[thelist] Microsoft CM outselling all other CM vendors

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Microsoft Tackles Enterprise Content Management
by Tony Kontzer, InformationWeek, 10/07/02, 5:14 p.m. ET
http://www.commweb.com/article/IWK20021007S0006

Microsoft unveils a new version of its content-management server this week,

and analysts say the update establishes the vendor as a viable alternative
for large business deployments. Microsoft got into the content-management
market with its April 2001 acquisition of NCompass Labs, and it's been
viewed as a small-business niche player since. Microsoft is out to change
that perception with the new release. "This is really the version where we
rebuilt the underlying architecture to be a true Microsoft product," says
Chris Ramsey, lead product manager of Content Management Server.
Three areas of improvement in Content Management Server 2002 are designed
to
attract IT buyers in large companies: new productivity tools such as
integration that let Word documents be published directly to the
content-management system; improved application development that makes it
easier to build custom features and templates; and better use of XML and
Web-services standards for simpler integration with heterogeneous computing

environments.

Analysts expect the enhancements to pay off. Already, Microsoft has been
making its mark in the content-management arena by winning about 100 deals
per quarter, or two to three times as many as each of the market leaders,
Documentum, Interwoven, and Vignette, says Forrester Research analyst Nick
Wilkoff. The improvements, combined with Microsoft's pricing and
ease-of-deployment, should prove attractive to established Microsoft shops,

he adds. "If there's any bias toward Microsoft in your company, you'll
definitely want to have them on the shortlist for content management," he
says.

AMR Research analyst Louis Columbus says Microsoft also is starting to show

off its superior Web-services technology, which allows content-management
functionality to be exposed through other applications--a key consideration

for companies looking to serve up applications over business portals. Adds
Columbus, "They've moved into the mainstream of enterprise content
management with this release."

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