As we have argued previously, Microsoft CMS 2002 (MCMS) has proven rather complicated and overpriced for the company's VAR channel and departmental customers.

In its annual Expo now underway in New York City, AIIM (the Enterprise Content Management Association) has once again laid out a surprisingly sumptuous banquet of exhibitors (500+) and conference tracks (5+) for visitors.

With a new lite version of its CMS product, Microsoft is targeting the lower end of the marketplace -- where many observers thought the company belonged in the first place (see our earlier take).

MS CMS has always been kind of a tweener, not quite enterprise-ready in scope, but not priced competitively with other mid-market players either.

We have frequently pointed out that MS Content Management Server provides mid-market functionality at an upper-tier price ($125k out of the gate).

We like migration tools. They're practical.

RedDot and Microsoft frequently go head-to-head in competitions for Windows-based web CMS packages in the mid-market price/feature range.

With the long-awaited release of CMS2002, Microsoft has finally coverted the product from the relatively straightforward nCompass architecture to .NET -- in a very big way.

Microsoft just announced the Beta release of Content Management Server 2002, due out in production Q4 of this year.

After making only modest revisions to the Resolution product it acquired (a decision we heartily applauded), Microsoft developed more expansive plans for Version 2.0, tentatively titled MS CMS 2002.

The MS Content Management Server (formerly nCompass Resolution) just won a Crossroads 2002 A-List award.

After at least two years of standing on the sidelines, Microsoft joins the CM market, with its launch of "Content Management Server" -- only 3 months following its acquisition Ncompass Resolution.