Information Handling Services

From its inception in the early 1980s through the fall of 2006, Terabase staff were involved in the development of Haystack®, first as employees of Ziff Communications, and later under contract to IHS. In 2005 IHS launched Haystack Gold®, a successor to what had been the competing USAInfo product. Classic Haystack was dropped in the fall of 2006.

For information about the current Terabase developed Logistics Product, LogiQuest^®, click here.

Classic Haystack, was a comprehensive and powerful parts and logistics management system, providing fast, flexible access to information on over 11 million parts in the U.S. Federal Supply Catalog, with links to hundreds of millions of records in related databases and the IHS Universal Parts Center™. (Terabase Corporation also developed the IHS Universal Parts Center™ product, under contract to IHS.)

Logistics and procurement specialists used Classic Haystack® to access databases from multiple Armed Forces branches, and from other providers of parts information.

IHS Haystack was available in Win32 or Web versions. The program’s easy-to-use client interface accessed a remote Terabase®/SRF database server. Terabase created the Web version (using AJAX) for organizations that restrict client installations. The AJAX version maintained the features, and the look and feel, of the Windows application, while providing easy distribution and installation.

The simple search interface provided a quick, easy way to search for supplies and parts, using the specialized indices and speed of the Terabase®/SRF server.

Classic Haystack was just one of several products developed by Terabase for IHS while under contract to them. Other products included IHS Specs & Standards, the Universal Parts Center™ and CAPS™ Xpert. Each of these products relied on the Terabase®/SRF search serve to quickly and efficiently perfom complex searches, compile results and deliver the data back to the customer.