The same week Microsoft head Bill Gates launched his company's new Visual Studio .Net development toolkit, Auckland IT services company Axon Computertime was installing a Visual Studio-built content management application to run the multiple websites used by the Foodstuffs grocery wholesale chain.
Axon's Cade softwareallows authorised users to publish information by cutting and pasting from applications like Word or Front Page into a web browser interface - bypassing the need to go through the IT department to get content on to a website.
A template library ensures the site can keep a standard look and feel to content, and an object store keeps track of reusable content, pictures and other design elements. Users can specify when content should go on sites and when it expires.
Axon general manager for e-business, Scott Green said as well as being used to run the Foodstuff sites and Axon's five websites, Axon is also rolling out Cade within a government agency.
Mr Green said Axon developers took just three months to develop Cade using a beta version of Visual Studio.
It will sell for a basic licence fee of about $50,000 plus implementation costs and maintenance.
That compares with the $200,000 a company can expect to pay to licence Microsoft's Content Management Server or the $500,000 expected for market leader Vignette, a price which can double once implementation and integration costs are taken into account.
That sort of price tag has meant content management software has been the preserve of large firms, even though many medium sized firms have struggle with similar problems of publishing material to multiple websites and keeping content up to date.
Foodstuffs uses Axon's SupplyNet application to provide an online storefront for retailers and institutional buyers. It runs separate sites for its Gilmours, Toops and Trents wholesale chains, and another eight sites.
Mr Green said Foodstuffs was not prepared to carry the full cost of developing a custom solution, so Axon created a shrink wrapped product which could be sold to other customers.
"Cade won't do some of the high end stuff like user customisation, but it will do everything most companies need to manage their websites," Mr Green said.
