Somers, N.Y.—IBM on Tuesday announced upgrades to its Content Manager and Records Manager products while extending the DB2 brand across those products and its entire information management software portfolio.
The new version of Content Manager, now officially known as DB2 Content Manager 8.2, includes support for LAN caching and replication, which is designed to make it easier for customers to make content continuously available, IBM officials said in a media event here. The new support represents an enhancement over previous support for object server replication, the officials added.
In addition, Version 8.2 will support out-of-the-box integration with CRM (customer relationship management) software from Siebel Systems Inc. and PeopleSoft Inc. This will allow users of those applications to access customer information stored in Content Manager without requiring any custom integration work. IBM expects to support out-of-the-box integration with other CRM packages in the future, officials said, including SAP AGs MySAP CRM.
DB2 Content Manager 8.2 will also support improved integration with WebSphere Portal for content publishing so that WebSphere Portal users can more easily access information from Content Manager. This version will also support more extensive integration with WebSphere Application Server.
IBM also announced here Version 2.1 of DB2 Records Manager. Chief among the new features is an improved records administration client with support for fly-out menus, fewer keystrokes required to access information, common function clustering and a more intuitive menu organization, IBM officials said. Version 2.1 will also support physical records management with a new records operation console and streamlined work processes.
Both products are priced at $24,000 per server.
Also on Tuesday, IBM announced a new branding initiative that will extend the DB2 brand to information management software products built on the database, including Content Manager and Records Manager as well as Information Integrator.
“Weve taken DB2 from being a relational database to being an information infrastructure,” said Janet Perna, general manager for data management solutions at IBM. “Weve extended it from managing transactions to managing content and integrating content into all other forms of information.
“Under the hood of all of these offerings is DB2, so were building off of our core competency,” Perna added.
IBM is also reorganizing its sales force based on the new branding so that DB2s direct sales force will sell Content Manager. This will increase the size of Content Managers sales force from 200 to 2,000, Perna said.
DB2 Content Manager now has 9,500 customers and enjoyed 26 percent revenue growth from 2001 to 2002. The company is increasing research and development spending on Content Manager by 25 percent over last year. Content Manager is supported by more than 300 business partners.
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