Interwoven to manage Britannia's web content

Building society Britannia has invested "several million pounds" in Interwoven's content management software, rejecting rival company Documentum.

Britannia is using Interwoven's Content Infrastructure software to manage web content.

Britannia went through a beauty-parade-type selection and ended up with a shortlist of Interwoven and Documentum, says Martin Ellison, head of information systems at Britannia.

"With Interwoven we could easily take content from the old version of the site and quickly reproduce it on the new version," he added.

Ellison says the Interwoven software was easy to integrate with Britannia's legacy systems including Oracle 8i, iPlanet and BEA Weblogic 5.1.

Britannia requires people outside the IT department to be able to write, edit and publish web content, and Ellison admits it has been tough getting people up to speed with the technology.

"This is all new stuff for Britannia. The technology is not familiar, so it has been a steep learning curve. But staff outside the IT department are getting to grips with the system and the software is doing the things we hoped," he said.

The society is working with integrator Bull Information Systems and went live with an information-only version of the site in June.

Later this month the company will introduce transactional facilities allowing customers to obtain mortgage quotes online.

But Alan Pelz-Sharpe, principal consultant at analyst Ovum, says Interwoven may not have the range of products Britannia requires if it decides to expand the functionality of its site.

"Interwoven has a niche focus on web content management, which will be hard to break out of if Britannia wants to widen its base," he said.

"The company is also up against vendors such as Documentum, which offer more services at a lower price."