Cms services

I received an e-mail this weekend from a very confused researcher of Web Content Management systems. The first result they found in their search results (Ask, Google) was this paid advertisement from Clickability:Search results from Ask and GoogleI don't blame this person for being confused -- as readers of The Web CMS Report 2008 know, Clickability is not an Open Source offering. Apparently Clickability's marketing department has confused Software as a Service for Open Source.Unless, of course, Clickability released their codebase into open source and didn't tell anyone about it? I highly doubt it.

In many ways, ASP solutions are ideal for basic eGov initiatives, because they enable managers to focus less on the technology and more on delivering quality information and services to citizens. But government organizations seem to have been unusually reluctant to sign on to hosted CMS solutions. There are a lot of reasons for this: security and integration concerns (real or otherwise), tight relationships with systems integration (SI) firms that perceive ASPs as competitors, and sheer lack of exposure to hosted solutions. This may be starting to change. ASPs are getting traction at local government levels around the world -- and in the USA CrownPeak recently broke through a glass ceiling of sorts by inking a deal with the federal US Trade Representative...Read about CrownPeak and the USTR

Tables have traditionally been the bane of authors and producers trying to manage structured content or output disability-friendly presentations. Most Web content management users wish their CMS package handled tables better. Part of the problem is that people use tables to represent very different things, and construct them in highly different ways. A nice little primer from Data Conversion Laboratory (a conversion service bureau) outlines the top 10 challenges and pitfalls of converting tables to XML...Read the Primer

Faithful readers know that CMS Watch is bullish on syndication because it can multiply the value of your content. One of the simpler approaches touted here before, headline syndication via RSS, now has a new proponent. The free "Syndic8" service will review and categorize your feed, making it more accessible to potential subscribers...Visit the Syndic8 website

People frequently ask me about where their Web Publishing efforts should end and Social Software begin. Like so many things, the answer is, "it depends." For example, one important question is whether you are talking about intranets versus a public site, which will likely exhibit very different interaction and security models. I can certainly understand the confusion. Our recent research on Web CMS and Enterprise Social Software suggests a definite overlap from a tools perspective. But our research also found most Web CMS tools coming up short when it comes to deeper forms of Social Networking and Collaboration. (See today's press release for more details). Meanwhile, most Social Software tools lack -- in some cases deliberately lack -- the sort of heavier-duty systems and administrative services that you would want behind an enterprise website.

US-based web analytics company WebSideStory recently announched the launch of its Active Marketing Suite in Europe. The company has had an office in Europe for a while, but mostly sold their flagship Hitbox analytics package there. Now they intend to sell their broader "suite" -- which includes the former Atomz website search and web content management services -- on a hosted basis in Europe. The SaaS market here remains quite open, and while WebSideStory is a lesser known brand than some other plausible big players, they do have a broad market focus, unlike many current European services. Meanwhile, UK vendor Mediasurface has relaunched the hosted CMS service it acquired last year, now called "Pepperio."

ArsDigita, the open-source CMS and community-collaboration services company founded by Web-database guru Phil Greenspun, has called it quits. As with other similar cases (Astoria, eBT), the professional services team will continue on under a different company (in this case, RedHat). And no doubt the folks at MIT will keep the somewhat blander, Tcl-and-Postgres ACS Community System going. But still goes to show you that even open-source CMS projects are not immune from turbulence in the industry...Read about ArsDigita closing

Major CMS vendors are declaring revenue growth and modest profits. That's good for the industry as a whole, but rising sales in many cases reflects cumulative income from newly-acquired products. Interwoven eked out a rare profit as did Stellent, who continues to hire more staff. Vignette generated earnings too -- as long as you don't apply generally-accepted accounting practices. We think all these vendors could come under increased pressure in 2005 to realize greater economies from their acquisitions, which means possible staff or service reductions. Customers should stay on top of product road-maps and measure how well their vendor(s) hit release milestones...

By Version 5.x, Interwoven's TeamSite family of CMS products faced 2 main challenges: a plethora of confusing user interfaces, and a developer-unfriendly customization environment. With the newly released Version 6.0, the company has focused intently on the former problem by putting all content managers into a unified, portal-like interface. Interwoven hardly touched the product's back-end, however, and is placing a big bet that a new Web Services-based API will allow the product to meet the integration needs of new customers without having to uproot the sunk investments already made by the company's sizable installed base. We like the new interface -- Interwoven will always appeal to MarCom types -- but still think a back-end overhaul remains overdue...Visit Interwoven

In "How IBM Conned My Execs Out Of Millions," a former project manager at a major U.S. defense contractor details how a mid-sized contract with IBM turned into a nearly bottomless pit of software and services. It's hard to gauge the story's truthfulness, but the author, Tristan Yates, wrote it for attribution, which was gutsy and makes it more credible. For those of you who read Matthew Clapp's classic "Should a 'Big 5' firm implement your CMS?" in these pages, the story will sound familiar. It should also come as little surprise that Yates' calamity started out as a "portal project." Remember, portal software itself actually doesn't do much at all. After the last PowerPoint slide showing that spiffy portal "dashboard" fades to black, the hard work of integrating content and data begins, so prepare yourself for investing in more software and more services -- often a lot more services

"Keiretsu" is the Japanese term for a grouping of affiliated companies that form a tight-knit alliance to work toward each other's mutual success. Hosted CMS vendor CrownPeak has cobbled together such an alliance that now includes hosted e-mail services, search, ad serving, and web page delivery, along with an SDK to put it all together. We're not too keen on CrownPeak's "onshore vs. offshore" ousourcing angle. But we like the hosted keiretsu concept as a whole, because it allows organizations to undertake more sophisticated and unified web applications while still outsourcing the infrastructure...Read about CrownPeak's offering

Microsoft just announced the Beta release of Content Management Server 2002, due out in production Q4 of this year. On paper, the update looks to solve two glaring holes in the current version: lack of MS Office integration and dearth of XML support. And because it's Microsoft, they hyperaccelerated the product's Web Services support. We wonder if customers are ready for a Web Services integration "wizard," but if it actually works, and Microsoft doesn't elevate its license fees, this new version could really raise the bar in its Upper-Tier segment of the CMS market. One caveat we've been reiterating: this looks to us to have all the makings of a major migration for those using the current version of the product....

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare delivers a highly interactive online experience through its Web site and portal, including 800,000 pages of health-related content plus online services tailored to address patients' andphysicians' needs. Learn how Ektron's CMS is enabling this ambitious healthcare vision to become reality. Submitted by Ektron

A growing number of CMS vendors are emerging to serve individual users or small workgroups that don't enjoy access to an IT group nor possess a dedicated webserver upon which they could load COTS software. Some products work exclusively at the desktop, managing content and pregenerating HTML for upload to your (presumably shared) server. Others provide a transparent ASP service with a WYSIWYG editor in a browser, sitting between you and your public site. Pricing for the latter runs as low as $20/month per user. The latest entrant is GlobalScape, makers of the popular "CuteFTP" product -- their CMS-for-the-masses is due out later this year...Read the GlobalScape Release

Three months ago, Interwoven announced a draft specification for accessing content management facilities via Web Services. With the putative support of several portal vendors, Interwoven published a WSDL definition and a couple of draft DTDs. We'd like to hear from anyone who has tried to use or participate in this standard. Our suspicion, though, is that standards bodies that include only one CMS vendor are unlikely to attain critical traction... Review the Specs