Specifications

78 CTI
TM
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M
ost Web sites dispense raw,
undifferentiated information.
They could do more, however.
They could actually help visitors find
answers to particular questions, and
solutions to particular problems. They
could, in short, make the leap from the
information business to the knowledge
business.
This is where products such as Web
Advisor and Knowledge Builder
become important. Such products are
tools for building knowledge bases and
subsequently interfacing them with the
World Wide Web. In other words, such
products simplify the task of creating
an intelligent Web site.
Companies that set up intelligent
Web sites stand to benefit themselves
and their customers. For example, com-
panies can cut customer support costs,
provide more accurate help, extend ser-
vice around the clock, and institute
automatic recording of all transactions.
In addition, customers can use the Web
as a convenient way to find the prod-
ucts they need, receive pre-sale and
post-sale support, and interact with cus-
tomer service.
INSTALLATION
We installed the Web Advisor/
Knowledge Builder system on a
Pentium 120 PC that had 32 MB of
RAM and ran Windows NT 4.0 Server.
(We also had the option of using
Windows 95.) For our Web server, we
used Microsoft’s Internet Information
Server (IIS) 3.0.
After entering a very long software
key, we were able to install Web
Advisor and Knowledge Builder, as
well as a couple of additional modules,
Web Authoring and Web Advisor
Escalation. We installed all these mod-
ules from the CD ROM. We decided
not to install one last module,
International Languages.
Since we were running on Windows
NT, we had a choice of running Web
Advisor as an application or as a service.
We decided to go with the application so
we wouldn’t have to reboot Windows.
After we completed the installation,
we associated Web Advisor with the
IIS application by copying the
Webcgi.exe file from Web Advisor into
the cgi-bin directory of our Web server.
The Webcgi.exe program is the gate-
way between Web Advisor and the Web
server. All URL references use it to
gain access to the knowledge bases,
including a sample knowledge base,
Printer, included with the system.
DOCUMENTATION
The product arrived with three man-
uals: Administering, Customizing And
Integrating, and Authoring. Each of
these manuals was well organized,
complete, and easy to use.
Administering: Covers the introduc-
tion, installation, operation, manage-
ment, and moni-
toring of Web
Advisor. The ap-
pendices cover the
Web Advisor ini-
tialization file and
the session logs
database structure.
Customizing
And Integrating:
Covers the rela-
tionship between
Web Advisor and
Knowledge
Builder. It includes
chapters on the
Web Advisor tem-
plates and their
customization
options, the pack-
aging of knowledge
bases to be used
with other Web
Advisor machines,
and integration
with other applica-
tions through URL
API, Web author-
ing and E-mail escalation.
Authoring: A comprehensive Know-
ledge Builder reference. It introduces
the user to Knowledge Builder author-
ing, expert reasoning, knowledge base
building procedures, indexing, testing,
and importing and exporting using
KBML. It also describes the interna-
tional languages interface.
Although we were impressed with the
manuals overall, we believe they could
have provided more examples. We
always look for a lot of examples when
we work with applications that are as
powerful and versatile as Knowledge
Builder. The more powerful the applica-
tion, the more examples you need to
help you learn all the features.
FEATURES
Each of the system’s modules con-
tributes to the system’s features. The
following modules make up the system:
Web Advisor: Delivers intelligent
advice to users over the Internet/
Intranet. Provides interactive problem
resolution, which is designed to enable
users to solve their own problems and
answer their own questions. Works in
concert with Web servers and dynami-
cally authors HTML pages with appro-
priate questions and responses that help
resolve each user’s problem.
C T I LABS
Web Advisor
3.0/Knowledge
Builder 3.0
ServiceSoft Corporation
50 Cabot Street
Needham, MA 02194
Ph: 617-449-0049; Fx: 617-449-0107
E-Mail: [e-mail]
Web Site: www.servicesoft.com
Pricing: Web Author: $2000 per con-
current Internet user, $10 per named
Intranet user. Minimum $10,000,
Maximum $40,000 (unlimited
license). Knowledge Builder: $5,000
FFiigguurree 2277..
Web Advisor: Screen
describing current session.