Interwoven

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Fujitsu’s® Interstage® Business Process Manager™ Adds Workflow to Interwoven® WorkSite™ MP

Interwoven, Inc. is a leading provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software solutions for business. Interwoven ECM solutions include document management, collaboration, workflow and portals that manage business content—such as documents, images and e-mails—throughout their lifecycle. Founded in 1995, the company employs more than 700 people with revenues of $111.5 million in 2003. Over 3000 customers have improved their business processes with Interwoven solutions, including 9 of the top10 global companies and 51 of the top 100 US law firms. Interwoven is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, with offices around the world.

Document Management Demands Workflow
One of Interwoven’s most successful product lines, WorkSiteTM, is a collaboration and document management solution for organizations. Interwoven’s document management solution enables teams to collaborate by providing the tools to create, share, revise, review, approve and store documents and related information. WorkSite is highly effective in document-intensive applications such as proposal and contract development, corporate legal matters, correspondence management, deal management, and new product launch.

In response to market demand, Interwoven developed WorkSite MP, an Internet-based, multi-platform version of WorkSite designed for Global 1000 companies. But Interwoven knew that WorkSite MP was missing a critical capability: WorkSite MP didn’t include structured workflow - the ability to automate and ensure consistent execution of business processes. Workflows are used to route documents for approval, change document states, and publish documents for distribution. Large, geographically dispersed companies, in particular, depend on workflows to manage the handoff of documents between distributed teams.

To compete and win against aggressive competitors, Interwoven needed to move fast. It had to add tested and dependable workflow into WorkSite MP. Instead of developing a workflow engine in-house, Interwoven decided to look for a partner with the right workflow technology—a solution they could integrate rapidly into WorkSite MP to level the competitive playing field quickly and effectively.

The Search for a Workflow Partner
Interwoven investigated several vendors and their respective solutions, but found them unsuitable for two reasons. First, many solutions were based on either Microsoft® platforms, or had separate code bases for different platforms. Since Interwoven had developed WorkSite MP using computing standards such as Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), they wanted the same platform flexibility from a single software base in a workflow solution. Second, the partner’s sales model was important. “We looked for a partner who sold indirectly,” explained Sanjay Kumar, Interwoven Director of Product Management for WorkSite MP. “If a company only sold directly, frequently, their code was not packaged appropriately for external development.”

Fujitsu’s focus on channel and development partners made it a strong contender for a partnership with Interwoven. After a careful product analysis, Interwoven chose Fujitsu’s Interstage® Business Process ManagerTM to add workflow in WorkSite MP. Interstage Business Process Manager is a Java-based business process management solution that can maximize the value of already existing software infrastructure products, like WorkSite MP. Interwoven was also impressed by Interstage Business Process Manager’s architecture. Its modularity allowed Interwoven to take the workflow engine and seamlessly integrate it for their product infrastructure. “Interstage Business Process Manager had all the capabilities we were looking for,” explains Kumar. “It was a great fit for us, from both architectural and business model standpoints. “

A Smooth Integration Builds the Right Product
Although integrating Interstage Business Process Manager with WorkSite MP was a large-scale project, it went smoothly. When challenges did occur, in-depth support from the Fujitsu team was critical. Interwoven installed Interstage Business Process Manager as a platform service. Today, it acts seamlessly with all other product components, and it requires no special handling. The browser-based user interface is transparent, so users cannot tell the difference between Interwoven and Fujitsu software components. Now, two years after the first release of the workflow version of WorkSite MP, Interwoven is still reaping the benefits of its partnership with Fujitsu.

“Back when we first introduced WorkSite MP, our lack of workflow put us at a disadvantage,” stated Kumar. “But Interstage Business Process Manager put us back in the game. We are now on par with our competitor’s workflow offerings, and we didn’t have to develop a workflow engine from scratch. It’s a key component of our product.”

A Partnership for the Future
“We are very happy with our Fujitsu partnership,” Kumar explained. Today, Interwoven is considering expanding its partnership with Fujitsu. “We are looking at the analytics module of the Interstage family,” says Kumar “Once customers process thousands of transactions with the workflow engine, often, they want to do some analysis to find out where the bottlenecks are. Analytics will give them information about how to organize their workflow for the best results”

“I have worked with every partner who provides product extensions for WorkSite MP,” says Kumar. “Fujitsu, in my opinion, is the best partner we have.”