SAP Using Xythos to Drive Portals from Desktop

By Scott Frangos Oct 20, 2006

In a move to simplify enterprise content publishing and improve workforce collaboration, Xythos Software has announced that SAP has licensed the Xythos Drive (now called the Portal Drive), to enhance integration between the Windows desktop and the SAP NetWeaver Portal. In a phrase, it's content management from the desktop.

With Portal Drive, SAP NetWeaver Portal content (more precisely all content accessible by the Knowledge Management capabilities of SAP NetWeaver) appears as standard Windows files and folders which are securely accessible over the web. Users can even manage SAP NetWeaver Portal content when they're not online using the Portal Drive's offline synchronization features.

Now, “users can work within the applications they know best, while also easily contributing to and expanding the use of the SAP NetWeaver Portal,” observes SAP customer, Stefan Schmidt, a Senior for Team Enterprise Portals at Freudenberg IT-Consulting KG.

The move shows recognition on the part of SAP and Xythos for needs in the market. Research firm, Gartner, Inc, has recently reported that enterprises want to simplify their overly complex technical infrastructures — they want their content management, collaboration and portal environments integrated to eliminate redundancy and to better support their workplace environments.

Employees want control of CMS infrastructure from their desktops? Hopefully it's not a “careful what you wish for” scenario, where the end result is too many cooks in the kitchen. But other companies, like Oracle, have recognized the same needs and are addressing them with similar solutions (See our Oracle Drive coverage).

Xythos Software is a leading developer of basic content services software for enterprise organizations. Xythos' open standards-based document and content management applications and its WebFile Server development platform help customers safely capture, manage, store and share content throughout its life cycle.