Selecting a content management system
| Published date | 01 June 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720210473830 |
| Pages | 34-39 |
| Date | 01 June 2002 |
| Author | Martin White |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Selecting a content
management system
by Martin White, Managing Director,
Intranet Focus Ltd
Keywords: Knowledge management systems,
Information management, Software
Abstract: Selecting content management
system software cannot be accomplished just
by looking at brochures and comparing
features, as vendors offer a complex mix of
additional functionality around a core set of
application modules. To reduce the risks
inherent in the deployment of software that
will have a significant impact on the way an
organization works, it is important to prepare
a content management strategy as a
precursor to a formal definition of
requirements. The overall process can take a
year from the decision to explore the benefits
of a CMS, to having an organization-wide
deployment.
Introduction
At the Infonortics 2002 Search Engine Meeting
held in San Francisco in April, Claire Hart, a
CEO of Factive, presented a paper on the future
of search engines. One of the charts she used to
illustrate her paper was a comparison of the
number of documents in the Factive database
referring to knowledge management and content
management. Over the last few years the number
of papers on knowledge management have
declined but the numbers on content management
have increased substantially.
There are a number of reasons for this. One is that
since the demise of the dot.com industry in 2000,
companies that were providing web site
management software (such as Vignette,
Interwoven, and BroadVision) have shifted their
product focus to the provision of enterprise
content management solutions, that can cope
with the demands of intranet content
management, as well as the management of web
sites and extranets. This product shift has been
accompanied by a marketing shift, and as a result
organisations are now being made aware of the
benefits of an enterprise solution to content
management.
At the same time these organisations are
themselves recognising the impossibility of
managing complex intranets with just a page
authoring package and Microsoft Information
Server. Employees are very unforgiving of
intranet content that is no longer relevant or
accurate. In addition, these organisations have
invested in systems for personnel management,
customer management and resource management
that are increasingly accessed through a browser,
and in so doing are beginning to realise the
benefits of taking a corporate view of all this
digital information.
As a consequence of these factors a senior
executive may decide that the solution is to
purchase a content management system, and
depute someone, usually the web master, to make
a recommendation. But rather than being the
solution, this could be where the real problems
begin!
The content management
software industry
Any attempt to define the content management
industry is fraught with difficulties. There are
probably around 100 vendors offering some form
of content management, most of which are quite
small companies operating within their national
markets. Some of the larger companies have
evolved from providing solutions for
e-commerce web sites, but others (Documentum,
Gauss and Stellent) have a document
management background. Many are recent start-
ups (Tridion, Reef and Mediasurface) and there
are also many low-cost and open source products,
of which Zope is perhaps the best-known
example.
There are a number of implications for potential
purchasers of content management software. The
first (and probably the most important) is that the
commercial future of these companies may be
open to question. In the early part of 2002,
Interwoven, Vignette and Stellent all reported
revenues and profits that were below expectation,
#MCB UP Limited, ISSN 0305-5728, DOI 10.1108/03055720210473830
34 Ð VINE, Volume 32 Number 2 2002, Issue 127
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