Interwoven bolstered its position as an enterprise content management software vendor this week through a partnership with Venetica which makes software that enables enterprise applications to share content.
Interwoven integrated Venetica's VeniceBridge software into its TeamSite suite and is marketing it as Content Provider for TeamSite, a module that will cost customers from $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the terms of their license.
"This is something that is going to allow [integration partners] to take TeamSite to a new level in some of their accounts," said Chris Cummings, director of solutions marketing for Interwoven.
With the content integration tool, TeamSite users will be able to copy documents from various applications into the TeamSite repository, where it can be managed, enriched with metadata and used by other applications, Interwoven said.
"I can now create this system that allows my users to go and identify and migrate content as they see fit," Cummings said.
The content integration tool, however, also is a two-way street. It gives TeamSite users the ability to check out documents, modify them and check them back into the repository of the application that created them, Interwoven said.
Cummings said Interwoven recognizes that some companies have existing applications and business processes that they want to maintain, while having access to some of TeamSite's capabilities. "Ultimately, I have to take that content and put it back into that repository," he said.
"For Interwoven it's a good move," said Nani Narayanan, senior director content and commerce practice for Nexgenix, an applications integration firm in Irvine, Calif. "They don't have an integration layer in their product. They recently came up with a good metatagging engine and now using with metatagging engine they can repurpose content any way they want. And with this, they can integrate any content."
As the content management market shifts from a Web-centric focus to an enterprise content management focus, companies such as Interwoven are facing stiffer competition from document-management and workflow vendors such as Documentum that are enhancing their products with Web content management capabilities.
Interwoven's partnership with Venetica helps Interwoven address the broader enterprise content management market, said Marc Andrews, director of business development for Venetica, Charlotte, N.C., an eight-year-old integration firm that began marketing its content integration software a little over a year ago.
"We're really starting to see Web content management and document management and imaging management starting to meld into one consistent message--enterprise content management," he said.
Venetica has formed similar relationships with portal and CRM vendors, which have packaged its software with their solutions, but this is the first agreement with a content management vendor.
"This is one of the more important opportunities we've had because it really is an indicator of the importance of content integration to the content managers themselves," Andrews said.
