EM3 iOn product description

Key benefits

Cut Web management costs by at least one third
Increase communicator's productivity and reduce labor costs
Reduce IT Web publishing costs by at least half
Improve the timeliness of content and reduce the risk of publishing inaccurate information
Increase revenues/profits through increased sales and expense reduction

Overview

EM3 iOn™ is powerful Web content management software that has all the features your company needs to run multiple large-scale, database-driven Internet, extranet, and intranet Web sites. iOn is not a software development platform - it's ready to use immediately. You won't spend precious time and money building the tools you need.

What's different about iOn
Here's what you get when you deploy iOn from EM3.

You get all the power and functionality you need in one value-priced package. You don't get fancy programming tools that add cost and can't be used by the communicators on your team. iOn is complete, ready to handle all the publishing tasks your Web sites demand.
It doesn't matter how fast you get software deployed if people have trouble using it once it's available. Our highly intuitive software is the one content management package your team will actually want to use. iOn's quick-to-master interface goes beyond the "easy-to-use" cliché you read about everywhere.
EM3 was created by people who once walked in your shoes. We built and managed Web sites for companies like Compaq, Cisco and HP, so we understand what's needed in a content management system. That's why we created iOn - we found nothing else on the market that could meet our needs.

After all the industry buzzwords, here's the bottom line. iOn is rapidly adopted and embraced by your team, quickly bringing and maintaining productivity gains, cost savings and top line sales increases to your organization.

EM3 iOn Features Overview

Modular Architecture
EM3 iOn is the core Web content management engine, and its functionality can be extended through "plug-ins" that provide pre-packaged common site functionality. Customers can pick and choose from functionality that best fits their needs and can extend capabilities in the future by adding from an ever-growing list of plug-ins.

Non-Proprietary Content Repository
Information stored in EM3 iOn is contained in an open relational database structure that can be accessed directly via SQL from other applications that want to make use of the information. However, information is also accessible via XML over standard HTTP for for immediate use within a portal or other syndication application.

Content Separated from Presentation
All dynamically generated content is rendered through industry standard XSL templates. Global design changes can be made instantly by changing a template or template component. The XSL templates can be designed to translate the XML content into HTML, WML, or future presentation standards for any browsing device.

Dynamic Delivery
Rather than pre-building static HTML pages, EM3 iOn dynamically builds pages and site navigation in real time as they are requested by site visitors. Not only does this ensure the very latest information is presented, content is personalized on a per-user basis.

High Performance Page Delivery
Dynamic pages are served quickly because of multi-stage caching – at the database, in XML, and at the Web server level.

Highly Scalable Architecture
EM3 iOn can be deployed on a single- or multi-CPU shared server, dedicated server, or across a load-balanced Web farm or cluster.

Centralized Browser-based Administration
All administrative tasks (not just content editing) are handled from a Web browser. There are no separate client applications to install and no need to jump from site to site or between different interfaces to make content or other changes.

Non-Technical Administration
Other than template creation, all other management tasks (not just content) can be handled by non-technical business users. Administrators with knowledge of HTML can modify templates, and those with limited XML/XSL experience can create templates (no traditional programming or proprietary scripting languages required).

Multi-Site Management
An unlimited number of sites can be managed with a single installation of EM3 iOn. All managed sites can share content, templates, users and user groups, metadata, and workflows.

Content Repurposing
Content objects can be reused across sites and pages, and each will display appropriately even if the different sites use different design templates. A published change to an object will instantly be available to all places where that object is used.

Real Time Updates
Published changes are instantly viewable on live Web site(s) but can also be scheduled.

Revision Control
Industry standard publishing model allows administrators to make changes to staging versions of content only. When staging versions move into production, an archive backup is made that can be rolled back into production if necessary.

Customizable Workflow
Any number of workflow processes can be easily defined with permissions and notification. Personal workspaces always let contributors know what they need to work on.

Multi-Language Support
Full UNICODE support facilitates all popular single- and double-byte character sets.

Information Object Model
This publishing model provides content administrators a predefined method for publishing information – one that incorporates best practices in information architecture and Web site usability. Administrators do not need library science expertise to build well-formed content architectures.

EM3 iOn System Requirements

EM3 iOn™ (information object network) is designed to deliver enterprise-class functionality, scalability, and reliability while still providing a low total cost of ownership. There are several components to this client-server application as described below.

Content administrators access a Web-based application (iOn.Admin) using a Windows or Macintosh desktop PC. The admin server also serves as a staging environment for all the sites being managed with iOn.

The iOn Admin application stores information in the file system and in a relational database. This database can either reside on the Admin/Staging server, a dedicated staging database server, or a shared production database server or database cluster, depending on load requirements.

A second application (iOn.Site) resides on a single production server or server farm. This application serves content from the production database and local file system to site visitors using any browser on any platform. Browser support is determined by the compatibility provided in design templates that are used to display information. Any number of templates can be created to support any client device or browser.

Content administrator PC system requirements:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP (2000/XP recommended); Apple Mac OS 10.3+; or any Linux/Unix desktop supporting Sun Microsystem’s Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.2+ and a supported Web browser.
Web Browser: Windows Internet Explorer 6.0+ or any Mozilla-based browser, such as Netscape Navigator, Firebird, etc.(Gecko 1.7+)
Processor: 200 MHz minimum (700 MHz+ recommended)
RAM: 64MB minimum (256 MB recommended)
Hard Drive: no minimum requirement
Display: 1024 x 768, 16-bit color or higher

The system configuration for staging and production servers depends largely on load and reliability requirements. Below are some average system specifications:

iOn Admin Web Server:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Server, Linux, Solaris, or any other OS for which a Java Virtual Machine (1.4.2 or later) is available
Application Server: Jakarta Tomcat, Macromedia JRun, IBM WebSphere, or any other Java servlet container that supports the JVM and selected Web server
Web Server Software: Apache, IIS, or any other Web server supported by your Application server
Processor: 700+MHz dual-processor
RAM: 1GB
Hard Drive: 40GB

iOn Site Web Server(s):

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Server, Linux, Solaris, or any other OS for which a Java Virtual Machine (1.4.2 or later) is available
Application Server:Jakarta Tomcat, Macromedia JRun, IBM WebSphere, or any other Java servlet container that supports the JVM and selected Web server
Web Server Software: Apache, IIS, or any other Web server supported by your Application server
Processor: 700+MHz dual-processor
RAM: 1GB
Hard Drive: 20GB

Database Server(s):

Operating System: Any OS supported by your RDBMS
RDBMS: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or Oracle 9i+ (with Oracle Text)
Processor: 700+MHz dual-processor
RAM: 2GB
Hard Drive: 40GB