Interwoven Takes the Next Step in WCM
Michael Pastore
10/6/2004
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Interwoven's latest Web content management (WCM) offering recognizes that enterprises need to move beyond the basics of building a Web presence; now they need to integrate the Web into their business processes.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Interwoven has been around since 1995, and over the past few years has been building a suite of products that offer an enterprise content management strategy to customers that include General Motors, Ford, Motorola, and Yamaha. The underlying technology engine behind Interwoven's WCM offering is TeamSite, version 6.5 of which Interwoven unveiled this week.
If anything is clear about version 6.5, it's that Interwoven feels its customers are beyond the stage where they need to WCM simply to build, deploy, and manage changes to intranets, public Web sites, and extranets. Now it seems the company's customers may be drowning in a sea of sites and Web applications and they need help.
"This version focuses on improving business in terms of business processes," said Mike Svatek, senior product marketing manager, WCM products and solutions at Interwoven.
TeamSite 6.5, Svatek told Intranet Journal, is an opportunity for Interwoven to bring higher-order infrastructure to customers so they can achieve more with their WCM investment. The two main pieces of functionality new to TeamSite 6.5 are ReportCenter and Advanced Information Management Services.
TeamSite ReportCenter
ReportCenter focuses on the business justification of WCM projects. With companies deploying intranets and extranets to connect with employees and customers, the costs can add up quickly — new sites need to be built, security must be addressed, and access to applications and databases must be granted. The cost of the people involved in a project, and how a new project will change existing workflows, must be accounted for as well.
ReportCenter features site-specific reporting, which allows businesses to monitor the progress of new Web initiatives. Advanced Tracking Reports compare publishing behavior between existing and previous versions of Web properties, and also report on the behavior of specific types of content assets such as product pages, research documents, Web storefronts, white papers, or company logos.
ReportCenter includes a number of out-of-the-box reports, and all the information can be rolled up into graphs for presentations.
Advanced Information Management Services
The essence of TeamSite's Advanced Information Management Services is powerful search functionality that content authors will find extremely useful. Interwoven embedded search technology from Verity that will search by content category, 200 file types, or file characteristics.
In addition to keyword search, Advanced Information Management Services allows full-text, sub-document search. Search results can be saved, and the security features ensure that results are returned only to users with proper permissions.
Because TeamSite allows its users to manage multiple sites in a single environment, the pan-repository search tool will find content wherever it resides. The information found in a search can be used to create sub-portals, and aggregate information for compliance or legal initiatives.
In an intranet environment where documents have a tendency to get easily lost, a powerful search tool can help prevent the duplication of content. TeamSite 6.5 lets users submit an entire document to see if a duplicate exists or find similar documents.
Svatek said many intranets still suffer from their use as a "dumping ground for documents" and powerful search functionality can make the intranet a better platform for knowledge sharing. "Clearly the need to find things on the intranet is still big," he said. "When you get a good search result, it is actionable."
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