InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
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May 28, 2001 |
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Market Analysis: Is A Content-Management Shakeout Inevitable?
A lot of content-management vendors are out there. Which will be left standing?
By Tony Kontzer (tkontzer@cmp.com)
ontent management, while a fast-rising buzzword, is a relatively new business concept that's gained steam as the Internet has grown as a business tool. In the Internet's early days, points out Yankee Group analyst Kevin Noonan, the production and management of content wasn't nearly as important as its delivery.
But as the Internet has matured, so has the view of content. Content quality and effectiveness have become core business issues. Years after it was chic to say so, content really is king. And with that demand has come a veritable flood of vendors entering the market.
Because differences among vendors' products can be so subtle, many analysts aren't willing to try to handicap the industry's future. One thing they agree on, though: There won't be room for the dozens of vendors scrambling for position in a nascent market. "It's going to be interesting to see who's still standing," Noonan says.
Hadley Reynolds, director of research for the Delphi Group, compares today's content-management market with the database market of 20 years ago. At the time, literally dozens of companies were vying for market share. Over the next decade, three emerged as leaders: Informix, Oracle, and Sybase. Today, Oracle is the undisputed leader, a struggling Informix is now the database division of IBM, and analysts say Sybase may be on its last legs.
Reynolds says businesses still are in the early stages of understanding how important digital assets are to their success. The market's immaturity is illustrated by the accelerated pace of technical development and a brutal competitive environment. But that will change once the content-management market reaches saturation. And whether original market leaders Documentum, Interwoven, and Vignette ultimately seize control is anyone's guess, especially when experienced IT goliaths like Microsoft and IBM are beginning to weigh in with content-management products.
"In the next five years, virtually all of the Global 2000 will have content-management systems in place," Reynolds says. He says that's when the real market shakeout will come, not unlike what's happened in the database market.
Discuss this article: Are you feeling the pain of content-overwhelm, but afraid that the medicine is worse than the disease? Maybe, by sharing your experiences in the Listening Post, you can save someone from the pain you encountered.
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