Gupta Sanjeev Gupta

FatWire and OpenText WEM -- newer names, older technology

15-Sep-2011

Tags: Web Content and Experience Management, Marketplace at Large, Selecting Technology, FatWire Content Server, Vignette - OpenText

Web Experience Management (WEM) is the latest buzz word in the WCM marketplace, having been adopted -- at least in theory -- by vendors small and large.  I recently took a closer look at two of the larger vendors: FatWire Content Server (Oracle Sites after being acquired by Oracle) and OpenText WEM (the former Vignette WCM). 

FatWire had been one the first WCM vendors to adopt the WEM mantra after expanding its offerings to include Gadget Server and Mobility Server. Ironically, in its last pre-acquisition release, FatWire focused mostly on back-end improvements, like Eclipse IDE integration, installation “accelerators,” monitoring, and diagnostics tools.  The fate of some of the optional modules (which overlap with incumbent Oracle tools) remains uncertain.

OpenText WEM is the company's attempt to reverse the long, painful decline of Vignette VCM. With it's latest release, OpenText has modernized its messaging, marketing, and product naming, but the software...not so much.  To be fair, the vendor did clean up the interface a bit and added some nice asset management services, but customers need to remain especially wary about overlapping portal services. 

Read more about these product releases (and others) in our recently updated Web Content Management Vendor Evaluations version 20.2.

    Excerpt from the FatWire Content Server Evaluation

    Web Content Management Report looks at... Personalization in Content Server

    "If there is a shortcoming to FatWire's approach here, it is that the content assembly rules can become rigid and difficult to override manually once in place. Again, the product is optimized for..."
    (p. 273)

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