Selecting Vendors
Here we look at tools, vendors, products, and .... the challenge picking the right ones.
Article: WCM 2009
What Next for Web CMS Vendors?
After two years of feverishly adding social applications and AJAXy interfaces, Web CMS vendors have come to a crossroads, argues CMS Watch analyst, Kas Thomas. They are slowly figuring out how to co-exist with SharePoint -- but don't expect other major innovations in 2009, says Kas, as vendors look to back-fill architectures and squash proliferating bugs...
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Article: Web Analytics 2008
Web Analytics Vendor Cross-Check H2/2008
It is all too easy to select web analytics vendors for your shortlist based on their supposed "leadership" status in the market -- status either conferred by analyst firms or assumed by the vendors themselves. However, CMS Watch analyst Theresa Regli argues that you need to look more closely at product and vendor alike -- and understand where both are headed -- to properly evaluate your longterm risks and opportunities in an evolving marketplace...
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Article: EMC World 2008
High Stakes for Documentum
CMS Watch principal Alan Pelz-Sharpe headed to Vegas last week to participate in the annual EMC World show. Amid partying storage sales guys and dazed content management developers he witnessed a Documentum product line-up getting increasingly eclipsed by other EMC offerings. For EMC it's a reasonable bet, but for Documentum software customers, the stakes are high indeed...
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Article: Analyst Relations
Advice for vendors dealing with independent analysts
CMS Watch principal Alan Pelz-Sharpe takes a break from advising technology buyers to share a few bits of advice for vendors trying to influence independent analysts. Vendors are always trying to pitch "a story," and often fight vigorously to enforce a party line among analysts, but the real story, Alan argues, comes from the people who matter most: the technology customer...
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Article: DAM-Trends
Innovations in Digital Asset Management, Circa 2008
The Digital Asset Management (DAM) marketplace doesn't receive a lot of attention, but DPCI's Joseph Bachana argues that some very interesting developments are transpiring. The problem is, no single vendor has a lock on how to combine all these innovations into a comprehensive offering...
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Article: Search 2008
Enterprise Search Vendor Landscape, Circa 2008
You might be tempted to select enterprise search vendors for your shortlist based on their supposed
"leadership" status in the market -- status either conferred by analyst
firms or assumed by the vendors themselves. However, CMS Watch analyst Theresa Regli argues that you need to look more closely at product and vendor alike -- and understand where both are headed -- to properly evaluate your longterm risks and opportunities in an evolving marketplace...
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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: Portals 2008
Enterprise Portal Marketplace: 2008 Vendor Risk Profile
It is all too easy to identify vendors for your shortlist based on their supposed "leadership" status in the market. But CMS Watch contributing analyst Janus Boye argues that CIOs, procurement officers, and other technology leaders considering investments in enterprise portals should carefully examine the risk profile of prospective vendors to help identify the right "fit" for their needs.
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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: Search Trends
Enterprise Search: Trends for 2008
What's new in enterprise search? Very much and very little, argues CMS Watch Contributing Analyst Adriaan Bloem. Based on just-completed market research, Adriaan concludes that enterprise search customers and vendors alike are still grappling with key usability and technical challenges. But 2007 saw substantial marketplace ferment, and 2008 is likely to bring more...
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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: 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: ECM 2007
Enterprise Content Management Marketplace: Opportunities and Risks
Buyers looking at strategic ECM investments can find product research from CMS Watch and other analyst firms, but, Alan Pelz-Sharpe argues, you need to look beyond the tools to the vendors themselves. And here, Alan finds that some of the biggest and well-known vendors are undergoing substantial change right now, at some near-term risk for their customers...
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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: 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: OpenCms 6
OpenCms 6.0: A Review
OpenCms is perhaps the best-known Java-based open source Web CMS. But how does the package really work, and when is it best employed? Two consulting engineers, Slava Asipenko and Yuval Zukerman, detail the pros and cons of OpenCms, with some conclusions about its suitability for various scenarios...
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