LexisNexis slices government info

LexisNexis announced a suite of tools this week designed to help government agencies at all levels receive customized information that also can be further targeted for internal users.

LexisNexis Customized eSolutions includes consultation and customized content integrated with personalized tools, training and support, said Bill Pardue, president and chief executive officer of LexisNexis corporate and federal markets.

The company provides information to the legal, corporate, government and academic markets. It publishes legal, tax and regulatory information online and in print and CD-ROM formats.

"The 30,000 sources we have can be tough to navigate," Pardue said. "These new tools cut to the chase and display it in the best way possible."

Pardue said the customized solutions are "personalized" for the customer on two levels: Customers can decide exactly what type of content applies to their interests, and LexisNexis consultants deliver the content through an existing infrastructure without requiring major changes to a customer's intranet, extranet or portal.

Federal, state and local agencies can customize their information needs for the enterprise. For example, Senate users may want mostly news, whereas officials at defense agencies may want news and data on court proceedings. Individual users can further personalize information at the desktop.

"The need the federal government has is to provide a consistency of information throughout the department," said Margaret Hutchinson, vice president of federal, enterprise and risk solutions sales at LexisNexis. "They get information and want it consistent to the desktop. Before, they would pull down from [us], but now we can push things and they can still pull."

Four tools are available in the new Customized eSolutions suite:

* Intranet Publisher is a ready-to-use application that provides editorial and administrative tools to bring LexisNexis content to users' desktops.

* Web Publisher enables a company's Web site or extranet to provide more content and thus build stronger relationships with users and increase traffic.

* Custom User Interface enables users to choose from sources for direct access to news and business information that they search most frequently.

* Portal Integration gives enterprise administrators total control of the relevant information and essential tools they rely on via the desktop for knowledge-sharing capabilities.

Pricing for the new solutions is based on the type of content, the number of users and the amount of training needed, Pardue said.

LexisNexis services are being used by many federal agencies, including the Senate, the Treasury Department and the Defense Department, and serve groups of users ranging from 30 to about 60,000. Regardless of the size of the implementation, the company can have a working prototype running in "weeks," he said.

LexisNexis is hoping to announce its first federal customer signing on for a customized solution within 60 days, Hutchinson and Pardue said.