Byrne Tony Byrne

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Guide to What's New in The Web CMS Report Version 20

2-May-2011

Tags: Web Content and Experience Management

We've just published a major update to the Web CMS Report. This was a team effort and in the coming weeks my colleagues will be sharing a bit more about what's new in Version 20.0, but for today, I'll share a bit about our updated methodology.

In this major overhaul to the Web Content Management (CMS) evaluation research, we had two goals:

  1. To make it easier to compare product strengths and weaknesses at a glance, which we did by switching to "harvey balls" instead of check-marks
  2. To significantly update and revise the evaluation criteria, based on current trends in web content management technology

A longer advisory paper for our WCM stream subscribers provides an in-depth explanation and rationale for the many structural revisions in the new version. For now, I'll just share old and new versions of the charts we use. Of course, these charts are just a summary of the more in-depth (10-15pp) critiques for each of the 43 tools.

Old vs. New Ratings

We kept three overall categories -- Technology Services, Content Services, and Site Services -- but made substantial changes within them. We shaped the three segments to address the different needs of three important sets of stakeholders in your project: tech leads, content managers, and site/intranet/marketing managers.

Here's some old and new ratings for one of the vendors we evaluate.

Technology Services

Old New
Tech Services Old Tech Services New

Content Services

Old New
Content Services Old Content Services New

Site Services

Old New
Sites Services Old Sites Services New

Vendor Intangibles

Old New
VIs Old VIs New

Scenarios

Old New
Scenarios Old Scenarios New

No ratings system is perfect, and in the real world, our vision of, say, an ideal workflow service or site search engine may differ from your needs.  Use the ratings charts as a guide to investigate further in the detailed evaluation text. 

In the meantime, you can download a complimentary sample of the Web CMS Report here.

    Excerpt from the Site Manager Evaluation

    Web Content Management Report looks at... TerminalFour's Licensing Model

    "TerminalFour's comparatively inexpensive -- if unusual -- licensing model benefits those with small amounts of content. However, those with more content must pay dearly for it..."
    (p. 904)

    CMS Vendor Evaluations

    Learn the real strengths and weaknesses of major CMS vendors from around the world, in our Web Content and Experience Management research stream.