Interwoven’s content management software works just fine—but trying to upgrade it can be a waking nightmare, say some customers.
“We’ve run into nothing but problems” with upgrades, says Rick Peltz, chief information officer for commercial real estate investment brokerage Marcus & Millichap. “It’s horrible.” In July 2002, Peltz deployed the WorkSite collaborative document system (then sold by iManage, which Interwoven acquired in 2003). The idea was to provide a Web-based collaboration tool for the firm’s 900 agents to exchange documents with prospective clients.
Since then, Marcus & Millichap has upgraded the software three times. Each time, Peltz says, the upgrade failed to work and the firm had to pay for Interwoven’s professional services to complete the installation. “My feeling is they don’t have a well-defined [quality assurance program] to test the upgrades,” Peltz says. He plans to replace WorkSite with Microsoft’s SharePoint document-sharing server.
Interwoven’s Web content management system, TeamSite, also has been difficult to upgrade, according to Kevin Mayes, director of global knowledge management for Aon. The insurance brokerage and consulting firm first rolled out TeamSite in 1999. “Every upgrade we’ve gone through has been a humongous effort,” he says. Aon’s upgrade two years ago to TeamSite 5.5 took three months; Mayes had thought it would require less than a month. “We got some incremental good stuff, but nothing in comparison with the pain,” he says.
Kevin Cochrane, Interwoven’s vice president of Web content management, acknowledges some older versions of its software required “a number of days of migration planning,” but that recent releases have been easier to upgrade. “We’ve come a long way,” he says.
And to be sure, some Interwoven customers say upgrades have been routine. “There have been little glitches, but we’ve caught 99% of them during testing,” says Robert Buttacavoli, head of Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s technology practice.
Another contented content manager: Craig Wilson, manager of information systems at Winthrop & Weinstine, a Minneapolis law firm that uses WorkSite. He says the software is easy to use—letting employees set up sites to share documents with clients in less than 15 minutes—and that his dealings with the company have been trouble-free. As Wilson puts it: “Interwoven’s support is superior.”
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Interwoven operating results*
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*Fiscal year ends Dec. 31; YTD reflects first three months
Source: company reports
Other Financials**
Total assets – $392.56M
Stockholders’ equity – $289.81M
Cash and equivalents – $58.65M
Short-term investments – $82.46M
Long-term debt – None
Shares outstanding – 41.14M
Market value, 4/25 – $346.56M
**As of March 31, 2005, except as noted
