Macromedia Unveils SiteSpring

Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR) recently announced Macromedia Sitespring, a new Web-based application for managing the Web site production process. Macromedia Sitespring enables professional Web teams to be more productive and more profitable in the creation of Web sites by reducing cycle time, eliminating file rework, and decreasing time spent on non-business focused activities. Macromedia Sitespring offers an integrated, server-based approach to team collaboration, file management, and client communications. Sitespring is reasonably priced to enable users to quickly achieve a return on their investment.

Using Macromedia Sitespring, Web teams have the ability to collaborate on design projects using Web-based project management and reporting functions specifically designed for the Web site production process. Sitespring features approachable file management capabilities that use transparent file versioning and archiving. These features ensure that valuable files are protected and the Web team is always working on the correct file versions, thus preventing costly rework. Web teams benefit from the automatic creation of dynamic, fully customizable and secure project sites for efficiently communicating with internal and external clients. Sitespring can also be used to manage interactions with contractors or freelance Web team members. Sitespring installs in just a few minutes and the entire team can be up and running on the product in an afternoon.

According to Gartner Research Director Barbara Gomolski “improving your project management processes and bringing in some professional caliber expertise could reduce cost overruns by 20 percent.” Sitespring is the answer for such integrated project management solutions.

“We have talked with hundreds of Web teams, learning about the many challenges that designers, developers, and clients have working together in producing Web sites,” said Kevin Lynch, president of Macromedia products. “Sitespring is the result of those discussions, providing the glue that connects products and people, working the way that Web teams work, offering all the members of a team an approachable, cost-effective solution to better manage this process.”

The integrated features of Sitespring focus on Web team collaboration, file management, and client communications. Specific capabilities of these features include:

Web team collaboration

• Personalized home pages that detail projects and tasks; accessible anytime, anywhere

• Free-form workflow for creating and forwarding tasks and files

• Custom reports and advanced search for drill-down visibility

• E-mail notifications for alerts and updates

• Quick start project cloning and import from Microsoft Project

• Workflow integration with Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 and Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 software applications

• Cross-browser and cross-platform support

File management

• Transparent file versioning

• Requires no change from how teams already access files

• One-click archiving to create snapshots of project files

• Associate files with tasks: launch, edit and save the correct file

• Search for files by associated task

• Works with any design and/or development product

• Automated disk management utilities keep disk space free

• Integrated version comments with Dreamweaver and UltraDev

Client communications

• Fully customizable templates for secure, professional project sites

• Client interface for tasks, requests, file upload and project status facilitates getting client deliverables on time

• Online review and approval including automatic approval logging

• Manage project site content directly from the browser

• Unlimited client user accounts at no extra charge

“It is really nice to be able to have an overview of an entire project, a snapshot of where my team is at any given point, both for me and my clients,” said Jeffrey Veen, partner, Adaptive Path LLC. “We’ve worked on some of the largest Web sites in the world, with thousands and thousands of files, each with multiple versions. Unlike most file systems that we’ve experimented with, Sitespring is specifically designed for that sort of task. It makes it very easy for us to customize client extranet sites, to build them and keep them up to date with the latest version of absolutely every file that we are working on. Sitespring really is the glue that brings the pieces of the Web site production process together.”

As an additional resource to Web professionals, Macromedia has created an online resource site detailing best practice techniques for efficiently and consistently delivering excellent user experiences. This information was garnered from hundreds of interviews with seasoned Web professionals. To access the site, click here.