Sun Microsystems announced an agreement with Avaltus Inc., a provider of enterprise Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS), that enables customers to combine a standards-based learning management and learning content management solution using the Sun Enterprise Learning Platform and the Avaltus Jupiter LCMS Suite. This new solution also promotes both content and technology standards that can provide more flexibility to organizations in tailoring learning environments for their employees. The solution supports the Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), a set of interrelated technical specifications. These specifications enable the reuse of Web-based learning content across multiple environments and products by establishing the integration between learning management and content management systems. www.avaltus.com, http://sun.com

Vignette Corp. and Epicentric Inc. announced the availability of the Vignette V6 Portlet Library for Epicentric Foundation Server. The portlet library enables joint customers to integrate and access Vignette-managed content across multiple Web sites and portals through the user interface of the Epicentric Foundation Server. The Vignette V6 Portlet Library for Epicentric Foundation Server includes a set of content management and delivery portlets that facilitate content contribution, workflow, and site and channel management from Vignette V6 to the Epicentric portal. In addition, the portlet library leverages Epicentric Foundation Server security, customization and administration tools within Vignette V6. www.epicentric.com, www.vignette.com

SimStar Internet Solutions officially announced its alliance with Interwoven, Inc. The alliance, which provides SimStar with access to Interwoven resources, such as Interwoven TeamSite software and Interwoven OpenTransform, is designed to strengthen the company’s delivery capabilities for its behavior-based pharmaceutical e-marketing solutions. The collaboration will serve to enhance SimStar’s processes for content management, workflow, knowledge management, and content conversion. www.simstar.com

Arbortext, Inc. announced a focus on the life sciences industry that includes new product capabilities and new applications. This initiative enables pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and biotechnology companies to bring new and revised products to market faster while complying with complex regulatory requirements. The new applications are a combination of Arbortext core products, partner integration and consulting services. Arbortext’s Epic software provides a way for organizations to create, manage and publish complex business and technical documents, such as new drug applications, product information (package inserts, leaflets and labels), and written documentation of procedures that support the methods, facilities and controls used in the preparation, processing and packaging of pharmaceutical and medical products. Some of the new product capabilities to support this initiative include: Change tracking, Enhanced API including support for Active-X, Stronger integration with Documentum’s content management system, and Digital signatures and watermarks. www.arbortext.com

CambridgeDocs (was XYZ Technologies, Inc.) disclosed details on the company’s long-term product and architectural strategy, the XML Content Backbone. The company will focus on unstructured content such as that contained in Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, plain text and HTML documents. The XML Content Backbone is a software platform that will integrate the unstructured content from disparate systems across the enterprise and from the extended enterprise. The XML Content Backbone will be able to migrate, integrate, route, and assemble content from document management systems, content management systems, groupware systems, desktop applications, and publishing systems using any industry XML standard such as DocBook, RIXML, HR-XML, NewsML, LegalXML or any custom application XML schema. The first CambridgeDocs product will address the need to convert Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, and HTML documents into “meaningful” XML and where the meaning of XML is defined by the particular needs of the user. www.cambridgedocs.com

Ektron, Inc. announced the release of Ektron CMS100 version 2.0. In addition to supporting Microsoft ASP and Macromedia ColdFusion, the new release supports Microsoft ASP.NET and PHP platforms. Ektron’s browser-based content management solution provides core content authoring and publishing capabilities for US$499. Ektron CMS100 offers a familiar word processor-like editing toolbar and intuitive interface for content publishing by non-technical users. Web professionals can easily configure and customize the solution to maintain control over navigation, look and feel, and other site infrastructure. Beyond added support for ASP.NET and PHP, Ektron CMS100 now offers user-controlled dynamic navigation, whereby non-technical content contributors create dynamically generated navigation based upon content in the database. Additional enhancements include improved style sheet support, new search functionality, a new interface for editor configuration, and improved branding capabilities. www.ektron.com

Open Text Corporation is extending Livelink to offer integrated Web content management. The new offering will tie content management into Livelink’s knowledge management and collaborative capabilities. Information from other applications such as databases, document management repositories and other enterprise applications can be dynamically extracted and integrated into the website. Content Management for Livelink will also be fully integrated with Livelink’s collaboration tools, enabling workflows to be used for content approval processes, and providing access to real-time collaboration with Livelink MeetingZone. Content Management for Livelink will include: Content authoring and creation, Multilingual site creation and management, Content approval and staging, Content distribution and syndication, and Content delivery and personalization. Content Management for Livelink will also provide out-of-the-box integration with application servers and personalization engines, such as BEA’s Weblogic and IBM’s Websphere. www.opentext.com