Vignette Corp. leapt onto the Web services bandwagon Tuesday, adding support for Web services to its flagship
Vignette V6 Web content management solution.
Vignette has added support for the XML Schema, Web Services Definition Language (WSDL), and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
standards in new Web services and XML adapter libraries in Vignette V6.
Web services promise the ability to knit together disparate platforms within and beyond the enterprise, allowing customers, partners
and suppliers to share information and content seamlessly without having to understand each other’s various IT structures.
Vignette said the value proposition is simple: adding Web services support to Vignette V6 will allow it to help its customers
increase IT efficiencies. It explained that by exposing their content management processes as Web services, customers can grow more
efficient by:
- Delivering the right content to the right user and system at the right time, on a global scale
- More easily repurposing and quickly publishing content to enhance and automate applications
- Accelerating time to market with the reuse or integration of content management objects and processes in new Web
applications.
“In today’s economy, organizations are demanding the ability to integrate enterprise applications without breaking the bank on
expensive middleware solutions,” said Dave Homan, principal analyst at research and consulting firm Doculab Inc. “Web services
address this need by providing a lower-cost standards-based solution that has the added benefit of being able to cross the
Java-Microsoft technology divide. Vignette’s embrace of this approach should further help its customers make content a ubiquitous
component of their overall enterprise strategy.”
According to Bob Stafford, chief information officer for the state of New Mexico, Vignette’s support for Web services — as well as
its native support for J2EE and Microsoft .NET environments — was a critical factor in its decision Tuesday to go with Vignette V6
as the content management solution to power its new Multi-Agency Government (MAG) Portal. New Mexico will run Vignette V6 on its IBM
DB2 database and use its IBM Websphere application server for serving native JSP applications.
“Vignette V6 will help the state of New Mexico make true e-government and cross-agency collaboration a reality,” he said. “As we
move forward with our vision for Web services in government, implementing Vignette is a strategic step in that direction. The depth
and breadth of Vignette solutions coupled with IBM’s Websphere Application Server and DB2 platform means that we are able to
leverage all our legacy systems, while at the same time moving forward with new initiatives.”
New Mexico’s vision is to use Vignette V6 and the MAG Portal to help its citizens and customers interact more easily with different
government entities. As New Mexico continues to implement its eGovernment initiative, it plans to move from an “agency/program”
focus to one that is organized around constituent roles and communities of interest. The communities of interest, such as health and
business, would enable citizens (one of the constituent roles) to locate information they need without having to know which program
or agency provides that information.
The state will use Vignette V6 to improve that role-based approach by making constituent services and information available via four
user roles: Citizen, Visitor, Business and Local Communities. When visitors click into any of those roles, they would be presented
with relevant government services and information appropriate for that role.
“The state of New Mexico’s vision for implementing Web services as an integral part of driving collaboration across state agencies
and departments as well as with its business partners is one of the more aggressive among state governments,” said Thomas E. Hogan,
president and chief operating officer of Vignette.
Vignette’s Web services and XML adapter libraries are included with Vignette V6 software licenses in the Vignette V6 Content Suite
Adapter. Existing customers can download the adapter libraries through Vignette Express.
