AIIM zeroes in on content control

Content management wares took center stage at the AIIM 2003 Conference in New York, as vendors unveiled offerings designed to pull together content, portal, and process management capabilities.

To that end, Vignette at the show took the wraps off an integrated content management and portal package dubbed the Vignette Application Suites. Incorporating portal technology from its acquisition of Epicentric last year, the Application Suites attempt to provide out-of-the-box content, integration, business process, and collaboration services in a single management platform.

Most of Vignette's customers are already using CM to build and deploy portals, according to the Austin, Texas-based company. The ability to put everything in one box that is necessary to build, manage, and deploy content applications can yield the benefits of lower costs and simplified integration, Vignette officials said.

The Application Suites are available in three package options designed to meet the needs of the workgroup, the broader business, and the larger enterprise. Licensing costs start at $125,000.

Also on hand at the show, Ektron previewed the forthcoming release of its Ektron CMS300 Version 2.5. The updated XML-based Web CM system features support for XSLT, XML validation through DTDs and Schemas, multi-step workflow, and an open API for extending the product to other applications. The system is designed to allow non-technical business users to create XML content in a word processor or forms-like environment. Other features in Version 2.5 include automatic image upload from Microsoft Word, commenting features for enhanced collaboration, and search and replace in WYSIGYG and HTLM mode, according to company officials in Amherst, N.H.

Atomz, meanwhile, launched Atomz Alert, a Web-based service designed to let companies deliver e-mail content alerts to their Web site visitors.

With Atomz Alert, site visitors register to be notified when new site content about a specific topic is available. Subscribers can choose variables such as HTML or text versions of the content, how often they want to receive alerts, and whether they prefer to receive a link to the content or the entire Web page. The system lets site administrators send as many as hundreds of thousands of customized content alerts each day.

Also gearing up CM efforts, FatWire Software announced integration with Sun Microsystems' Sun ONE (Open Net Environment) Portal Server 6. Under the deal, a free five-user license of FatWire's Spark pCM (portal content management) is available for Sun's Portal customers. Spark pCM offers Sun portal customers access to pre-built portlets, workflow features, rollback capabilities, search, and metadata tagging, according to FatWire officials in New York.

Interwoven and iManage at the show announced the general availability of their jointly developed CDM (Collaborative Document Management) product, which was first unveiled in February. CDM combines collaborative content management technology from iManage with Interwoven's enterprise content management software in an effort to address the overall collaborative document life cycle in enterprises, according to Interwoven officials in Sunnyvale, Calif. The system supports document and content sharing among teams, structured document development and approval, and secure document publishing, and dissemination.