June 20, 2001

eXpanded Media strengthens content management expertise

eXpanded Media recently started with a number of strategic projects for Fortis AG. The scope includes an assessment and analisys of the requirements, as well as the integration of a content management system serving the extranet, website, intranet and brokers network of Fortis AG. This project will enable Fortis AG to organize the creation, publication and distribution of information from a single content management system. In terms of efficiency and productivity, there is no doubt that Fortis AG will profit from the implementation of a content management system. Information only has to be created once, and can be published in many different forms, with different subsets aiming at the target group.

Situated around high-end content management and middleware applicatie-management, these projects are a perfect fit for the expertise domains of eXpanded Media. eXpanded Media's relationship with Fortis AG began about a year and a half ago with the building of the Fortis AG corporate site.

You've probably noticed MaoMagazine -a magazine for research journalism and subculture news- at one of the many public places in Flanders. Or maybe you met MaoMagazine on the Internet?. (www.mao.be or www.maomagazine.com for the international version)? These are eXpanded Media developed sites. Our company did not only deliver the public websites, but also Mao's editorial system, built entirely on web technology. Besides the redaction team in Belgium, freelance journalists all over the world to write articles, send photographs etc use the system. The editors-in-chief have all the functionalities one can expect from an advanced redaction system.

eXpanded Media has been a strategic partner of Vignette for a long time. That's why we used Vignette as the platform for Maos' website and editorial system. Professional editors all over the world use vignette, but it is one of the first Vignette implementations in Belgium. eXpanded Media will soon integrate advanced searching technologies in the Mao redaction system. This system will spider, collect and provide any relevant information within the Mao archives, the Internet and other information repositories to the journalist while he is writing his article. This makes searching in a search engine or, even worse, physical archives stored in the redaction redundant. We will use Autonomy for the implementation of this sophisticated search system, which will also be used for the user profiles, so you will be able to find your own personalised MaoMagazine on the Internet pretty soon!

Mutation Spotting (www.mutationspotting.com), based in London, is without a doubt a unique concept in Europe.
Imagine a company that wants to market a product for youngsters. The company wants to know the living environment of the target group in a specific region in Europe or another part of the world. 'Spotters' in the target area immediately take action and photograph, film and write down their findings. The collected material enables a team of analysts and journalists to perform a well-grounded research, which is invaluable for the company that wants to market the product. This software, that needs to operate through the Web to make such a global concept happen, is developed by eXpanded Media. Here too, we used Vignette for the editorial system and the website.

Are you surprised that the relationship between Vignette and eXpanded Media has tightened this year?. We will have more projects coming up soon which will profit from this fruitful partnership.