Content Wire Newsletter 23 April 2002
A recent discussion focused on how to evaluate CM vendors. Connie Moore from Giga offered (courtesy of Stellent) a useful list of parameters that buyers should keep in mind when choosing their CM solution, but even the clearest of metrics should be handled with a degree of margin, some flexibility. For example it is suggested that cash rich companies offer some obvious stability advantages, especially as the market consolidates and competition intensifies. But cash will not help, if technically and professionally more competitive products come to market. Cash can buy the whole marketing in the world – I would love to see Vignette’s marketing budget for the past 5 years – but it is the ability to develop and roll out with future proof vision and keep track of the changes in the real software development world that really matters. Keeping in touch with the real world is a problem that cash rich companies often have, probably because by definition their commercial reality is somehow artificial, and competitiveness is sometimes taken for granted. Companies with insignificant market share, say less than 3 percent , will become marginalized, suggests Moore. Possible, but there may be some small company with insignificant market share in there which could come up with something wonderful and seize at least the mid CM market in one go and become the Microsoft of the future. I personally have a shortlist of companies that could do just that, if they had the courage that it takes to be radical, and the business intelligence to manage radical choices. That’s rare, I admit. I cannot exclude that some unforeseen event could change the CM marketplace for good in a few months. Tom Weiss makes a good point, there have been only a few acquisitions in the market to date, hardly a sign of consolidation. But consolidation could be more than one thing, not just acquisition. Vertical product integration and maturity, developing standards and best business practices, partnership with IT industry at large, are signs of consolidation, consolidation of an emerging segment into a proper industry sector. Paola Di Maio Content-wire.com Editor@content-wire.com
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