Merant updates Web content software

Version 4.0 of Collage has expanded support for enterprise back-end systems, including databases based on Oracle's 9i and Microsoft's SQL software, plus Apple Computer's Mac operating system and the Red Hat version of Linux. The new Collage can also automatically convert documents into Adobe Systems' widespread portable document format (PDF).

Collage differs from enterprise content management software sold by companies such as Documentum and Interwoven, whose products catalog all of a business's documents, by focusing on content presented via the Web. Collage also manages Web code as well as content, a growing necessity as Web sites become increasing application-driven, said Merant vice president Martin Frid-Nielsen.

"We see a convergence between code and content, which means a more complicated work flow," he said. "Companies need better ways to keep track of what they're doing."

Collage appeals both to new companies, where the Web is the major part of the business, and older companies that have yet to fully incorporate the Internet into their overall business processes, Frid-Nielsen.

"It's either people that are very Web-centric or are coming to the Web quite late," he said. "The companies that are latecomers to the Web have a lot of code that does all the business logic, and now they need to put that on the Web."

Collage 4.0 will be available in mid-April, with pricing starting at $50,000 for an installation with one server and five users.