IBM Helps Business Partners Reap Benefits From Emerging $10 Billion Content Management Market - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, April 3, 2000

Responding to IBM's leadership and the increasing market demand for content management solutions, IBM Wednesday announced that more than 25 Business Partners are expanding resources and developing solutions around the recently announced Content Manager. These e-business initiatives are supported by IBM's PartnerWorld program.

IBM Content Manager is a first-of-its-kind solution that allows companies to collect, manage and distribute all forms of business information including graphics, audio and video and business documents. It provides unmatched scalability and flexibility with a single, consistent, open programming interface that enables Business Partners to easily extend its capabilities to develop feature-rich content management applications. The Content Manager is supported by IBM's PartnerWorld initiative, a marketing and enablement program designed to create new revenue and market opportunities for Business Partners.

According to the META Group, the content management market is expected to exceed $10 billion by 2004. With corporate data doubling every 6-8 months, and intranets deployed in more than 90% of major companies, it is becoming increasingly important for customers to leverage all forms of digital content.

"IBM is uniquely positioned to help Business Partners bring the most complete content management capabilities to the industry," said Armando Garcia, vice president of IBM Content Management Solutions. "The content management market offers tremendous opportunities for our partners to grow their business and increase profits. IBM is committed to providing the technical, sales and marketing support to ensure they are prepared to take full advantage of this significant market demand."

Worldwide Partnerships Confirm Value With Wednesday's announcement, IBM's extends its lead over the competition as the only software provider to offer a complete, integrated portfolio for database management, content management , business intelligence and enterprise information portals.

Among the partners currently supporting Content Manager include AdWare, Ancept, Aureus Solutions, Electronic Archive Solutions Limited, ICO Limited, ICONN, Computer Services Inc., Ikon Office Solutions, Image Architects, Input Software, Inso Corporation, Interwoven, Magirus, Pioneer-Standard, Notability, Provider Solutions, Savoir Technology Group, Silicon Plains Technologies, SYSCOM Inc. and VIP Limited.

AdWare Systems, Inc. AdWare, a Louisville, Kentucky-based application service provider, has been an IBM Business Partner since 1986 and focuses on providing end-to-end digital solutions to the marketing communications industry.

"IBM's Content Manager provides the most scaleable, comprehensive foundation available in the industry today," said Donald G. Fitzpatrick, President of AdWare. "We believe that Content Manager, coupled with AdVISUAL, our Web-based front end, is an unbeatable solution for global digital storage, retrieval and distribution of video, audio, print ads, supplier invoices and more. IBM has demonstrated great flexibility in working with us to deliver Content Manager as part of our hosted digital media service, AdVault, currently utilized by McCann-Erickson New York."

Image Architects Headquartered in New York City and with more than 50 production sites worldwide, Image Architects brings expertise in software development and third-party product integration to the banking, health care and insurance industries.

"Our customers have seen first-hand how Content Manager solutions provide immediate customer relationship management results," said Peter Nirenberg, President and CIO of Image Architects. "By uniting traditional data with physical paper files, Content Manager combines all required data into one-click customer support. For instance, Fleet Credit Card has turned a three-day process into 30 seconds. That's results."

VIP Ltd, headquartered in Gold River, California, is focused on delivering Web-enabled solutions, with an emphasis on distributed learning and business to business Internet enablement, to its Fortune 1000 worldwide customers base.

"The IBM Content Manager product offering is very exciting," stated Mike Cozakas, CEO of VIP Ltd. "It offers our customers the ability to manage structured and unstructured data. Coupled with IBM's Enterprise Information Portal, the product is capable of storing and managing many types of assets, such as documents, transaction items, video, audio, images and structured data . The Content Manager products are scalable, production-capable and they truly address enterprise wide requirements. IBM has really taken a quantum leap past the competition."

ICONN Computer Services, based in Plainville, Connecticut, was recently selected by Bell County, Texas, to implement their IBM Content Manager project. The solution will enable the county to benefit from content management across several county agencies and District Clerks Offices. The system will capture and manage over three million images per year.