ZyLAB Leverages XML to Enhance Data Storage and Records Management & Archival Product Suite.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2003

Records Management Suite Helps Support Government and Commercial Organizations to Address Corporate Governance Legislation, Including Sarbanes-Oxley Act 

ZyLAB, a developer of document imaging and full-text retrieval software, today announced that it has enhanced its ZyIMAGE data storage and records management & archival product suite by incorporating XML as the data format to store scanned and electronic documents.

A key driver to incorporating XML data formats is to help ZyLAB customers better adhere to corporate governance legislation such as Sarbanes Oxley, which is designed to ensure organizations have clear policies, proper records management systems, and adequate audit trails for its enterprise-wide information.

More and more libraries, government organizations, commercial organizations, and software publishers follow the open XML standards to store and exchange information.

ZyLAB supports more than 7,000 installations with over 300,000 users worldwide including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services, and United Nations International War Tribunal, as well as leading multi-national corporations such as Microsoft, Exxon, British Aerospace, Amtrak, and Dow Chemicals.

XML enables users to handle documents as separate files while also treating the information in the document as if it is stored in a database record. This method of storing information is much more efficient than storing unstructured data such as large text files, audio, video, and other information in traditional relational database systems.

Also, relational database records are traditionally difficult to transfer between different systems unless a conversion is performed, however, records stored in XML do not need to be converted.

Some recent applications for XML are the storage of historical archives, military data exchange, electronic data supply from law enforcement agencies to courts, and corporate filing and record management. ZyLAB's ZyIMAGE is now able to support these applications by storing all scanned files, as well as currently available electronic files, in an open standard XML database.

"Our involvement in several high-profile fraud and criminal investigations worldwide, have made ZyLAB aware of the growing need for complete and robust solutions in this area," said Johannes Scholtes, president of ZyLAB. "New corporate legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have forced companies and governments to take their information management practices more seriously."

ZyIMAGE also addresses the increasing popularity of digital archiving, which has brought with it a new area of concern, known as digital sustainability. The focus specifically relates to the issue of whether or not digital information that is archived today can still be accessed 10, 20, or even 100 years from now. This is critical as it related to corporate governance.

Recently, more and more organizations worldwide recognize that software applications used today have the distinct possibility of not being supported in the future, potentially posing a major setback on efficient records management procedures.

One of the most promising solutions to this problem is the use of XML to represent document structure and meta-information in combination with either a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) to store images of scanned pages or a hyperlink to an electronic file such as MS Word, PDF, JPEG, MPEG, and so on.

Furthermore, XML and TIFFs have open well-defined standards for which standard source code libraries are freely available on the Internet.

About ZyLAB

ZyLAB North America LLC is a fully owned subsidiary of the ZyLAB group of companies, a fast growing and profitable group of companies. In 1983, ZyLAB was the first company to deliver a full-featured PC-based full-text retrieval software package called ZyINDEX. ZyINDEX was particularly popular for searching large collections of electronic file collections in PC environments.

As of 1991, ZyLAB focused all of its development and marketing efforts on ZyIMAGE, aimed at delivering the best search engine available for large paper collections. As a result, ZyLAB now has a full solution to archive, search, find, organize, share, and reproduce all paper and electronic office documents.

Worldwide, ZyLAB has over 300,000 current end-users and has active operational installations in more than 7,000 sites. ZyLAB has several offices in the USA, Europe, and Asia. More information can be found on www.zylab.com.