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Social Software Technology Marketplace Growing Up

CMS Watch finds vendors focusing more on specific business needs

BOSTON, MA, USA-- Social Software vendors are increasingly focusing on specific business needs, including scenario-specific solutions and analytics, according to new research released today by independent analyst firm, CMS Watch at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference.

 

These findings come from the latest version of CMS Watch's Enterprise Social Software & Collaboration Report 2009, which evaluates twenty-seven social computing platforms against eleven enterprise use-cases. Vendors reviewed include IBM, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Jive, Telligent, Awareness, Drupal, SocialText, blueKiwi, Wordpress, Atlassian, Lithium, and Ning.

"Despite some notable exceptions among wiki vendors, Social Software suppliers in 2009 are easing their pace of feature expansion in favor of better solutioneering and productization, with more emphasis on things like performance and analytics," noted CMS Watch founder, Tony Byrne. "In other words, they're growing up."

As another measure of marketplace maturity, CMS Watch also found Social Software vendors settling into traditional categories, including best-of-breed vs suite vs platform; SaaS vs installed; and open source vs commercial. "Customers have many good choices," adds Byrne.

Other findings from CMS Watch include:

  • System and administrative services - things like back-up, archiving, and multi-instance management services - still remain weak across the board in this marketplace
  • "Cloud" computing is beginning to impact the Social Software market and blur line between on-premise and SaaS, as more vendors employ services from Amazon and others
  • SharePoint 2010 could still become a disrupter if Redmond dramatically improves the platform's social networking services, but it is too late for SharePoint to dominate across Social Software use-cases in an increasingly crowded marketplace

 

Nevertheless, countering SharePoint requires more than functional bells and whistles. "Social Software vendors are slowly realizing that they can't do without ‘enterprise’ services and reliability any more than their stodgier predecessors," concludes CMS Watch Analyst, Adriaan Bloem.

The Enterprise Social Software & Collaboration Report 2009 is available for purchase online from CMS Watch (/Reports/Collaboration/).

About

Real Story Group is a uniquely “buy side” analyst firm, working solely for MarTech platform buyers and never for vendors.

RSG provides research and advisory services to help customers optimize their MarTech stacks. RSG evaluates Web Content & Experience Management, Digital Asset Management, Customer Data Platforms, AI for Marketing, Omnichannel Content Platforms, Journey Orchestration Engines, Email and Marketing Automation, Marketing Attribution, Ecommerce, and Personalization Platforms.