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Today's CD-ROMs run under a growing number of interfaces, offer an increasing array of retrieval features, and access data built from an expanding assortment of authoring software.
How can you keep up? How can you make comparisons between the products and services of different companies? Most importantly, how can you find the CD-ROM authoring and retrieval software that's best for your project?
The table that accompanies this article can help.(table omitted) This table compares the technical aspects and retrieval features of CD-ROM authoring and retrieval software produced by several leading companies.
Besides comparing the details, you also should consider some of the broader issues surrounding the variety of software on the market. For example, you should be aware of the way the packages handle different applications and different types of data. You also should compare the search and output features. And you should evaluate the ease-of-use of the products' interfaces.
THE VARIETY OF SOFTWARE, RICH AND WIDE
"The market is fragmenting," says Rick Glasby, National Account Manager for Online Computer Systems, which is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland. "People have specific requirements, and generalized software just doesn't fit the bill. You have to have features in there that are targeted to that particular market."
According to Glasby, Online Computer Systems, which licenses software for the "high end" of the market, has been very successful with specialized versions of software--CD-ROM software designed for specific applications. "Right now," Glasby says, by way of giving an example, "one of the hot buttons for us is scientific, technical, and medical journals. We have another flavor of our Optiware software that is specially designed for retrieving data from illustrated parts catalogs--where you have exploded views of assemblies and linked parts lists."
Lisa Johnson, president of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based MicroRetrieval Corporation, notes that the market is splintering into niches targeted not only to specific applications but also specific types of data. Johnson says, "Some retrieval packages handle full text, some handle fielded data, and then some handle both. Our package, re:Search, handles full-text, fielded data, images, and audio. The person looking for retrieval software needs to be aware of the choices for the type of data they have."
Knowledge Access International (KAI) is an example of a company that gives the user many...