Irvine, Calif.- September 4, 2002 — Toshiba's Computer Systems Group (CSG) today announced that the company has launched WexTech's AnswerWorks® natural language search tool to power their Ask IRIS Online™ support site (http://askiris.toshiba.com). The move to AnswerWorks allows Toshiba to add several enhancements to its support site, including the ability for a single query to simultaneously search both Toshiba and Microsoft knowledge bases, and support for questions asked in Spanish as well as English.
"The transition to AnswerWorks has been seamless and very quick," says Gary Weaver, senior vice president of operations for Toshiba CSG. "WexTech was able to get the system up and running in less than two weeks from contract signing to user sign-on."
The ability to search both Toshiba and Microsoft content is an important addition for Toshiba customers, allowing them to resolve problems whether their concerns are hardware, Toshiba-specific software, or the operating system or other Microsoft-supplied software.
"When there's an issue with a computer, often it's not clear to the user exactly where the problem lies," says Steve Wexler, WexTech's founder and CEO. "Recognizing that fact, Toshiba wanted to make it as simple and painless as possible for their customers to find solutions, regardless of whether they reside on Toshiba's site or Microsoft's. AnswerWorks excels at searching multiple knowledge repositories, so we were able to readily accommodate them."
Although the support material is predominantly in English, Ask IRIS utilizes AnswerWorks' cross-lingual support to enable users to ask questions in either English or Spanish.
"More and more of our customers are native Spanish speakers who are familiar with English but may prefer Spanish," says Weaver. "With AnswerWorks, they can ask questions using either language they're most comfortable with, and we can give them great answers and great support both ways."
While the additions of cross-lingual and cross-knowledge-base support are very visible to end-users on the Toshiba site, the AnswerWorks Analytics reports are invisible to customers, who will benefit from them nonetheless. The reports provide Toshiba CSG with traffic data analysis such as what questions are asked most frequently, what questions require additional information, and what products generate the most questions. One of the most important reports summarizes highlights from the others and outlines action items to resolve problems and improve product and system performance.
AnswerWorks currently supports local and server-based Help systems developed and deployed in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish, with additional language support under development.
About WexTech Systems, Inc.
WexTech Systems, Inc. was founded in 1985 and provided microcomputer training and consulting services for companies such as Salomon Brothers, Bankers Trust, and American Express. Early adopters of Microsoft Windows, WexTech's expertise in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel prompted Microsoft to hire WexTech to write Using WordBasic in 1990, and to develop all the templates for Microsoft Word 2.0 the following year, as well as manage the Word and Excel tracks of the Microsoft tools developers' conference. Also in 1991, WexTech released Doc-To-Help, the world's first commercial Help authoring tool. WexTech's expertise was again called upon by Microsoft in 1998 to write the Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit.
In 1996, WexTech formed a strategic partnership with Knexys Knowledge Exchange Systems, a Belgian linguistic technology R&D company. The fruits of this relationship have manifested in the AnswerWorks® brand of products, used by many leaders in self-help and e-support, including Intuit, Autodesk, and Knowledge Impact. AnswerWorks can be seen in action at www.freeanswers.com. For more information on WexTech Systems, Inc. visit www.wextech.com.
About Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.
Toshiba Computer Systems Group, a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, is a leading vendor for portable computers. In addition to notebooks, the company offers portable and wireless accessories, Pocket PC devices, projectors and mobile server computing solutions for business customers under the Toshiba brand name. For more information call 1-800-TOSHIBA or visit the company's Web site at www.csd.toshiba.com.
Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (TAIS) is comprised of multiple divisions that provide computer, communications and imaging products and services. Products include industry leading portable computers, PDAs, mobile computing accessories, servers, including communications and portable servers, storage subsystems, cable modems, digital business telephone systems, voice-mail, digital cameras, security systems, and projectors. TAIS provides sales, marketing, services and manufacturing for its wide range of information products in the United States and Latin America. TAIS is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, which is a world leader in high technology and integrated manufacturing of electrical and electronic components, products and systems. Toshiba has global sales of over $40 billion and more than 300 subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide.