'Net Features : Web content management

Slowing Down? Time for a WCM Health Check

Linc Wonham — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:00:00 GMT

CoreMedia has released a free online diagnostic tool that allows digital professionals to test the current maturity level of their companies' Web content management (WCM) implementations.

Web Content Management Health Check takes into account a company’s diverse online goals and culture, and the WCM Health Check walks participants through an interactive survey that evaluates and provides recommendations concerning the effectiveness of their WCM technologies, systems and processes and enables them to compare their efforts against that of their peers.

For example, the WCM Health Check examines the following four main areas of existing WCM implementations:

Customer Experience – achievement in supporting a broad range of customer goals and interactions ranging from educational to ecommerce

Marketing Effectiveness – strength in the delivery of content within the appropriate context to target audiences, with the goal of driving customer engagement and brand loyalty

Mobile Readiness – how advanced and robust are an enterprise’s multi-channel strategy to support the rapid growth and diversity of mobile devices

Usability and Consumability – how intuitive are the interfaces that empower business users and editors to create relevant customer experiences

Within these areas, the WCM Health Check analyzes system speed and reliability, freshness and relevance of content, the multichannel customer experience, the strength of the WCM system and how content is presented in a context-aware setting.

After completing the online survey, an assessment score is provided together with actionable recommendations on how to better leverage WCM technology, as well as how current content management processes and systems stack up against peers.

“Today’s Web-savvy audiences seek dynamic online experiences that present them with relevant content based on their context, yet most websites fail to meet even the most basic criteria,” says Glenn Conradt, VP of global marketing and North America, CoreMedia.

“With the availability of CoreMedia’s new Web Content Management Health Check, enterprises are now armed with the information they need to pinpoint how well their current WCM implementations are positioned to deliver optimal Web experiences that meet or exceed their audiences’ expectations. We believe that the results of this assessment may assist in the optimizing of their current investments or the justification of additional investments in people or more relevant technologies.”

SDL Offers a New Method of Product Documentation

Linc Wonham — Mon, 30 May 2011 01:00:00 GMT

SDL, a leading provider of Web content management, e-commerce, structured content and language technologies, has announced the release of SDL LiveContent 2011, a software application that transforms the online experience for anyone who needs product-related information.

SDL LiveContent strives to make product content interactive, context-aware, compelling and available on multiple devices and via multiple channels. Able to respond to customers' interests and needs with targeted product information, SDL LiveContent brings technical information to life and heralds the death of the traditional technical manual.

With SDL LiveContent, companies can improve customer experience, divert calls from support centers to self-service, and provide new revenue and upselling opportunities. Designed as an extension to SDL’s popular suite of structured content technology software, this new release offers a number of new capabilities, including the following:

•    The ability to “roundtrip” comments from SDL LiveContent to authors of the content so organizations can improve content and respond quickly to information gaps
•    A reporting dashboard for “content utilization,” showing the precise ways in which information is consumed so that an organization can improve the usefulness of the information it is producing
•    Out-of-the-box support for DITA 1.2, the latest version of the XML standard for technical information

“Over the next five years, we expect a broad sea change in how corporations engage with their customers through product documentation and other educational or reference materials written for an increasingly savvy consumer,” says Kevin Duffy, CEO of SDL Structured Content Technologies division. “This change is just beginning and SDL LiveContent makes it possible for companies to be on the leading edge of this exciting transformation to dynamic, interactive, targeted content delivery.”

For additional information, visit SDL LiveContent 2011.

Sitecore to Release Customer Engagement Platform

Linc Wonham — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Web content management firm Sitecore has announced the upcoming release of a new product group called the Customer Engagement Platform. The platform enables organizations to manage the full customer experience and is designed to create relevant and valuable customer conversations that engage, entertain and inform.

The Customer Engagement Platform provides new ways to orchestrate customer needs and solutions previously unattainable due to complexity hurdles. It does so through the addition of three new major and integrated products – Engagement Analytics, Engagement Automation and the Personalization and Experience Editor.

Engagement Analytics is designed to help Web marketers and professionals understand which online investments are paying off, enabling rapid response and impact. It measures, visualizes and compares all initiatives and online campaigns, quickly showing their impact in creating awareness, engagement and quality prospects. Engagement analytics commands the business view marketers and business people want to make informed decisions on digital investments.

Engagement Automation software powers the conversation with visitors, integrating with multiple marketing channels. It orchestrates events across time and visits, enabling quick and automatic responses to the many touch points and requests. It automatically integrates with Sitecore’s broad range of online products, including Web content management, email, engagement analytics and your CRM system – enabling tightly knit interaction.

The intuitive interface of the Inline Experience Editor allows consistent content creation and auto-association with established personas. Editors have unprecedented control over testing of whole pages, specific text or any media items such as images and videos. The complexity challenges of highly personalized websites are now history.

These products will be released June 8, 2011 at Sitecore’s Annual Dreamcore Developer and Partner Conference in London, but a product preview is available now.

Gartner Report Sees Positive Outlook for WCM Market, Sitecore

Linc Wonham — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:30:00 GMT

IT research and analysis firm Gartner, Inc. has released its 2010 Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management report, in which it declares the content management sector a vibrant part of the Web industry that will likely surpass $1 billion in revenues this year.

The report evaluated numerous Web Content Management (WCM) vendors based on a set of criteria that included customer experience, innovation, market understanding, marketing and sales strategies, product strategies and business models. Among the leading visionaries that Gartner anoints for the space in 2010 are Sitecore, Oracle, Autonomy, SDL and Open Text. Challengers and niche players include Microsoft, IBM, Alterian and Dynamicweb Software.

Gartner gave Sitecore particularly high praise in the business-to-business domain, citing the recent additions of Email Campaign Manager and Online Marketing Suite to the core platform of its flagship CMS product, which is based on .NET. The Gartner report called Sitecore an industry leader in WCM applications designed for the .NET environment, providing its customers with the scalability, performance, flexibility, and integration capabilities they need to manage multiple websites and seamlessly deliver compelling Web experiences.

The report stated that today’s vendors are battling to differentiate themselves based on three sets of capabilities: usability, interoperability and consumability. It also projects a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent for the WCM market through 2014, based on the increasing emphasis on the online channel and improving visitors’ experience. That’s a positive outlook not only for the content management market but also for Web users everywhere.

Adobe to Acquire Day Software for $240 Million

Linc Wonham — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:30:00 GMT

Adobe is making the second major addition to its product lineup in the past year, announcing the acquisition of Swiss company Day Software for an estimated $240 million. Day Software makes Web content management systems and the deal comes 10 months after Adobe purchased leading online analytics firm Omniture for $1.8 billion.

Day’s Web content management and social collaboration software will provide an impressive complement to Adobe’s ubiquitous line of products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, PDF, Flash, Flex and LiveCycle. The addition of Day’s tools to Adobe’s enterprise portfolio will allow marketers to better realize the full potential of the Web in acquiring, servicing and retaining their customers without disrupting existing IT infrastructures. It also enables Adobe's customers to create, manage, distribute and monetize their own content.

Day will be integrated into Adobe’s enterprise software business unit at the completion of the deal, which is subject to customary government approvals. The acquisition will add to earnings in fiscal 2011 and is expected to close in Adobe’s fourth quarter.