Apr 12, 2002
FatWire Unveils Slimmed-Down Content Management for Portals

Dynamic content management company FatWire Corp has launched a departmental-level content management product for portals - Spark pCM (portal content management) for BEA Systems Inc's WebLogic Portal Server.

Naturally, product functionality does not equal competitors such as Vignette, Broadvision and InterWoven but neither does the price. The Mineola, New York-based company is charging $25,000 for the product, compared to a minimum of $250,000 charged by rivals.

pCM is a cut-down offering providing basic content management functions such as workflow, a simple search engine, user and group management and a "to do" list. The applications appear as an embedded interface in the WebLogic portal.

The product is an entry-level offering that lacks the more sophisticated tools available in FatWire's enterprise level content management suite, UpdateEngine. However, the company is hoping that it will provide an opportunity to experiment with content management features within a departmental-level portal that holds the prospect of an upgrade to UpdateEngine when an organization decides to roll out the application across its business.

Releasing cut-down software is nothing new in the software market. The strategy can prove valuable in broadening a vendor's market reach into SMEs. However, it can also fail. Often cut-down versions are still too complex and expensive for small company's needs as PeopleSoft, Siebel and SAP's forays into the mid-market attest.

Publication: ComputerWire