Building a WCM application using Content Manager

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The IBM High-Volume Web Sites team and the content management architect of IBM's www.ibm.com Web site worked with a major financial firm in the U.S. to develop a WCM application. The customer had decided to build a custom CMS after evaluating the major available off-the-shelf WCM systems and determining that none met their requirements. The requirements were:

• Enable the business users to manage and produce content for multiple sites, channels, and languages

• Use a browser-based interface to control content, site navigation, and user interface aspects

• Automate processes allowing for real-time updates in a run-time environment, thereby decreasing the content release turn-around from around thirty days to hours or less

• Adopt an XML asset and component-based model for generating content

• Allow for multi- and cross-channel reuse of assets and components allowing a seamless experience for customers

• Provide an interface to make the transition easy and intuitive for the business users

The customer's hosting environment uses IBM WebSphere Application Server and custom-built applications leveraging XML technologies and efficient caching mechanisms. The proposed WCM application would interface with the existing environment. The topology of the application developed is shown in Figure 7-2.

Figure 7-2: Topology of the WCM application

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