Thanks for your response and info on Accent. What is your firm's connection with Accent? Given how the stock has performed in the past few weeks its good to know the new President's restructuring plans seem to be well received by the employees. It would be nice if he focused at bit on PR -- at least to reassure investors by posting a message concerning he goals and objective for the company on Accent's web site.
I visited the AgentSoft booth at JavaOne in San Francisco. I learned that a final version of LiveAgent should be ready in a few weeks. It can be downloaded from AgentSoft's web site and will probably be released to major computer software web sites (maybe ZDNet). AgentSoft makes no money on LiveAgent. It hopes to generate revenue from LiveAgentPro, which AgentSoft announced on April 2nd (I've attached the PR below). LiveAgentPro should be released this quarter. Sales are expected to come from stand alone orders and agreements to bundle the software in other companies, e.g. Symantec, Java application software. Revenue is also expected from contract services for clients wanting to create intelligent agents to assist browsers through the client's web site or intranets. These efforts will be undertaken by U.S. based software technicans.
I did not see an actual demonstration of LiveAgentPro. Nor was any White Paper available, although one is to be posted on AgentSoft's web site. LiveAgentPro appears to be a unique product and AgentSoft has sound plans for its development. But the company needs more coherent and aggressive marketing. It doesn't do any good to just talk about a software development package -- developers need something tangible to work with and test. And there needs to be a push for sales to business -- that is where the real money is. Finally, AgentSoft's web site needs a complete updating. I assume new corporate management is working on these issues.
Again, thanks for all the info Timna and do you have any recommendations on other Israeli technology companies?
============
AgentSoft Announces LiveAgent Pro
Allows Easy Creation of Agents by Java Programmers
Java Pavilion Booth #629
SAN FRANCISCO, April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at JavaOne, AgentSoft Ltd. announced
LiveAgent(TM) Pro, a new tool that helps Java programmers create their own intelligent agents that
gather information from the Internet or corporate intranet.
The LiveAgent Pro development package, for use with existing Java Integrated Development
Environments, includes Java classes, templates, and sample code that speed the development of agent
applications by corporate and ISV programmers. Agents are capable of full interaction with HTML
pages as they navigate the Internet or intranet (typing into forms, clicking on buttons, selecting from
list boxes). A programmer can also specify which HTML pages, or parts of pages, the agent should
bring back to the user, and how information should be integrated, processed, and presented to the user.
AgentSoft will be demonstrating LiveAgent Pro at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco, and plans
to release the product by Summer of 1997. Pricing has not been set. The company also will be offering
a service to clients needing customized agent development and solutions.
"AgentSoft automates the Internet, and LiveAgent Pro gives Java programmers unprecedented power
to create agent applications," stated Todd Oseth, newly-named CEO of AgentSoft. "LiveAgent Pro is a
set of programmer tools for recording, customizing, and replaying client-side, Web-browsing agents.
These tools include a stand-alone HTTP proxy, implemented in Java, and a set of scripts, applets, and
supplementary Java classes. The agents created with LiveAgent Pro are powerful, flexible, and easy to
use. We will also be using these tools to offer custom agents for our clients," added Oseth.
LiveAgent Pro's highly modular architecture allows for easy extension by Java developers. By simply
adding their own classes, developers can customize agents or supplement the HTTP proxy's filtering
capabilities to provide other value-added management of Web-browsing activity.
AgentSoft's LiveAgent Pro has the following features:
-- all code is written in Java and JavaScript, so it is designed to be
both platform and browser neutral;
-- direct creation of agents, trained through a browsing session;
-- full recording of browsing activity: typing, clicking, choosing items;
-- inclusion of changeable values (variables) in the agents;
-- multi-step agents (moving from page to page, gathering data);
-- ability to build agents with conditional branching and looping
capabilities;
-- ability to insert or edit branches in previously recorded agents;
-- ability for agents to recover from failed branches;
-- ability for agents to create reports of browsing activity (saving pages
or parts of pages to user's disk, along with postprocessing
capabilities);
-- implementation of composite agents (parallel invocation of a group of
agents). About AgentSoft Ltd.
AgentSoft develops and markets sophisticated agent technology, agent development tools, and agent
services and applications for the Internet and the corporate Intranet. The company also offers a service
to clients needing customized agent development and solutions. AgentSoft's solution encompasses the
full client-server potential of the Internet: client-side automation, server-side agents, interactions
between a server agent and multiple client agents, and interactions between multiple client agents.
Founded in February 1996, AgentSoft is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Jerusalem,
Israel. AgentSoft is a subsidiary of Accent Software International Ltd
AgentSoft Ltd., 2864 South Circle Drive, Suite 340, Colorado Springs, CO, 80906, Phone:
719-576-2610, or fax: 719-576-2604, or e-mail: info@agentsoft.com. AgentSoft's Web site is
agentsoft.com.
AgentSoft and LiveAgent are trademarks of AgentSoft Ltd. SOURCE AgentSoft Ltd. |
