Microsoft Refreshes Content Management Server

With an eye on expanding its presence in the market for managing Web content, Microsoft Corp. announced the beta release of its new Content Management Server 2002, boasting tighter integration with Microsoft Word and Visual Studio.Net. The beta version is available at Microsoft's Web site, with the commercial version set for release at the end of the year.

Content Management Server 2002 will join Microsoft's suite of .Net enterprise servers, which include BizTalk Server, SharePoint Portal Server, and Commerce Server. Microsoft said the new server would allow developers to quickly and easily roll out XML Web services, thanks to its integration with Visual Studio.Net and ASP.Net.

Microsoft said the Content Management Server 2002 would include a number features, including:

• the ability to publish directly from Word, through a new authoring connector for Microsoft Office;
• support for .Net and XML Web services;
• a set of content management controls for building out Web sites; and
• standards-based interoperability.

According to research firm IDC, the document and content managment market is poised for 44 percent compound annualized growth in the coming years, reaching about $24.4 billion in 2006.

Microsoft began its push into the enterprise content management market last May, when it acquired NCompass Labs. Microsoft's Content Management Server 2001, released in August 2001, grew out of NCompass Resolution content-management offering.

"My view was they were going after the mid-market," said Yankee Group analyst Rob Perry. "But Microsoft has really made an effort to focus on larger enterprises in content management."

This push to compete with Interwoven, Vignette and others for the high end of the market for managing Web content was evidenced by Microsoft's announcement in April that Ford Motor Co. had signed up to use Content Management Server to power its Ford.com Web site.