Percussion Repositions Web Content Management Solution

By John Conroy & Brice Dunwoodie Oct 22, 2007

Jumping square in the middle of the Web 2.0 bandwagon, enterprise Web CMS vendor, Percussion, has announced a new Solution Series for their Rhythmyx Web CMS platform.

While we're all aware of the broad scope of Web 2.0, the focus of Percussion's effort are on target, if a bit more focused. This latest update hones in on integrating Web 2.0 content flows, and on a concept that other Web CMS vendors, such as Hot Banana, have placed a lot of value on — measuring the performance of content and creating feedback loops.

Percussion 2.0, too

To wrap a little context around today's news, Rhythmyx is the enterprise-grade Web content management solution proffered by Percussion Software. Out in the rough and tumble, the product most often stacks up against the likes of Interwoven, SDL Tridion and Open Text's RedDot. This idea of a Solution Series is marketing speak for a functionality bundle that builds on top of the core product. Sometimes these things are free — as with their FastForward Solution (PDF) — and sometimes they are not.

Percussion has an interesting history, not all of it related to Web content management. The company started life building add-ons for Lotus software, evolved to offer an XML application server and further evolved to offer an IT-friendly Web CMS solution. Percussion is in an interesting position today. They found themselves at a crossroads in 2007 and have taken some decisive action.

In May of this year they split off the Lotus business into a newly formed sister company named Axceler. They also took stock of their own position in the market and of the latest trends and resulting pressures being placed on CMS vendors.

Being an IT friendly vendor in a market where the business people are increasingly taking control of the CMS was not, in their estimation, the best place to be. And as folks like Forrester pointed out, what the company had in tech depth, they lacked in competitive differentiation.

And thus, we have the genesis of Percussion 2.0. The gist? Well, that's evolving, but, it seems to be doing so rather quickly and decisively.

To better position Rhythmyx in a Web 2.0 world, and one dominated by content-minded business folk, there could not have been a more logical place to start the refinements than with analytics and light weight content integration. Measuring content performance and audience behavior is key. Integrating Web 2.0 and user generated content also tops the list.

Integrating Analytics Has Value

Vendors like Hot Banana have long down played the tech side of the solution and positioned around empowering the business side of the house. When J.L. Halsey Corp grabbed them and Web analytics vendor, ClickTracks the message was clear: integrated Web CMS and analytics has significant value.

We'll Take the WebTrends Integration

Percussion have skinned the analytics integration cat differently. WebTrends — even if not loved by all — is a market leader in the space. The two companies have built a tightly integrated solution wherein content administrators in the Percussion back office have in-context analytics and campaign data available to them. And marketers in the WebTrends SaaS reporting tools have real time access to the Rhythmyx UI and metadata.