The Easiest Way to View (Almost) Any File

Avantstar's Quick View Plus is a slick file-viewing software utility that lets you view almost any type of file (well, 300 different formats or so anyway) without needing to have the native software application installed on your PC. So, if you need to grab a file off of shared drive or (most commonly) get a funky email attachment and you don't own the application used to originally create the file, you can still view and print it.

For individual PC owners, that's a nice-to-have capability, though probably not absolutely essential unless you are getting a lot of files you can't open (e.g. from different office software suites, graphics programs or engineering software applications) from outside sources. For employees in larger businesses or government organizations however, it is a godsend. Quick View Plus can be installed across networks in minutes, and volume pricing makes it very cost-effective to add to the standard desktop image. It far more than pays for itself in reduced support desk calls and software licensing costs.

PCWorld has written a helpful product review of Quick View Plus along with a free trial download link, stating "With over 300 filters for everything from ancient programs such as Harvard Graphics for DOS to the latest Microsoft Office 2007 XML documents, it can be worth its weight in gold,--or discontinued programs, if you prefer...Quick View Plus 10 can be a lifesaver if you've got a legacy business document for which you don't have the software."

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Records Management vs. ECM

Records management systems and enterprise content management (ECM) software applications are often assumed to be interchangeable, but are actually quite different. ECM software is designed for storing, organizing and retreiving electronic information: text files, documents, video, audio, images etc. Records management systems do the same things, but much more, because they also manage storage, retrieval and disposition (lifecycle management) for paper records and physical property.

With strong search capabilities, ECM systems are good for storing data that may need to shared across the enterprise. The more "paperless" an organization is, the better the fit for ECM.

Of course, most organizations can't go "paperless." Any government agency or business subject to regulation regarding the retention, security, access, and eventual disposition of paper records (such as an original property deed) or physical property (such as evidence in a court case) needs the added capabilities of a records management system (RMS).

RMS vendors include LaserFiche (really more of an ECM developer), Accutrac and SmeadSoft. Accutrac partners with several third-party vendors, such as TAB, a Canadian manufacturer of filing products, to provide an end-to-end records management offering. SmeadSoft, however, is able to provide a completely integrated software and filing products offering, as the company has been manufacturing its own filing products for more than 100 years. It now offers an extensive line of top tab and end tab folders, bar code and color-coded labels, and other products for high volume records management and physical property management. The company's website provides a good definition of records management software systems.

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The Sequel to SQL

What's wrong with SQL? For starters, it's hard. SQL is fundamentally a difficult and not terribly productive query coding language. Graphical front-end tools can hide the complexity, but for detailed, in-depth queries, at some point coding will be required. And it's ugly.

Second, it's slow. Or rather, the relational database it's accessing is slow. Standard queries can be optimized and performed very fast. But ask a question that the underlying database wasn't properly indexed to answer—particularly a complex question—and the query will run for hours, or even days, locking other users out of the system (until the query is finally manually aborted). You've got a query from hell.

Finally, it's limited. There are certain types of queries, such as associative queries, that simply can't be modeled in SQL. Not every question is simple, or has a simple answer. No one should be limited, by a coding language, in what they can ask of a database.

The answer isn't more "tweaks" to SQL or relational systems. No matter what's added on top, it's still 30 year old technology underneath.

The answer is a radically new approach to both database design and access, such as that offered by illuminate, a data warehouse provider that launched in the U.S. this week. The iLuminate correlation database engine is always optimized for any type of query, with all relationships mapped, solving the speed problem. And the company's iCorrelate exploration tool allows any type of query against the database, freeing users from the tyranny of SQL.

Check it out:

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An Enterprise Survey Tool for $1,000

Kinetic Data just announced it's offering a limited-use version of its Kinetic Survey Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) application for $1,000. This is a great opportunity for IT help desk directors to try out an EFM tool that can be used across the organization for a very reasonable price.

Survey normally runs $20K and up depending on servers, users etc. but the limited use version (you can create up to three surveys) offers the full functionality, enabling organizations to test it out for a modest investment before committing to the full package.

Organizations running CA Unicenter or HP OpenView as their core IT management system will probably want to look at something like Vovici instead, but for any enterprise with BMC Remedy installed, Kinetic Survey is a no-brainer. It provides a single enterprise survey tool that can be used across departments with consistent survey branding, feedback routing and workflow rules.

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