|
Redwood City, Calif., September 29, 1997 -- NetObjects, Inc., the
company that defined Web "site" building, today announced NetObjects TeamFusion, the first Web site building software application to bring a revolutionary roles-based approach to the top problem currently facing Web teams -- that of centralizing control over site design and development while pushing routine content management out to content contributors spread throughout a company. As a result of eliminating the bottleneck facing Web teams, NetObjects TeamFusion will dramatically lower costs and speed up
the Web site production process.
NetObjects TeamFusion is the only solution to recognize the roles different people play in Web site production. Non-technical contributors use a simple Java-based browser applet to easily submit and manage Web site content. The core Web team uses the NetObjects Fusion Client site building application to work collectively to design, build and update the overall site. The site producer creates site teams, and assigns & restricts authoring privileges through a powerful administration tool - thus creating an extended Web team based on the role played by each member. The entire client/server solution is based on the NetObjects TeamWebTM architecture, an open and extensible framework which works with any Web server and enables easy plug-and-play of additional technologies.
NetObjects TeamFusion has been designed for teams building Internet and Intranet sites within corporations, small and medium business and Web design firms. The product is being demonstrated for the first time at the Seybold tradeshow in San Francisco, Booth# 1140.
"Since site-building is a team activity, the key to getting the most out of the Web is using the talents of the entire organization," said Ezra Gottheil, leading Internet analyst with Hurwitz Consulting."NetObjects TeamFusion is a roles-based product, which provides a well thought-out solution to tackle the diverse problems associated with team authoring."
Understanding the Customer Problem
NetObjects TeamFusion was developed based on an audit of and feedback from hundreds of Fortune 500 corporations and businesses such as Dupont, Calvin Klein, 3M, Nationsbank, Motorola and Omni Healthcare.
NetObjects TeamFusion responds to the market trend of teams of people playing distinct roles who are building the more complex Web sites of today. Industry sources support NetObjects' findings, showing that corporate Web teams are bombarded by a growing number of content contributors who care about getting information on-line. Fulfilling requests from contributors results in mistakes and bottlenecks, slows down the overall process of establishing an online presence, and keeps maintenance costs high.
Some interesting facts from industry sources and NetObjects research show that:
- Most--if not all--corporations have web teams
- Web teams assimilate and manage content--they don't create it.
- Web team members are outnumbered by "content contributors" by as much as 50 to one.
- Recurring tasks, such as routine text updates, consume upwards of 50% of a Web team's time.
- Web teams feel that current solutions showcase technology instead of solving real problems.
Response from early users indicates that NetObjects TeamFusion's unique site-oriented, roles-based approach resonates with their needs.
"NetObjects TeamFusion is the first team authoring product which recognizes the specific needs of the site building process, the variety of roles played by people in it and the need to begin from the site, rather than the page, as the primary entity," said Brian Ehorn, Manager of Web Production Services for the Global Finance Web Development Group at NationsBank. "NetObjects TeamFusion will change the way we work to make us more efficient and effective."
NetObjects TeamFusion Features and Benefits
NetObjects TeamFusion is the first roles-based web building application that encompasses the extended team within a corporation. The product is a visual end-to-end solution which provides intuitive joint authoring, centralized control, and automated content contribution.
Key elements of NetObjects TeamFusion include:
NetObjects Authoring Server: an open server which works with any standard Web server to store site, asset and team information in one secure central repository;
NetObjects Administrator: a control applet that creates and manages sites, teams, and editing privileges to allocate resources;
NetObjects Fusion Client: a site building application with check-in / check-out features to let team members seamlessly work on the site together;
NetObjects Content Contributor: a browser-based applet for automated content contribution that lets content owners automatically publish information to the site or team.
"We're giving our customers an out-of-the box solution that helps
Web teams publish information faster, with greater control, fewer mistakes,
and no more bottleneck headaches," said Dave Kleinberg, NetObjects founder
and executive vice president of products. "Just as NetObjects Fusion set
the standard for site building products, NetObjects TeamFusion's unique roles-based approach to team authoring overcomes the limitations of current file- and database-oriented products which are incomplete, error-prone and expensive."
Pricing and Availability
NetObjects expects to deliver NetObjects TeamFusion before the end of calendar year 1997. Customers interested in evaluating the product should visit the NetObjects Web site at www.netobjects.com.
NetObjects TeamFusion is a client-server application. The NetObjects Authoring Server runs on Windows NT and the NetObjects Fusion Client runs on Windows 95 or Windows NT. The NetObjects Content Contributor runs in any Java-enabled browser running on Unix, Macintosh or Windows operating systems. NetObjects TeamFusion is priced on the basis of the number of NetObjects Fusion clients that can be concurrently connected to the server. Configurations begin at $995 for 1 server, concurrent connections for 2 NetObjects Fusion Clients, and 20 Content Contribution browser clients. Existing NetObjects Fusion 2.0 users can upgrade to the entry-level configuration for $795.
About NetObjects
NetObjects, Inc. is a privately-held company that is funded by IBM, Perseus
LLC, AT&T Ventures, Norwest Venture Capital, Venrock Associates, Rae
Technology LLC and private investors. NetObjects' partners include Apple
Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL), AT&T (NYSE: T), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Netscape (NASDAQ: NSCP), Sun Microsystems' Javasoft (NASDAQ: SUNW) and UUNET (NASDAQ:WCOM).
More information, contact:
Priti Khare
NetObjects, Inc.
(650) 482-3251
priti@netobjects.com
|
|
