The original movable type

Six Apart is banking on the notion that blogging functionality is so critical to the future of business that it will ultimately become a stock integration in company sites, reports Reuters. Movable Type 4 is a gesture toward easing that transition.

The San Francisco-based company launched a free upgrade to its business blogging software, Movable Type 4 beta. The platform not only enables businesses to manage hundreds of blogs, but also gives employees tools to create traditional static web pages through a partnership with Microsoft's Windows Live Writer.

Though blogs have been a hit at the office for publishing, marketing and internal communication, they've proven lackluster for other organizational needs and business software tools do not typically include a blogging component.

To combat this, Movable Type 4 - which is also open source - boasts over 50 new editing and system management features. Including these, all plugins and components of the updated blogging software can be added-to or removed, including the blog aspect itself, according to CMSWire.

This flexibility positiones Movable Type outside the realm of standard blog publishing platforms, where the blog component cannot itself be removed.