Co-Star's Portal to the Enterprise

Gateway delivers Co-Star functionality to users who are outside the "PC on a LAN" world. These users include Internet clients, ASCII terminal users connected to mainframes, and other non-Windows clients like Linux, X-Windows, or Apple Macintosh. Gateway makes information about documents stored in the document repository available to the user's application, and performs a variety of tasks normally reserved for Co-Star client workstations. Gateway can be used when:

• You wish to provide image filenames to an Active Server Page application to allow documents in the IFS repository to be distributed across the Web.

• You need to print and/or fax documents from workstations that are not Windows PC's, or are not connected directly to the document management network.

• You have administrative tasks that you wish to have performed in a batch mode rather than interactively. This can include document cleanup, single document migration, etc.

• You wish to combine text and images within a single print or fax job.  Images and text can be arranged on a single page based on a simple template created by the user.  Used in this way, Gateway becomes a powerful image-enabled report generator.

Who is using Gateway?

• A major US city's police department records division uses this product to provide faxes and printouts of police incident documents stored in its document repository. Fax and print jobs are simply queued and processed while the operators' workstations are freed up to do other tasks.

• A jewelry manufacturer uses Gateway to combine ASCII data, bar codes, and images on small job order bags. This improves job throughput and eliminates confusion with respect to job type.

• A steel distributor prints scanned material test reports (MTRs) in-line with their invoice print job. 

• A freight broker uses Gateway to eliminate the need for preprinted invoice forms.  A Gateway script combines a logo, a form template, bar-coded data values and a data file to completely automate the invoicing process. Now invoice form modifications or variations can be created without affecting the user’s application. 

• A greenhouse manufacturer automatically attaches schematics and specs to their faxed quotes.

Gateway is designed to run in an unattended mode.  It monitors a queue folder for new jobs which can be submitted from any application that can write ASCII files to a windows folder.  Gateway's user interface is simply a status screen providing information about task history and current activity.