It's Gotta Fit on a 1" Screen...

I am just returning from the SAP NetWeaver BI and Portals 2010 conference where I spoke on the topic of crafting an Enterprise Social Portal. It was interesting that most of the attendees in the audience were IT application developers or administrators yet very few of them were interacting with social sites today. And they were divided along generational lines when it came to mobile phone usage. One of the younger attendees said "If the entire message doesn't fit on the 1" screen of my mobile device, it gets put off until later, and sometimes later is never." This was not just about texting 140 character Tweet but also email POPed from his favorite program. Clearly, I must find the foreign language class titled "Cryptic writing" with a specialty in "Keeping the attention span of the Millenial mobile generation." When 63% of the workforce prefer a Smartphone over the Laptop, we are clearly entering a new world of communication.

On the front page of the USA Today that arrived at my doorstep was the anxiously awaited Apple iPad and on the back page a list of all of the cool new iPhone apps that will make your life easier. Some more useful than others. There were 3 main categories of apps: instant access to data, location relevant data and collaborative data. For instant access to the oracle known as Google, it is a standard practice of my 12 year old to ask for the answers to her homework - sometimes from her iPod directly. For the traveler, there were many apps for locating food and restrooms at the airports. But my favorite is the RunPee app designed to alert you when there is a lull in the movie you are watching to leave for a 2 minute bio break.

Across all of the mobile and social applications getting built today, I am quite impressed by the attention to detail and focus on the simplicity. It is nice to see the knowledge sharing and willingness of the general public to participate in the goodwill of the community. Over the next few years, we will see more of this innovation blossoming inside organizations and changing the culture of the enterprise. I can't wait!

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.