Category: Content management & strategy (Page 186 of 489)

Customers we met at Interwoven’s GearUp ’07 reminded us of how much really hard work goes into complex content-centric applications. We see the glittery, exposed tips of solutions, while the bulk of the application lies under the surface, often at depths where only the experts go. A presentation by Sun Microsystems at GearUp is a case in point.

The session focused on Sun’s Starlight platform, a global information management infrastructure described in a Gilbane CTW case study. It was an opportunity to hear the Starlight story live, in a panel discussion featuring Sun’s Sean Browne, director of web publishing, and three members of his team, including Kristen Harris, content management engineering manager, and Jed Michnowicz, engineering lead. In the program, we noticed that the session was being moderated by Steve Van Leishout from NEC Corporation of America (NECAM). What was the connection, we wondered, between Sun and NECAM?

During the discussion, we learned that NECAM is a long-time Sun partner, providing program management and technical expertise in support of the redesign of Sun web properties. A few examples of the heavy lifting that NECAM has done at Sun: helping to migrate nine properties into two primary vehicles of approximately 225,000 pages and assets, and coordinating the hand-offs between more than 100 stakeholders responsible for publishing content to sun.com, java.com, two developer sites, and over 35 country sites in 12 languages. The hard work below the surface enabled us to gain a new appreciation for the success story documented in the Gilbane case study on Starlight, reminding us that there’s usually much more to successful applications than meets our eye.

If you have an iceberg application that you’d like to share, consider submitting a speaking proposal for Gilbane Boston 2007. The deadline is May 15.

To learn more about Sun’s Starlight platform, see Leonor’s entry on the Gilbane globalization blog entitled Aging: Web Years Are Worse Than Dog Years.

John Murrell, in his Good Morning Silicon Valley blog says that the price of the Negroponte laptop (http://www.laptop.org/) has hit $176 (it keeps climbing!), but as he writes, “the bigger news (is) that it may run a version of Windows in addition to the customized Linux OS and open-source apps designed for it.” )
The blog is here:

I’ll be giving a talk on “Managing Content for Compliance: A Framework” at the annual IT Compliance Institute Conference — Friday, May 4th in Crystal City Virginia.

Sneak peek at my recommended actions:

• Secure senior leadership
• Develop policies and procedures
• Develop information architecture and systems
• Expect to iterate.

No real magic — just a lot of hard work! Fortunately, the smart use of relevant content technologies will help.

The integration of content and translation management workflows has a great deal of value for globalization projects. And as we’ve discussed, there are various market approaches to streamlining these increasingly complex processes. With the announcement of SDL International’s intended acquisition of Tridion (set to close by end of May,) buyers officially have an additional approach — translation and Web content management under one roof.

In this case, the opportunity is clearly for marketers who struggle to meet growing corporate and consumer demand for a multi-site, multi-lingual Web presence that drives revenue and protects brand (for the former) and delivers localized customer experiences (for the latter.) The time is right for this marriage, as globalization continues to climb toward the top of the CIO’s “must-have” strategy list.

SDL and Tridion are undoubtedly headed toward a cohesive integration of their respective TMS and Web CMS technologies, which makes a great deal of sense for those organizations wishing to standardize on one platform for Web site translation and management. As we would expect, API-level workflow integration is at the top of the priority list, according to executives from both companies. There’s quite a bit of potential for more, when one considers the ability of SDL’s Author Assistant to enhance the value of content at its source, i.e. during content creation, as well as the power of Tridion’s Communications Statistics module to drive process improvements based on data culled from user activities. Safe to say it will be interesting to watch the evolution of this combined product line for its impact on the Web content lifecycle.
As we’ve seen in the ECM and BPM suite market, the trend toward vendor consolidation changes the landscape dramatically and spurs the inevitable “suite versus best-of breed” debate. Within the globalization market, we expect this acquisition to follow suit — after all, the marriage crosses the “dotted line” by solidifying the value of content and translation management integration.

At the end of the day however, the buyer defines the purchasing decision that makes the most sense, based on the most pressing — or painful — business requirements. As it stands now, Tridion will be a separate division within SDL and operate autonomously. R5 will be sold as a module within the SDL product set and renamed SDL Tridion R5. In parallel, SDL TMS will be sold as a Tridion module.

In effect, this strategy leaves decision-making in the hands of the buyer, as it should be. Hence, the immediate goal for this marriage is to demonstrate just how compelling the promise of a “total solution” will be. The CMPros community is already weighing in on the potential; Gilbane readers: join the conversation! We’d like to continue this discussion with your feedback.