OPTIX® Brings Industrial-Strength Document Management to the World Wide Web

Flint Hill, VA - December 4, 1995 - Blueridge Technologies, "The Internet Document Management Company," announced OPTIX WEB, the first product that allows World Wide Web browsers to query OPTIX databases.

OPTIX is the industrial strength client/server-based document management system that can scan, index, retrieve, and manage huge numbers of documents--from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions. OPTIX WEB allows you to use popular WEB browsers like Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer from Microsoft, and Mosaic to access OPTIX databases.

With OPTIX WEB you can now perform the same kind of query from your favorite WEB browser that you could previously perform only from an OPTIX workstation. You can even use your browser to initiate a natural language text query and search every word and phrase of the text documents stored on an OPTIX system.

"To marry the Internet with document management is both evolutionary and revolutionary" says Keith Ellis, Vice President of Blueridge Technologies. "It's evolutionary because the Internet is evolving into a world wide LAN, and document management is one of the most popular LAN applications. It's revolutionary because for the first time in history the organizations that 'manufacture' information--such as businesses, schools, and government agencies--will be able to deliver their products directly and instantaneously to almost anyone on the planet, without having to go through normal distribution channels like classrooms, offices, and stores."

Around the world, leading organizations are already using OPTIX to convert mountains of documents from hard copy to document images. Every imaginable kind of document is being scanned and archived--including paper files, books, microfilm, color slides, medical X-rays, and engineering drawings.

OPTIX WEB makes all these documents available over the Internet. Anything you can store on OPTIX, you can now provide to the Web: including product literature, correspondence, market research documents, contracts, customer files, student records, claims applications, deeds, medical records, and anything else you can scan into a computer. You can even make available files that are already on computer, like word-processing files, spreadsheets, and mainframe records (via OPTIX COLD). Once they are stored on an OPTIX system, any of these documents can be located in seconds, whether you're searching through a hundred thousand items or a hundred million.

Says Ellis, "Imagine being able to publish an entire public library over the World Wide Web and then being able to find any page, in any book, in a matter of seconds. People have dreamed about this kind of technology for years; with OPTIX WEB that dream has become reality."

Founded in 1988, Blueridge Technologies is one of the industry's oldest and most respected providers of electronic document management systems (EDMS). Long the leading industrial-strength document imaging and workflow system for Apple Macintosh computers, in 1994 OPTIX became the first electronic document management system to offer workflow, document imaging, document control, COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk), and natural language text retrieval for both Windows and Macintosh workstations. Via the new OPTIX WEB interface, OPTIX also supports popular Web browsers, including Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer from Microsoft, Mosaic, and all the client platforms these products support, including Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX workstations. An online demo of OPTIX WEB is available at http://www.optixweb.com. Blueridge Technologies is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Metters Industries.

OPTIX systems begin in the range of $40,000 and include server software, client software for both Macintosh and Windows, installation, training, and support.