InformationWeek

March 8, 1999

Message Maker

Categoric Alerts '99 links IT systems, alerts users to specified events

By Rick Whiting

ategoric Software Corp. has released Categoric Alerts '99, publish and subscribe software that links IT systems across an organization and notifies managers, employees, suppliers, and business partners of critical business events within 24 hours.

Using the software's built-in business rules, users set up the program to alert them to specific events. A financial trader may want to be alerted when a stock hits a certain price, for example, while a sales representative might want to be notified whenever an order from a key customer is received.

Categoric Alerts works across a broad range of IT systems using the open database connectivity standard. Users program the system for the frequency and method of notification: E-mail, the Web, fax, pager, or cell phone.

At Carpetland International s.a., a Drogenbos, Belgium, carpet retailer with 160 stores throughout Europe, managers use the Categoric software to track inventory and monitor business transactions. Managers, for example, are alerted when sales reps offer excessive discounts or credit to risky customers to close a sale, says Peter Cole, IS manager of Carpetland's Belgian operations. Previously, such sales weren't discovered until the end of the month: Now, managers are informed within 24 hours and can rescind the deals if needed.

Many ERP and sales-force automation systems provide notification capabilities, and database systems can be programmed with triggers to create alerts. "But there's nothing else out there that looks at a process as a whole and creates alerts against that," says David Marshak, senior VP at the Patricia Seybold Group.

Categoric Alert '99 Enterprise is priced at $130,000 with one server, one failover server, a license for 1,000 recipients, and analytical capabilities for five alert trends. A $46,000 team edition includes one server, licensing for 100 alert recipients, and two alert trends.