Pragmatech Tool Eases Information Search

Pragmatechs recently introduced Info Express is a search tool that will help sales staff find content either in Pragmatechs own database or in EMC Documentums Documentum.

Info Express, which began shipping in March, provides a Web-based search tool as well as integration with Microsoft Office 2003, through the research pane in Office applications (including Word and Outlook).

For sales teams charged with managing responses for RFPs (requests for proposal), Info Express will be useful for finding content that isnt exposed through Pragmatechs Proposal Automation Suite or Proposal Center sales content management applications.

Sant includes a similar tool for searching its Sant Suite database. (For eWEEK Labs review of Sant Suite, go to “Two services help firms make the sale” at eweek.com.)

eWEEK Labs tested Info Express via a Web browser and by using the Office research pane. The main benefit to the research pane is that it allows users to drop content directly into the document they are working on, something that will be particularly helpful when responding to an RFP.

The Office plug-in supports remote distribution. During tests, however, configuring the research pane plug-in to access the Info Express server required some work, as Office needs to be set up to subscribe to the Info Express research service.

This can be done manually, by using the research pane service manager—a process that includes entering the URL for the Info Express server. Companies using Microsoft Group Policy can use policy-based management to configure the service in Office applications.

The Info Express server runs on Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 and requires Internet Information Services. During tests, we successfully accessed the Info Express server using both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

While Pragmatech currently supports only the Pragmatech knowledge base and the Documentum application, company officials said there are plans in place to extend the content Info Express can access to other document management systems and applications, including IBM Lotus Notes.

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