Day Software News & Articles

Just recently, we reported on Nuxeo’s (news, site) steady progress with Apache Chemistry, a Java implementation of the CMIS spec.

The newest development on this front is OpenCMIS (a project led by Alfresco, SAP and Open Text) that is adding their collection of libraries, frameworks and tools around CMIS to Apache Chemistry.

No, it is *not* an attack against Chemistry, but more of a friendly merger.

Day Sotware (news, site) released their 2H 2009 and end of year financial results. Major brags from the Basel-land include 27 new customers, increase in licensing revenue (yet again), regional markets expansion -- and most of that thanks to CQ5.

Continuing to build up on the bright developments that we saw in CQ 5.1 and 5.2, Day Software (news, site) released the newest version of their Communiqué Web CMS/DAM/Social Collaboration product.

Day’s CTO David Nüscheler and CMO Kevin Cochrane gave us a tour of the top new features in CQ 5.3.

On the last day of the J. Boye 2009 Conference, Aarhus heard its mayor’s plea and slightly warmed/dried up. The event folk exclaimed, “It’s almost summer!”

The rather standard for this time of the year weather was followed by the web content management standards talk. David Nüscheler, the CTO of Day Software, presented his take on the top WCM trends for 2010 from the architecture and standards standpoint.

Here at J Boye 2009 the Web Idol competition is about to start. In the line-up we have 23 Video, e-Spirit, Kapow Technologies, Microsoft, Sitecore and TERMINAL Four.

J Boye '09 -- Web Idol Contestants Exhibiting Pre-Contest Commencement Consternation

For those unfamiliar with the concept, Web Idol is a semi-serious but mostly humorous event loosely based on the extremely popular (with people we don’t know) American Idol TV show.

The event is a fast-paced set of competitive demos. Select vendors present short demonstrations of their products, showing-off their fanciest features -- often the stuff most recently developed. For those that prefer succinct, comparative presentations to long-winded demonstrations, this is a session for you.

The judging is done by an expert panel of judges who primarily offer pithy commentary, but it's the audience who holds voting power over the final outcome.

[UPDATE: The votes have been tallied. It was TERMINAL Four in 3rd place, 23 Video in 2nd place and Sitecore who has taken home the massively awkward 1st prize trophy. Congrats to all for an entertaining reprieve from serious thinking.]

See more J Boye 2009 coverage:

• Web Content Management: Inconvenient Truths and Industry Challenges
• Design for Behavior Change: Why Facebook and Twitter Are Winning
• Persuasion: How to Make Your Media More Persuasive
• Selecting a CMS - Pitfalls and Best Practices

Gotta admit, we are about to run out of the (semi-) witty headlines for Day Software (news, site) that continues to build on the momentum and report bright financial results quarter after quarter. That is, let's not forget, following the not-so-bright period a bit of time ago.

After reviewing and changing their accounting policies, doing a bit of a re-org in the upper echelons and shedding some extra weight, Day continues to deliver positive numbers in Q3 2009. The highlight of Q3 (interim results) is a considerable increase in license revenue -- a 37% growth over the same period in 2008 and a 26% increase over 1H 2009.

Day attributes these revenue numbers to “global demand for CQ5” and “major new customer wins.” We have reviewed different re-incarnations of CQ5 WCM (including CQ5.1 and CQ5.2) as they came out, and do tend to agree that the product is starting to look more and more compelling.

The shareholders might also be (cautiously) pleased with Day's aggressive product release schedule. As we mentioned before, CQ 5.3 -- the newest version of their Web CMS -- is scheduled to come to the masses some time in Q4 2009.

At the same time, while there aren't many details yet on the interim Q3 results out there, we suspect that R&D (and associated sales and marketing, etc.) spendings are sky-rocketing to get CQ 5.3 to the market. That's just something the shareholders may have to live with.

At this time, we don't know much about how the license revenue increase correlates to, for example, consulting, training and overall Professional Services (Does Day even have PS?) revenues. Someone's got to implement all those sales deals... 

Globally, Day says it saw a revenue surge in the U.K. operations, led by Trevor Salmon (part of the recent re-org, see above), VP of UK and Northern Europe. However, the U.S. market still remains the number one cash cow for the Q3 2009 balance sheet.

The folks at Xinet have been busy. They have announced the simultaneous release of their WebNative Suite 16.0 and the 3.0 version of their Video support module. The developers behind the popular DAM products have been listening intently to their clients. The new releases address a laundry list of requested features and concerns raised on their forums, and in the technical press.

Summer has come and gone and we still haven't seen a public review of the Content Management Interoperability Specification (CMIS). But while many of us have been impatiently waiting, it does appear that things have been happening.

Twitter is all a flutter with one individual tweet from enterprise content management vendor Nuxeo's Florent Guillaume (@efge):

#CMIS 0.70 soon official draft, and to be submitted for Public Review. Still on track for standardization near end of year!

You may have already chosen your web content management system, but that's only a start. Strategies, stories, successes and the future. These are things you want to take in as you work your way towards a successful CMS implementation.

To get that info, spend some time with Day Software, a gaggle of integrators and partners, and a number of clients. Day's Ignite Customer Summit is happening in Zurich on October 14 and 15, and in Chicago on October 28 and 29th.

Along with having a front row seat for a sneak peek at CQ5.3 -- the upcoming version of Day's Web CMS -- and hearing Gartner's vision for the future of web content management, you will learn how other customers have implemented CQ5 for their organization.

It's a Conversation, Geeks Included

Beyond just listening, you will have the opportunity to chat with the tech team behind Day's software -- getting advice geared towards your specific business goals.

Need another reason to show up? There's a rumor that Day's CTO, David Nuescheler, will be unveiling a super surprise at the summit. How tantalizing!

Now, hop on over to Day's site for event details and registration.

Ah yes, this is indeed a glorious era for learning and networking. There are conferences and webinars coming out our ears, wifi spots a-plenty, 3G data services galore and if you're lucky, sponsored drinks at the bar.

So, what say you to some mingling? If you’d like to get out and partake in a solid (or virtual) handshake or two, our weekly events list is designed to help. Every Tuesday we plug as many relevant events as we can find into the big list and publish it, just for you.

Are we missing something? Don’t hesitate to add your event to our events calendar (view all events). And if you've got feedback on the coming events — good or bad — do share it in the comments below.

September Events

October Events

Prioritizing your needs and then selecting a content management system for your organization is an involved process. It often helps to hear how others have succeeded or failed to achieve similar goals, and what partners and channels are available to help you with your implementation.

Day Software aims to address those needs with their Ignite 2009 Customer Summits. These summits -- taking place in both Zurich and Chicago this October -- are designed to bring together customers, partners and analysts to discuss their strategies and and experiences when selecting and implementing a web content management system.

A Network of Support

Day has lined-up 15 systems integrators and interactive agency partners for the Summits -- more than enough to help you understand how CQ5 CMS can resolve your content management challenges. David Nuescheler, a prolific open source evangelist and Day's CTO, will give attendees a sneak peek at the upcoming CQ5.3 Web CMS, due out in Q4 of this year.

Day's technical team will also be there, answering questions about how to best implement their software, and to discuss where they think the content management market is headed.

In addition, analyst firm Gartner will be at the Summits, providing insights into the future of content management for 2010 and how they see Day's technology fitting in.

Day's Content Management Solution

Built on their JSR-170-compliant Java Content Repository, CRX, Day's CQ5 Web CMS offers social collaboration and digital asset management integrated with web content management. The system was lauded as the InfoWorld Best Web Content Management System earlier this year.

Get your project on the right track, attend the Zurich event October 14-15 or the Chicago event October 28-29. Hop on over to Day's site for more details and event registration.

How much work goes into reviewing and selecting a web content management system for your organization? A lot. We know.

Now we can't help you define your specific needs or map out your usage scenarios, but we can provide some insights into several potential options. Here are 5 must read Web CMS reviews covering Umbraco, Day Communique, Vivvo CMS, SharePoint Online and Digitalus. All are different, yet quite interesting in their special ways.

Day's customer? Evaluating Day CQ5 CMS? CMS geek generally curious about the present and the future of web content management? Check out Day’s (news, site) Ignite 2009 customer summit scheduled to take place in Zürich (October 14-15, 2009) and Chicago (October 28-29, 2009).

Day’s plan for this event is, mainly, to share strategies and customer stories around CQ5 Web CMS that was released in November 2008. CQ5.2 that came out earlier this year included new DAM and Social Collaboration features.

There are several tracks planned at the summit, including business and technical. The business track is focused on CMS project objectives, CQ5 selection and criteria, and CQ5 business results. In the technical track, attendees will look into CMS project objectives and implementation plan, CQ5 deployment details, and lessons learned in best leveraging Day’s CQ5.

Very often, it’s best to get right into the vendor’s camp if you want to get more insight into what’s going on with the company and where it is going. While, as we reported, Day has had many good days lately, nothing beats a chance of being able to talk to the actual customer who had already put a check mark next to that line that says “CMS implementation.” Getting direct access to Day’s management and technical teams wouldn’t hurt either.

A bit of gazing into the crystal ball is also on the menu with one of Gartner’s analysts leading a discussion on where Day and the content management industry are headed in 2010.

Don't miss:

• Unveiling of CRX 2.0: the JCR 2.0 (JSR-283) content repository

• Day's 2010 roadmap

Cherry on top: Day’s CTO David Nüscheler will give a sneak peek of the upcoming CQ5.3. Now, that should be interesting.

It was back in April of this year, when Day Software (news, site) announced the nominations of Barry Bycoff and David Arnott to the Board of Directors. Both were elected in May at Day's Annual Shareholder meeting in Basel, Switzerland.

Today, board member Barry Bycoff was elected the Board’s Chairman, replacing Michael Moppert, the founder of Day.

Moppert assumed the Chairman role in May 2008, after he handed off his Day CEO reigns to a former Interwoven exec Erik Hansen. Moppert is said to remain an active member of Day's Board.

Bycoff took over the steering wheel on a good day, shortly after Day’s announcement of positive 1H 2009 financial results.

“I am pleased to be working with Day's CEO Erik Hansen and the remainder of the Board to help Day capitalize on this opportunity and build on its recent success," said Bycoff.

Hansen's initial plan to make Day more appealing seems to be working out so far. Upon accepting the CEO role, he wanted to focus on growing Day's strongest points: the content infrastructure business and the core content management product.

Since then, we've seen CRX new releases and updates, as well as new versions of Web CMS CQ5 and CQ5.2, hit the streets of the content management world.

When we reviewed Day's much-anticipated CQ5, we were mostly optimistic. Turns out, so are many of new and existing Day's customers, who keep investing in this Enterprise CMS and making Day's 2009 first half numbers shine brightly yet again.

1H 2009 revenue growth was reported at CHF 17.0M, which is an increase of 33% from total revenue of CHF 12.8M for 1H 2008. License revenue accounted for a whopping 42% of total revenue at CHF 7.2M, an increase of 26% from total license revenue of CHF 5.8M compared to same time last year. According to Day, there is an increase in re-orders from the existing installed base due to the interest in updates and new modules that came out in CQ 5.2 (e.g. DAM and Social Collaboration).

Support and maintenance revenues came in at CHF 5.4M, or 32% of total revenue. Day also reported operating income of CHF 1.8M, or 11% of revenue, and better-than-expected GAAP net income of CHF 1.1M, or 6% of revenue. Total cash was CHF 18.3M, a 21% increase over 1H 2008.

Day’s success in the challenging economy is partially due to the operational restructuring efforts that took place last and this year, along with key new hires and additions of new members to its Board of Directors.

We should see more R&D, sales and marketing investments at Day in the second half of 2009. If you wish to geek out on accounting numbers, head over here. We, in the meantime, are looking forward to the next release -- CQ 5.3.