Untangling Web Content Management
Web sites are an integral part of an organization's operations. No longer relegated to the role of electronic billboards, sites are used to actively promote companies and products, deliver services and information, manage transactions, and facilitate communications. Changes must occur quickly - daily, hourly, or even minute-by-minute. This need for rapid change, the "ripple effect" changes can have throughout a site, and the sheer size of today's dynamic business sites make it impossible for all revisions to flow through one or two people. Complexity and speed have created the demand for automated ways to effectively manage Web content.
But as with most technologies, not all Web content management solutions are created equal. The design philosophy behind the solution, as well as the architecture employed, can directly impact the suitability of the product for your organization's sites. Selecting a Web content management solution that doesn't properly address your requirements can make it difficult to enhance the site's functionality, size, or scope. Overall, your organization's productivity and growth will be constrained when content changes can not keep pace with the business environment and everyone, from content providers and designers to IT professionals - must work harder to compensate for the site's technological shortcomings.
In contrast, the right Web content management solution can enable your organization to save time and money, improve communications, strengthen business relationships, and increase revenues. The right solution also can provide the scalability, flexibility, and enterprise system interoperability necessary to meet future site requirements; an important consideration when the future can arrive in a matter of months. It's an important decision, worthy of further investigation.
Full Article found on Intranet Journal
Content management moves ahead
XML, the Internet, and global collaboration are all changing the still-evolving industry
CONTENT MANAGEMENT'S roots may lie in document management, but its future will likely lie on the Web and beyond as its evolution pushes the concept of what content is and how it can be used for e-business.
The Web gave content management and the life cycle of content itself a boost as companies began to realize that although running business on the Web has many benefits, it also requires making content useful and relevant online. Companies are finding a need to collaborate around content, and that often means bringing together users and content from different parts of the globe.
"As you get much richer in your applications and provide more content, more inventory, and a broader set of services to a broader set of people you can reach through the Web, the whole problem of managing that content becomes much greater because you have much more of it and you need to describe it much more effectively," explains Robert Perry, a senior analyst at The Yankee Group in Boston. "It goes beyond just how you connect workers into the process of creating and approving documents; it's really how do you stage content in a way that Web users and people you're trying to do business [with] can interact with it in a way they expect."
Full Article found on InfoWorld.com
When Does Using a Hosted Application Make Sense?
What Is an ASP?
An Application Service Provider is an independent, third-party provider of software-based services that are delivered to customers across a wide-area network, typically the Internet. Unlike a traditional client/server software vendor, an ASP typically installs and hosts applications exclusively within its own data center.
Customers lease the ability to use the application over a network, rather than pay a large up-front fee to own the software and install it on their internal networks. The lease fees are typically structured as a monthly subscription to the ASP.
The ASP model has gained increasing attention lately for a variety of reasons:
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Focus on Core Competency: By outsourcing the entire hardware, software and administration of enterprise applications, scarce resources can focus on sustaining and growing core business processes.
- Reduced Cost: Most of the costs associated with traditional software implementations are not incurred under the ASP model: License fees, server hardware, client hardware and system administration personnel are no longer separate budget line items when employing the ASP model.
- Reduced Risk: Security, reliability and scalability concerns are all shouldered by the ASP, who is able to spread costs across multiple customers, allowing them to provide systems which are far more secure, reliable and scalable than any single firm could.
Article found on ebiz.net
Macromedia Announces ColdFusion Server 5
New Release Meets the Needs of Web Developers with Enhanced Productivity and Performance
San Francisco, California -- April 30, 2001 -- Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR) today announced ColdFusion Server 5, the latest version of the industry-leading Web application server. Macromedia® ColdFusion® 5, added to the Macromedia product family after its recent merger with Allaire, empowers Web developers with a highly productive solution for building and delivering the next generation of Web applications. This major new release reinforces Macromedia's commitment to the ColdFusion community and furthers the company's strategy to give Web professionals an approachable, cost-effective way to efficiently develop dynamic content and applications.
"Macromedia is dedicated to providing Web professionals with the best possible solutions for creating dynamic, interactive user experiences on the Web," said Kevin Lynch, president of Macromedia products. "ColdFusion 5 delivers on this with powerful new features that will meet the needs of experienced ColdFusion developers, and empower Web professionals to more easily move from static to dynamic Web sites."
Article found on Allaire.com