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- Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!bu.edu!wang!news
- From: IMAGING.CLUB@OFFICE.WANG.COM ("Imaging Club")
- Newsgroups: biz.comp.software
- Subject: Wang document imaging software for VAX
- Message-ID: <199207291723.AA02364@tuna.wang.com>
- Date: 29 Jul 92 18:22:35 GMT
- Sender: news@wang.com
- Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
- Lines: 70
-
- Here are the highlights of the July 27 cover story in
- Systems & Network INTEGRATION regarding Wang's VAX
- imaging:
-
- At the heart of (Wang's Open/Image support) strategy is
- Wang's Open/Image applications programming interface tool
- kits, which make Wang's image technology available for
- non-Wang computers and network platforms.
-
- "Through Wang's Open/Image for the VAX, we've been able to
- add functions such as print and view, indexing, fetching
- and printing images to solutions such as records and control
- document systems we offer on the [Digital Equipment Corp.) VAX,"
- said Greg Parker, product manager for Southern Electric, Atlanta.
-
- Southern Electric, an information services and systems integration
- subsidiary of utility firm Southern Co., Atlanta, is one of a
- growing number of integrators using Wang's Open/Image took kits
- to bring imaging capabilities to applications running on other
- vendors' platforms.
-
- Southern Electric, which caters to utility and manufacturing clients,
- has used Wang's image technology in IBM CICS and IMS/DC environments
- since about three years ago, when Wang first offered those APIs,
- Parker said.
-
- Since Wang introduced Open/Image for the VAX in April, Southern
- Electric has begun to implement the APIs on VMS applications
- running on the DEC platform, Parker said.
-
- "Very few customers are willing to give up on the applications
- and computer platforms they are used to and have a great financial
- investment in, in order to add a new technology such as imaging,
- which can be expensive and questionably beneficial to their
- particular operations," said Roger Sullivan, vice president at
- BIS Strategic Decisions, Inc. a market researcher in Norwell, Mass.
-
- Although document image product suppliers such as Plexus Computers
- Incl make image APIs available for a variety of platforms, unlike
- Wang's Open/image tools, those other APIs depend on specific
- databases from vendors such as Oracle Corp., IBM and Informix
- Software Inc., Sullivan said.
-
- "Wang's Open/Image APIs do not depend on the customer using any
- specific database products, an advantage over the other image
- APIs we've been seeing so far," he said.
-
- Pamet Systems Inc. has used Open/Image for VAX to add image
- capabilities to its DEC VMS-based turnkey and network solutions,
- which the Acton, Mass. integrator offers to police and fire
- departments, said Pamet president Joel Searcy.
-
- Through the Wang APIs, Pamet's records-keeping solutions for
- police stations are more robust, letting officers "view
- thousands and thousands of rap sheets, mug shots and other
- documents," he said.
-
- Pamet's image-enable solution lets police make computer
- inquiries such as calling crime suspect photos by specific
- traits. "A police officer can ask the system to look for all
- mug shots of people 6-foot, 3 (inches) with a tatoo that
- says 'mother,'" Searcy said.
-
- "More and more companies are indeed interested in incorporating
- image, even in pilot projects," said BIS Strategic Decision's
- Sullivan.
-
- "By Wang making its image technology available on other platforms,
- the company has found a way to attract new customers who probably
- never considered buying a Wang product before," he said.
-