CMS Feature Articles
Article: Converging Content and Data
Love Your Local Data Warehouse Manager
Within most enterprises, the worlds of "data" and "content" remain far apart, despite recurring business needs to converge different types of information. Tony Byrne argues that data specialists have a lot to teach content specialists -- and vice-versa. The trick is finding common ground, allied interests, and a common vocabulary...
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Article: Pain in the SaaS
Pain in the SaaS? When your traditional software vendor hosts your application
CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne argues that, as a buyer, you should understand that contracting with a supplier simply to host and customize traditional software is not the same thing as working with a well thought-through, "native" Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that was built from the ground up by a company dedicated to providing such a service...
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Article: 2008 Predictions
Twelve Predictions for 2008
It's that time of year again. The CMS Watch analyst team ponders what to expect next year, and offers 12 predictions that we think will shape content technologies in 2008 -- from Google to Microsoft, Web/Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Search, Archiving, and more...
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Article: Facebook
Is Facebook in the Enterprise an Oxymoron?
Facebook is all the rage -- and consequently bringing Enterprise 2.0 to the fore. Is it time to revisit your Intranet platform? CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne looks at Facebook's benefits and demerits and concludes that your IT department could learn some important lessons about balancing employee enablement and control over information...
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Article: Vignette Demo
Vignette, Ajax, and Usability
Web CMS vendor Vignette recently released a new, dashboard-type interface featuring several Ajax controls. CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne demonstrates some of the ups and downs of this new approach, and poses some larger questions about usable interfaces...
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Article: WCM Trends 2008
Web CMS trends for 2008
The Web CMS industry is changing, but not always in ways you would expect, and along with innovation comes new challenges for customers. CMS Watch analyst Kas Thomas lays out seven key trends as we head into 2008, from Ajax (sort of) to Web Services (not) to coupled architectures (definitely) and more...
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Article: ECM-WCM-Portal
Do you need an ECMS, WCMS, or a Portal?
In a world where content technology categories overlap, how do you figure out which type of solution do you really need? CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne argues that the best approach to distinguishing among Web CMS, Enterprise Content Management, and Portal solutions is identifying the specific business scenario you're trying to address.
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Article: Document Analysis
A Lexicon for Document Analysis
Content analysis is a key pillar of successful content technology implementations. But a challenge comes, says CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne, in figuring out what to call content types and elements, when analysts, consultants, and vendors use different terms to mean the same thing...
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Article: WCM Marketplace
Web CMS Kudos and Shortcomings, Circa 2007
It's time again to review the Web CMS marketplace. Based on our latest comparative research, CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne issues kudos and demerits to a variety of major solutions. Of course the perfect Web CMS does not exist, but the broad distribution of strengths and shortcomings suggests a highly fragmented web content management market...
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Article: Better Demos
Ten steps to a successful vendor demo
CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne breaks with tradition to offer some advice to
vendors pitching their software to prospective customers: You made it past the
proposal round -- now here's how to deliver a better customer demo. Better demos,
Tony argues, can help vendor and customer alike.
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Article: Enterprise IA
Information Architecture, Meet the Enterprise Web
The first edition of Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville's famous "Polar
Bear Book" taught us how to think about information architecture for
a website. But what about website IA that spans multiple business units across
a distributed enterprise? The book's new third edition provides some practical
advice for IAs trying to negotiate the enterprise thicket...
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Article: CMS reputation
Don't let your CMS get a bad rap
Every project manager dreads it: the bad reputation that keeps a difficult project from ever succeeding. Your web content management project can quickly get a bad rap, notes CMS consultant Sara Redin, but a savvy manager can defeat it, maybe even before it forms...
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Article: 2007 Analyst Predictions
Predictions for 2007: The elusive quest for simple
The team at CMS Watch returns from the winter holidays to offer our predictions for 2007. The upshot? Things in the world of content technologies aren't as simple as they seem...
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Article: European Market
Marketplace Realities: A European Perspective
Janus Boye examines the content technology landscape from the perspective of a European customer, and finds much of concern (beta software, inexperience, confusing terminology), but much to laud (better accessibility, widespread choice) as well...
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Article: IE7 and You
New IE7 Shakes Up CMS and Portal Implementations
Is your CMS or Portal vendor ready for IE7? As your read this, Microsoft is updating PCs around the world, but Tony Byrne and Janus Boye point out that support for the new browser varies across the content technology marketplace. Whatever your application, you likely have some important testing to do...
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Article: Selecting CMS Tools
A Scenario-based Approach to Evaluating CMS Vendors
Every CMS vendor calls themselves a "leader," but what does that
really mean? Depending on your circumstances, leading-edge features can actually
hinder your efforts to manage web content effectively. So how do you evaluate
vendors for different use-cases? CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne outlines an approach
for vetting products against twelve common CMS scenarios...
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Article: Direct Web Remoting
Ajax and Your CMS
AJAX is cool, but is it functional? Jonathan Downes and Joe Walker look at the prospects for Ajax interfaces in Web content management systems, and find vendors doing a bit more to improve CMS interfaces than to support Ajax-driven websites...
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Article: Top 10 Fibs
Sex, Lies, and CMS Vendors
CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne argues that CMS vendors will sometimes short-cut important discussions with simple (but not always completely truthful) answers. Tony lists the top 10 myths you're likely to hear during the CMS sales process...
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Article: Localization in the context of taxonomies
When you need to localize and categorize
Targeting content to different geographic regions seems easy enough: just set up a locales attribute in your CMS and you're done, right? Not so fast, argues Molecular's Christian Donner. You need an information architecture that will make localized content accessible for the right audience in the right region, but enterprises frequently underestimate the complexity here...
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Article: Project Management
Why do CMS projects go over budget?
Lots of reasons, says CMS Watch contributing analyst, Janus Boye. Some of them stem from good old fashioned IT overruns, but CMS projects in particular are prone to budget shortfalls. Check out this list before creating your next budget...
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Article: CMS Marketplace
Vendor Kudos and Shortcomings, Circa 2005
CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne composes a 3rd-annual "Supergroup" of CMS vendors who excel—and lag—across a variety of features and capabilities...
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Article: Web Publishing
Placed vs. Dynamic Content
How do you want content to appear on your website? Should your authors "place"
content items on a specific page, or can you make your content smart enough
to just know where to go? Theresa Regli and Christian Donner explore the pros
and cons of "placed" vs. "dynamic" content management.
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Article: Professional Services
Identifying the Right Implementation Partner
So you carefully vetted your CMS vendor. That's good. But did you do as much diligence on the implementation team? Janus Boye returns to CMS Watch to argue that spending a little more time evaluating the right implementation partners will mean a big difference for the outcome of your project...
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Article: Point-Counterpoint
Suites vs. Best-of-Breed
Which is better, content management suites or best-of-breed solutions? See ECM suite vendor FileNet and Web content management vendor Tridion duke it out...
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Article: Java Repository Spec
JSR-170: What's in it for me?
The thought of reading a Java specification makes normal people sleepy. But if you follow content management at all, you'll want to take a closer look at an emerging Java specification for content repositories, "JSR-170." From the CIO to the web editor, there's something in JSR-170 for nearly everyone, argues CMS consultant Janus Boye and spec lead David Nuescheler...
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