Vignette has acquired Intraspect in order to supply one-stop collaborative, portal-based content management systems that drive higher returns on investment.

The firm now plans to exploit the reseller market, particularly to help it win business in the local government and financial sectors.

Intraspect and Vignette want to develop J2EE-based solutions to pursue a model analysts call the 'smart enterprise suite' or 'enterprise web application'.

Adding Intraspect's collaborative capabilities to Vignette's proposition is designed to achieve this, while allowing communication and co-ordination of information on an enterprise-wide scale.

Intraspect's European reseller channel can expect changes to its portfolio's delivery in line with its new parent company's strategy.

"We are looking at local government and investment banking in the UK, but have not ruled out any areas. The more voices there are out there about this approach to the enterprise, the better," said Dan French, EMEA vice president and general manager at Intraspect.

"Our channel strategy has always been partner-based and this deal should strengthen and expand that base throughout Europe. Resellers' intimate knowledge of their markets can only be a good way of growing demand."

Charlie Abrahams, EMEA managing director at Vignette rival Plumtree, suggested that Vignette is following its own strategy.

"Nowadays, customers are looking for enterprise web services," he said. "To this end, we purchased some companies a couple of years ago to combine all these capabilities into one offering."

French conceded that it may be some time before Vignette can integrate Intraspect's technologies.

"I see Vignette's strategy as a validation of our own. But I would be interested to see how soon they could bring these technologies together and produce a really cohesive solution with an intuitive interface for the customer," he said.

"Knowing how long it's taken us, I would say that's still a couple of years off for Vignette, despite the strength of Intraspect's technology."

Resellers can expect to see a combined product offering brought to market by the end of the first quarter in 2004.