Intelligent Systems Report € March € 1996 € Volume 13 € No. 3
Intelligent Systems Report € March € 1996 € Volume 13
€ No. 3
Gensym Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.), vendor of the G2 real-time expert
system development tool, has announced an initial public offering of
2 million shares of common stock at a price of $10 per share. Of the
total shares, 1.2 million were offered by the company and 800,00 were
offered by selling stockholders. Net proceeds will be used for
working capital and general corporate purposes.
Gensym was founded in 1986, and its roots trace back to Lisp Machine
Inc. (LMI), one of the more spectacular failures of the AI industry's
roller-coaster ride in the mid-1980s. LMI at the time was best known
for its Lisp-based workstations, which competed in the then-strong
marketplace with such vendors as Symbolics and Texas Instruments, but
it also had a well-received expert system software tool -- Picon, one
of the first real-time intelligent tools for process control. Picon's
developers left LMI en masse to form Gensym, and after a series of
legal squabbles (not to mention LMI's bankruptcy), Gensym was allowed
to pursue its own endeavors, which it promptly did by introducing G2,
another real-time intelligent tool for process control that today is
one of the most successful AI products.
[Editor's note: Speaking of public companies, we
inadvertently omitted two publicly-traded vendors of intelligent
systems from our recent cover story,
"Intelligent
companies woo Wall Street," in the December 1995 issue:
Carnegie Group Inc. and Angoss Software
International.]
Talarian Corp. (Mountain View, Calif.), a vendor of intelligent
real-time systems, has signed an agreement with TRW Components
International Inc. (TRWCI) (Redondo Beach, Calif.), a provider of
satellite systems. TRWCI has selected Talarian's RTworks as a core
technology in its next-generation satellite system integration and
test product, the DPS950 Data Processing System.
The DPS950 combines TRW-developed technology with commercial
off-the-shelf products for satellite test and ground station data
processing. It is used by major satellite projects around the world,
including NASA's Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility, The Republic
of China's Satellite and the Small Satellite Technology
Initiative.
RTworks is a real-time expert system development tool. The DPS950
employs several RTworks modules, including the human-computer
interface component (RThci), which enabled the creation of a
real-time animated graphical user interface. This interface provides
an end user with visual feedback on system configuration and the
ability to modify operational parameters on-the-fly to meet specific
test data requirements.
The DPS950 also uses the RTworks inference engine (RTie) for
high-speed data analysis, and SmartSockets -- a message-- oriented
middleware product that allows software developers to build reliable
distributed applications across LANs, WANs and the Internet (see
ISR, November 1995).
Angoss Software International (Toronto, Ont., Canada), a supplier
of expert system-based software, and Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
(Beaverton, Ore.), a provider of open client/server systems for
business computing, have signed a world-wide strategic partnership.
This agreement will see Angoss' KnowledgeSeeker (a knowledge
discovery tool) ported immediately to Sequent's symmetrical
multi-processing operating system -- DYMNIX/ptx. The two companies
have also agreed to engage in various joint marketing activities.
KnowledgeSeeker is an artificially intelligent data analysis tool for
knowledge discovery and data mining. It is applicable to all areas of
business, including marketing and sales, human resources, fraud
detection, risk management, research and process control, both in
analytical and predictive capacities.
Angoss has also signed a royalty-based, object code technology
licensing agreement with Janna Systems (Toronto, Ont., Canada), a
provider of contact management software. The agreement allows Janna
to include the functionality of KnowledgeSeeker within future
versions of its Janna Contact software product. KnowledgeSeeker will
perform a complete context-sensitive analysis for Janna Contact
users.
HNC Software Inc. (San Diego, Calif.), a publicly-held supplier of
neural network systems and technologies, has agreed to acquire Credit
& Risk Management Associates Inc. (CRMA) (Baltimore, Md.), a
privately-held risk management and data warehousing consulting and
service company whose customers include credit card issuers and other
banks and financial organizations concerned with credit policies. The
acquisition is an all-stock transaction currently valued at
approximately $4.8 million.
Formed in 1990, CRMA numbers among its clients Advanta, Bell
Atlantic, Fingerhut, KeyCorp, MBNA, Norwest Card Services and
Prudential Home Mortgage. CRMA provides credit risk management
consulting services, including new product credit policy development,
target marketing and strategy development, forecasting, credit
technology management and MIS support. With the recent growth of new
database technologies, the company has gained significant expertise
in setting up financial transactions data warehouses for risk
management strategy analysis.
Household International (Prospect Heights, Ill.), one of the
nation's largest consumer and home equity lenders, has signed an
agreement with HNC Software to use HNC's Colleague lending decision
management system as a key component in its new lending environment.
The Colleague software provides an intelligent software platform to
automate much of the loan decision process and assist underwriters in
managing their workflow. Lending decisions are enabled through a
variety of rule bases and statistical models, which enables Colleague
users to customize the system to their own in-house requirements.
Household also plans to implement multiple-outcome, neural
network-based models using another HNC product, the DataBase Mining
Workstation (see ISR, August 1994). Colleague's
architecture will allow several of Household's separate business
units to share use of the rule bases and scoring models.
"Our intent is to utilize Colleague as an underwriting, or
decisioning, engine within a new client/server environment," said
Charles Albright, Household's vice president, chief credit officer.
"This will give use the ability to more effectively manage account
acquisition strategies as the economic environment changes, to ensure
continued portfolio quality."
Household also uses HNC's AREAS statistical property valuation
software and, in its credit card division, HNC's Falcon credit card
fraud detection system.
NeuralWare Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.), a provider of neural network
software, and Texaco Inc. (Houston, Tex.), a major petrochemical
supplier, have been granted a patent for a control system using an
adaptive neural network for target and path optimization for a
multivariable, nonlinear process. This patent is incorporated within
NeuCOP, one of NeuralWare's intelligent software solutions (see
ISR, November 1993).
NeuCOP is the culmination of a four-year joint research and
development effort between Neural-Ware and Texaco. It is designed for
controlling, stabilizing and optimizing complex industrial processes,
such as petroleum refining, chemical, steel, utility, pharmaceutical,
food processing, and pulp and paper operations. NeuCOP can minimize
process variations, reduce costs by cutting utility and raw material
usage, increase safety by maintaining stable and efficient process
operation, and decrease environmental impact by reducing
emissions.
Excalibur Technologies Corp. (San Diego, Calif.), a supplier of
neural network-based pattern recognition and information retrieval
systems, has teamed up with BTG Inc. (Vienna, Va.), a reseller of
information technology products and services to the federal
government. BTG will market and sell Excalibur's Electronic Filing
Software (EFS) to the federal government. EFS is a neural
network-based client/server document management and retrieval
software package based on the Adaptive Pattern Recognition Processing
technology (see ISR, June 1995). This partnership, the
largest product distribution agreement in Excalibur's history,
designates BTG the master federal distributor for EFS.
BTG will create a dedicated team to market and sell EFS, including
providing strategic management and resources to Excalibur's
extensive, existing federal value-added reseller (VAR) channel. The
two companies have identified the World Wide Web as a major
opportunity for document management. BTG will jointly distribute
Netscape Web servers and browsers and EFS WebFile, the Web-enabled
version of EFS.
Federal government users of EFS include the U.S. Army, the Drug
Enforcement Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and other
civilian and DOD agencies.
Quintus Corp. (Fremont, Calif.), a provider of intelligent
software solutions for the customer-driven enterprise, has signed an
agreement with department store chain Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Hoffman
Estates, Ill.). Sears plans to implement Quintus' customer service
software, CustomerQ, to operate an internal help desk to address
human resource and ethics issues.
Sears will use CustomerQ software to replace its internal Ethics
Assist Line System, used by employees to seek guidance or report
concerns. Sears Associate Service Center (ASC), which supports over
2,700 units -- including 814 stores and product service centers in
the U.S. -- needed a customer service product that complemented its
technological environment. Sears plans to run an Informix database on
an IBM RS/6000 with the IBM OS/2 Warp operating system for its
PCs.
Sears will install CustomerQ in its ASC in Tucker, Ga., and for its
internal Ethics Assist Line at corporate headquarters in Hoffman
Estates, Ill. The ASC provides centralized customer service for more
than 300,000 active and inactive associates, and fields more than
2,000 calls each day. Some incoming calls can be immediately solved,
while others must be routed to the appropriate functional section of
the ASC. Sears' goal is to increase the number of calls solved by the
receiving agent at the first function level. With CustomerQ software,
Sears expects to accelerate call resolution and enhance trend
tracking for its Ethics Assist Line, which addresses internal
questions and issues regarding ethical behavior, general guidance and
business policy.
CustomerQ is an integrated customer support solution for the
enterprise that uses expert system technology (see ISR,
November 1992).
Solutions Software Artistry Inc. (Indianapolis, Ind.), a vendor of
intelligent applications for customer service and support operations,
has formed an alliance with Teledata Solutions (Chicago, Ill.),
manufacturer of the Call Link client/server-based call processing
product. Teledata has become a certified products provider in
Software Artistry's expert partners program.
Software Artistry recently selected Call Link as the
computer-telephony integration product of choice in its own customer
support center. Call Link supports a "screen pop" feature that
automatically displays customer information prior to a help desk
staffer answering incoming calls.
Netscape Communications Corp. (Mountain View, Calif.), developer
of the Netscape Navigator WorldWideWeb browser, has signed an
agreement to acquire Paper Software Inc. (Woodstock, N.Y.), a
developer of 3-D graphics and the WebFX VRML (Virtual Reality
Modeling Language) software. Netscape intends to purchase 100% of
privately-held Paper Software in a stock transaction, to be accounted
for as a pooling of interests. Currently employing 12 people, the
company was founded in 1990 by Mike McCue to create simple user
interface technologies.
Paper Software's 3-D technology will be used as the foundation for
the new Netscape Live3D platform that enables VRML graphics to be
integrated into the Netscape software platform. Netscape plans to
integrate Live3D technology into future versions of its Netscape
Navigator Web browser product (see
"Products").
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. (Salt Lake City, Utah), a
supplier of hardware and software used in virtual reality, simulation
and engineering applications, has signed a collaborative agreement
with Q-ZAR (Dallas, Tex.), an integrated developer and distributor of
leisure and entertainment technology and services. The two companies
will begin a multimillion dollar development project for the
next-generation VR entertainment experience. Q-ZAR operates more than
160 laser tag centers throughout the world.
Superscape Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.), a developer of PC-based VR
software, has signed a reseller agreement with computer giant IBM
Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.). IBM will market and sell Superscape's VR
software and related services throughout Europe, the Middle East,
Africa, and the former USSR. Agreements covering Asia, the Pacific
rim, and North and South America are expected within the next
month.
In addition to promoting Superscape's PC-based VR software to
existing and potential customers, IBM sales personnel will also be
selling VR-related services including consulting, virtual world
building and training. Working in partnership with IBM, Superscape
will be responsible for providing the majority of these services.
The Volkswagen Group (Wolfsburg, Germany), one of Europe's largest
automakers, has selected the ROBCAD computer-aided production
engineering (CAPE) software from Tecnomatix Technologies (Novi,
Mich.) as its standard for designing, simulating and programming
automated production lines at Volkswagen manufacturing sites
worldwide, including plants in Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic.
Volkswagen plans to expand its use of ROBCAD to all new car
programs.
CAPE software makes virtual manufacturing possible. Virtual
manufacturing is the ability to design, simulate and optimize
automated production lines via computer, and to program robotic
equipment off-line in advance of production start-up. On computer
screens, Volkswagen engineers can program assembly line robots and
watch the robots operate in lifelike 3-D motion. Potential problems
can be caught and corrected before production begins.
ROBCAD software is also in use at the Big Three U.S. automakers (GM,
Ford and Chrysler), as well as overseas automakers such as BMW,
Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Peugeot and Renault.
Voice Processing Corp. (VPC) (Cambridge, Mass.), a developer of
speech recognition technology, has licensed its VProCel technology to
Enhanced Systems Inc. (Norcross, Ga.), a provider of systems for
voice/fax messaging, automated attendants, interactive voice response
and speech recognition applications, as well as Intellivoice
Communications Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.), a manufacturer of voice
processing equipment.
Enhanced Systems is using the VProCel technology in its VAD
voice-activated dialing systems. Enhanced Systems has been selected
by GTE Mobilnet Inc. (Houston, Tex.) for voice dialing applications.
VProCel is a cellular version of Voice Processing's VProContinuous,
VPro/RT and VPro/XD speech recognition products optimized for
cellular environments. Cellular subscribers will have the option of
speaking stored names from user-defined personal directories, which
require only a single or dual enrollment to become effective. Beyond
voice-activated dialing, subscribers of the service will be able to
use the VProCel speech recognition technology to provide them with
access to their cellular voice mail systems.
Intellivoice Communications has implemented VProCel technology for
Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile (Bedminster, N.J.), which will offer its
TalkDial voice-activated dialing service for its northern New England
and upstate New York subscribers. TalkDial customers will be able to
specify up to 20 phone numbers in their personal dialing directory
and simply speak words, such as "home," "office" or "beauty salon" to
have the phone number automatically dialed. In addition, customers
can recite any seven- or ten-digit number and TalkDial will
automatically place the
call.