A lot has been written about the evolution of content management and the CMS market. This emerging but uneasy market has been around for a number of years now but is still very immature (see CMS market evolution and Content Management Trends – Growing upward, outward and onward…).

There are literally thousands of solutions. No hyperbole – thousands of solutions. They range from free to millions of dollars and most are horribly user unfriendly, complex and over-priced. As such, this nascent market relies on a lot of smoke and mirrors to sell their products as true success stories are rare and ephemeral.

Case in point: I was recently invited, as was our VP, Carm Porco, to an upcoming Ziff Davis seminar next week called Content Management for the Rest of Us. I was not able to attend but I sent the invite to our resident CMS expert Tom Marciniak.

Both Carm and Tom were confirmed to attend this event that featured ‘wine tasting’ (perhaps not smoke and mirrors but you get the point). Today Carm and Tom received notice that they were uninvited – there’s no room for them. Both however RSVP’d and had received confirmation of their attendance.

So, it is perhaps good news for Ziff Davis that their event is ‘oversold’ and they have to turn people away. It shows the degree of interest in the CMS market. However, to underscore the reality and my point about a very immature market relying more on ‘smoke and mirrors’, here’s a little perspective as to why someone like Ziff Davis should rollout the carpet for Carm and Tom at Prescient Digital Media. In the past year and a half Prescient has been involved with and recommended the implementation of 7 or 8 content management systems for our clients including Scotiabank, the Ontario Ministry of Health, BC Lottery Corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada, Ontario Realty Corporation and others. These are not insignificant companies – nor were the size of the contracts. On top of that, Carm and Tom both have written articles on the subject and spoken at conferences as well.

These guys are key influencers in this market. In short, they’re VIPs and absolutely ideal target audience for Ziff’s event. But they were uninvited. Needless to say this ‘un-invite’ from Ziff Davis does not look good on them or the sponsor Oracle. Worse yet, in addition to being known consultants that influence the CMS purchasing at some big name organizations we are also an organization of writers and our blogs receive on average 2,000 visitors a day – clients, prospective clients and other consultants with influence in the content management space.

Now if I was a vindictive sort I might look into the event to try and determine the exact sales pitch and make light of it. However, that’s not the point nor my desire. The point is this: the CMS market is incredibly immature and many solutions in fact represent a dangerous investment. For example, I’m talking with a client that spent $2.5 million on implementing a CMS and they’ve contemplated scrapping a little more than a year after going live). Buyer beware has never held so much urgency for businesses looking to buy a CMS.

Now I won’t rule out ever working with Oracle or Ziff Davis on behalf of a client, but you can be sure the mention of either won’t have me running to hire either.

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CMS market evolution

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