EMC unveils content management for novices

Continuing its expansion into content management, EMC announced Tuesday a web content management application geared toward non-technical users.

The application, EMC Documentum Page Building, is a new member of a family of products from Documentum, which EMC acquired in late 2003.

According to Lubor Ptacek, director of content management marketing for EMC, Page Builder provides a simple user interface for managing site structure, pages and templates that delegate site management authority to groups within an enterprise while adhering to centralized policies and rules.

Olivier Naimi, director of web strategies for San Jose-based BEA Systems, said his organization has a very large, very broad user community with different levels of technical skills, and that some users are "frightened and less at ease" with applications such as Documentum Web Publisher. "This tool will definitely fit in very well." While there are other tools for the front end, such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver, they are lacking hooks into the content management system, he said.

Page Builder is based on XML, not just for the content but for the navigation elements themselves, which makes it easier to programmatically manipulate and reuse them, Ptacek said.

Other new features include easier site view and editing capabilities and support for Macromedia Dreamweaver templates, the company said.

The application is also integrated with EMC's Documentum content management repository so users can take advantage of content there, the company said.

Melissa Webster, an analyst for IDC, characterized the product as a great example of how content management companies are responding to the need to serve a broader constituency in the enterprise. There is customer demand for tools that non-technical employees can use that have role-specific user interfaces into the content management system with just enough functionality for the needs of a particular user, she said.

IDC released a report recently naming EMC as the leading content management vendor, based on US$362 million in software revenues in 2005. This was a 14.8 percent growth over the previous year, whereas the overall market grew 9.6 percent, Webster said.

Pricing for Page Builder varies based on the number of users and number of assets, but the typical price to buy the Documentum repository and software as a package is US$250,000 to US$300,000, Ptacek said. EMC does not release prices of the individual applications. The software is scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter.

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