Broad Spectrum Of Customers Praise Benefits Of Product; Distribution
Agreement With Softbank Announced
OTTAWA, Canada, May 28 /PRNewswire/ - Fulcrum Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:
FULCF; TSE: FUL) today announced the commercial availability of the Fulcrum
Knowledge Network(TM). The Fulcrum Knowledge Network provides users and
administrators alike with a simple way to map the diverse information stores
across an organization to provide easy access. From any Knowledge Network
client - Web or Windows-based, as a standalone client or as an add-on to
Microsoft Outlook or Exchange clients - users have simultaneous and seamless
access to Web servers, file systems, Microsoft Exchange Servers, Lotus Notes,
and more. The Fulcrum Knowledge Network's early supporters and customers
include Cognos, Consolidated Edison, Human Resources Development Canada, and
Morgan & Banks Australia. In a separate announcement issued today, Fulcrum
announced the details of a distribution agreement with Softbank Corp., which
will allow Softbank, the largest reseller of Microsoft BackOffice products in
Japan, to distribute Fulcrum's product in that market.
The global recruitment company Morgan & Banks is using the Fulcrum
Knowledge Network in its Australian operation, to match resumes with job
openings. The company is using the product's WebFIND! application to provide
an intranet front-end for user queries against data in multiple sources,
including a data warehouse and text files. ``What makes the Fulcrum Knowledge
Network unique is its ability to sort through our structured data, found in
our databases, and unstructured data stored in Windows and text-based
documents,'' said Brent Pearson, IT director of Morgan & Banks Australia.
``This gives our consultants a real advantage in finding the right people to
fill available positions. Later this year, we will take advantage of the
integrated agents to search data sources independently and push' information
to users.''
Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) is in the process of designing a
comprehensive Knowledge Network application to be deployed later this fall.
The application will allow researchers in the Workplace Information
Directorate and external clients to conduct research on a full-text database
of labor negotiations and collective bargaining agreements between companies
and their unions. ``The Knowledge Network is attractive to us because it is
designed to respect the integrity and security of the original repositories,''
said J.C. Roy, chief of product development at HRDC. ``Also, the product has
been designed to support ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). This means that,
along with providing access to Word Perfect documents, the product can be
customized to access appropriate information from our Sybase database. We are
also looking at how we might tap into the integrated agent capabilities of
Fulcrum's product to automate the distribution of information on specific
issues.''
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. had previously deployed
Fulcrum FIND! to 2200 users, for a large-scale policies and procedures
application. The utility is migrating to the Fulcrum Knowledge Network to
take advantage of support for multiple information sources and the
extensibility offered by the Knowledge Builder Toolkit. ``We are running an
important application, and we need to build it on top of robust and reliable
software,'' said John Scanello, director of IT planning at Consolidated
Edison. ``We have confidence in Fulcrum's ability to deliver what we need.''
Cognos Incorporated, a global leader in providing business intelligence
software, had deployed Fulcrum FIND!(TM), an earlier version of the Fulcrum
Knowledge Network product architecture, in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange
to 22 offices worldwide, as the primary vehicle for sharing corporate
document-based information. Cognos has been testing beta versions of the
Fulcrum Knowledge Network since March. ``In the new product, the access to so
many different information repositories - including Exchange public folders
and mailboxes, file systems and Web sites - means that we can provide our
users with `one-stop-shopping' for corporate information,'' said John Kuch,
manager, Technology Services at Cognos.
``This impressive group of customers has something in common: the need to
effectively access and share their corporate information, and to turn that
information into knowledge,'' said Mike Laginski, president and chief
operating officer of Fulcrum. ``We are confident that the Fulcrum Knowledge
Network offers a compelling solution that can help our customers be more
effective in managing knowledge across the enterprise. Our strong market
acceptance is also evidenced by the agreement between our Japanese subsidiary
and Softbank, which solidifies our leadership in Japan. We have a strong
first-mover position in the Asian market, and we intend to capitalize on it.''
About the Fulcrum Knowledge Network
The Fulcrum Knowledge Network is a unique, integrated product that
intelligently connects diverse information sources across the enterprise. The
comprehensive offering leverages a Web-centric, distributed architecture to
provide a single window of access to disparate sources of corporate
information from any Fulcrum Knowledge Network client.
- At the client level, the Knowledge Desktop can be any Web-browser, a
Web-browser enhanced with ActiveX controls for enhanced viewing, a Microsoft
Exchange or Microsoft Outlook client, or a standalone Fulcrum FIND! client.
Using the Knowledge Builder Toolkit, which contains a rich Object Library and
the Fulcrum WebFIND! query application, developers can create custom Microsoft
Windows or Web-based clients for specific business applications.
- At the application layer, the Knowledge Server is the heart of the
Fulcrum Knowledge Network. It provides the searching and indexing services
that integrate the multiple, distributed information sources. The searching
service dynamically constructs a personalized Knowledge Map on a per-user
basis according to the information sources available for searching and the
user's access rights. Because it is certified to carry the ``Designed for
Microsoft BackOffice'' logo, Fulcrum's product provides all the familiar
benefits of a true, multi-threaded Windows NT server application, including
remote administration, performance monitoring, event logging, and SMS software
installation.
- Finally, Fulcrum provides Knowledge Activators to allow access to
corporate knowledge repositories on multiple servers and running on multiple
platforms, and in sources as diverse as Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus
Notes, Web sites, file systems, existing Fulcrum SearchServer(TM) applications
and more. Knowledge Activators embrace diverse information sources and
leverage their security models, compound document architectures and
administration profiles.
Pricing and availability
The Fulcrum Knowledge Network is available now from Fulcrum and Fulcrum
resellers. Pricing is modular, and averages $400 per user for a comprehensive
application.
For 14 years, Fulcrum Technologies Inc. has been a world leader in
providing software solutions that turn enterprise information into knowledge,
and its customers include some of the world's most important companies,
including Microsoft and Fujitsu. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Fulcrum
extends its global reach with offices throughout the United States, Europe,
and in Australia and Japan, and through a network of partners worldwide.
Fulcrum is publicly traded on the Nasdaq National Market (``FULCF'') and on
the Toronto Stock Exchange (``FUL''). For more information on Fulcrum and
Fulcrum products, visit Fulcrum's Web site: http://www.fulcrum.com.
Fulcrum is a registered trademark of Fulcrum Technologies Inc. and the
Fulcrum Knowledge Network, Fulcrum FIND! and SearchServer are trademarks of
Fulcrum. Other trademarks used throughout this document are trademarks of
their respective owners.
SOURCE: Fulcrum Technologies Inc.
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CONTACT: Gillian Brouse, Fulcrum, (613) 238-1761, ext. 251, e-mail: pr(at)fulcrum.com
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