New collaboration and reporting software for joined-up decisions

Contact email:ian.lang@hls.co.uk and website:http://www.assistum.com/

Date: 1st August 2002

Higher Level Systems has launched Assistum Version 5.1. The new version incorporates the collaborative and reporting features needed for complex projects, with additional features and controls requested by existing customers, together with the emerging Internet technology standards of the Semantic Web. Version 5.1 also provides VBA programmability for the Personal and Business Editions - previously only available in the top-end Enterprise Edition.

Many of the new features were developed for a collaborative project in the oil industry (Well Decision Navigator) to improve the planning and design procedures involved in development oil and gas wells in the North Sea, and to share best practice. The features enable easy navigation around complex knowledge bases; include versatile and wide-ranging reporting tools; and give the added security of input controls that can be customised.

Other features include VBA add-ins to integrate with Microsoft WORD and Microsoft EXCEL.

The data structure of Version 5 has been completely rewritten in XML (extensible mark-up language) and a much-improved Java version developed. This enables Assistum technology to be integrated within Enterprise Internet applications.
It also provides the front-end to a Knowledge Transaction Server (KTS) which has been assessed with the aid of a Smart Award from the UK Department of Trade and Industry. The KTS will enable any number of users to develop and consult knowledge at the same time across the Internet using the emerging standards of what Tim Berners-Lee, father of WWW, calls the Semantic Web. Assistum technology is working towards this next phase of the evolution of the Internet: the development of software that will harness human knowledge and complement it with machine processability.

As well as providing increased functionality, Version 5.1 is much less expensive than Version 4.

ASSISTUM:

Ian Lang

ian.lang@hls.co.uk

+44 (0)1428 722938

www.assistum.com