Microsoft Expands Content Management Server Offerings To Meet Increased Demand for Web Content Management

Editor’s note, Oct. 9, 2003 –
The press release has been updated since its initial publication.

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 8, 2003 — Tomorrow at the Microsoft®
Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft Corp. will announce plans to offer new versions of its industry-leading Web content management technology, Content Management Server (CMS) 2002, including a Standard Edition (SE) for medium-sized businesses and an enhanced CMS 2002 Enterprise Edition (EE) that provides compatibility with Windows Server (TM) 2003 and is localized into three new languages. In addition, Microsoft will be updating the content integration pack for enterprises looking to integrate CMS 2002 with the newly released Microsoft Office SharePoint (TM) Portal Server 2003. These new offerings will enable different-sized enterprises in various locations to more easily build and deploy content management solutions and integrate those solutions with their portal infrastructure.

“Content management is a business-critical application for enterprises, regardless of size or location. These enterprises continue to demand content management solutions that are easy to build and deploy and that integrate with existing portal infrastructures,” said David Kiker, general manager for e-business servers at Microsoft. “We heard this message from customers loud and clear, and today I am happy to say we are delivering world-class solutions in these areas. These new Content Management Server offerings will enable enterprises of all sizes and in many more countries to connect to partners, reach out to customers, and manage their Web content in a more efficient and cost-effective fashion.”

Building and Deploying Holistic Portal Solutions

Microsoft’s industry-leading Web content management and portal products, Content Management Server and SharePoint Portal Server 2003, respectively, have been adopted by large enterprises since their entrance into the marketplace. However, customers wanted to integrate CMS 2002 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to create an end-to-end portal solution. Building on the integration of CMS 2001 and SharePoint Portal Server 2001, the Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 Connector for SharePoint Technologies will enable customers to combine the features in CMS 2002 with the enhanced features in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to build scalable, reliable, enterprise-class portal solutions to connect relevant content to employees, customers and partners. The new features in the Content Management Server 2002 Connector for SharePoint Technologies include the abilities to publish CMS content directly from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and to integrate document libraries. A beta version of the Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 Connector for SharePoint Technologies is available today at http://www.betaplace.com/ ; the final version will be released by the end of 2003.

Providing Content Management Solutions to Businesses of All Sizes

Over the past two years, Content Management Server has developed a strong track record managing large, mission-critical enterprise Web sites, ensuring that customers can author and post important content, and reducing the overall cost of deployment and management solutions. However, medium-sized companies continued to look for a content management solution that leveraged their existing skill sets, utilized their investments in other Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Office, and reduced the management burden on their limited IT staff. These businesses wanted content management solutions that were fully functional, allowing them to publish content from Microsoft Word and to utilize all the approval and workflow functionality afforded to larger enterprises. CMS Standard Edition provides an opportunity for Microsoft to work with industry-leading independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrators (SIs) to develop solutions that will meet the medium-sized customer’s needs. Today, CMS Standard Edition joins an already-robust stable of e-business products from Microsoft for medium-sized businesses, including BizTalk®
Server 2002 Standard Edition and Commerce Server 2002 Standard Edition.

“Content Management Server SE will make robust Web content management tools available to a broader set of customers, including medium-sized businesses,” said Jeff Lynn, vice president of Dell Services. “Dell is committed to working with Microsoft to help customers take advantage of the power of the Content Management platform on standards-based Dell servers with specialized services to provide increased productivity and maximum value from their IT investments.”

CMS Standard Edition will offer the same functionalities as CMS Enterprise Edition, including the following:

  • Template-based publishing. Enables users to centrally manage branding, navigation, layout and corporate publishing standards through authoring and presentation templates

  • Authoring Connector for Microsoft Office. Empowers business users to create and publish rich content directly from Microsoft Word

  • Publishing Workflow. Ensures that content is properly reviewed before it is published

  • Integration with Visual Studio
    ®

    .NET.
    Allows developers to build applications rapidly using Microsoft’s popular development tool

Pricing for CMS SE will start at $6,999 ERP per CPU. It will be limited to 15 content contributors and also will offer a Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 Connector for SharePoint Technologies.

Microsoft Extends the Reach of CMS With Support for More Languages and Windows Server 2003

With the global nature of today’s business and the increase in customer demand for CMS worldwide, Microsoft recognized the need to provide enterprises with localized versions of the product. Therefore, future versions of Content Management Server 2002 Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition will support French, Japanese and German. This means that the product documentation, administrative consoles and error codes will be offered in these languages. Finally, CMS EE and SE will come fully compatible with Windows Server 2003 to take advantage of this highly scalable and reliable enterprise-grade operating system.

About Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference

Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference combines the best elements of two previous event — Fusion, for Microsoft partners, and Stampede, for Microsoft Business Solutions partners — to provide even more valuable and informative learning opportunities in leadership, sales, marketing, services and technology.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software –any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft, Windows Server, SharePoint, BizTalk and Visual Studio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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