Cms review and Summary

1. 
   IBM – Lotus Workplace Web Content Management System
   

2. 
   Paper Thin – Common Spot Content Management Server
   

3. 
   Vignette – V7
   

4. 
   Minds Eye – Element
   

5. 
   Percussion – Rhythmyx
   

6. 
   RedDot – ECMS
   

7. 
   Open Source – OpenCMS
   

This review and summary will cover the following items:

1. 
   A brief overview of the content management vendors and the reason they were picked.
   

2. 
   A summary of the company, their system, educational customers and the pros and cons of using the system.
   

3. 
   A detailed side by side comparison grid of each product.
   

4. 
   Recommendations for top 3 products to review and demo.
   

“A content management system is a delivery system, not a content strategy” – Forrester Research

• 
  LWWCM (Lotus Workplace Web Content Management) is a relatively new but proven system in the IBM Lotus offering. The system was recently acquired from Aptrix, a demonstrated leader in content management and regulatory compliance.
  

• 
  LWWCM offers complete control over the site template, workflow process, approvals and user access, as well as content versioning and approval history. One of the key features is the fact there is no need for add on components or software extensions.
  

• 
  LWWCM is available for WebSphere, Domino and DB2 Content manager. It also takes advantage of J2EE giving applications increased reach and longevity.
  

• 
  LWWCM would integrate seamlessly into our current environment.
  
• 
  Given our educational discount, we should be able to obtain this product to the price of most of the other systems
  
• 
  IBM offers training and certifications with the product.
  
• 
  Fully supported on all operating platforms.
  

• 
  The system requires the use of IBM’s application server. If we were to switch from Lotus Domino or WebSphere (if we go in that direction) the system would not work.
  
• 
  There are no case studies or success stories on the university level. We would be one of, if not the first using the system on this level.
  
• 
  For the Domino edition, only the notes storage facility (NSF) is supported for the repository.
  

• 
  CommonSpot is a complete and comprehensive web content management solution providing organizations with simple and sophisticated tools for creating, publishing and managing Web content in a controlled, distributed and collaborative Web development environment.
  

• 
  The editor interface is provided entirely through the browser, eliminating the need for client software, technical training or complex scripting. Create new pages, edit and approve content, assign security privileges and more without ever leaving the browser.
  

• 
  CommonSpot is fully compatible with our current systems and can grow and adapt as our technology and needs grow and change.
  

• 
  The CommonSpot server is based on Macromedia’s ColdFusion Application Server and is available in both standard and enterprise.
  

• 
  Arizona State University
  
• 
  Babson College
  
• 
  California Department of Education
  
• 
  Canadore College
  
• 
  College of Notre Dame of Maryland
  
• 
  East Carolina University
  
• 
  Kent State University
  
• 
  National Louis University
  
• 
  Ohio University
  
• 
  Oregon Health and Science University
  
• 
  Parma City School District
  
• 
  Rhodes College
  
• 
  Santa Clara University
  
• 
  Stanford Graduate School of Business
  
• 
  Treasure Valley Community College
  
• 
  United Nations University
  
• 
  University of Alaska Anchorage
  

• 
  CommonSpot is fully compatible with our current systems and would offer a fairly seamless integration.
  
• 
  The editor interface is browser based and would not require client software to operate.
  
• 
  The system was designed to grow and change with the needs of the customer.
  
• 
  Offers full control over the page elements for editing.
  
• 
  Full training is offered for the product on 3 levels, depending on the role of the user.
  

• 
  Does not offer dynamic environment for Lotus Notes – this means that notes driven content would still generate from Notes.
  
• 
  All editing must be done from Microsoft Internet Explorer.
  

• 
  V7 provides a graphical work environment that is built in Microsoft Visio that provides an easy to use shape-based modeling.
  
• 
  V7 manages any object on the site through a workflow process.
  
• 
  V7 is a standards based solution built around Jave, XML and web services which makes it fully scalable as the business needs grow.
  

• 
  Ball State University
  
• 
  KlickNet
  
• 
  University of California at San Diego (UCSD)
  
• 
  University of Miami
  
• 
  University of Wisconsin-Madison
  

• 
  The system is fully expandable and can grow as our needs grow
  
• 
  It can be full integrated with our current system
  
• 
  Vignette is one of the oldest web content management companies in the industry.
  

• 
  Vignette is modular, which means that depending on the need defines how many modules you will need to purchase.
  
• 
  The V7 interface is not easy to use for non technical people.
  
• 
  Vignette can run in excess of 1 million dollars for the full system
  
• 
  There is no exact URL string that can be re-used. The system places everything as a string. For example:
  

Percussion’s portfolio of over 2,500 customers includes Fortune 1000 companies as well as other global, industry and public sector leaders, including Armstrong World Industries, Bank One, Bayer, Colgate, the FAA, Hitachi, HUD, IBM, ICI Paints, Intel, Jefferson Health System, Mastercard International, McKesson, Merck, MetLife, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, Prudential Insurance, Shell Chemical, the Dept. of State, 3M, Thrifty Car Rental, and Toshiba. Founded in 1994, Percussion Software is self-funded and profitable.

• 
  Rhythmyx is the first Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution to provide cost-effective, multi-channel delivery of easily reusable content. Rhythmyx 5 provides the industry’s only De-Coupled Delivery architecture for cost-effective scaling; the industry’s first Intelligent Relationship capability for proactively managing content dependencies and connections; and Active Assembly, a unique graphical user interface for enabling business users to easily reuse content.
  
• 
  Based on industry standards, such as XML, XSL, Java and Web services, Rhythmyx enables organizations to better manage all of their enterprise content, including documents, Web sites, digital assets and images.
  

• 
  Bowling Green University
  
• 
  Broward Community College
  
• 
  Classwell
  
• 
  Education Networks of America
  
• 
  Penn State University
  

• 
  Rhythmyx is fully compatible with our current systems and would offer a fairly seamless integration.
  
• 
  The editor interface is browser based and would not require client software to operate.
  
• 
  The system was designed to grow and change with the needs of the customer.
  
• 
  Offers full control over the page elements for editing.
  
• 
  Percussion also offers a product for Lotus application management called Lyrix
  
• 
  Percussion has been in business for over 10 years
  

• 
  Rhythmyx is currently only supported on Windows or Sun Solaris.
  
• 
  Requires Java to integrate with any web server
  

• 
  Penn State AIS Department
  
• 
  San Jacinto College District
  
• 
  Shipley School
  
• 
  Southeast Missouri State University
  
• 
  Southern Illinois University Carbondale
  
• 
  Texas A&M University, Qatar
  
• 
  Trident Tech College
  
• 
  University at Albany
  
• 
  University of Arkansas
  
• 
  York College of Pennsylvania
  

• 
  Full user access administration for each piece of a template or file.
  
• 
  Media catalog for digital asset management
  
• 
  System has a lot of neat features and full multi-lingual support, but nothing that stands out about other CMS systems in the class.
  

• 
  Requires the use of a separate server running Windows 2000 and IIS as the storage, edit and compiler. This then feeds the content to the web server.
  
• 
  Separate server required for content personalization and document management.
  
• 
  Interface seemed somewhat confusing with all of the little red dots defining what could and couldn’t be edited.
  

• 
  OpenCms is an enterprise - ready content management solution build in Java and XML from open source components. OpenCms can easily be deployed on almost any existing IT infrastructure and provides powerful features especially suited for medium and large enterprise internet or intranet applications.
  

• 
  OpenCms runs in a "full open source" environment (e.g. Linux, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL) as well as on commercial components (e.g.  Windows NT, IIS, BEA Weblogic, Oracle DB).
  

• 
  LeTourneau University
  

*No other educational users were listed.

• 
  The software is completely free to download and install on the system.
  
• 
  Support is available through Alkacon Software and other companies.
  
• 
  There is a large user support group.
  
• 
  The system was created and is updated based upon user input.
  

• 
  Most of the users and support companies are in Europe.
  
• 
  Updates and the continuation of the system is dependant on the users.
  
• 
  There is no formal training available.