"Can you confirm that the minor version of ISIMAN, which is due to be released shortly, will function in an open environment?"
MD
"Certainly, ISIMAN 2002 V0502 will run in an environment constituted entirely from Open Source software such as Linux, Apache, SGBDR PostGreSQL, Tomcat, etc along with the other market standards. This is possible as a result of our decision in 1999 to rewrite ISIMAN in Java and in 2001 to use formats XML and XSLT.
It is possible today, thanks to the unstinting efforts of our programmers and of course the progress made in the Open Source community, particularly Apache.
Customers who need to run content management under Linux or UNIX, will therefore be able to do so as from February 2005"
Partner
"But, in that case, what will your customers do with the thousands of MS/Office files that they already have?"
MD
"There are three possible solutions. Either they will convert them under Windows so they are compatible with the navigator, or they will keep them in their original format and display them with MS/Office viewers or they can use Open Office or any other appropriate Open Source. This is relatively easy as files used with ISIMAN are based on simple templates."
Partner
"Does this mean that customers who opted for Windows and Microsoft will be penalised?"
MD
Not at all, ISIMAN is written in Java, so it runs under Windows NT, 2000, 2003 with IIS and SQLServer or Oracle.
Partner
"What has the concept of Open Source brought to ISIMAN?"
MD
Good question ! Open Source has had a positive impact on ISIMAN and Keyword's customers have already benefited. This is only the beginning:
-on one hand, ISIMAN already includes over 20 Open Source components which have been certified for use with ISIMAN by our technical staff. These components are covered by our maintenance contract in the same way as those developed by Keyword. This means that Keyword's maintenance fees are among the lowest on the market;
-on the other hand, ISIMAN has developed interfaces with Open Source components which constitute independent modules, for instance Lucene search engine, AWStats statistics, GED Slide function, Cocoon-Forms workflow or JfreeChart graphic editor. Many of them come from Apache.
In this way ISIMAN end users have experienced enhanced ease of use and efficiency, even though this is not our core business.
Partner
"Does this mean that Keyword has become an Open Source Company?"
MD
In a way, you could say so because our strategy is to include more and more Open Source components, but not really because that would deprive our customers of other, more important, benefits. Our core business is building intranet solutions supporting critical corporate strategies. This is where all the innovation and creativity of Keyword is concentrated. If we were merely an Open Source Company, our customers would only benefit from our ability to assemble Open Source components. But ISIMAN is more than that : it's a software platform which provides customers with an integrated solution, customized to meet their constraints (business context, terminology, organisation, graphics chart, and, in particular the complexity of their intranet information model). ISIMAN reduces the time between customer decision and publication of their intranet including all Keyword's expertise. Once it is looked at in this way, ISIMAN is seen as a powerful productivity tool in a completely different league from bespoke programming.
Partner
"Can customers carry out their own customization ?"
Daniel Delpuech Managing Director, Keyword
MD
Keyword is moving towards this objective with the next major version of ISIMAN. We anticipate providing customers with an ISIMAN On Line service on the internet, a sort of software workbench where they will be able to customize their intranet model and then download it onto their ISIMAN platform.
In this way, Keyword will continue to provide customers with yet more value added.
