Microsoft unveils a new version of its content-management server this week, and analysts say the update establishes the vendor as a viable alternative for large business deployments. Microsoft got into the content-management market with its April 2001 acquisition of NCompass Labs, and it's been viewed as a small-business niche player since. Microsoft is out to change that perception with the new release. "This is really the version where we rebuilt the underlying architecture to be a true Microsoft product," says Chris Ramsey, lead product manager of Content Management Server.

Three areas of improvement in Content Management Server 2002 are designed to attract IT buyers in large companies: new productivity tools such as integration that let Word documents be published directly to the content-management system; improved application development that makes it easier to build custom features and templates; and better use of XML and Web-services standards for simpler integration with heterogeneous computing environments.

Analysts expect the enhancements to pay off. Already, Microsoft has been making its mark in the content-management arena by winning about 100 deals per quarter, or two to three times as many as each of the market leaders, Documentum, Interwoven, and Vignette, says Forrester Research analyst Nick Wilkoff. The improvements, combined with Microsoft's pricing and ease-of-deployment, should prove attractive to established Microsoft shops, he adds. "If there's any bias toward Microsoft in your company, you'll definitely want to have them on the shortlist for content management," he says.

AMR Research analyst Louis Columbus says Microsoft also is starting to show off its superior Web-services technology, which allows content-management functionality to be exposed through other applications--a key consideration for companies looking to serve up applications over business portals. Adds Columbus, "They've moved into the mainstream of enterprise content management with this release."