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Recently, the Real Story Group identified mid-market Microsoft .NET-based content management systems as the biggest Web CMS trend for Q3.
I was inspired to explore this topic a bit more, as industry anecdotes of organizations selecting one CMS vendor over the other based on the "We're a 100% .NET" claim sprang to mind.
Mid-Market .NET Web CMS Software on the Rise
According to version 19 of the Web CMS report, "the Microsoft mid-market" content management systems will exhibit dynamism in Q3. The .NET-based Web CMS (WCM) tools analyzed by the Real Story Group include such products and platforms as:
- DotNetNuke
- Ektron
- EPiServer
- GOSS
- Kentico
- Sitecore
- Telerik
- Umbraco
Although they all differ in features, price points, architecture and .NET purity, the one attribute they have common, says the RSG, is that they're able to fill the void left by SharePoint.
Tony Byrne, the Real Story Group founder, says that this Q3 trend has been identified largely due to a "confluence of the SharePoint 2010 hoopla" and "strong growth and entry of vendors in this segment." Byrne adds that this is "suggesting ample demand for mid-market .NET-based systems that MS is not filling."
The Demise of SharePoint Web CMS?
SharePoint has traditionally been a big topic here at CMSWire. With the release of SP2010 (see our SharePoint 2010 review) we were hoping to see improvements on the Web CMS side of the product. Alas, the WCM improvements have been somewhat disappointing, especially given how long that release has spent in R&D.
Web content management capabilities are cited among the weakest in SharePoint 2010 (and 2007) release despite the many improvements in the latest version — such as enhanced metadata management, the ribbon and social media features via Communities.
CMSWire readers know that it's a stretch to call SharePoint a full-fledged web content management system. Nevertheless, as we mentioned before, Microsoft stated that they believe SharePoint is a good platform to support your Web CMS needs — whether it's for an intranet, extranet or the Internet.
Nevertheless, SP2010 Web CMS features are not considered best-in-class.
Some may argue that where SharePoint falls short is in appealing to larger audiences than the IT folks. The majority of pure Microsoft shops have an extensive dependency on IT resources. Some of our SP gurus insist that SharePoint 2010 will long live under the wings of the IT deparment.
SP2010 can be great for techies, there are a lot of enhancements to make a MSFT devout smile: particularly improvements to SharePoint Designer, Visual Studio, SharePoint Foundation and Business Connectivity Services.
But the majority of Web CMS vendors are now offering connectors or integrations to/with SharePoint to eliminate that little obstacle, if there's no WCM replacement talk (yet). This is when sometimes more user-friendly and less expensive .NET Web CMS products can be in a position for the classical "veni, vidi, vici."
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