FYI:
Now if the new CEO can put his marketing team to work
than the stocks should be moving up.
August 18, 1997, Issue: 677
Section: First Look
Coping with Info Overload -- Verity's IntelliServ 1.0 manages mounds of
information with cutting-edge search power
By Rich Santalesa
Building on its search engine expertise, Verity Inc.'s new IntelliServ 1.0 is an intriguing tool
to combat corporate information overload. Designed for corporate intranet use, IntelliServ
combines message bulletin-board capability, push prowess and search engine power to
track, index and serve up just the information a user desires via Web browsers, E-mail
accounts, scrolling tickers and alphanumeric pagers. In the process, IntelliServ hopes to be
your one-stop shop for messaging, information and corporate interaction.
IntelliServ indexes information from diverse sources, including Web sites (both internal and
external), local directories and servers, POP3 (Post Office Protocol) mailboxes, ODBC
databases and Microsoft Exchange servers.
At $4,995 for five users, IntelliServ hardly falls into the "impulse-buy" category and in
testing clearly bore the marks of a 1.0 release. Nevertheless, its potential as an intranet
information tool warrants close study, and IS departments should by all means download a
trial version from Verity's Web site (www.verity.com)
Before hitting the download button, take note: IntelliServ demands Windows NT 4.0 Server
running Service Pack 3 and IIS (Internet Information Server) 3.0 with ASP (Active Server
Pages). An individual server can handle from 500 to 1,000 users depending on usage. Verity
plans a version for Netscape Communication's Enterprise Server later this year. It's also
investigating other Web server platforms, but for now it's strictly Microsoft's IIS 3.
Committed to NT, IntelliServ takes advantage of NT's features where possible, tying into
the performance monitor, event viewer and other Win32 services.
For a product of IntelliServ's breadth and power, installation is extremely simple, taking all
of 30 minutes from the moment you pop in the CD, to the point where you're defining users
and data sources-the heart of IntelliServ's info power. IntelliServ's ease of installation and
management is sure to be welcomed by harried IS personnel all too familiar with cracking
open thick manuals for even simple installations, followed by days of testing and tuning.
But this ease of setup exacts a small price. IntelliServ offers less customization than similar
products such as Netscape's CompassServer 3.0, and you can't graphically fine-tune
IntelliServ to match your corporate look and feel. You can add your company logo, name and
intranet links, however, and Verity plans a customization kit later this year to address these
concerns.
Interacting with IntelliServ is purely Web-based, both on the administrative and user sides.
Remote users need only Web access to tap into IntelliServ information; drawing on Web
operation opens IntelliServ's power to any platform with a Web browser. Still, considering
Intelli-Serv's joined-at-the-hip relationship with NT, Verity should consider adding native
Windows applications for admin functions to bolster its existing Web admin ability,
smoothing user and local data sources management.
For example, IntelliServ manually adds users in one of three ways: importing a CSV
(comma-delimited file), or synchronizing with existing NT Domain or server-user lists.
However, synching with a server's user list is an all or nothing event. IntelliServ imports all
NT users, including pseudo accounts such as those for anonymous ftp, maintenance, etc.,
which then need to be manually deleted. A simple window, or even Java dialog box, to
provide selective import would help. Later synchronization automatically removes users not
listed in the CSV file, domain or server user list.
Administrators can avoid manually adding users by enabling IntelliServ's Web Service
Authentication. With Web authentication active, users never see the standard IntelliServ
log-in screen. Rather, they log-in via Web authentication creating their account in the
process, which an administrator can later add to groups and further manage.
Verity keeps it simple on the management side, splitting admin functions into five main
categories: managing users, groups, data sources, queries and options. To speed data source
additions, IntelliServ includes a special wizard. You can also cut to the heart of the matter
once you're familiar with adding directories (by typing in the Universal Naming Convention
locations), Verity collections, Web sites or POP3 E-mail boxes to the available list of data
sources.
Each data source can be scanned for updates at definable intervals, and they can be shared
among selected user groups.
The Tapping Options define interaction with proxy and mail servers for optional query
updates, either via console notifications or E-mail. In an effort to keep tabs on query scans
and notifications, Intelli-Serv maintains two log files in the winnt\system32\logfiles
directory.
In the 1.0 release, defining a POP3 account as a data source is less a benefit than it could be,
since IntelliServ reads all the messages at user-defined intervals and then deletes them
from the mail server-a habit Verity says will be rectified by adding an option to leave
messages on the server in the upcoming 1.1 release. As is, this read-and-dump practice
limits using E-mail data sources to common E-mail accounts (i.e., info@company.com) that
are otherwise annoying to check.
Users may find IntelliServ initially confusing, but should quickly grasp the distinction among
personal pages, queries, searches and the message board after a few passes through
IntelliServ's well-done onscreen help. At first log-in users receive a main personal page
containing a navigation and control bar down the browser's left side. Here's where
IntelliServ's power meets the pavement by sharing and consolidating information.
In performing info herding IntelliServ offers two main approaches: an instant search to buzz
saw through all data sources available to your user group and queries, which can be
extremely detailed, confined to specific data sources and narrowed with basic Boolean
operators. Queries can be saved, attached to personal pages or shared. And query results
can appear in a floating, scrolling ticker window.
Can't get to a Web browser? That's no problem-IntelliServ can automatically send query
results whenever new documents are found, or at scheduled times to E-mail accounts, either
your company's internal E-mail account or another address. What's more, query results can
be sent to alphanumeric pagers.
To share notes among groups, users can post messages to the IntelliServ bulletin board, or
send the messages from IntelliServ via POP3 E-mail to the same groups. There's no limit
on message length, which can contain HTML formatting, as well as an expiration date past
which IntelliServ deletes it from the board. The expiration date doesn't affect messages sent
via POP3.
Certainly handy, IntelliServ's messaging poses little threat to stand-alone products such as
O'Reilly's WebBoard, which includes threading, Java-based real-time chats and
attachment capabilities. IntelliServ's message board is basically a scrolling message list
arranged by post date, sans threading capabilities, but does add to IntelliServ's ability to
keep valuable information in one place.
Overall, IntelliServ delivers on its promise to bring a semblance of control over the countless
pieces of data that bombard us each day. Though still bearing the marks of an early release,
Intelli-Serv is nevertheless a valuable addition to intranets currently lacking a coherent
information management system.
IntelliServ 1.0, Verity Inc., 894 Ross Drive, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94089; 408-541-1500;
www.verity.com; pricing: $4,995 for five users; user pack licenses: 25 for $2,995; 100 for
$9,995.
Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc.
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