E-Spirit

e-Spirit is is a commercial Software company that develops and markets the FirstSpirit CMS Web content management system. The company was founded in 1999 in Dortmund, Germany and established a US presence in 2011.

The company's FirstSpirit CMS is a Java-based offering now in its fifth major release. It is used at more than 200 companies worldwide for intranets, extranets and externally facing websites and for mobile and print distribution of content. FirstSpirit is used across many different industry segments. Notable customers include Adidas, BASF, Bosch, Commerzbank, KLM and Speedo.

History

e-Spirit was founded in Dortmund, Germany. Product development was financed out of the firm's first client projects.

In 2004, e-Spirit released FirstSpirit Version 3.1 that included a graphical editor to map database schema to Web content. This allowed content from different sources to be published via multiple output schemas. Integration support with SAP was added.

In 2009, e-Spirit released FirstSpirit Version 4.2 that focused on usability with a number of new functions including integrated WYSIWYG PREview, content highlighting, extended drag and drop, and multi-tabbing. During this period, integration support was added for Microsoft SharePoint, Liferay and IBM WebSphere. Through the AppCenter, integration for any web application was added.

e-Spirit introduced FirstSpirit Version 5.0 in 2012. A new module “UX-Bridge” was introduced as an integration and update platform for a live website and usability was further enhanced. Other capabilities included social media, content targeting, recommendation engines and support for user generated content in live websites. Integration for IBM WebSphere Commerce was added.

Content Integration Platform

e-Spirit developed FirstSpirit integrates with SAP NetWeaver, Microsoft SharePoint and Liferay as well as integration with IBM WebSphere Commerce, Intershop, Oracle ATG and a number of other third-party offerings. The FirstSpirit AppCenter also allows integration of online marketing tools and external Web and cloud applications.

Reception

e-Spirit has been included in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management in 2011 and 2012 based on Gartner’s criteria for revenue and market impact.

External links

e-Spirit official site: e-spirit.com
FirstSpirit 5 site: fs5.e-spirit.com