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Vol. 4, No. 2
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FileNet’s FileNet P8 product architecture is an integrated framework for enterprise content management designed to leverage content management, business process management and application connectivity. The release combines the capabilities of FileNet’s Panagon platform, with the Acenza application framework and the Brightspire eBusiness framework and business-process management offering. “Enterprise content management to us is really the ability to manage Web content, Web site design, digital assets and the process necessary to orderly manage unstructured content to make better business decisions,” says Michael Harris, senior vice president of products and strategy for FileNet. “As companies try to solve problems more quickly, they are looking for a more general-purpose platform so they have fewer vendors to choose from to solve problems.” In April 2002, FileNet acquired eGrail of Bethesda, Md., for its Web content management product, in a cash transaction valued at approximately $10 million. Founded in 1997, eGrail had built a system that was enterprise scalable and dynamic, serving customers in communications, insurance, government, medical and publishing fields. “Web content management is now a highly integrated part of our content-management platform,” Harris says. The FileNet P8 architecture operates in Java and Microsoft environments, with SQL Server and Oracle database support. Support for IBM’s DB2 is planned. The architecture is integrated with BEA Systems’ WebLogic and IBM’s WebSphere application servers, and with a number of Web portal products. Prices for the FileNet P8 architecture range from $125,000 to $420,000, depending on the chosen suite and its configuration. Each suite has a pilot price, department price and enterprise price, the company says. For more
information, go to: Project Office 4.0 from Pacific Edge Software improves the scalability, team collaboration and Web-based functionality of the enterprise portfolio management offering. Customers making the transition to the new release are reporting that the upgrade goes smoothly. The product aims to address all levels of decision makers in an organization, from portfolio managers and executives, to project managers, resource managers and project team members. The product’s portfolio management access features provide metrics on resources, schedules, risks and value to the business; project managers help to create, plan and manage project assignments and tasks; resource managers help to allocate central resource pools based on availability and skills; and project team features support collaboration with other team members on logs, documents, links, time, status reports and project plans. “Our customers are asking us for a portfolio management solution that includes project information but also captures metrics about long-term investments in applications and business systems,” says Mike Metcalf, vice president of marketing for Pacific Edge. “The projects are a means of creating or enhancing the value of the assets or ultimately, of retiring them. Customers want a richer set of metrics to capture the relative value of IT investments.” Pricing for Project Office is based on a server model, tiered by the number of users and often starting with 50. Many engagements range from $50,000 to $100,000 in software license and service fees, based on the number of modules employed. The company's larger enterprise engagements are approaching $1 million in software and services, with services usually ranging from 30% to 40% of the cost. For more
information, go to: There’s a new kid on the block offering critical resource monitoring. MasterCell from IT Masters not only provides its own agent technology, but also manages that of other vendors, offering global, integrated monitoring of networks, systems, and applications. It delivers these event management services via a highly scalable cellular architecture, with a view to lowering operational costs, and providing more effective automation of service availability across the infrastructure. Before MasterCell, customers couldn’t get intelligence close enough to where the events were processed, notes Jim Duster, IT Masters’ COO in North America. Now they have this intelligence at the business site. Duster attributes the localized intelligence to MasterCell’s “cellular event processing architecture,” whereby “little pieces of code [are] close to where the business is, and connected.” You can’t do this from a central place, says Duster, contrasting the product with other service-management software such as that from BMC, Computer Associates and Tivoli. The MasterCell product components consist of the console, event processors, configuration server, knowledgebase editor, and event adapters. The console delivers the right information to the right people. MasterCell event processors model the availability of business and IT services, dynamically transforming raw event data from IT components into real-time knowledge about business services. The service management capabilities correlate raw events from IT components, and model the status of IT resources, SLAs, and business services, providing real-time adaptive service management. The base pack for MasterCell costs $50,000 for the first environment — consisting of one geography and one business application. Because the product is cellular, companies can "hook [up] as they go." For example, a bank could first hook up its U.S. locations, and later link its European sites. For more
information, go to: CodeWarrior Wireless Studio 7, PDA Edition from Metrowerks adds support for building Personal Java applications for a variety of handheld devices, including the Sharp Zaurus, Pocket PC handhelds such as the iPAQ family from Hewlett-Packard, and the Sony Ericsson P800 Symbian phone. CodeWarrior Wireless Studio 7, PDA Edition provides developers with a debugging-enabled version of the Insignia PersonalJava Virtual Machine, along with the Metrowerks' proprietary launch/debug agent and debugger. The tool set is designed to let customers test and debug applications directly on the device, helping to produce more stable applications, reduce time to market and lower support costs for development organizations. “We see the PDA market as a mature market,” says Gerardo Dada, senior product marketing manager for wireless technologies with Metrowerks. “Many IT departments are already using them but debating on which device to continue with. PersonalJava on a PDA we see as a good option for developing platform-agnostic applications.” The tool set includes the Sun’s PersonalJava Emulation Environment, advanced code completion, and a visual rapid application development tool that can be used to drag and drop Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) components to automatically generate code. The product is available for a retail price of $599. For more
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