We've released a major update to our Web Content and Experience Management (WCXM) Evaluation Stream, which reviews 35 major CMS products from around the globe.

First and foremost, you will notice the name change: from WCM to WCXM.  To be clear, we're not after adding more ingredients to the acronym soup. However, the marketplace is undeniably changing. Customers and vendors are moving towards more sophisticated ways of managing their web content and the resulting customer experience. It is no longer just about managing content or just on the web.

With this in mind, we have also updated our scenarios and vendor ratings criteria to reflect the latest use cases, and features and functions we evaluate in the WCXM products.  For example, we pay much greater attention to mobile capabilities, which are surprisingly weak in this class of tools.

Version 21.0 also includes updated reviews of the following vendors:

• EPiServer – focusing on mobile and commerce with Mediachase acquisition, but highlighted by slow penetration in North America despite many hires
• Joomla! – slow progression with some concerns from the community about the impact of the long-awaited major 2.5 release
• Drupal – increasing commercialization under the watchful eye of Acquia, coupled with major talent shortage

Another key theme comes courtesy of today's press release: the increasing trend toward commercialization of open source Web Content & Experience Management (WCXM) solutions.

What does that mean for you, the buyer? You need to keep an eye on the narrowing gulf between open source and proprietary business models and how they might affect your CMS purchasing decision.

We’ve discontinued coverage of the following Web CMS vendors (though you can still access archived versions of our reviews):

• EMC | Documentum (now sunset)
• VYRE
• PaperThin
• Oracle (UCM) -- maintaining coverage of former FatWire tool
• Alterian (acquired by SDL)

We’ll be adding new vendors, including ModX and SalesForce, in forthcoming updates to the WCXM stream.

As always, our WCXM stream subscribers can download Version 21 in its entirety, or just individual chapters, and comparison charts immediately. For those of you not familiar with our evaluations, go ahead and download a free sample here.