October 30, 2000

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Web Content Management
Unified Theory Of Content Management Targets Users

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More on content management:

sidebar:Implementation requirements for content management Computer Reseller News: Video ventures (10/16/00) EETimes: SGI spin-off takes video architecture to the Net (10/9/00) TechWeb: Server Appliances add content management (10/9/00)

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Another advantage of traditional document-management products is their scalability in enterprise implementations. These products also provide superior library services, including version control, metadata, and full-text indexing and rendition support.

Conversely, because these vendors have no history in the Web arena, few provide Web-based administration, meaning some core Web content-management functionality may require scripting or custom programming.

Best known as E-commerce vendors, BroadVision and Open Market have gained Web content-management capabilities through acquisitions and mergers. By acquiring best-of-breed content-management products, both companies now offer robust content capabilities, often on the same server platforms as their commerce offerings.

Providing Web content management is central to an overall E-commerce product. But as content is so critical on an E-commerce site, it also makes sense to have specialized Web content-management tools built into the product. However, if you don't have an E-commerce site, it may not make sense to buy a product designed to support this technology.

Vendors claim that Web content-management products within their E-commerce systems support all the commerce and content needs of an E-business, including integrating with personalization and recommendation engines fueled by the managed content.

Since many E-commerce vendors acquired content-management capabilities by purchasing a third-party product, it's critical to verify the level of integration that can be completed with an E-commerce product. It's also important to find out if integration exists at the front and back ends. Is the functionality from both systems available from a unified interface, or do you need to work with two separate interfaces or products? Also, it's important to make sure the content is managed from a single back-end repository.

Vendors eBT, Eprise, Interwoven, NCompass Labs, and Six Open Systems are all pure-play Web content-management vendors that designed their solutions from the bottom up, exclusively for managing content on the Web. In general, these systems focus on managing all forms of Web data, including content elements, templates, and streaming content.

These companies face the challenges inherent in being new to the market. For example, the scalability of their products may still need to be verified, and their products' ability to integrate with legacy systems is generally limited. Also, because these vendors' products are so Web-centric, they may not include strong multimedia publishing capabilities.

Fortunately, though, these products make the complete Web content-management system accessible via the Web, administration included. They also provide better support for the Extensible Markup Language and other Web standards, and they manage all content at an object/element level. For Web-only products, these vendors should be on any list.

After reviewing products on how they address business goals, companies then must assess them based on functional capabilities. There are sophisticated Web content-management products that support the entire content life cycle, from creation, import, editing, and approval through publication and expiration.

Specifically, Web content-management products should have capabilities in three main areas: template design and content contribution; collaboration; and publication and distribution of content. In the upcoming benchmark assessment, InformationWeek will evaluate a wide range of capabilities in all three areas.

In addition to the business and functional criteria needed for reviewing Web content-management products, technical and vendor requirements are required. A product must support any business platform and its database demands; it's important also to consider how well the Web content-management product will support a company's standards and development environment.

As with any product, there will be a degree of customization required before it meets all your needs. Therefore, you need to carefully evaluate the system's application programming interface set for accessibility to other applications, also considering scalability, fault-tolerance, and failover capabilities. If the product doesn't provide these functions, it should be able to run on the preferred business application server, which will fulfill these requirements.

Finally, the position and strength of the vendor has to be considered. The vendor's vision, product plans, and support, including development resources, should match expectations for the product's intended use. The vendor should have established relationships with software and channel partners to continue to deliver integration with auxiliary products.

This year, the vendor community has been touting its ability to leverage Web content management to drive other applications, such as personalization, knowledge and customer relationship management, portals, and distance learning. While some vendors have taken steps toward this ideal use of Web content management, few have complete products.

User demand is expected to drive the market toward Web content management. As more companies see the value of leveraging Web content management to drive all content-related apps across the enterprise, they will also demand this functionality from the vendor community.

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