Werner Seifert once described Deutsche Borse as a technology company rather than a stock exchange. Today’s news that Deutsche Brse Systems and entory have been awarded a contract to provide a search engine for the German Federal Tax Agency is a reminder that this was more than a whimsical comment.
The two Deutsche Brse subsidiaries came out on top in a Europe-wide call for tenders in which they were pitted against a large number of international bidders. The Federal Tax Agency will use the search engine for checks for information on German entrepreneurs active on the Internet. The agency will then compare these data against its own databases erfolgt ein Abgleich qualifizierter Unternehmen .
According to the Federal Tax Agency, this will allow the scope for tax-related controls on the Internet to be expanded considerably. The search engine is to be put in operation during the first half of the current year.
“The Federal Agency’s award of the contract for the joint offer is proof of our product’s performance”, says Michael Kuhn, chief executive of Deutsche Brse Systems. “The search engine is a joint project of Deutsche Brse Systems and entory. Deutsche Brse Systems provides the software know-how and the system, and entory brings in the sales, project management and service support,” said Frank Gerstenschlger, chief executive of entory.
The Internet search engine is based on the existing Xpider system of Deutsche Brse Systems. The search engine comprises an integrated document classification system, language identification and address extraction. Criteria for the search on the Internet, the presetting of languages and the archival storage of results can be adapted flexibly to the respective user’s needs.
The adaptive system recognizes new search words and meaningful combinations on its own, which can be used as filters for searches on the Internet. Special rule-based document categories are combined with a computerized learning process. The search engine is based on Java technology and runs as a distributed system on several servers, which makes it highly efficient and especially fail-safe. The system runs on various operating systems such as Solaris, Linux and Windows 2000.