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!
