Content Management Matters ™

Continuing it's expansion into the Nordic Market, EPiServer has announced it's newest office now opened in Finland. They are a provider of web content management based on the Microsoft.Net platform.

Although it's their first Finnish office, they are not new to the market, having a number of existing customers and several partners located there for the last two years.

"Finland is a natural next step for us and we see great possibilities for a quick expansion. We stand by our established sales process via our partner network, which allows us to keep our focus as a product company," says Peter Larsson, CEO at EPiServer.

The work EPiServer has done has proven that Finland is very similar in needs to the rest of the Nordic market. Areas including accessibility and the need to provide e-services that integrate with back-end systems are key to business-based websites.

In addition, EPiServer has recognized a trend towards more up-to-date content by a wider range of editors -- something that speaks volumes to the needs for a CMS.

This is EPiServer second office opening announcement in the last couple of weeks. At the end of April, they announced a new hosting office in Sweden. Early in April they also announced the acquisition of Netstar, a community platform provider.

It would appear they are driving forward, strengthening existing markets and offering new integrated services that should help push their Web CMS further into European organizations.

Ahh, our insatiable need to spend hours viewing online video, whether it be our favorite episode of The Family Guy, or that hilarious commercial on YouTube. Yes we definitely are a world of watchers. And organizations are getting smarter everyday figuring how to use this vice to their advantage.

Online video search engine provider, blinkx, aims to help those organizations by providing the blinkx Advanced Media Platform, a video content management solution that will "unlock the potential of video assets and maximize their monetization".

Joomla, one of the foremost names in open source web content management is upping the bar for the competition. The early release of Joomla v1.5.3 comes on the tail of one of their major competitors, Drupal, having been named in Webware’s Top 100 last week. Is Joomla responding to being left out?

SDL Tridion, a Dutch provider of Web Content Management software solutions is strengthening its market presence in the Asia Pacific with a new office in Tokyo and a new VP of Sales Asia Pacific and Middle East to help spearhead regional growth.

There were no fireworks, no fanfare or screams of "It's Here!, come and get it!". Last week, Alfresco very quietly released the newest version of their enterprise content management system. We here at CMSWire thought that was strange for such a well-known popular ECM.

So we contacted the folks over there. They told us that in a few weeks, Alfresco will officially, formally launch the release of Alfresco Enterprise Edition 2.2. Then they allowed us to grace the presence of their Chief Marketing Officer, Ian Howells, who taught us a few things about the impetus behind the release.

Drupal, recent winner of a Webware Top 100 place is at it again. The open source Web Content Management powerhouse has created a new addition to their framework. It’s going to mean either more frequent releases or (ideally) better releases.

It was late January when Systems Alliance released version 4 of their web content management suite SiteExecutive. At the time, we noted the lack of the social networking capabilities.

Well, they were either listening very closely to us or to their own customers because only three months later they have announced their Enhancement Pack 1 for SiteExecutive 4.1 - and it looks packed with "facebook for the enterprise" like features -- well sort of.

It's a rare organization that does not track at least a minimum set of web analytics for their customer facing websites. The problem is rarely that there's no data. Rather it's what to do with that information once you have it in your hands. More often than not, it's under utilized and probably finds it's home in that virtual pile on your desktop.

It doesn't have to be that way. There's an upcoming Webinar co-hosted by Bridgeline Software and the Gilbane Group that will show you how to better use your analytics data to make decisions and improve the customer experience, and in the end improve your bottom line.

Once upon a time personalization was a magic and wonderful word. The promises came and went, largely unfulfilled. That's not to say that the technology didn't work. It did. Nor is it to say that the basic ideas were bad. They weren't. The problems by and large were related to how people attempted to use the stuff and the complexities and costs related to integrating it.

Amazon and others have continued to pursue the grail, if in modest strokes. Now were seeing web content management vendors investing in this direction. I say "grand!" If it's done simply and with out too much ambition, personalization can be a great tool.

Too often we associate content management systems with boring, mundane industries. But even the exciting, impulsive side of things needs a CMS. Such is the glamorous life for Modera.

The multinational-based CMS specialists are gearing up to reveal their new line of products at this week's Internet World 2008. Included in the unveiling is the new Web 2.0 e-commerce fan site for the popular British band, Jamiroquai, which was produced in conjunction with Modera's partner, and the band's digital marketing agency, Million Media.

Drupal is a big business in its own right, but it's also spawned a formidable industry of its own -- template and theme retailers. The newest addition to the fold is TopNotchThemes, which has just launched its first all-Drupal high-end theme store. From what we've seen so far, it looks pretty promising.

Not only does Dries Buytaert get selected as one the top young tech entrepreneurs by BusinessWeek, but one of his newest ventures -- Acquia, has been chosen to launch their company at the Launch Pad - Venture Capital Edition during the web2.0 expo today in San Francisco.

Who are the top young technology entrepreneurs according to a survey conducted by BusinessWeek? While we here at CMSWire we deeply disappointed our very own Brice Dunwoodie didn't make the list, we were equally impressed that Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal did.

As with any website, design can be key to your overall performance. Many already know that WordPress offers some great features for blogs and sites alike. But did you know that you can get great magazine style themes to ensure maximum design efficiency online?

It's that time again. Clickability time. For the third year in a row, Clickability is holding it's User Conference May 5-7, 2008 in San Francisco. Share strategies, interact with Clickability, it's partners and other customers. Oh and don't forget to have a margarita or two for us!