PLUM Plumtree Software (MM)

Plumtree Releases New Web Applications Catalog and Governance Solution, Driving Radical Openness and Applications Strategies Rio Tinto to Participate in Customer Web Seminar Discussing the Solution Today SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/-- Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software today released the Plumtree Web Applications Catalog, a new product based on Plumtree Content Server for documenting and governing the creation of Web applications throughout an enterprise. With the Applications Catalog, organizations can establish processes for creating new applications and help people find any Web application across the organization. As part of Plumtree's Radical Openness strategy, organizations can register any enterprise application in the Catalog, regardless of whether the application is powered by Plumtree's Enterprise Web Suite or by competing technologies. The Plumtree Applications Catalog is sold as part of a new services offering, the Enterprise Web Governance Solution, also being offered for the first time today. The Governance Solution combines the Catalog with a three-week services engagement designed to establish a methodology for managing applications through their entire lifecycle. Rio Tinto, the world's third-largest mining company, has already deployed an early version of the Catalog to manage all of the applications, portlets and content available across its worldwide Enterprise Web deployment. Rio Tinto and Collaborative Technologies, an Australian-based consulting company, deployed an "About the Portal" solution similar to the Web Catalog to create transparency and promote re-usability of application development and portal components at Rio. Rio Tinto's Leader of Customer Alignment for Intranet Development, Nick Fouche, will lead a Web seminar demonstrating the Catalog today, February 24 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time, with registration at http://www.plumtree.com/04/wac . "Rio Tinto business units and corporate groups are deploying a range of applications and services using Plumtree's Enterprise Web technologies. We needed a process for documenting what all of these applications do, how they work and who is responsible for their maintenance," said Rio Tinto's Nick Fouche. "With the Applications Catalog, our business audiences can find the application relevant to their work by searching on any number of attributes, and then get online instructions on how to use it. Just as importantly, we're able to control what applications are released to our users in the first place, and can recognize who is responsible for keeping each application maintained after it has been launched. The bottom line is that we encourage collaboration, re-use components many times and save development time and costs." Sprawl Has Become Major IT Problem Managing application sprawl has become a major challenge for most enterprises. According to an October 2003 Line56 survey, organizations plan to deploy an average of 120 Web applications by the end of 2004. Without the proper governance, even portal deployments, often used to consolidate Web sprawl, can themselves contribute to this sprawl. An October Gartner report concluded that many enterprises "find themselves dealing with "a jungle" of multiple portals that compete for the same resources and audiences and, in some cases, prevent each other from achieving success." (October 8, 2003 Client Issues for Enterprise Portals) "New Web technologies have made it so easy to build portlets, communities and applications that most organizations now have to support hundreds if not thousands of half-forgotten sites across the Enterprise Web," said Plumtree CEO John Kunze. "No one knows how much this sprawl costs an organization, because no one knows what's really out there. And since business audiences can't even find the applications they need to do their work, the return on investment for every new Web application is limited. We believe our Governance Solution, powered by the new Applications Catalog, is the first effort to manage all of the applications available throughout an organization, regardless of whether they are assembled within a portal or available as a separate site. This solution is a core component of controlling Web development costs enterprise-wide." The Web Applications Catalog To curb sprawl, the Web Applications Catalog provides configurable templates and workflows from Plumtree Content Server that are used to assemble and present data entered by business managers about applications. For applications assembled by the Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite, this information can be embedded within the application as portlets including: -- Application Showcase and Portlet Showcase: These portlets document each application's purpose, its business and technicalowners, its audience, how to request access, release date, version, benefits and return on investment. -- What's New? Portlet: This portlet highlights the most recently created portlets and applications, helping end-users identify newly available resources. -- Governance Explorer Portlet: This portlet offers the creators of an application an index of guidelines, standards and procedures for creating, updating and managing each of the applications across the business, giving consistent direction to those responsible. Applications that are assembled completely outside the Plumtree framework can still be searched and accessed via a Plumtree-powered portal through the Web Applications Catalog. From any Enterprise Web site, users can search the Catalog for applications, retrieving information about the application's purpose, content and features, as well as access instructions. Plumtree Consulting Services will implement the Catalog as part of its Enterprise Web Governance Solution, collaborating with the customer to develop governance policies, and customizing the Catalog's workflows to enforce those policies. The Web Applications Catalog solution, including the set of management portlets and three weeks of Plumtree Consulting Services costs $50,000*. The Web Applications Catalog was designed to support the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.5WS and 5.0. About Plumtree Software Plumtree Software is the Enterprise Web leader. Plumtree's mission is to create a comprehensive Web environment for employees, customers and partners across the enterprise to interact with different systems and work together. Plumtree's Enterprise Web solution consists of integration products for bringing resources from traditional systems together on the Web, shared services such as collaboration, content management and search for building new Web applications, and a portal platform for delivering these Web applications to broad audiences. Plumtree's independence and its Web Services Architecture allow this solution to span rival platforms and systems, helping maximize customers' return on their existing technology investments. With offices in more than a dozen countries, Plumtree has licensed over 575 customers, including Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy. For more information, visit Plumtree on the Web at http://www.plumtree.com/. NOTE: Plumtree is a registered trademark of Plumtree Software, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries. All other registered and unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their respective owners. *Offer is subject to applicable contractual terms and conditions. This price is subject to change without notice. DATASOURCE: Plumtree Software CONTACT: Carilu Dietrich of Plumtree Software, +1-415-399-7047, or Web site: http://www.plumtree.com/

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