Vignette News & Articles

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.

Many people may have spent their time wondering what will happen with Vignette now that Open Text acquired the company, but EntropySoft (news, site) doesn't seem to be one of them. Instead, they have spent their time working on an enterprise connector, making interoperability with Vignette that much easier.

It’s been 7 years since the last major release of Vignette Content Management (7.0). If you wondered about the fate of the promised last year VCM V8 in the light of Vignette’s (news, site) various tribulations and the Open Text acquisition, worry not. It is officially here.

Normally in this space we look back over the current month and forward into the next month at what the various open source CMS projects are up to. But rather than blindly putting out an update for January, we thought we'd look farther ahead into what everyone wants to accomplish throughout next year. Call it our open source 2010 predictions with less guesswork and high hopes.

Open Text Content World is coming to a close today. Like most user conferences and industry events, I find everyone gets the highest value from connecting with other people.

Everyone loves the networking, sharing stories and best practices, bouncing ideas, building friendships and having fun. The breakout sessions and PowerPoint decks are almost secondary.

I would like to share some of my observations from this week resulting from talking to partners, colleagues, customers and friends. These are the topics and trends I identified.

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).

For their V8 release, the Austin, Texas-based WCM firm Vignette (news, site) has focused on WebDAV support in an effort to take some off the load of IT departments, and put more control in the hands of end business users. The new release also incorporates AJAX portlets designed to increase access to rich media and social networking apps.

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.

Since my old company, Document Sciences, was bought by EMC, I have been following the Enterprise Content Management market closely; The Fortune 500 have invested billions of dollars in databases and ERP technologies leading to multi-billion dollar franchises such as Oracle, SAP, etc. focused on the structured data world.

However, the next frontier of productivity will come from the unstructured data that includes your emails, you-tube videos, word document, power point presentations, pictures, etc.

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.

Hot on the heels of last week's move to "rescue" its competitors' customers, FatWire is back in the news. Fortifying their competitive edge, folks at FatWire (news, site) launched a new partner program aiming to extend reach and consulting capabilities globally.

Once Autonomy Interwoven and Vignette customers start jumping the ship (if they, in fact, do so), a stronger partner network will clearly come in handy. Sapient, Satyam and EMC Conchango are among FatWire’s "leading partners," if that tells you anything.

The Global Partner Program covers FatWire's full portfolio of solutions -- web content management, targeted marketing and analytics, collaboration and community, content integration, and mobile delivery.

Partners will be able to get certified to deliver the technical, business and marketing consulting services to customers, which should benefit all parties involved.

There are three levels:

• Registered Partner: Experience with multiple implementations, offer some services.
• Certified Partner: Experts in best practices with access to FatWire technical resources.
• Premium Partner: “Deepest knowledge” of best practices, highest levels of access to FatWire expertise and technical resources.

According to the vendor, 2008 had brought approximately 40% revenue growth. Without a successful partner network, it would be difficult to sustain growth. In most cases, it’s next to impossible to be a successful partner without vendor support.

ACE is the internal code name for the upcoming release of Vignette Content Management (VCM) product, which will see its better-than--V7.x light this summer.

Within an ace of the VCM V8 launch, we're giving you exclusive sneak peek into what to expect from Vignette.

Vignette has been thoroughly scolded for poor usability and outdated technology, among other things. But it does look like some positive changes are coming.