Open Text WCM leadership continues

On one hand it is great to see social networking in full force with the number of pings I received to read Markus Giesen's post about the Open Text WCM portfolio - which has many great points to reiterate and a few to correct. (ps. while it pains me to use the term "RedDot" as it has been renamed, it is how many of our customers/partner still refer to it)

RedDot is Alive and Expanding

To reiterate a comment from Markus -'RedDot CMS is alive." But to respectively correct Markus, it is not just RedDot CMS but also the RedDot LiveServer that is getting continued investment and a life much longer than just a couple of years. What many are referring to as loss of momentum is in truth the maturing of these products into a product lifecycle that many of our customers have asked for - fewer releases (we have one major release every 12-18 months with Service Packs every 6 months) which allows them to budget and plan appropriately and still stay current on ever advancing technology. Check out the new features for RedDot coming out this summer in the latest roadmap - really nice!

Open Text WCM Leads the Pack

It is not just marketing-speak. After the acquisition of Vignette, Open Text communicated a dedication of significant resources to both Vignette and RedDot. Open Text is now the largest WCM vendor in the space (according to market share of certain industry analyst data). Open Text can meet the full spectrum of WCM business needs; from an easy-to-use, fast-to-deploy web publishing application, to a fully integrated, enterprise-class platform for large-scale deployments. And to agree with Markus again, RedDot CMS is STILL a leader in the ECM Market.

With Open Text's defined ECM strategy, Vignette joins these ranks and the proof is in the launch of the latest major releases of Vignette Portal 8 and Vignette Content Management 8. Engineering is actively working on new releases this month and another in the summer. Momentum is picking up, so watch for great things in the Enterprise 2.0 area.

Sound WCM Strategy

As I mentioned in my post about the exciting new Open Text WCM plans from September 2009, we are adding incremental functionality to both RedDot (CMS and LiveServer) and Vignette Content Management, Portal and Social Media products (and their adjacent modules). Open Text is also continuing investment in the Document and Records products from Vignette, but that is for another post.

Our strategy to offer legacy WCM customers an upgrade to the most appropriate current offering is still intact. We confirmed at Open Text Content World 2009 that our strategy for maintaining both Vignette and RedDot product lines is best for our customers. I agree with Markus' comment that Vignette cannot replace RedDot - they each address WCM from a different perspective. We are not forcing customers to migrate and are listening to them for future direction requests. However, we also confirmed that some customers did want to take advantage of the other product and make the switch - their choice which we were happy to support.

Next Generation WCM progress

We encourage a strong partner channel and the additional plug-ins and customizations that make each customer website unique. Many of these customizations become core product features over time - a natural evolution in a mature product lifecycle. We have also made great progress incorporating some of the Vignette shared services into the RedDot line as well as the broader Open Text services into the Vignette products. This is the advantage of a strong portfolio from Open Text, great engineering resources and technologies that fit well together.

Customer AND Partners - We CARE!

There are a number of misconceptions lingering out there that I hope are addressed here. If I missed one or two, you can always catch the next Open Text Content World 365 WCM Roadmap Update held every other month for more details. We cover current roadmaps, strategy updates and give you an open forum to ask questions and get answers. Check out the Newsletters and Community on Knowledge Center for additional communications. Don't forget to sign up for the RSS feeds to stay up to date on the latest information.