At its third annual European customer conference earlier this month, content management firm Interwoven attracted big name speakers from Tesco, law firm Norton Rose and Travelocity. But the event also saw the firm trying to differentiate itself in the web content management (WCM) space by launching new technology and expanding its capabilities with a new acquisition.

The firm launched a new version of its popular Composite Application Provisioning (CAP) offering, which helps to automate and standardise the deployment of custom web applications.

“The purpose of CAP is to look at the source code management system and other source information, pull it together and transactionally deploy it onto application servers like J2EE,” said Interwoven’s chief technology officer, Rafiq Mohammadi. “It establishes a nice communications channel between the development and the production zones.”

The product was updated to help users work more efficiently, accurately and productively, for example by providing more support for source code management systems and improved reporting, Mohammadi explained. Interwoven also researched the behaviour of thousands of customers’ IT departments to discern how best to design a user interface that could boost productivity and fit with user behaviour, he added.

Mohammadi explained that the key challenges facing global customers are the scale and complexity of their web environments, often comprising hundreds of separate sites. “Even in Europe it’s astonishingly complex if you’re dealing with multiple markets at the same time,” he added. “And then there’s the speed factor ­ the general trend is that, as much as possible, good ideas need to be accelerated to give you a competitive advantage.”

Mike Davis of analyst firm Ovum argued that linguistic and cultural differences can increase the complexity and challenges for firms’ web site content managers. “You need your software to be configured for local geogra phies and then you have to add personalisation so it can be configured dynamically to the individual user,” he explained.

Davis praised Interwoven’s underlying platform for providing a good structured workflow from content creation to publishing. “It [gives firms] the speed to put stuff up in a way that still has the checks and balances of editorial intervention, and the ability to deliver contextually appropriate content around that.”

Interwoven’s acquisition of web optimisation company Optimost is also likely to benefit firms wanting to provide their customers with a more personal, relevant web site experience, and therefore potentially drive up conversion rates, according to the vendor’s European vice president, James Murray.

One of Optimost’s key capabilities is its multivariable testing technology, which allows marketers to test different content scenarios and see which drives the most traffic, Murray explained.

“It will [enable] virtuous loop analysis, feeding back into the CMS so that you’re constantly fine-tuning the sales engine that is your web site,” Murray added.