Divine Takes On Content Management

Divine released upgrades of two content management applications it bought last year – Open Market's Content Server and Eprise's Participant Server, which are targeted at different segments of the market.

Divine Inc., the venture capital company turned consolidator of struggling e-business software companies, on Monday released its first content management software since acquiring Eprise Corp. and Open Market Inc. last year. Divines Content Server 4.0 is an upgrade of the former Open Market product of the same name and the companys Participant Server is an upgrade of the former Eprise product of the same name. The two products are targeted at decidedly different segments of the market, with Content Server more of an enterprise content management product for larger companies, and Participant Server targeted to smaller installations with more specific needs such as building intranets and partner extranets, company officials said.
Divine officials touted ease-of-use improvements in both products. Participant Server adds integration with Macromedia Inc.s Dreamweaver Web site development tool, as well as enhanced integration with Microsoft Corp.s Word application. It also supports the building of reusable VBScript and Java components that integrate with other applications, and supports online discussion groups, officials said. For Henrik Sandell, chief technology officer of Insurance.com, and currently and a user of version 3.5 of Participant Server, the Dreamweaver integration was the most compelling part of the new release. "Were currently using [Macromedias] HomeSite, so if they make the integration with Dreamweaver seamless, we might make the switch over to Dreamweaver to take advantage of that," said Sandell, in Newton, Mass. Otherwise, Sandell said, version 4 was a point release and not nearly as major as Eprises version 3 release of the product. Content Server 4.0 also adds improvements to the interface, workflow engine, search engine and publishing capabilities. Sandell said Insurance.com actually chose Eprise Participant Server over Open Market Content Server when they were competing products because it just needed a content authoring system, not a content delivery system. He said little has changed since the acquisition by Chicago-based Divine, though he did say the presentation and packaging of the product has improved since the acquisition. "We havent really worried about it," said Sandell. "We knew Eprise was in a tough situation and that an acquisition was a definite possibility. But were still dealing with the same people we always dealt with. "None of the other players out there were really good candidates to absorb Eprise. But Divine seems to have the expertise. I think theyre in good hands."