Merchandising strategy affects content management choices, analyst says
Web content management is a mature technology market with plenty of choices among vendors, but retailers should first consider their merchandising and collaboration strategies before choosing an application, Gene Alvarez, vice president for electronic business at research and analysis firm Meta Group, tells InternetRetailer.com.
“In the world of business-to-consumer web sites, web content management is no longer a discretionary spend,” Alvarez says. “You have to have this stuff now to keep your site fresh and interesting to consumers, and to keep them coming back.”
Meta Group reviewed 14 web content management vendors in a METAspectrum report released this week. The report projects that the market will grow to $2.5 billion in software and services for all types of web site operators by 2007, and that there is little differentiation among vendors in overall quality of their technology.
But retailers should review their web sites’ strategies before choosing a vendor, Alvarez says. “All theses vendors offer significant web content management capabilities, but the question for retailers is what their own intentions are for content management.”
Retailers that want to provide customers with web access to enterprise content, such as a user manual that links to a back-end database, should consider going with one of several vendors with a strength in enterprise content management, Alvarez says. Vendors with a forte in enterprise content include Documentum, FileNet, IBM, Interwoven, Mobius, Microsoft, Stellent, Vignette and Percussion, he says.
If retail web sites offer consumers collaborative features, such as custom configuration of PCs or previews of apparel on custom-fitting virtual models, site operators should consider using vendors that offer strong collaboration features. Such vendors include Documentum, Interwoven, IBM and Microsoft, Alvarez says.
"Failure to manage web sites and their associated content effectively can significantly undermine company messages, decrease sales, increase staffing requirements, and raise operational costs and risks,” Alvarez says.
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