New Brightspire Combines Workflow And Integration Tools

FileNet Corp. this week is shipping an application framework that adds workflow and integration tools to the company's content-management software. Brightspire, which sells for a starting price of $150,000, comprises the company's own applications and IBM's CrossWorlds enterprise application integration software.

Among the verticals targeted by FileNet are the insurance and financial-services industries. Wells Fargo & Co., based in San Francisco, is in the process of deploying Brightspire within its private-client investment-services division, says Steve Mayer, data manager for the financial institution's human-resources department. Brightspire, which is scheduled to go live within three months, will electronically manage all forms associated with starting a new employee, eliminating the inefficiencies associated with scanning paperwork into the bank's HR system. "At the moment, we have a tendency of losing data," Mayer says. "It goes into a black hole."

Brightspire will integrate Wells Fargo's PeopleSoft HR system with its requisition system for assigning equipment and services to new employees. Besides efficiency, the division expects that switching to electronic document management will get new brokers selling faster. "The major benefit is cost savings," Mayer says. "The division is made up of high-earning and high-producing brokers."

In January, FileNet unveiled an expansion of its strategic partnership with American Management Systems Inc. to include companies in the financial-services sector. The companies agreed to provide business-process and content-management systems targeting the investment, retail credit, trade-services, and cash-management markets. Following cost cuts that included a workforce reduction, FileNet reported a fourth-quarter profit in January of $1.9 million, or 5 cents a share, but revenue slid 23% from a year ago. For the year, FileNet lost $16.6 million, or 47 cents a share, on revenue of $332.5 million.