In a move to boost the effectiveness of enterprise content management systems, Cuadra Associates, Inc. (CA) and Access Innovations, Inc. (AII) have introduced MAI STAR, combining Cuadra's STAR information management and retrieval system with Access's Data Harmony Machine Aided Indexer (M.A.I.). The joint venture was announced by the CEOs of the respective companies, who debuted MAI STAR at KM World & Intranets 2002 in Santa Clara, California.
The two companies had been discussing the joint agreement since Spring of this year, according to AII CEO Jay Ven Eman. "We analyzed the needs and challenges in the knowledge and content management marketplace," Ven Eman said, "and concluded that coupling our M.A.I. with the information management and retrieval capabilities of STAR could create synergy for our companies and a powerful new product offering." CA CEO Carlos A. Cuadra added that "the combination of M.A.I. and STAR is certain to make retrieval more effective than with full-text indexing alone." Cuadra and Ven Eman noted that both M.A.I. and STAR use an open architecture, enabling rapid deployment of MAI STAR with few technical challenges, and in a wide variety of IT environments.
Well before negotiations for the joint venture were under way, the content management and indexing tools were co-existing productively at Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA), a premier publisher of abstracts and indexes to scientific and technical research literature. Units of CSA have been using the STAR system since 1985 to produce printed publications and online databases. They purchased M.A.I. from Data Harmony (the software division of Access Innovations) in July, 2001, where it was installed in the Materials Information, Engineering Specialties division. CSA managers reported a fourfold increase in productivity at the division. Other M.A.I. users have reported similar dramatic results in workflow efficiency.
Cuadra told KM World attendees, "STAR has always been used to index fielded and full-text data and provide full-text retrieval for all kinds of documents, now including e-mail. The MAI STAR integration allows users to add appropriate subject terms either automatically or from the M.A.I.-generated candidate list." Documents can be processed singly or in batch mode, using "value-added" terms that lead to better retrieval by users. Ven Eman described MAI STAR as "a next generation CMS tool that links a classification/categorization engine to a fully-featured information platform in a combination that works."
Cuadra Associates, Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, was founded in 1978 with the objective to develop flexible and customizable information management software in a multi-user, multi-tasking environment. Access Innovations, Inc., based in Albuquerque, has offered database design, management, and conversion services to the online industry since 1978. Their Data Harmony software division was founded in 1998.
For more detailed information, or to schedule an online demonstration of these products, contact Cuadra Associates or contact Access Innovations.
