Intranet Journal
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Stellent Puts Its Content Management Under One Roof

10/1/03

Stellent has offered all the tools enterprises need for content management and collaboration for some time now. But now in version 7.0 everything is on one server, and a new pricing structure indicates it's enterprises the company is going after.

Stellent's product comes in five modules so customers only buy what they need. The modules are: Web content management; document management; records management; collaboration; and digital asset management. "Most people agree that these elements are required in content management," Dan Ryan, Stellent's executive VP of marketing and business development, told Intranet Journal.

What is new in Stellent's Content Management 7.0 is a unified user experience, which Ryan said benefits both end users, who want a single look and feel regardless of which modules they are using, and IT staff who want easier integration with other technologies. There's a new GUI, which can be menu-driven or feature a folder-frame layout, as well as the old Stellent GUI for those who liked it that way. The skins can be customized by customers to reflect a companies colors and logos. The user interface is available via browser, WebDAV and portlet.

Stellent Content Management 7.0 gives users a thumbnail view of content that matches a search.

Stellent just improved its Web content management over the summer in version 6.5, when it introduced SiteStudio. SiteStudio supports the building multiple Web sites while maintaining consistent branding, security and infrastructure.

The rest of the modules each have at least one major change in version 7.0. Document management now features an option for a high-volume repository to store imaging and digital asset content. According to Ryan, there is a tradeoff between consumption and volume, meaning that the high-volume repository will be a bit slower. Also new in the document management module is workflow support for business processes, which allows users to route forms, scanned documents and images.

The records management module is now fully integrated with Stellent, whereas previous versions integrated with a third-party application. It complies with the DoD 5015.2 standard and by early next year Stellent plans to support the U.K.'s Public Records Office (PRO) standard. Users can designate documents as records or they can infer their designation in the meta data.

Stellent's built-in, 5015-compliant records management solution, which now offers a high-volume repository.

The collaboration module has integrated technology that Stellent acquired last year. Users can create workspaces and teamspaces for internal and external participants, they can e-mail invitations to collaborate that contain links, and they can search among projects. There is no real-time chat or instant messaging feature, but according to Todd price, Stellent's VP of product marketing, Stellent relies on hooks to meeting applications WebEx and integration with Microsoft Outlook to further collaboration.

"Our fundamental belief is that in real-time collaboration you have the phone or meetings," Price said. "We don't want to replace that existing corporate infrastructure."

In the digital asset management module, Stellent added image conversion. Going forward, however, it will be integrating technology from Ancept, which Stellent acquired in August. Before the acquisition, Ancept made the Ancept Media Server, a high-value digital media appliance.

Some of the subtle changes to the core of version 7.0 make enterprise administration easier. A shift toward the enterprise is also seen in the new pricing structure Stellent unveiled. A Stellent Content Management Server now sells for $50,000, with each module costing either $25,000 or $50,000.

"The end result [of the pricing] really hasn't changed," Ryan said. "There's more applicability to enterprise customers." The simplification also benefits Stellent's salesforce.

It may be time for changes that make Stellent more appealing to the enterprise. Typically, the company's entry point has been line-of-business applications. Stellent has then used success there to move into the entire enterprise.

"We used to be oriented toward getting a document published, either to a repository or on the Web," Ryan said. "Now, we support business processes."

The Web site designer environment for Stellent Site Studio, which permits users to make multiple sites.