According to the announcement, FileNET and Arbortext will help customers quickly access specific information to re-purpose and deliver that information in a variety of applications. Customers will be able to create documents that leverage content created in many disparate forms and bring this content together to deliver fresh, consistent, and complete information to multiple types of media, including Adobe PDF, the Web, CD-ROM, and wireless devices.

Panagon's eProcess capability adds the automation factor to the planned end-to-end solution. For example, in a product launch application, multiple authors can use Arbortext's Epic Editor to collaboratively create an XML document containing all of the content critical to the release of a new product. The XML document can then be separated or "burst" into multiple components based on their reuse requirements. The individual components of the compound document, such as product descriptions, installation instructions, warranty statements, pricing, and support policies, are packaged as needed and can be automatically routed to the appropriate function within the organization (sales, order processing, inventory control, customer service, and accounting) as well as to corporate Web sites. Arbortext's XML publishing enforces the document structure, defines the bursting blueprint, and enables publishing into the appropriate format (HTML, Adobe PDF, WML, and others). According to the announcement, FileNET's Panagon eProcess automates this procedure, saving time, eliminating costly mistakes, and ensuring appropriate content delivery.

FileNET and Arbortext will also offer other systematic and repeatable applications, such as dynamic catalogs, on-the-fly insurance-policy generation, complex publishing, policies and procedures, securities research, and automated portfolio generation.

Sue Feldman, director of content and retrieval technologies at IDC, believes that the partnership effectively addresses business applications that require complex document creation and publishing support. "The purpose of content management and retrieval is to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. Increasingly, this means that information must be pulled from all over the enterprise, personalized for the role and interests of the recipient, and delivered to the appropriate device. Largedocuments that have multiple authors, experience frequent updates, or require a high degree of navigation often create complex management problems. If we add to that the need to show some information to one group of recipients but not to another, the management problems are compounded still further. The Arbortext capabilities provide access to structured information within the FileNET repository on a more granular basis than the whole document, resulting in more intelligent documents that can be assembled and reformatted to address different purposes or audiences."

Source: FileNET Corp., Costa Mesa, CA, 800/FILENET; http://www.filenet.com.