Bluenog Launches Integrated Collaboration Environment

Bluenog is a company founded by some ex-BEAers -- guess they didn't want to go to Oracle -- who have developed a new suite that tightly integrates Enterprise Content Management, Portal and Business Intelligence capabilities. Called Bluenog ICE, they claim it's the first of its kind. We aren't so sure its the first, but it certainly caught our attention.Bluenog refers to the product as an "Integrated Collaborative Environment" leveraging Web 2.0. It's built on open source technologies and has a foundational framework for administration and security.

Bluenog ICE Architecture

It's composed of three primary building modules:* Enterprise CMS: Create, manage and publish content for web, print and other applications.* Portal: A RIA development environment that is interactive and customizable, the portal provides access to content, reporting and enterprise applications.* Business Intelligence: A tool the aid in the design and distribution of secure reports based on enterprise dataAll modules are available as standalone products as well as part of the integrated solution.

Bluenog Enterprise Content Management

The Enterprise CMS for Bluenog ICE appears to be a standard CMS with standard features:* Update and reuse content across multiple channels * Contains an "intuitive" WYSIWYG editor* Search* Create and manage content in multiple presentation contexts* Localization* Versioning* Workflow and delegation rules* Create presentations inside the RichPortal

Bluenog RichPortal

What's probably the most unique about the RichPortal is the diverse development frameworks you can use to develop portals with:* Develop RIAs * Use Web 2.0 technologies* Use JSPs, JSF, Struts, Wicket, PHP, Phython* Create multiple web apps from a single framework* Centralized control over apps and permissions* Personalization* Third-party application integration* Internationalization (i18n)

Bluenog Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence is all about gathering the information and reporting on it, so again, the features here are very standard:* Design, chart, view and distribute reports* Interactive reports with drill down capabilities* Automated scheduling and distribution of reports* Version control* Develop reports from multiple data sources* Export to standard formats: PDF, Word, Excel and HTML

Open Source Technologies Drive the ICE Platform

As it is based on open source technologies, Bluenog ICE runs on most of the popular application servers and databases including: JBoss, Tomcat, WebLogic, DB2, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL and SQL Server.Bluenog ICE contains its own IDE for development, but you can also utilize well-known development frameworks such as J2EE, PHP, PERL and others.Of course, even though their pitch is a full integrated environment that doesn't require you to add on additional products, ICE does provide the ability to integrate other CMS, portal and BI offerings as well as integrate with enterprise applications such as Oracle Financials, SAP and Banner.

Pricing for Bluenog ICE

You can't get absolute $$ pricing without contacting the company, but pricing is based primarily on an annual subscription basis and is based on the number of servers used. Also available is user based pricing for the BI module.An active subscription includes 9-5 customer support and product updates/upgrades. In addition an active subscription entitled you to indemnification and access to supported version(s) of Bluenog source code, under the terms of the Bluenog Software License Agreement.

Just Another Integrated ECM/Portal Suite?

On the surface the Bluenog ICE Suite looks good and seems to be based on what every other Enterprise CMS, Portal and BI solution is also based on. The details are in the download, which is available now on their website. It is odd to hear a company selling a fully integrated solution, when so many appear to be focusing on specializing in one particular product. It almost seemed like Vignette was one of the last few selling a fully integrated suite. Of course you can still purchase the three components separately, so the company is covering all the bases.In terms of competition, considering their open source model, Alfresco and Acquia's new Carbon are likely stronge competitors who have the market already in hand. Not that it has to be an open source solution to compete. It will be interesting to see if Bluenog will make it in this already over flowing market. Perhaps the deep ties to Oracle via BEA will help them.