United the Web sites stand

The nation's largest private charity is standardizing its Web properties on a single content management solution. The United Way of America has chosen PaperThin's CommonSpot to centralize administration of its Web sites.

The United Way serves a network of more than 1,300 locally governed organizations, all of which share a common brand identity. Many of them run their own Web sites and rely on custom applications and static content. The new technology can be extended to those local groups, if they are interested.

Brian Leamy, VP of enterprise strategy for the United Way of America, says, "Standardizing on this content management solution will enable us to broaden communications, disseminate a uniform brand and message, and create a common and engaging experience for users. The solution can also be leveraged throughout our entire system."

Leamy adds, "We chose CommonSpot because its architecture favorably aligns with our technology infrastructure and United Way-centric applications. This will allow us to easily preserve items and seamlessly integrate them within multiple sites. It also provides a high level of scalability, which will be critical to our global efforts."

In a recent press release, PaperThin reports that its solution provides the following benefits:

• maintains a core brand experience across United Way of America Web properties while bolstering communications.
• Provides local United Way organizations with the opportunity to build and deploy a Web site and manage localized content.
• Provides both the national and local groups with the ability to replace custom applications with a solution that will reduce Web development and maintenance costs and empower non-technical users to manage content.