybase but could easily use any other SQL database.

It uses a relational database as the storage mechanism for a server application that manages content and workflow for document/image-intensive tasks. The Boss Logic information-management capabilities are fundamentally compound document management, including version control, revision control (who may make changes), document structuring and assembly, and management of auxiliary information, such as links to clients, projects, etc. The client side is built with standard C++ tools and NeXT features; the back-end with Sybase tools.

Each document is represented as a (usually) hierarchical set of components -- chapters and diagrams, sections, captions and pictures within chapters, say, or sections of documentation relating to the different components of a product. They could also be the parts of an annual report, including formatted spreadsheets, artfully presented sales charts and flattering photos of the chairman surrounded by adoring employees. Need to revise the sales figures? No problem. Boss Logic reminds you that they're linked to the sales charts. so you'd better use the revised version of those too. Fire a board member? Get rid of his picture, quick!

The second part of Boss Logic manages workflow (also in SQL Server) -- in the scripted rather than process-integrity sense. Users can use forms to design workflows with routes, due dates. and different views for different users. You can query it about the status of a Job. all the projects related to a certain client, etc. You can define an approval cycle, say, or a trip to the art department for creation of appropriate decorations, etc. For example, Bozell & Jacobs (now formally BJK&E) in Dallas works for American Airlines -- doing just-in-time ad development in response to the fast-paced airline industry. It is installing BOSS Logic to manage a semi-automated approval cycle to get ads out fast.

Fundamentally, Boss Logic sells a highly customizable workflow application, usins some of the powerful NextStep tools to build logic and a pleasing interface, along with the Sybase engine. Currently it is focusing on environments with structure-intensive compound documents, such as advertising agencies, technical and reference publishers, and people like investment banks publishing long, defined-format documents. Interestingly, it received funding of $1.5 million earlier this year from Frame Technology, which also recently acquired Datalogics, a specialist in SGML and document assembly that sells to government outfits (who are big on lengthy documentation and repetitive filings).

If we can automate everything, why bother with people? That's a valid question, but it's one we won't face in most places for some time. People will keep doing value-added and design work: painting or assembling things machines can't; making decisions or judgments machines can't; interpreting documents machines can't. There will be more of this kind of work as more and more of the automatable work is relegated to machines.