I was disappointed that IICE does not support CRM, despite specific claims that it does so. Rather, IICE can be said to complement a CRM application by federating access to all the documents, records, and images that might form part of a customer's relationship --but this benefit exists only if a bridge is first written between the CRM software and IICE. And you have to write this bridge yourself --astonishingly, IBM provides no off-the-shelf bridges for the three or four extant CRM packages.

IICE's primary benefit is providing a federated means to search, retrieve, manage, and administer data items in repositories and ECMs. It does this well and uses an easy-to-understand interface, so users will become productive quickly. For enterprises with heterogeneous ECMs, IICE is an attractive solution.

That said, there's no doubt that IICE is heavily enterprise-oriented. It accesses only large ECM systems; smaller repositories that an SMB might use are pointedly not supported. The product is priced on a per-CPU and per-connector basis, with prices starting at a US$75,000 for one CPU and a single connector. Because it makes no sense to buy IICE unless you need two or more connectors, expect to spend more for even a minimal system. At these price levels, IICE's enterprise ambitions are obvious.

All in all, I was impressed with how well IICE's federation works and its good bidirectional support for content modifications and data management. This last aspect is especially intuitive, as is the passel of administrative features. However, more options for controlling performance, integration with more packages, and less aggressive pricing would make this product far more attractive.

BOTTOM LINE: IBM WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition v. 8.3