IBM Updates Content Manager, Pledges Express Edition

by Alex Woodie

Two of the many product news bits hidden away in IBM's eServer i5 announcement on May 4 were the upcoming releases of DB2 Content Manager for iSeries and DB2 Content Manager OnDemand for iSeries. Those releases, which shipped June 11, expand the ways in which users can interact with unstructured data, such as e-mails and scanned documents. IBM is also cooking up new "express" editions of the DB2 Content Manager that will run on OS/400 and Linux.

DB2 Content Manager is IBM's "best of breed" document imaging and workflow solution. No matter what platform it's deployed on, the role of the Content Manager application is to turn the DB2 database into a searchable repository for unstructured content, such as e-mails, documents, scanned images, or graphics, while providing workflow structure for automating business processes and allowing companies other business applications into the repository.

DB2 Content Manager OnDemand complements the core DB2 Content Manager application by providing nearly real-time access to documents as soon as they've been posted to the repository from their originating application. This speed can be important to DB2 Content Manager for iSeries customers, which tend to be banks and other companies in the financial services industry.

Like DB2 Content Manager applications on other platforms have had, DB2 Content Manager for iSeries Version 5.3 delivers support for Windows programs that use the Open Document Management API Version 2.0 specification. Open Document Management API, or simply ODMA, is an open industry standard that enables desktop applications to interface with a document management system. This release also delivers support for 10-character user IDs and mixed-case passwords.

DB2 Content Manager OnDemand for iSeries 5.3 features two enhancements, including a new migration utility for moving from the Spool File Archive component of OS/400 to the OnDemand Common Server. This release also enables the same Web enablement kit and Content Manager client that have been used with DB2 Content Manager to work with the OnDemand version.

IBM also made a statement of direction with the Content Manager announcements, to deliver an Express version of DB2 Content Manager for iSeries. IBM is also working on a Linux version of DB2 Content Manager-Express Edition, which currently runs only on Windows 2000 servers. IBM also made a statement of direction to support DB2 Content Manager for Multiplatforms on the iSeries.

IBM said that making these two middleware products available on the iSeries "will provide superior content management capabilities on the iSeries, including a highly flexible data model, distributed resource managers for content, expanded storage options, open standards support, and features such as document routing, version control, check-in/out, and enhanced security." No timeframe was provided for the delivery of this software.