System Integrators News & Articles

Yes, one of those “strategic partnerships” was announced between hosted Web CMS vendor OmniUpdate (news, site) and Noel-Levitz, higher education web design and development firm.

Under the mantra of “holistic approach” to website development and web content management, the two aim to bring OmniUpdate’s CMS, OU Campus, closer to those in hi-ed.

OmniUpdate is well known for its affection for higher education, with many of its customers being in this vertical. The joint effort is focused on helping hi-ed clients build websites using OU Campus as the CMS of choice.

Last we’ve heard from the Saas CMS vendor was when it released version 8.6 of OU Campus with improved editorial usability. In 8.5, it was mostly about proper garbage disposal and controlling those random delete-all bouts.

Like Day Software, OmniUpdate also courts the Serena Collage unfortunates wanting to migrate away towards brighter days of web content management.

If this was the script of a 1950s B horror-movie, Alfresco’s (news, site)  announcement that it plans to double the number of Systems Integrators (SI), might be the equivalent of the part in the movie where the villain promises to take over the world and infest it with giant slugs.

But Alfresco is not that kind of company and the announcement comes as a result of unprecedented demand for their solutions and the need for new partners to enable the implementation and maintenance of the Enterprise CMS platform for new clients.

The plan is to add 40 new SI partners by the end of the year and, generally, expand their numbers in both North and South America as the company’s performance defies the prophets of economic doom and just keeps growing.

With its open source CMS -- Hippo CMS 7.0 -- recently out of the door, Hippo (news, site) has found a partner in the U.S. to help implement the revamped product. CorraTech is an open source software services and consulting shop. The two will work together to deliver web content management solutions to mid-market and enterprise customers.

Growth is almost always falls in the same equation with demand. Hippo says they are experiencing an increase in the customer base in North America. Meaning it’s time to shake hands with some system integrators. Or, as Tjeerd Brenninkmeijer, CEO of Hippo, puts it: “This move will help us deliver to our growing customer base in North America, where we are witnessing strong demand.”

CorraTech, as a provider of professional services (PS) and support for companies looking to transition to open source software, also evaluates open source vendors for enterprise adoption readiness. As part of its CorraTech’s Open Source Center of Excellence (OSCOE) evaluation process, they measure system scalability, architecture flexibility, interoperability, usability, licensing and support capabilities, as well as the commitment to the open source community.

Some of CorraTech existing partnerships include the open source usual suspects like Alfresco, Drupal, Joomla! and others.

As we’ve seen many times before, one “growing pain” to be aware of is spreading your PS resources too thin. As in the case with other European Web CMS vendors that have entered the U.S. market at some point in the past, Hippo customers should keep in mind the implications of a “partner model.” While the future may be bright, stay in the present moment and think of a possibly limited pool of implementation resources in the initial stages of market entry.

Hippo CMS 7 is available for a free-of-charge download from www.onehippo.org. Also, check out our take on the new version.