Free iSeries Digital Assistant

It's called it Whew! It stands for Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. It was designed to be an easy to use information resource for your organization. With its natural language interface, users can find answers to questions like ...

  • Who is our sales rep at ABC Company?
  • How is the interest computed on a note receivable?
  • Where are the iSeries license keys filed?
  • When is the next payment due for sales tax collections?
  • What is the email address for Jim Smith?
  • Why are we still using this old iSeries technology?

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Who!

Who entities are used to keep track of names and contact information. They are categorized by What entities such as salesman, vendor, lawyer, insurance company, HR department, Minneapolis office etc.

What!

What entities describe the nature of things in Whew! Look at the questions above. What is a sales rep? What is a note receivable? What is a license key? For those questions to be relevant, the system needs to recognize these "things", which along with people and places are identified in What entities.

In addintion to things, What entities are also used to identify actions available to Whew! users. For example, you can tell Whew! to "add" a sales rep, or "change" Jim Smith. And depending on facilities available in your environment, it is possible to add actions like email, call, or execute.

To support the natural language interface, a sysnonym file allows users to identify What entities in terms more common to them. For example, a salesman could also be referred to as a sales representative, a sales person, a saleswoman, etc.

Where!

Where entities provide location information in Whew! Locations can be an address or a place such as the top drawer in the safe in the basement. The location database supplied with Whew! will validate cities, states, and postal codes in the U.S. and Canada. Other countries can be added as needed.

When!

When entities identify calenaring information in Whew! They can reference a one time only activity or a regularly scheculed activity. Activities can reference a set of instructions or a specific action such as call, email, notify, etc.

Specific actions do need to be supported by functional programs and interfaces. For example, to add automated email support, a program must be created to formulate the email and an interface to an email server to send it.

Why!

Why entities are text based entities, which can be used to answer specific questions, to provide explanations for policies and procedures, to add context to organizational activities, etc.

How!

How entities are text based entities, which can be used to provide instructions for operational activities.

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The Whew! database must be loaded with the informational entities relevant to the organization and its operation. By default, all information in Whew! is available to all users. Sensitive information can be protected by restricting entity access to a list of authorized users and/or groups of users.