Electronic publishing software developer Interleaf Inc, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, will ship the enhanced version of RDM, its Unix-based Relational Document Management system, for the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows for the first time. Shipments start for the Mac in mid-December and for Windows machines in the first quarter 1993. The company said that it has no plans to support OS/2 but it will support Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system. Unix workstations supported will be IBM Corp’s RS/6000, Hewlett-Packard Co’s HP 9000 Series 700, and Digital Equipment Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc systems using the Motif graphical user interface. Interleaf says that Relational Document Manager can manage document information from any machine and any application. Future plans include running it with other databases, such as those of Informix Corp and Ingres Corp, as well as the Oracle Corp offering on which it is based.
Standard Generalised Mark-up Language
Jim Meyer, Interleaf’s vice-president of document management, said the company is working with Dublin, Ohio-based Information Dimensions Inc and Advanced Information Systems SA of Paris to incorporate a Standard Generalised Mark-up Language repository into the next release of the Document Manager, expected at the end of 1993. Information Dimensions already incorporates the Mark-up Language standard in its BasisPlus text retrieval package. A Relational Document Manager licence for up to 16 users costs from ?1,838 per user. Worldwide sales of the thing to date stand at $5m, up $3m on 1991. UK sales are small – just ?150,000 and confined to six users including a pharmaceuticals firm and some government departments. Exxon Chemicals is piloting it in the UK. Michael Willcocks, Interleaf’s UK managing director, said that a third of UK sales are from people that are adding to their existing Relational Document Manager systems. Gartner Group estimates that 50% of all information will be held in digital form by 1996, increasing the demand for document management systems. The market includes products for text retrieval, workflow, local network-based imaging and complex documents. Gartner claims the complex document market Interleaf is addressing with its Document Manager is currently worth nearly $125m and is the fastest-growing sector of the market. James Popkin, director of Gartner’s office information systems programme, said that workflow and text retrieval products, currently produced by vendors such as Filenet Corp and Verity Inc, will become standard components of products supporting complex business and technical documents that combine image and text. He said Apple Computer Inc, Microsoft Corp and Novell Inc are working with companies such as Frame Technology Corp to embed shrink-wrapped versions of document management products into their operating systems.
