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Ingrid Andrews
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Marti Colwell
iMarkup Solutions
877-MARKUP1 Ext. 251

 

iMARKUP SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCES PDF SUPPORT AND VOICE ANNOTATIONS IN IMARKUP WORKGROUP SERVER 2.0

Product Offers Unique Differentiators in New Version, Now Available
 

 

San Francisco, CA – September 5, 2001 – At Web 2001 today, iMarkup Solutions Inc., (www.imarkup.com), a leading provider of web-based productivity tools, announced the general availability of Version 2.0 of its flagship product, iMarkup Workgroup Server. Developed to address the needs of enterprise users collaborating on the Web, iMarkup Workgroup Server 2.0 provides powerful new enhancements to its core product. PDF support enables groups of users to apply annotations, free form drawings and sticky notes to all documents saved in PDF format without having to purchase Adobe Acrobat to run on every workstation. Voice annotations allow collaborators to explain information verbally when it is too difficult to communicate the level and type of changes required in writing alone. All annotations, including PDF and voice, are stored separately from original documents so that data is never corrupted; annotations are, instead, overlaid on documents, with administrators configuring the permissions and security associated with the annotations.

     Three other features are also included in the new version. While SQL Server has been available with previous versions of the product, support for Oracle 8i or higher has been included in Version 2.0. In addition, the newest version conforms to SOAP/XML and COM standards and provides the ability to run and modify reports based on Crystal Decision technology. These reports include information from the configuration database about workgroups, users and user permissions. Among other items, management can learn about system usage (e.g. when users log in/out, what markups they are adding, which Web pages have been annotated and all annotations made in a particular category.)

     “With PDF support, voice annotations, the ability to run on Oracle 8i – and the single sign-on authentication we announced just two weeks ago -- iMarkup Workgroup Server enables users to truly collaborate via the Web,” commented John O’Brien, president and CEO of iMarkup Solutions. “We think users will appreciate the ability to simply ‘speak into the markups’ so that their clients or colleagues can hear the ideas they have for Web content. And for those users who are not proficient with a keyboard - or not able to adequately explain the changes required with a sticky note - Workgroup Server 2.0 more than meets their needs,” O’Brien added.

     iMarkup Workgroup Server was developed to address the needs of enterprise users seeking tools for collaborating on the Web, enabling groups of users to apply annotations to actual “live” Web pages, then share those pages and annotations with others with whom they are collaborating. The Customization and Branding Option, with its modular architecture, was introduced sixty days later and enables organizations to maximize their users’ productivity and efficiency while enabling customers to integrate the capabilities of iMarkup within their respective content, document and knowledge management systems - and for iMarkup to run transparently within their applications.

     Just as the iMarkup Workgroup Server has transformed the static presentation of Web browsing into a rich, collaborative, interactive environment, so has the Customization and Branding Option enabled companies to define the annotations its collaborators can use, integrate these annotations into their applications and customize links to provide information regarding internal processes and guidelines. And the XML data interface on the server expedites the exchange of information.

ENHANCING AND INTEGRATING CLIENTS’ OWN SYSTEMS

     Founded in 1989, Hitext is a European company based in Brussels, Belgium offering localization solutions for web sites, software, marketing collateral and technical documentation in all the dominant languages of the world, including European, Asian and Latin-American languages. Hitext’s clients are global companies in high technology industries such as computer hardware and software, communication, graphic arts and industrial automation. Hitext provides linguistic services, desktop publishing, web and software engineering and project management for these clients.

     As a Beta user of the iMarkup Workgroup Server 2.0 and its Customization and Branding Option, Hitext integrated the product into its own system, Hitext Validate!, developed to enable Hitext’s clients to validate the web sites it has localized. According to Renee Sztabelski, President and CEO of Hitext, “iMarkup Workgroup Server and its CBO were exactly the tools we were looking for to facilitate validation of the web sites we localized for our clients. That process involves several people from each of our clients who need secure access to the localized web site and the ability to annotate their comments. With the user-friendly tools of iMarkup’s Workgroup Server and CBO, we can show users a look-and-feel they are familiar with, control when the iMarkup client is displayed and define where users can place their annotations. Their comments are then stored in the iMarkup Workgroup Server database and used by Hitext language specialists to successfully update the localized web sites.”

     As in the Hitext example, the iMarkup Workgroup Server and its Customization and Branding Option enable companies to define annotations and to have them appear as part of the services they provide their clients or user community. These annotations can also be integrated and stored within their existing databases and queried to generate a variety of reports.

About iMarkup Solutions

     iMarkup Solutions (www.imarkup.com) provides real-time, web-based productivity tools that enable end users to communicate, annotate, organize and collaborate over the Web. The company continually develops tools that enable users to interact with the Web, maximize their efficiency and work as intelligently with electronic information as they do with paper-based information. The iMarkup product line includes the iMarkup Client and iMarkup Workgroup Server. The company is privately held and is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, call 877-MARKUP1 or visit www.imarkup.com.

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