Helping applications to interoperate with multiple Enterprise Content Management (ECM) repositories by different vendors, EMC Corp., IBM (News - Alert) Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have announced a jointly developed specification that uses Web Services and Web 2.0 interfaces. To achieve the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for advancement through its rigorous standards development process, the companies intend to submit the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification to the organization.

 

Earlier, the three companies joined hands in the creation of the CMIS draft specification by other leading software providers since late 2006. This includes Alfresco Software, Open Text, Oracle (News - Alert) and SAP. To validate interoperability of the specification before submission to OASIS, a final gathering of all seven companies was held recently.

 

The main aim of CMIS is to considerably reduce the IT burden around multivendor, multirepository content management environments. To get different ECM systems within their organizations to “talk” to one another, customers currently need to spend valuable time and money to create and maintain custom integration code and one-off integrations. By facilitating independent software vendors (ISVs), to create specialized applications that can run over a variety of content management systems, the specification is also expected to benefit them.

 

With the new interface that is developed, EMC, IBM and Microsoft (News - Alert) together perform functions such as supporting composite application development and mash-ups by the business or IT analyst; de-coupling Web services and content from the content management repository, enabling customers to manage content independently; growing the ISV and developer community; and offering common Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces to dramatically simplify application development.

 

“For some time now, the world of content management has been evolving from separate application platforms to an integral part of a company’s information infrastructure,” said Razmik Abnous, vice president and chief technology officer, Content Management and Archiving Division at EMC (News - Alert). “As content management rapidly becomes a key piece of a company’s business process, there’s a heightened need for interoperability between the vast and diverse sources that manage this content. Today’s agreement is a major step forward in achieving this goal.”

 

The companies intend to submit the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).