IBM Content Manager Upgrade Focuses On Usability EnhancementsIBM Content Manager Upgrade Focuses On Usability Enhancements

IBM is expanding the capabilities of its content-management software so that key corporate records can be more easily classified, stored, and retrieved for use in future business processes.

IBM has added ease-of-use features to Content Manager 8.3 due March 25 to make it useful across a broader set of employees, says Brett MacIntyre, VP of content management.

Most content-management systems require an employee to define what type of record he or she is working with and then send it to the system's repository, MacIntyre says. IBM's DB2 Content Manager 8.3 has been integrated with DB2 Records Manager, which can recognize the type of document that needs to be saved by its format, and presents the user with a simple "save" button that sends the record to its proper storage bin.

The combination makes record management "extremely easy to use," and content in many different forms "easy to consume across the corporation" for a broader set of users, MacIntyre says. Content Manager lets workflow or document administrators declare, "Here's how I want credit-card applications to be treated," establishing policies for particular kinds of records, McIntyre says. Employees dealing with credit-card applications or other records are able to "save" them for a specified length of time, such as three years, and have them readily available for reference during that period.

The integration of records management with content management allows users to search for and access documents, even if they aren't located in the system's own repository, MacIntyre says. Underneath the covers, Content Manager 8.3 includes a set of IBM middleware that allows content management to be built into the workflow systems of different corporate business processes. In addition to the DB2 Universal Database System, it includes the WebSphere MQ messaging system, WebSphere Application Server, and Tivoli Storage Manager.

Content Manager now works with other applications in the IT environment and can access sets of documents as a Web service. It has incorporated the results of Project Cinnamon to speed the processing of XML documents and indexing their contents. (Project Cinnamon is IBM's development of automated mapping among XML Schema, so a purchase order can be stored by a company, regardless of what XML format it arrives in. The project also sought to speed the processing of XML documents. )

DB2 CommonStore 8.3, a related component, provides management capabilities for unstructured email, attachments, and messaging-system content. It provides E-mail features, so messages can be retrieved based on topic, and record management capabilities so that E-mail vital to the company is properly classified and stored, MacIntyre says.

IBM is switching to an annual per-user pricing system for DB2 Content Manager with version 8.3 from an up-front server license. The $695 per-user, per-year pricing will lower the entry-level cost of implementing a Content Manager system, MacIntyre says. Adding DB2 CommonStore 8.3 is an additional $50 per user per year for use with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino messaging servers. CommonStore for SAP is priced at $345.