Content Management Matters ™

Cabinet NG, a company that specializes in automated document management and workflow solutions for small enterprise businesses, has launched CNG-Books 6.0 document management software for Intuit's QuickBooks. Built on the .NET platform, CNG-Books 6.0 incorporates Microsoft SQL database features recently added to CNG-SAFE 6.0.

The end result: SMBs can replace pesky piles of paper with automated electronic workflows that streamline QuickBooks-centric accounting tasks in an easier, less hair-greying manner.

Telerik, a vendor of developer tools and components for .NET, has beefed up its Sitefinity CMS with version 3.2, adding a number of nifty new features to their website, intranet and community portal development platform.

ADXSTUDIO Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has released ADXSTUDIO CMS 6.0, the newest version of their web content management system. Built on the .NET Framework, it offers a number of product enhancements ranging from the support of, and integration with, Microsoft's next generation of server products, to new Social Networking functionality and powerful usability improvements for content authors and website administrators.

.NET developer Kentico has announced details of the new version of it's Web CMS product which hits the shelves in mid-March. Dedicated as ever to the Microsoft stack, the Czech company's new offering assures support for Windows Server 2008 and the soon to be released SQL Server 2008.

In addition, Kentico 3.1 will also support Visual Studio 2008 and IIS 7.0. Compatibility with Server 2000/2003 and SQL Server 2000/2005 is preserved in the new release.

Sitecore collared some key customers over the holidays and badgered them for feedback about their short-term plans, hopes, and dreams for their content systems. Reports from the field identified three broad trends for Web CMS for 2008, and Sitecore have been so good as to share their findings with us.

The trends are the "integration of Web CMS into the enterprise," "adoption of mobile computing," and "the growth of .NET Framework."

Sitecore notes that while these trends were already apparent in 2007, they will have a more noticeable effect on the market in 2008.

Czech Republic CMS provider Kentico has expanded the toolset supported to develop it's CMS solutions now including support for Visual Studio 2008.

Kentico, which just recently released Web 2.0 capabilities in its CMS 2.3 version, has gone even further with this new version to enable developers to include even more social networking functionality.

For years the war for the enterprise has raged between Microsoft and Java with the heaviest battles occurring since the inception of .Net. However, recent research indicated that .Net is now coming out on the winning team.

This news is from Info-Tech Research Group - an IT research and advisory firm. According to an article on InfoWorld, Info-Tech's research indicates that in a survey of over 1,850 organizations of all sizes and industries: .Net is the choice over Java most often.

The report indicates that 12 percent of the surveyed companies focus exclusively on .Net, while only 3 percent are exclusively Java. That's a big difference and should spark some lively debate in the Java community.

To throw the Java community a bone, Info-Tech compares Java to legacy code in that it will always be around just like the infamous Cobol. Not sure if that's a postive thing or not.

The report (which is not sponsored so it should be vendor neutral) is entitled It's Official: .Net Roasts Java's Beans and is available for a fee on the InfoTech site.

Are the big boys like IBM a little worried about being left behind SharePoint in the enterprise content management (ECM) market? Seems enough so that they are working hard to implement solutions that help integrate with Microsoft's burgeoning content management offering.

IBM announced a new technology and global reseller agreement with partner Mainsoft that enables enterprise customers to blend Java and .NET technology. Of particular interest are the SharePoint Federator components.

So you went and did it, you installed WSS 3.0 and then bought MOSS to install over top of it. You want a web site and you want it now, but hey, you're not quite sure what to do next.

Here's where we come in. The following article is part one of a series on SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management. Read on as we provide an overview of SharePoint 2007’s Web CMS capabilities and set you up to dig a bit deeper into the nooks and crannies of customizing and operating a SharePoint-driven website.

Refresh Software has just released an updated version of its proprietary component content management offering.

Woven together by DITA, XML and web publishing experts, SR2 7.1 utilizes an SOA-based J2EE content repository. It installs directly into the IT back-end and sports a simple interface for front-end users.

SR2 also:

• Automates the development of technical documentation
• Makes it easy to author content on a hosted interface, or via Microsoft Word
• Enables XML content publishing across the Web, or on intranets, internet, RSS and portals
• Deploys DITA-based content architecture for topic-related authoring and content repurposing
• Supports any programming language using Web services or SQL, including .NET and Java

The updated offering also supports data migration, hot deploy external triggers, back-end search, and -- for the aesthetes -- customized WYSIWYG buttons.

With the open source cms market being dominated by PHP/MySQL based solutions, our friends at Packt Publishing are recognizing content management systems written in other languages

Thus with no further adieu, we congratulate mojoPortal for being named Best Other Open Source CMS for 2007.

mojoPortal is written in C# and runs under ASP.Net on Windows or under Mono on Linux and MacOS.

mojoPortal sports an impressive list features including:

• XHTML Compliant Content Management
• MyPage Personalization with WebParts
• Blogs
• Forums
• Event Calendar
• Image Gallery
• File Manager
• Authentication against the database, Active Directory, OpenLDAP, Open ID, or Windows Live ID
• An Interchangeable data access layer with support for MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, FirebirdSql
• Skinnable Design
• RSS Feed Aggregator
• Search
• Localization
• Ability to host multiple sites on 1 installation and 1 database
• Easily Customizable User Profile

If that list doesn't impress you, maybe the fact that mojoPortal beat out both Plone and Silva to win first place will.

The official announcement from Packt Publishing can be found here, and more information about mojoPortal can be found on the official website.

Sitecore Web CMS has just been bolstered by the addition of a new dedicated SEO module that enables the creation and management of web-optimized content.

The module embeds SEO analytics into the day-to-day CMS process, allowing content-administrators and creators to optimize for search engines as they go.

20,000,000+ page views per day. 1,000,000+ active user accounts. As exciting as those numbers are for the executive team, they are absolutely terrifying for the IT department.

While the CEO is slapping high-fives with the marketing department and watching the bottom line grow, the tech staff are working all night to keep the servers from melting down. Now there's one more tool in the scalability kit for Microsoft shops.

Copenhagen-based Web CMS purveyor Sitecore has just announced the launch of Intranet Portal, which helps businesses provide employees with contextual information within a secured and central locale.

What makes this intranet offering such a big deal? It boasts a user experience that promises to match a given enterprise's website.

The Belgian wizards of Emagine have released the latest version of their flagship content management solution, emagiC CMS.NET v5.0. This latest release brings spiffy new features that should bring smiles to the faces of current clients.