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EPiServer goes public

27-Jan-2010

Tags: Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software, Web Content and Experience Management, Vendor Viability & Financials, EPiServer

Like nearly all its competitors, Swedish Web CMS and Social Software vendor EPiServer is doing well financially. The company reports nearly $30m in revenues over 2009 and now boasts almost 3,000 customers. So perhaps it's no surprise that last week, EPi announced its intention to go public (on the Stockholm Exchange).

Of course, we're technology analysts, not financial analysts. But in our reviews (we cover EPiServer CMS in our Web CMS Report, and a new EPiServer Community evaluation will soon be added to the Enterprise Collaboration & Community Software Report) we always pay attention to the figures, as well: these can be essential to judge the viability of a company and its products. In that respect, EPi's public offering is good news, since it means the company will be required to publish growth and revenue data. (That doesn't mean there won't be spin on the numbers: the press release mentions EPiServer "has grown twice as fast as the WCM market in general," which seems hard to quantify.)

Of course, it's quite possible that for EPi itself, a much more important benefit is that a public company has a lot more maneuverability. Readers of our reports will know that EPiServer has steadily been expanding its portfolio with acquisitions over the past few years. That's going to be a lot easier once EPi's venture capitalists have cashed in and the company can trade on its shares. So watch this space -- I have a feeling EPiServer will soon be adding more .NET products to its line-up.

But also, watch your relationships at the vendor.Sometimes after a respectable number of months following an IPO key company staff cash in and leave. That's not typically a disaster, but EPiServer customers should maintain multiple points of contact just in case.

    Excerpt from the EPiServer Evaluation

    Web Content Management Report looks at... Dragging Pages in EPiServer

    "Like Alterian and some other tools, EPiServer allows editors to drag and drop articles within the left navigation tree, enabling them to move pages and site sections around quickly (Figure 203). This is, of course, a familiar experience to Windows Explorer, but once again, note the emphasis on pages rather than discrete content items..."
    (p. 452)

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