Content Management Matters ™

Concluding a partnership that has lasted over 15 years, XyEnterprise, provider of XML-based content management systems has announced that it has brought XSystems into the fold permanently through acquisition. The acquisition will result in the creation of a new business unit focusing on editorial tools development, standards expertise and consulting services and a new set of tools for the Contenta product suite.

JustSystems is continuing its growth strategy to expand across North America and Europe by designing new partnership levels designed to recruit more value-add partners to sell and integrate their software into organizations.

Their focus is to recruit experienced vendors and system integrators in the areas of structured authoring and dynamic publishing. JustSystems, as you know, is a provider of document management solutions that implement DITA. So it only makes sense they would be looking for new partnerships with companies experienced in this area.

They have defined three new partner participation levels that will enable potential partners to grow their relationship with JustSystems slowly. These include:

• Associate - initial commitment and basic support
• Authorized - More formalized and predictable sales of JustSystems products
• Premier - Designed for system integrators who want to build a solution offering around their technology

The higher up you go in the partnership levels, the more marketing, sales and technical support you get. In addition JustSystems will product discounts and sales opportunities to higher level partnerships.

If think you have what it takes to become a value-add partner for JustSystems, go to their site and read more details.

XyEnterprise, a provider of XML content management that support the OASIS DITA specification has announced the latest version of their product: Contenta for DITA v1.5.

Enhancements to this product come on the tail of the latest release of ContentaView 3.5, their suite for publishing and delivering interactive technical manuals and publications.

Gartner is getting a little more hip naming their reports and JustSystems is one content management vendor benefiting from it. After all, being named a "cool vendor" can't hurt a company can it?

Looking for a content management system that enables to you author and publish DITA-based technical documentation? Take a gander over this way. Canadian vendor, IXIASOFT, have just unwrapped the latest release of their XML-based solution -- DITA CMS Framework 2.1.

Compatibility with DITA 1.1 is one of several interesting improvements bundled-up in this latest push.

Here's another must attend event if you live on the west coast -- or just feel like visiting Vancouver, British Columbia -- home of XFiles series.

For content management professionals who need to look more strategically at their content, the Content Convergence and Integration 2008 conference could be the trick.

The 3 day event March 12-14, 2008 is brought to you by the Strategy A Consulting Group.

Last week we brought you news of a webinar on DITA in the Enterprise to be chaired today by IBM and JustSystems, in which the companies' co-authored DITA Maturity Model is to be presented.

Now we can bring you details on just what the Maturity Model is all about. We're not saying you should slack off and not bother with the Webinar. We're just giving you the option, is all.

Flummoxed by the DITA revolution sweeping Enterprise CMS? Wondering what it's all about, or toying with the idea of adopting a DITA/XML architecture for your enterprise content?

If so then tune into a webinar hosted by IBM and JustSystems on February 5th, which will cover the main implementation issues involved in XML adoption, and sketch out a best-practice framework for implementing DITA in the enterprise.

SiberLogic has just released SiberSafe On-Demand - a SaaS subscription-based CMS platform for managing XML data.

SiberSafe is a content management system aimed at technical communications departments and technical documentation teams. Making the technology 'On Demand' now allows such users to set up a SiberSafe system rapidly and with lower implementation costs.

In.vision and Trisoft have announced an integration partnership between Xpress Author and Infoshare. The result will provide a sturdy XML-based content management platform for technical writing across a range of industry sectors.

Refresh Software has just released an updated version of its proprietary component content management offering.

Woven together by DITA, XML and web publishing experts, SR2 7.1 utilizes an SOA-based J2EE content repository. It installs directly into the IT back-end and sports a simple interface for front-end users.

SR2 also:

• Automates the development of technical documentation
• Makes it easy to author content on a hosted interface, or via Microsoft Word
• Enables XML content publishing across the Web, or on intranets, internet, RSS and portals
• Deploys DITA-based content architecture for topic-related authoring and content repurposing
• Supports any programming language using Web services or SQL, including .NET and Java

The updated offering also supports data migration, hot deploy external triggers, back-end search, and -- for the aesthetes -- customized WYSIWYG buttons.

JustSystems is busy this month. Just days after its webinar on DITA and single-source XML publishing, the company will be appearing at LavaCon '07.

LavaCon '07 is the fifth annual conference on advanced technical communication and product management. JustSystems will be hosting a workshop to help participants prep for new approaches to old schematics, particularly with regard to XML and DITA.

At the workshop, you'll find out how to gauge your financial returns on XML and DITA approaches. You'll also learn how to migrate your content to a topic-based authoring and management system.

The conference will be held on October 27-30 in New Orleans at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel. If you plan on sticking around the full three days, you might want to catch JustSystems' partner seminars, co-hosted by IBM and Sterling Commerce. They're called "Calculating the Fiscal Return of Using XML and DITA," "Migrating to XML Case Study: Sterling Commerce," and "The Tao of DITA."

If that last is anything like The Tao of Pooh, you'll have to let us in on it.

Learn more about the conference.

JustSystems is hosting a complimentary webinar called "Fast-track Single Sourcing: The Road to DITA Success," part of its XML Advisor Webinar series.

The event takes place on Thursday, 25 October at 1 PM Eastern. Attendees will learn how to build a business case for the Darwin Information Type Architecture (DITA), currently the standard for XML-based and single-source (a.k.a. component) content management.

You'll also learn how to define topic templates, conditional text and metadata; considerations for specialization and training end users; and how to customize DITA output or create a tool checklist.

Lots of handy-dandy stuff. Register here.

The DITA standard is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information.

Imagine a tag-based code, not dissimilar to HTML, which archives documents by topic and subtopic, and is designed for documentation which will be used for multiple purposes: on-line technical manuals, Help modules, regular website content, local search facilities, and innumerable automated tasks.

With the release of ContentaView 3.3, XyEnterprise makes it possible to support any structured data, including DITA and S1000D, in a single package.