Boston, MA, USA-- A "third wave" of European-based Web Content Management (CMS) vendors is hitting North American shores, offering buyers a greater variety of longstanding solutions, particularly in the areas of .NET support and open source platforms, according to research released today by independent evaluation firm, CMS Watch.

These conclusions stem from the most recent release of The Web CMS Report 2009, in which CMS Watch interviewed web content management customers around the globe to evaluate forty-two solutions in the marketplace. The research can be purchased online from CMS Watch (http://www.realstorygroup.com).

"European and UK web content management vendors have tried to crack the North American marketplace for the past decade, with mixed success," notes CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne. The first wave of successful entrants included Germany-based RedDot (since acquired by Open Text) and Swiss vendor Day Software. Several years ago, a second wave of vendors - notably Denmark's Sitecore and Netherlands-based Tridion - successfully expanded into North America, partly on the strength of their multi-site management capabilities.

Now a "third wave" of European solutions is also making headway in North America. CMS Watch notes in particular:

• CMS vendors Telerik (Bulgaria) and EpiServer (Sweden) are beginning to challenge Ektron and Sitecore at the low- to mid-range of the market that emphasizes .NET architectures. "New entrants continue to fill the enormous vacuum left by lukewarm adoption of SharePoint as a Web CMS platform in the Microsoft world," argues CMS Watch analyst, Adriaan Bloem.
• Open source platforms eZ publish (Norway), TYPO3 (Germany), and Drupal (Belgium) have both expanded beyond their regional roots and acquired a loyal base of implementation partners in North America. "North American customers have always had a solid selection of open source alternatives, such as Plone, DotNetNuke, and Joomla," notes CMS Watch analyst Kas Thomas, "but recently we've seen a substantial expansion of supported offerings, particularly in the PHP camp."

Expanding choices makes for a more vibrant marketplace, but CMS Watch advises prospective customers to perform careful due diligence. "Crossing the Atlantic in either direction is very hard for a Web CMS vendor," adds Byrne. "Building effective support structures is a process that takes years, so North American customers should carefully weigh any newcomer’s current abilities as well as long-term staying power."

The Web CMS Report, now in its 17th edition, evaluates forty-two web content management vendors head-to-head against twenty-four key functional criteria and eleven core scenarios. It is available for immediate subscription at http://www.realstorygroup.com.