Event
Summary
Rational Software (NASDAQ: RATL) announced Rational
Suite ContentStudio to address the needs of e-businesses
challenged with managing content and code. ContentStudio includes content
management technology from Vignette Corp. (NASDAQ: VIGN).
ContentStudio
is designed for e-business development teams that include content contributors
who write, design, edit or approve the information that will be on the
site, and software developers who design, build, and test the code that
powers the e-business system. ContentStudio manages content, code and
other software artifacts in a common, software configuration management
foundation. The company claims that the user of ContentStudio will unify
e-business teams so they can build and deploy sophisticated e-business
sites faster without any loss of quality.
"Every
e-business site contains a combination of code and content, and if that
code and content are not managed in unison the site will fail," said Eric
Schurr, senior vice president of Marketing and Suite Products for Rational.
"By combining Rational's market-leading e-development tools and best practices
with Vignette's market-leading content management technology, we're providing
customers with a complete set of integrated products for developing the
highest quality e-business sites."
Market
Impact
Rational
is responding a real need in the world of e-business for coordinated control
of both the code and the content of large complex web sites. E-businesses
today require the same level of change control management for both the
web site code and content that IT managers have employed in testing and
implementing application software development.
IT
managers use software configuration management systems to keep software
development teams coordinated. These systems make it practical for a single
release to incorporate the results of the simultaneous processes of fixing
bugs and adding features by different development groups. With web sites,
the product that must be controlled contains both code and site content.
Content
gets created and modified according to a procedure that is quite different
from the way that software is built. Thus while software configuration
management tools can be used with content they don't typically reflect
the processes that content goes through. Rational's attempt to address
this should be welcomed by the market, and lead to some modest competition.
However, any attempt to manage things leads to changes in the way that
people work. It remains to be seen whether ContentStudio, once purchased,
becomes part of a website's arsenal, or just another piece of software
on the shelves.
User
Recommendations
If you are developing or have a web site that is key to your business
survival, you should be investigating what tools are available to support
your web site infrastructure. Managing both the code and content of that
site requires a disciplined process, even if the content is highly creative
and involves innovative elements. Tools are being adapted and developed
to help you.
Keep
in mind that just as your business is adapting to being an e-business,
the vendors who support you are also exploring and learning how to support
e-business infrastructures. Take the time to spell out what you need the
tools to do for you before you begin evaluating the tools on the market.
Do not simply jump for a tool that was designed for software, even if
it's an old favorite. Make sure that the people who are part of the writing
process have a chance to try the products, and talk to people who use
them. Ultimately, it's your job to encourage them to reject products that
they don't feel comfortable about.