But king or not, content must be managed from inception to delivery. A content management system (CMS) makes this possible. Whatis.com defines a content management system as consisting of two elements: the content management application (CMA) and the content delivery application (CDA). The CMA element allows an author to manage the creation, modification and removal of content from a Web site. The CDA element uses and compiles this information to deliver it to the user.
With the high volume of information on the Internet, it is no surprise that the market for content management systems is literally crowded. While the features of a CMS vary, most include Web-based publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, workflow, and dynamic delivery of content.
How does then vendors differentiate themselves in this market? Well, there is no straightforward answer as each relies on powerful marketing techniques. More recently, Vignette launched the XCM alliance of several content managers. The purpose of the alliance is to facilitate the segmentation of vendors by providing a clear description of the vendors and their core competencies in this crowded market. But, of course, this depends on the degree of vendor participation and their goodwill. For example, last time I had a look, only Vignette featured in the content application management category with the delivery component including Akamai Technologies and Inktomi.
This in turn begs the question how can a business select, in a straightforward manner, the solution that best fit its needs? In the past, companies embarking on a software purchase would typically put together a technical evaluation team to benchmark vendors based on well-defined criteria.
To my delight, I found out that Forrester Research has taken some pain from this process by launching a new assessment tool - e-Business TechRankings. The power of this assessment tool lies in its combination of product test results, market analysis and user interviews. Forrester Research says that they develop test criteria in the open by working with experts in each category including vendors. The service launched in October 2000 has ranked 4 categories to-date: Commerce Platforms, Content Management, Application Servers and Customer Service Applications.
Forrester ranked content management vendors along specific vendor and/or product characteristics including capabilities, cost, customer support, deployment, development and integration. Twelve vendors were ranked. Highest- ranking vendors are Open Market's Content Server, Documentum's 4i eBusiness Edition and Vignette's V/5 Content Management Server.
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