Web CMS Kudos and Shortcomings, Circa 2007

By Tony Byrne at 2007-06-11 16:26:00 |

It's time for another review of capabilities in the Web CMS marketplace. The categories below, as well as our judgments about vendors excelling and lagging, come from the most recent edition of The Web CMS Report.

As with previous years (2002/03, 2004, and 2005), this list is limited to the 40 major solutions we review in the Global and European editions of The Web CMS Report. (For more information about these suppliers, visit our Web CMS vendors list).

Technology

Here we look at core systems attributes and services.

• Standards. Kudos to: Plone
   Honorable mention: Alfresco, Day
   Lagging: CoreMedia, Documentum, Hot Banana, Microsoft, RedDot, Tridion
• Development. Kudos to: Sitecore
   Honorable mention: CrownPeak, EPiServer, Microsoft, Percussion
   Lagging: Drupal, GOSS, Joomla!, TerminalFour, WebSideStory
• Access Control. Kudos to: Plone
   Honorable mention: Oracle/Stellent, TYPO3
   Lagging: Interwoven, Sitecore
• Templating. Kudos to: Percussion
   Honorable mention: Serena
   Lagging: Alfresco, Documentum, Escenic, Interwoven, Tridion
• Page Rendering. Kudos to: Hannon Hill
   Honorable mention: Midgard
   Lagging: Alfresco, Microsoft
• Usability. Kudos to: Joomla!
   Honorable mention: GOSS, Immediacy, Mediasurface
   Lagging: Documentum, Enonic, FatWire, IBM, Sitecore, TYPO3, Vignette
• Internationalization. Kudos to: IBM
   Honorable mention: Day, Microsoft, Plone, Tridion, TYPO3
   Lagging: CrownPeak, Hannon Hill, Joomla!, Oracle/Stellent, Paperthin, WebSideStory

 

Content Production Services

These are services that support the production of content, from conception to going live. There are several key features to examine here.

• Authoring & Transformation. Kudos to: Mediasurface
   Honorable mention: PaperThin
   Lagging: Documentum, Interwoven
• Aggregation. Kudos to: Day
   Honorable mention: Sitecore, Plone, Refresh Software
   Lagging: Drupal
• Repository Services. Kudos to: Alfresco
   Honorable mention: Clickability, Interwoven
   Lagging: Enonic, e-Spirit, Plone
• Metadata/Taxonomy Management. Kudos to: CrownPeak
   Honorable mention: Drupal, IBM, Paperthin
   Lagging: Alfresco, RedDot, Sitecore
• Workflow. Kudos to: e-Spirit
   Honorable mention: CoreMedia, IBM, Sitecore
   Lagging: Drupal, eZ Publish, Microsoft, Percussion, Refresh Software, TYPO3
• Globalization. Kudos to: Tridion
   Honorable mention: Day, eZ Publish, Documentum, Ektron, Sitecore
   Lagging: Microsoft, Serena, TerminalFour
• Promotion Path. Kudos to: IBM
   Honorable mention: Interwoven, RedDot.
   Lagging: eZ Systems, Immediacy, Oracle/Stellent
• System Reporting. Kudos to: Serena
   Honorable mention: CrownPeak
   Lagging: Day, Ingeniux, Sitecore, plus all the open source packages

Content Delivery Services

These services support the delivery of content to end-users. Some "decoupled" Web content management systems deliberately do not deliver content; they "hand off" content to a delivery system, such as a webserver, web application, or portal.

• Personalization. Kudos to: FatWire
   Honorable mention: Day, RedDot
   Lagging: Alfresco, CrownPeak, Joomla!, Documentum, Vignette
• Site Search. Kudos to: WebSideStory
   Honorable mention: CrownPeak, Microsoft
   Lagging: Enonic, Hot Banana
• Scaling & Performance. Kudos to: FatWire
   Honorable mention: N/A
   Lagging: Drupal, Ektron, IBM, PaperThin, Percussion
• Multichannel & Syndication. Kudos to: Tridion
   Honorable mention: CoreMedia, Escenic, Ingeniux, Percussion
   Lagging: Drupal, WebSideStory
• Content Retention. Kudos to: RedDot
   Honorable mention: Oracle/Stellent
   Lagging: Almost everyone else
• User-Generated Content. Kudos to: Drupal
   Honorable mention: Clickability, Plone
   Lagging: Almost everyone else
• Micro-Applications. Kudos to: Ektron
   Honorable mention: Drupal, Hot Banana, Oracle/Stellent, Plone, TYPO3
   Lagging: Clickability, Day, Sitecore
• Site Analytics. Kudos to: Tridion
   Honorable mention: FatWire, Hot Banana
   Lagging: Almost everyone else
  

Vendor Intangibles

A software package is more than the sum of its functional features. In fact, our research suggests that "vendor intangibles" will likely have a greater impact on your success than the specific product you select. (For open source tools, replace "vendor" with "project.")

• Maintenance & Support. Kudos to: Clickability
   Honorable mention: Hannon Hill, Ingeniux, Vignette
   Lagging: Alfresco, CoreMedia, Microsoft, OpenCms, Sitecore
• Integration & Tech Partnerships. Kudos to: Day
   Honorable mention: CrownPeak, Interwoven
   Lagging: Drupal, Immediacy, Joomla!
• Active User Groups. Kudos to: Interwoven
   Honorable mention: Clickability, Documentum, Microsoft, Plone
   Lagging: FatWire, IBM, OpenCms, Serena, Vignette
• Services & Channel. Kudos to: Sitecore
   Honorable mention: Documentum, Hot Banana, Interwoven, Microsoft, RedDot
   Lagging: Day, IBM, Mediasurface, Oracle/Stellent, Percussion, Refresh Software
• Product QA. Kudos to: N/A
   Honorable mention: CrownPeak
   Lagging: Ektron, IBM, Ingeniux, Sitecore, Tridion
• Strategy & Roadmap. Kudos to: Oracle/Stellent
   Honorable mention: Alfresco, Joomla!, Refresh Software
   Lagging: GOSS, IBM, Microsoft, OpenCms, Tridion
• Good Value. Kudos to: Drupal
   Honorable mention: CrownPeak, Hot Banana, Mediasurface, Plone
   Lagging: Alfresco, Interwoven, Microsoft, RedDot, Vignette

Final Thoughts

The Web CMS marketplace is evolving, but not as fast as you might think. All of these vendors are struggling to deal with many of the same issues: AJAX interfaces that won't crash your browser, performance bottlenecks (in both the management and deliver tiers), rapidly-evolving development frameworks, and the complexity of managing user-generated content.

And of course, we offer no "magic" or "leader" ranking. Six years after major analyst firms declared the WCM marketplace all but dead, there are no dominant vendors here, although the smarter ones are finding particular niches to exploit.

Some vendors might get several mentions, and others none at all, but doesn't automatically mean should include (or discount) them in making your short lists. Alfresco doesn't offer decent personalization services; should you care? Perhaps not.

I urge you to take a scenario-based approach that will help you understand which functionalities and attributes matter most to you. And, as always, carefully evaluate the implementation team as closely as you vet any software vendor.

So ask around, take the time to digest good research, and and then test any tool before you buy. Good luck!