Vignette Corp. debuted the latest version of its enterprise content management suite Tuesday, a product the company hopes will reverse its sagging fortunes.
The Austin, Texas, company is splitting this release, Version 7, into three separate versions that will be based on an organizations size and needs. Previously, Vignettes software was split into two versions, Standard and Enterprise editions. Vignette officials hope this new packaging, which will lower the starting price for the software by about $75,000, will boost its license revenues, which have been falling now for more than a year.
The entry version of V7 is the Vignette Content Management Group Suite 7, designed for departments that need to manage content at a single Web site or portal. It features predefined workflows, content types and the Vignette Command Center. Additional capabilities such as multisite management, a graphical workflow modeler, content integration, personalization and content reporting can be purchased as add-on modules.
Vignette Content Management Business Suite 7 is the next level, targeted at organizations with multiple Web sites and portals that use information from throughout the enterprise. It adds support for graphical workflow creation and multisite management as well as a graphical integration workbench for managing content wherever it resides in the enterprise.
The top tier of V7 is the Vignette Content Management Enterprise Suite 7, which adds advanced reporting, adapters to integrate unstructured content into portals and Web applications, and a set of software development kits for extending and customizing the Vignette content management application.
The graphical workflow modeler and graphical integration workbench, designed to reduce the time and effort required to build and maintain Web sites and portals, are new in this release.
Other new features include the Vignette Virtual Content Repository for connecting all digital content sources in and outside the enterprise without requiring a central repository; the Vignette Business Process Modeler for graphically managing the workflow associated with content-driven business processes; and the Vignette Command Center, an interactive collaborative management console that enables business and technical users to manage their content and portal management objectives, company officials said.
Pricing for V7 starts at $125,000, compared with a starting price point of $200,000 for previous versions of the software.
Company officials hope the new packaging will make V7 more accessible to a larger part of the market. In the third quarter ended Sept. 30, Vignette had license revenues of just $11.4 million, down from $40.3 million in the third quarter of last year.
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