Taking on B2B Extranets

by Lowell Rapaport

As the number of users creating and accessing content multiplies, content management system administrators can run into problems managing all the possible combinations of security access and permissions needed for content users. Similarly, as the amount of content under management grows, so does the number of possible taxonomic categories. In the worst cases, you can have millions of documents and thousands of different categories.

"With traditional technology, each time you add an attribute to sort files by, you add a folder," says Guillaume Boutin, InStranet's product marketing manager. "Each file has to be represented in each attribute's folder. For example, a system with 1,000 files and four attributes requires a total of 4,000 file representations." Repositories with millions of entries and dozens of possible file attributes can require files to be represented hundreds of millions of times.

InStranet's solution to this increasing complexity is to implement content repository attributes in multidimensional matrices. Visually, matrices resemble a sheet of graph paper. File attributes are arranged along the page's vertical and horizontal dimensions. Each box represents the intersection of two attributes. But while graph paper is two dimensional, a matrix adds any number of dimensions, allowing the construction of complex content tables with virtual boxes where each piece of content can be stored. Each of these virtual boxes represents an intersection of several different attributes. In this approach, files only need to be represented once instead of multiple times.

One advantage of InStranet's matrix approach is that keyword searches are purportedly more efficient. Users search for data by selecting keywords or ranges of keywords from one or more attributes and dimensions of the content matrix. The desired content is located at the intersection of these keywords. Searches for content can be built and refined, adding or changing keywords without invalidating or changing other keywords that may also be part of the search.

Searches are limited to keywords found within the attributes and dimensions used in the matrix. Traditional search engines handle searches involving keywords not encompassed in a matrix, but users and administrators can add new dimensions and attributes to a content matrix on the fly.

Another advantage of the matrix approach is that systems can be set up with minimal coding. An administrator starts by setting up a content matrix with a minimal number of dimensions and attributes. As content is added, dimensions and attributes can be added and extended as needed. This flexibility should make it easier to set up a content repository from scratch and adapt it as the complexity of the content under management increases.

This doesn't mean that an InStranet content repository will be easier to set up than a competing system. In fact, according to Jesse Campbell, a senior analyst with Chicago-based Doculabs, "An InStranet content repository requires much more planning and a more thorough knowledge of your content's structure. You have to know your content collection well enough to decide how many dimensions the InStranet content matrix will need."

Although InStranet lets you start with a simple content architecture and add complexity later on, the opposite isn't true. That is, if you lump too many attributes into a single dimension, says Campbell, it can be hard to extract the file attributes to form additional dimensions. The requirement for this deep knowledge of content would make it difficult to outsource the development of repositories.

InStranet provides content management for intranets and extranets, letting companies and their users communicate structured and unstructured information.

Nonetheless, Campbell considers InStranet's matrix technology "a powerful differentiator in the business-to-business [B2B] content management market. [The] system provides good control of content with as fine a granularity as a corporate user wishes — down to the level of individual paragraphs and sentences if necessary."

This granularity also applies to user profiles and security, with support for multiple levels of read, write, edit and approval access. It's possible for all system users to have a unique level of security access tailored to their needs.

While InStranet targets internal and B2B enterprise content management applications, one of its 2.0 beta customers is Divento, a Web-based subsidiary of the media giant Vivendi. The Divento site at www.divento.com is dedicated to B2C — selling tickets to cultural events across Europe. Although the site is headquartered in Paris, the company has content creation teams in cities including London, Berlin and Brussels. One of the site's requirements was to permit creative teams in different countries to have access to the site across an extranet where they could collaborate, provide translation services and gain approval for content to be published on the public site.

"We have several dozen content creators across Europe," says Christophe LeGorgeaux, Divento's chief technical officer. "Plus, we have several commercial clients — companies that negotiate special deals with event organizers to provide tickets at special prices to their employees and customers."

Divento exploits InStranet's rich security attributes to offer customized access to the extranet. Content creators and supervisors can access content in their own special areas of the Divento Web site. Users associated with Divento's corporate customers are sorted into another matrix and given access to special areas of the Web site where they can create, edit and approve their special deals. Members of the general public are sorted into yet another matrix according to age group, gender and interests to support personalized content delivery.

Development of Divento's site began in September 2000 and went live in May 2001. InStranet runs on a BEA Weblogic application server on two Sun servers with two CPUs each. The total cost for the system came to approximately $110,000, including licensing and development for InStranet, a Weblogic Application Server, a Weblogic Commerce Server and an Oracle 8i database. Divento now posts information on more than 40,000 events per year and receives 6,000 unique visitors a day.

More typical InStranet customers are focused on intraenterprise information exchange, says Boutin. Examples include Schaumburg, IL-based Zurich Financial, an insurance company using InStranet to distribute information and documents internally with its customers. Others include World Bank member International Finance Corp., based in Washington, and The Credit Agricole Group, an international bank based in France.

In the long term, Campbell says content management and customer relationship management are on an intersecting course. With its ability to provide granular management of both large volumes of content and large numbers of users, InStranet is well positioned to be part of that trend.