Reddot News & Articles

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.

Open Text (news, site) is starting to reveal its plans in regards to the recently closed deal on Nstein Technologies. Just as we thought, the first bets are on Nstein’s Text Mining Engine (TME) -- now known as Open Text Content Analytics -- and its integration with the entire Open Text Enterprise CMS Suite.

What's the first thing you do when you wake up? Right, check your mobile phone (Don't even try to deny that). And now, Open Text (news, site) is bringing Enterprise CMS to a phone near you, so you cannot escape work, but can jump right into your ECM activities after checking Twitter.

Organizations would be happy to know there's yet another way to increase workforce productivity thanks to Open Text Everywhere.

Quite an eventful week in the content management industry! Here are our highlights of the week and most popular stories, jobs, featured events and -- new in this column -- polls and your votes.

Top Stories of the Week

• Open Text Reports Good Q2, Vignette Contributes to YoY Spike. OTEX did better than in the past quarters, in part, thanks to Vignette and (formerly known as) RedDot contributing to the bottom line.
• SharePoint 2010 - 5 Hot Features to Look Forward To. With the release of SharePoint 2010 getting closer, people are getting either a) excited, b) nervous or c) all of the above. Have a look at the top 5 noteworthy changes coming with SharePoint 2010.
• Alterian Drops Immediacy, Morello Web CMS Brands. In this exclusive, we discussed Alterian's plans and WCM strategy. In short, it boils down to major consolidation efforts in the mish-mash of Web CMS technologies the company currently offers. Customers, get ready for changes.
• Webtrends Adds Advanced Targeting and Mobile Analytics. The Web analytics solution provider released both advanced targeting capabilities and Webtrends Mobile Analytics. Heads up marketers, this one’s for you.
• Selecting a CMS: How to Build a Short List. In this guest post, Seth Gottlieb drills down into the science of building a short list -- one of the important steps in any Web CMS selection process. Don't let the high stakes paralyze you.
• Day CQ 5.3 Aims to Brighten the Days of Techies and Marketers Alike. Day’s latest minor release includes more than 600 enhancements over CQ 5.2.0 code base. Changes start right from the welcome screen.
• Social Media Minute: Social to Rule the Enterprise, Unless Spam and Malware Win Out. Gartner offered five social software predictions for the near future. Social networking will spread into the enterprise, they say, and will replace e-mail as a primary communication platform for 20 percent of business users.

Most Popular Articles

These articles were what you fancied most this week, according to Unlce Google's analytics data.

• Gartner’s Top 5 BPM Predictions for 2010 And Beyond. Gartner released latest report on business process management highlighting what they see as the five major trends in business process management for 2010 and beyond.
• Web Design: Top 5 Wireframing Tools. As more wireframe tools become available, the focus is shifting to include IA. Here is a selection of wireframes that are sure to prove useful.

• 10 Best Practices for Website Landing Pages. These top ten best practices for landing pages encourage companies to make smart marketing choices, which will not only engage the user but be able to show higher ROI.

• Alert: What's Coming for Open Source CMS in February 2010. Updates from the majority of open source CMS players: from Acquia to XOOPS.

• 6 Ways Document Management and Records Management Differ. The question is, will your document management system also support records management? At the core of this question is what is the differences between document management and records management. Let's examine six differences.

• Google Drops Bomb on MS Internet Explorer 6. If you swear allegiance to both Internet Explorer and Google Apps, as of March 1st you may find yourself in an uncomfortable predicament, and frankly speaking, we're rather happy about all this.

• SharePoint 2010, A Business Collaboration Platform. 100 million licenses and 4,000 partners later, Microsoft thinks they have a handle on this SharePoint phenomenon.

Polls and Your Votes

• What's Your Biggest Digital Asset Management Challenge? Is it taxonomy management, usability or selecting a product? So far, it looks like the biggest struggle is the usability of the system at 23% with 98 votes. Vote and let us know what your challenges with DAM are.
• What's Your Web CMS Focus in 2010? Cloud hosted or SaaS, search integration or integration of social media? As of today, the majority of readers (25% with 18 votes) say their focus lies in the cloud and SaaS area. Do you agree? Cast your vote and see what others think.

Content Management Jobs

Here's what's been brewing lately in the CMS jobs and careers field. For both seekers and employers, catch the best fish of the season on our content management job board.

Featured Jobs:

• Software Engineer at NewsGator
• Social Media Business Assistant at Mashable
• Technical Writer at ZL Technologies
• Project Manager at TERMINALFOUR
• Territory Sales Manager at Kentico Software, LLC
• Sales Representative at Nuxeo
• Web Developer at ADAM Software

Traveling or Virtual, There are CMS Events to Attend

Wondering how to spend your time in the next few weeks or months? Attend a conference or maybe just a webinar or two. Have a look at our Industry Events Calendar to see what's happening in your area.

Featured Events:

• February 9-10 (Santa Clara): SDL Innovate 2010
• February 9-12 (Phoenix): ECM Master Class
• February 10-12 (San Francisco): SharePoint Technology Conference 2010
• February 17 (Online): Webinar: 4 Essential Strategies for Advancing Your Website's Business Impact
• February 17-18 (Universal City): Createasphere DAM 2010

Open Text (news, site) released Q2/F10 (December 2009 quarter) unaudited financial results. Turns out, they are better than expected. Year-over-year (YoY) licensing revenue, for example, is up, in part, thanks to Vignette and the recently released VCM 8.

With Open Text Content World under way in Orlando, here comes the announcement on Open Text’s (news, site) 2010 product roadmap and plans for its Enterprise CMS, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, DAM and Web CMS product lines.

Among the highlights -- we know ya'll are curious -- are rebranding changes to Vignette and Web Solutions (formerly RedDot).

Personally, I cannot wait for October to arrive. Open Text Content World will be in the lovely Orlando, and we all should expect to be enlightened on OTEX’s product map and strategy for its two web content management arms: Web Solutions (aka RedDot) and the recently acquired Vignette.

Commenting on my previous post on the Open Text WCM saga, Markus Giesen et al. -- representatives of an unofficial RedDot blog -- raised several worthwhile questions. Not with publicity in mind, but in an effort to get some real, transparent answers I reached out for comments to Open Text. Here’s what we learned.

Open Text (news, site) has finally revealed a bit more information about what the giant plans to do with its multiple WCM offsprings. More specifically, where the recently adopted Vignette child may be placed in Open Text’s Enterprise CMS and Web CMS families.

Enterprise CMS provider Open Text (news, site) announced unaudited financial results for Q4 and FY2009.

Despite the current economic climate, OTEX reports achieving bottom line target, although net income for fiscal year 2009, and license revenue and operating cash flow in the fourth quarter have dipped.

Conversations on Vignette's fate and product integration strategies are ongoing.

Open Text (news, site) said it’s a done deal. The planned acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Vignette (worth approximately US$ 321 million) has been completed late yesterday following a shareholders’ meeting where the voting and approval took place.

While Vignette (news, site) is busy nostalgizing, Open Text says it’s working on the strategic aspects of what may come next. Let’s not forget that Open Text already has a WCM-centric group called Open Text Web Solutions. Offering an even broader range of (quite similar) products is going to take some brain activity. Then again, this would not be the first quilting exercise for Open Text.

In the meantime, there’s still some Vignette cash to recognize on OTEX’s balance sheet.

According to the “big brother,” support will continue for Vignette's products and (the relatively quickly decreasing) installed base (bringing in the licensing revenue). The same applies to existing Web Solutions products and customers. No comment has been made in regards to new(er) Vignette products.

There is a talk about a “combined product,” but no details on what it will be, except for providing a supersized meal of a “full set of feature options, from… fast-to-deploy web publishing application, to… enterprise-class e-business platform for large-scale deployments.”

Vignette's social media, DAM and personalized content seem to be some of the most palatable notes in this content management connoisseur combo. Open Text also expressed intent to potentially leverage some of Vignette’s components in its ECM Suite.

More details on the product strategy and the product roadmap are not likely to be announced earlier than October, when Open Text’s annual conference -- Content World 2009 – will take place.

Restructuring is expected. We should know more about the range of that initiative around the end of August.

The Open Text Web Solutions group, formerly known as RedDot Web Content Management (WCM), has just put out a new and significant release of their mid-range Web CMS product. Yes, Vignette (when the acquisition is finalized) will take place alongside Web Solutions version 10 in this WCM quilt.

This update brings improvements to the technology stack, more Enterprise CMS and SAP integration patchwork and an updated user interface. But OTEX (news, site) didn’t stop there. Let's see what else they've done.

eZ Systems continues its big push in North America. The Norwegian based open source web content management company has been on the move in North America, particularly in the U.S. over the last three months. And they have nabbed a former RedDot exec to help run their team.

What is it with the rebranding trend in the content management space lately? Just having recently lost RedDot in a rebranding maneuver, today we say goodbye to Percussion's Rhythmyx.

And welcome their new Web Content Management system succinctly named CM System.

It’s the end of an era for RedDot.

Enterprise content management vendor Open Text has retired its web content management arm RedDot in a recent consolidation/rebranding attack. The Web CMS software is staying put, but it is no longer to be called RedDot.

Say hello to the new Web Solutions family and to Daniel Kraft. Kraft is Open Text’s SVP for Corporate Strategy, and we had the pleasure of chatting with him in pursuit of answers to some red hot RedDot questions.

PaperThin, the producer of ColdFusion-based Web CMS CommonSpot, announced that its 2008 Q2 and Q3 revenues shattered all company records, having grown an average of more than 50% year over year. Furthermore, the company’s average deal size increased by more than 30%.

Now, it’s time to update the product, perhaps. And PaperThin plans on doing so in 2009. The last major product release from PaperThin was in October, 2007, when CommonSpot 5.0 came out.