ISYS Search Software
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ISYS Search Software is a supplier of enterprise search software for information access, management and re-use. The company markets and sells a suite of embedded search, mobile access and information management infrastructure technologies.
Established in 1988 by Ian Davies, ISYS previously marketed and sold enterprise search applications. Davies developed prototype text retrieval software that would be suitable for use in large databases. The Australian market for the prototype software developed, and in 1991, PC Week Magazine wrote a favourable review that assisted in attempts to break into the US market.[1]
An ownership interest held by the wife of Australia's federal shadow communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, created some political discussion in 2010, as the Government asserted that Turnbull had a conflict of interest between his shadow portfolio and his personal financial stake in ISYS.
ISYS products compete with the Verity Ultraseek product and the Google Search Appliance, while its infrastructure and embedded search applications compete with Autonomy and FAST Search & Transfer (now a subsidiary of Microsoft).
The ISYS engine is capable of searching multiple disparate data sources, including Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, Open Office, HTML, ZIP files, all major email products, all SQLdata sources, SharePoint, Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino. Some of ISYS's content mining capabilities include automatic Categorisation, entity extraction, parametric search, Hit-highlighting and navigation, relevance ranking and multiple query methods.
In 2007, ISYS entered the Linux marketplace with the release of the ISYS:sdk and ISYS:web server for Linux platforms, the company’s first foray into non-Windows environments. In 2009, ISYS released several new applications and a new suite for information access (see applications listed above).
In March 2012, ISYS Search Software Pty Ltd was acquired by Lexmark International, and integrated into its Perceptive Software division.