FileNet Acquires EGrail

FileNet Corp. plans to announce Tuesday the $10 million cash acquisition of eGrail Inc., a Web content-management company based in Bethesda, Md. EGrail's development, sales, and professional-services workers will add about 45 people to FileNet's workforce, a FileNet spokesman says. The development team for eGrail will remain in Bethesda. FileNet has $172.2 million in cash and equivalents.

FileNet, an enterprise content-management vendor, will sell eGrail software separately. By early May, the company plans to offer the eGrail technology as part of its Brightspire and Panagon product lines.

While FileNet already had Web-publishing capabilities, eGrail provides a complete Web content-management system that's easy to use from the perspective of a businessperson looking to publish content, says Connie Moore, an analyst for Giga Information Group. In addition, the software provides workflow, which is the ability to move documents to managers for approval before publishing. That workflow capability fits into FileNet's strategy of extending its software to companies that need content management in business-to-business transactions over extranets, Moore says.

FileNet customers will get good technology that extends their current content-management systems from the same vendor, which means better prices, Moore says. For eGrail, the small company now has a leading vendor selling and supporting its product. "Prior to this time, if you had gone with eGrail, you would have to consider the fact that the risk was high that the vendor wouldn't survive market consolidation," Moore says.

FileNet also said this week it's shipping Brightspire, an application framework that includes workflow and integration tools to the company's content-management software (see New Brightspire Combines Workflow And Integration Tools). Brightspire, which sells for a starting price of $150,000, comprises the company's own content-management and workflow engines, and IBM's CrossWorlds enterprise application integration software.