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Alterian drops Immediacy

4-Feb-2010

Tags: Web Content and Experience Management, CMS, Content Manager Corporate Edition, Content Manager Enterprise Edition, EPiServer, Web Site Management

Software vendor Alterian has cleared up which Web CMS software it wants to try to sell you in the future. In short, all of their alphabet soups going forward will taste like Morello.

The U.K.-based vendor will be dropping the "Content Manager Corporate" edition product (CMC, formerly known as Immediacy) and concentrate its WCM efforts on the Enterprise Edition (CME, formerly Mediasurface Morello). The company expects to release "CM7" this fall as a successor to both CME and CMC, but this will really be an updated CME, not an integration of CME and CMC.

Readers of our Web CMS Research will know that when Alterian bought Mediasurface, the company was juggling three systems, ranging from

  • Hosted Pepperio
  • .NET and page-based Immediacy
  • Java/.NET object-oriented Morello

Pepperio quickly found a new home. But two distinct, full-blown WCM solutions is still a lot to carry (just ask Open Text).

Alterian would much rather focus on providing a one-stop online marketing solution, so rallying around a single WCM tool as part of that broader package makes a lot of sense -- for the vendor.

For customers, it's a different story. No doubt CME/Morello users will be happy to see Alterian focus on that system, which -- like all the tools we cover -- has had its fair share of problems. On the other hand, Alterian says it will support CMC/Immediacy "indefinitely," but the "upgrade" to CM7 will really be a wholesale migration. (Alterian promises scripts to ease the transition.) Current CMC customers and integrators will have to get up to speed on a new system that is architecturally completely different. Custom plugins won't work anymore, and the move from a page-based system to objects and fragments is far from trivial -- for authors as well as developers.

If you're currently looking for a CMS, it's probably fair to say that Alterian's soon-to-be defunct CMC should drop off your shortlist. If you want a system like CMC/Immediacy -- that is to say, page-based and .NET -- you should probably consider Ektron, EPiServer, GOSS, or Kentico instead. If you want to place a larger bet with Alterian, then your option is now simplified to CME. Just don't forget, that's a Mid-Range Platform, and a lot more complex than a Simpler Product.

    Excerpt from the Web Site Management Evaluation

    Web Content Management Report looks at... Documentation in Open Text Web Experience Management

    "Documentation exists, but licensees complain it is quite cursory at times, leaving some features undocumented. A web search will turn up a lot of miscellaneous documentation, much of which is just old enough to be unreliable. Like many companies in this space, OpenText keeps its documentation hidden from public view, giving the impression of a closed, proprietary approach to technology in a time of increasing openness...."
    (p. 225)

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