Collaboration and Content Reuse Updates for FatWire

By David Roe | Published Jun 3, 2009

While the launch of FatWire’s Content Server v7.5 (news, site) in December was the first major upgrade of the Web CMS vendor's content management solution in 12 months, only six months later they have unveiled two new solutions that will greatly extend v7.5 abilities.

On the one hand it has released the latest version of their advanced collaboration platform in TeamUp 3.1, while on the other, it has unveiled an upgrade to their content sharing solution - Content Integration Platform 1.5 - for sharing content stored in disparate repositories.

Between them, FatWire says, the new solutions will cut the costs of sharing and reusing content, while at the same time making it easier to share that content across an enterprise-wide Web CMS.

Web Experience Optimization

So far, it's been a good year for FatWire. Only last month it was given a Yphise award being named as the best Web Experience Optimization (WEO) solution.

Ranking software solutions in over 170 different technical or functional assessment categories, Yphise gave FatWire Content Server high marks for:

Increasing the agility of businesses in setting up and managing websites
Optimizing Web content to support corporate objectives, increasing business activity on the web
Facilitating website deployment

And the two new solutions will improve on these yet again.

TeamUp 3.1

As an advanced collaborative platform, TeamUp 3.1 will enable teams spread across an enterprise however geographically diverse to share content across multiple projects.

Using social media tools like wikis, blogs and social tagging, it gives the marketing department a set of tools that will enable even non-technical users to produce rich content easily, efficiently and — most importantly — cheaply.

FatWire TeamUp 3.1

Encouraging creative input in a real-time environment from people who would normally be excluded from this process TeamUp 3.1 includes:

Full integration with FatWire Content Server: Access to content and assets stored remotely and the ability to move large content files from TeamUp into Content Server authoring space.
Application mashups: Wiki-based collaborative spaces enabling the use of third party of custom-built applications.
User defined dashboards: Personal profiles, workgroups, news feeds and gadgets.
Video Storyboarding: Automated and with enhanced rich media management.
Security: Easier definitions of user permissions through new administrator tools.
Version management: Including multilingual support.

Content Server 7.5

Organization-wide Asset Access

The Content Integration Platform (CIP) upgrade allows web managers access all content in disparate locations.

As a simple means for organizations to extract content form departmental silos and quickly offer it via an online channel, FatWire CIP offers connectors for EMC Documentum, Microsoft SharePoint, Windows and UNIX file systems.

While it has the ability to store metadata and thumbnails about content centrally, the original content owner still remains in charge of the file, with integrity of all versions guaranteed.

A key feature is the ability to build custom connectors to third-party or proprietary systems using a Java Connector SDK. Packaged connectors include:

EMC Documentum
Microsoft SharePoint
FatWire TeamUp
UNIX file system
Windows file system
Java connector SDK for easily building custom integrations

In addition it includes automatic changes to assets in Content Server, or content change notification to content managers when content is changed in the source repository.

Focusing On ROI

In an interview last March, FatWire CEO Yogesh Gupta said 2009 would be a year where “real” ROI would be key to their commercial strategy.

He said FatWire would no longer sell its products by utilizing fuzzy numbers about what a potential client would reap by adopting their software products. ROI would need to "real and tangible” if is to replicate last year’s 40% revenue growth.

These two new solutions, should help produce positive ROI by streamlining collaboration and enabling the re-purposing of content across multiple channels.