Business Benefits of Content Management Still Hampered by Silo Mentality, According to European META Group Study.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 2004

While European companies recognize the value of enterprise content

management, barriers remain to enterprise-wide adoption, according to 

independent survey

More than 50 percent of European companies would be unable to provide an archive of written correspondence such as letters and emails(1), while a similar number operate with significant amounts of out-of-date or obsolete data on their systems(2), according to an independent survey commissioned by Stellent, Ltd., the London-based subsidiary of Stellent, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEL), a global provider of content management solutions.

The survey, undertaken by industry analyst firm META Group and conducted amongst 206 companies across the United Kingdom (UK), France, Italy, Germany and The Netherlands, highlights the fact that, while European companies are aware of the benefits and opportunity costs associated with effective content management, barriers to enterprise-wide deployment still remain.

According to the study, managing external-facing content on Web sites and extranets represents the biggest single driver behind the purchase and implementation of content management solutions, with 50 percent of respondents citing 'improvement of customer satisfaction' as a primary goal. Other factors behind the purchase and implementation decision include:

-- Compliance issues, which have driven 38 percent of respondents

to re-assess their management of unstructured data, with

another 38 percent considering changes as a result.

-- Access to reliable, approved information, with more than 35

percent of respondents citing the re-use of existing materials

and/or automated access to approved/validated content as 'very

important' drivers.

Enterprise Content Management - Still a Series of Semi-Connected Projects

According to Jeffrey Mann, vice president of technology research services for META Group, there still exists a significant gap between organisations' stated intentions to manage unstructured data and reality.

"This survey indicates users in Europe clearly are becoming aware, although slowly, of the money and opportunities wasted by not managing their content effectively. These more sophisticated concerns are a positive development from the Web-oriented fixation of the past several years; however, it has not necessarily progressed to include many of the more hidden and opportunity costs of inadequate content management," he said.

"There is even less evidence of a move towards a complete approach to solving content issues. While survey participants have achieved better awareness, they have not taken the steps needed to develop a comprehensive content infrastructure," Mann added, describing the current status of enterprise content management as all too often 'a series of semi-connected projects,' with many organizations maintaining several overlapping systems.

"This redundancy is seen primarily as a cost issue, which it certainly is. However, the effect on overall business efficiency from running several systems is certainly greater. As central business processes require more integrated content, spreading content across several silos will become an ever-larger issue. This configuration makes it typically (or usually) impossible to achieve basic business goals. The implicit barriers between content systems make it more difficult to provide the comprehensive support that basic business processes increasingly require," he added.

Content Usage vs. Content Management Spend - Who Knows?

Bryan Richter, vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa for Stellent, adds that while European corporations are clearly aware of the benefits of content management and potential costs associated with poorly managed unstructured data, implementations still tend towards the 'piece-meal' approach.

"The findings are quite revealing in that 40 percent of respondents have each implemented more than five different content management systems, and more than half of them could not confirm the costs of managing such data. This piece-meal trend becomes more disconcerting when we note that the majority of companies focus their content publishing on external-facing Web sites and extranets where consistency, coherence and compliance are even more critical," he said.

Ease-of-Use - The Biggest Barrier to Enterprise-Wide Deployment

Richter also noted that, according to the survey, an average of just two percent of employees were actively involved in populating or updating the content.

"Sixty-two percent of respondents cited 'ease-of-use,' with another half highlighting 'ease-of-implementation' and 'ease-of-operation,' as critical to ensuring maximum participation and, in turn, effectiveness of a content management solution," Richter explained.

"This principle underpins Stellent's approach to enterprise content management. In providing the industry's only integrated content management solution covering Web content management, document management, collaboration management, records management and digital asset management, we can address 80 percent of an enterprise's content management needs from a single, intuitive user interface. And Stellent is a leading provider of document conversion technology capable of instantly converting more than 200 different document formats for Web-based delivery. No re-programming is required; users work within their usual desktop applications; and corporate guidelines can be automatically incorporated with publishing, archiving and document tracking undertaken at the click of a mouse.

"Businesses in Europe are beginning to realize that, far from being simply a technology issue, content management underpins the entire enterprise, from shop floor to boardroom, from customer to shareholder. Stellent remains the only vendor to offer a truly comprehensive enterprise content management solution that provides its users with a single, intuitive interface and instant access into the file format or application of their choice," Richter concluded.

Enterprise Content Management - A Key Technology for 2004

According to Mann, the survey, which complements a study undertaken by the META Group amongst 400 corporate IT managers in the United States on their expectations for 2003 and 2004(3), confirms enterprise content management as a key priority for enterprises.

"We expect that enterprise content management will continue to be a high priority for organizations across Europe in the coming years. The increasing need to provide timely information to various constituencies (employees, business partners, customers, regulators) while reducing costs will increase the pressure to implement effective and efficient content management processes and systems," Mann concluded.

A complete copy of the research findings are available for download at www.stellent.com/metaresearch.

About Stellent, Inc.

Stellent, Ltd. is the London-based subsidiary of Stellent, Inc. (www.stellent.com), a global provider of content management solutions. The company's Stellent Universal Content Management system enables customers to rapidly deploy line-of-business Web sites, such as employee portals and partner extranets, as well as enterprise-wide solutions that standardize content management for use by multiple sites and applications throughout an organization. Stellent has been ranked one of the top three content management vendors by industry analyst firms Gartner Dataquest, Giga Information Group and Aberdeen Group, and has more than 1,500 customers, including much of the Global 2000. Its customer roster includes Procter & Gamble, Merrill Lynch, Los Angeles County, British Red Cross, ING, Target Corp., Janus, the Department for Work and Pensions, and various BlueCross BlueShield organizations across 15 states. Stellent is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minn. and maintains offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Any forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties including, without limitation, risks of intellectual property litigation, risks in technology development and commercialization, risks in product development and market acceptance of and demand for the Company's products, risks of downturns in economic conditions generally and in the Web content management tools and intranet information management markets specifically, risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, risks associated with foreign sales and higher customer concentration and other risks detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stellent and the Stellent logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Stellent, Inc. in the USA and other countries. Outside In and Quick View Plus are registered trademarks of Stellent Chicago, Inc. in the USA and other countries. All other trade names are the property of their respective owner.

(1) 54 percent of respondents said they would either be unable to retrieve this information or that it would require manual effort.

(2) 44 percent of respondents indicated that significant amounts of data (more than 20 percent of the content on their systems) was either out-of-date or obsolete.

(3) IT Purchasing Decisions: 2003 Desk Reference. Published by META Group and First Albany Corporation.