Stellent Extends Content Management Beyond Traditional Boundaries

The release of Stellent Content Management 6.0 includes three new applications, the most significant of which may be the Stellent Collaboration Server, analysts say.

The software enables business users to set up ad hoc workflow routines independent of a technical administrator and collaborate on content outside of more formal Web content workflow processes. A team working on an acquisition, for example, could use the system to manage acquisition-related contracts, spreadsheets, diagrams and other documents.

"I think that it is a fairly significant collaboration tool that right now does not exist with many Web content management solutions," said Kenneth Chin, a Gartner analyst. "Collaboration will become increasingly more important."

Mike Maziarka, a director at Cap Ventures, agreed that the collaboration server is, in the short term, the most significant feature of the new release and provides the most immediate return on investment.

"It extends their footprint within an organization, so it's pulling in a larger number of participants," he said.

Stellent is also enhancing the scalability of its content management suite with release of the Stellent Extrasite Server, an application that runs on a Java application server and can dynamically deliver content to various portal and Web servers. The application will enable companies with multiple Web sites to share content.

"The real [purpose is for on-demand delivery to very high-demand Web sites," said Michael Rudy, a Stellent vice president in charge of technology alliances.

Further down the road, Stellent's new Connection Server will become increasingly important to enterprises as they move to aggregate content from different systems and repositories, analysts said.

Stellent acquired the software with its acquisition of Kinecta earlier this month. Rudy said Stellent had begun integrating the company's aggregation and syndication software prior to the acquisition and that it would be available this quarter.

The software, currently used by news agencies such as Reuters to syndicate news feeds to subscribers, can also be used by enterprises to aggregate content from various repositories to Stellent Content Manager and then used push it to portals, Web sites and handheld devices.

"Right now aggregation isn't a key functionality," said Chin. "But down the road I think aggregation and syndication will be important features as the content that [companies put on the Web becomes more significant in both the volume and applications of that content."

The Stellent Collaboration Server is priced at $50,000 to $200,000 per server. The other two applications are licenses for $30,000 per CPU.