New, Turn-Key Software Offers Next-Generation Search, Discovery, and Information Aggregation to Enterprises; Pinpoint Navigation Replaces Brute-force Searches; Fewest Clicks to ''Aha!''.

NEW YORK -- Siderean Software, Inc., a pioneer in next-generation information search and aggregation technology, has announced the general availability of its Seamark Navigation Server -- the first turn-key, enterprise-class navigation capability that permits users to "search the way they think" using a natural, intuitive process. The new system enables enterprise IT personnel to implement -- often in a few minutes or hours -- compelling business applications that feature an aggregated, single point of access to widely-varying, distributed sources information, and a means for knowledge workers and other end users to pinpoint precisely the information they are seeking, in a few, quick steps. This announcement is being made this week at the Enterprise Search Summit taking place in New York City.

"Aggregating information from numerous sources to achieve a single, unified view of critical business processes -- such as a consolidated view of a customer that spans accounting, sales, support, and marketing -- has never been more important, or complex," says Bradley P. Allen, chief technology officer and founder of Siderean Software. "Siderean has developed a single, turn-key application that can -- with minimal setup -- access and consolidate data sets and live data feeds from virtually anywhere into a cohesive, organized whole, and then provide end users with the capability to navigate that information with unprecedented speed and efficiency -- many times faster than using even the best of the brute-force, keyword search tools available today. That application is Seamark."

Pinpoint Data, Pinpoint Navigation

Seamark provides IT personnel and information architects the means to pinpoint specific information by easily integrating various data sources (both structured and unstructured from both inside and outside the enterprise) as a new, dynamic data collection that can be browsed, searched, or queried. It then generates, literally with the click of a mouse, an immediately browsable application that enables users to pinpoint information within that collection that they seek to satisfy their business needs. The Web-ready, Seamark-generated application can be used "as is"; refined as necessary for look, feel or function; incorporated into a Web page; or linked to other applications as a Web service.

In a Seamark-generated application, users discover information with "pinpoint navigation" -- a next generation "search and discovery" technique that differs considerably from the linear, keyword search processes used by Google and others. Rather than deluging the user with page after page of keyword-driven lists -- which may or may not contain the information being sought -- users are presented an intuitive set of categories that represent different views -- or organizations -- of the data in the collection. Selecting the category that is most relevant to the information sought, the user can iteratively drill down into increasing levels of refinement -- usually in only a few clicks -- and be left with the precise information being sought -- if it exists -- or a minimal investment in time, if it does not. Also known as "faceted navigation", the technique enables users typically to converge on "answers" in a fraction of time as is necessary when using keyword search. "It's like finding an ethnic restaurant by pinpointing 'restaurant', 'ethnic', 'Moroccan', and 'Fifth Avenue' in a 15-second look at the Manhattan Yellow Pages, versus searching page by page through the White Pages for a week," said Allen.

Search the Way You Think

What makes pinpoint navigation so effective is that it permits users to search the way they think. "Humans are brilliant in sifting through massive amounts of information with great intuitive leaps if the information is organized into familiar groupings," says Allen. "The problem today, with the exponential explosion in accessible data, is that generating that organization and coding it into a business software application is a profoundly expensive and difficult task. And sadly, once created, it becomes obsolete nearly at once, as the underlying data grows and changes. Seamark overcomes this problem with Siderean's unique, 'dynamic discovery' process."

Dynamic Discovery, Dynamic Application

What Seamark does is systematically examine the various data sources to which it is introduced, discovers both the explicit and implicit structure or organization in the data, produces a "metadata" description of its content and characteristics, and then, as described above, automatically generates a browsable, prototype application based upon that description. And as the underlying data changes and grows, the choices presented users change with it. For example, a Seamark application that includes an RSS data feed as one of the data sources could not only alert the user that new information has become available, but that new categories of information are available, as well. "Not only can enterprises envision and define entirely new, strategic business applications based upon previously unavailable, aggregated sources of data, but the generated applications -- and the information they present -- are completely dynamic," said Allen.

Turnkey Implementation

The enterprise information architect will find Seamark easy to integrate into the corporate data infrastructure, as it provides open-standards-based interfaces to data sources -- including data feeds -- that include JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), RDF/XML (Resource Description Format in Extensible Markup Language), RSS (Rich Site Summary -- the emerging Web news syndication standard) and more.

Seamark uses a Web-services model which permits fast, easy integration with other enterprise applications, and is highly scaleable. Client interfaces include RSS, SOAP, and ASP/JSP. It is offered as a standalone platform under Linux, Windows and Solaris.

Representative Applications

Siderean's Seamark technology is being used heavily in a growing number of both internal enterprise and public applications where fast, pinpoint access to information is key. Some representative implementations, which immediately demonstrate the benefits of Siderean's approach, include the "Resource Connection" (http://resource.smartdesktop.org/rescon/) by the Indiana Humanities Council, "Vacation Search" (http://www.beachhouse.com/advsearch/search.asp) from Beachhouse.com, and the Environmental Health News archives from Environmental Health Services (http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/archives.jsp), among others.

"Each of these pinpoint navigation applications allows you to search the way you think," comments Allen, "and the power of this approach becomes immediately obvious upon use. But what is particularly exciting is that Seamark provides exactly what industry analyst IDC says IT managers and enterprise data administrators have been looking for -- a single point of access to multiple sources of structured and unstructured information ('Who is Buying Content Management and Search and Retrieval Software, and Why', IDC #31921, September 2004). It also eliminates what is in essence is a 'Hobson's Choice' for IT managers."

That Hobson's choice, explained Allen, is: "Do I send vast amounts of my resources into a development black hole to devise and maintain custom knowledge management applications, or do I let my constituents waste their own resources, over and over, by endlessly crawling through page after page of classical keyword-driven search results in search of business intelligence?"

Now, they need to do neither. Seamark offers a packaged, turn-key solution that is as fast and easy to use as a well-designed, custom knowledge management application while at the same time providing the low lifecycle costs, scalability, and the relative simplicity of a classical search engine. "IDC said that 'software vendors that can integrate unstructured and structured corporate information into a single access point...will offer a compelling product'," stated Allen. "With its next-generation, pinpoint navigation capability that offer users the fewest clicks to 'aha!', and turn-key, 'zero to implementation' in minutes to hours, we believe that Seamark is that product."

Additional information about Siderean's Seamark Navigation Server is available online at http://www.siderean.com/products.html.

About Siderean

Siderean Software, Inc. is the world's first company to introduce turn-key, enterprise-class navigation software that permits you to "search the way you think". Siderean's breakthrough technology automatically organizes any kind of digital information -- whether structured or unstructured, wherever it resides -- into intuitive groupings that permit users to rapidly grasp the scope of what's available and to pinpoint precisely what they require -- a process that is proving to be substantially faster, more effective, and more precise than existing knowledge management or search solutions.

Siderean's next-generation Seamark software, built on open standards, is easy to implement into existing portals, browser and custom applications -- often in a matter of hours -- and automatically provides turn-key interfaces for use by both information architects and end users.

Siderean's software can be seen in operation at several high-profile sites on the Internet, and is installed for internal use at a growing number of enterprises. Its technology, for which several patents have been filed, benefits from the company's mission to achieve the proper balance between man and machine in organizing information, and the vital role of human intuition. The company, based in El Segundo, California, has raised $6 million from Clearstone Ventures, Innocal, and Red Rock Ventures. For more information, visit www.siderean.com.

Editors' Note: All trademarks and registered trademarks are those of their respective companies.

Additional background information is available at www.roeder-johnson.com.