Archive for February, 2009

This isn’t really new information. As Web Content Management and Enterprise Content Management vendors have seen buying power shift to marketing departments that no longer want IT involved in every decision they make, content management vendors have tried to establish relationships with agencies to take advantage of their direct influence on marketing departments. The question always seems to be which agencies to go after. I was looking at Rockfish Interactive the other day. As a full-service design agency, I expected them to have a set of partners they work with for content management, blogging, etc. Instead, they wrote their own. Sounds like the perfect partner for a WCM/ECM vendor partner to me.

Fifteen years ago, I had to develop my own rudimentary content management system in Perl because there was no real WCM solution. Vignette came out with StoryServer and I drooled, but could not afford it. I have implemented a couple of open source systems along the way and ended up working at Vignette last year. What occurs to me is that companies like Rockfish are right to build their own solutions that fit their specific needs. Implementing solutions from Vignette or Interwoven on project-level bases is cumbersome and expensive, and for smaller companies the overhead of managing these solutions might be daunting. However, small companies grow and their needs grow with them. When the in-house solution cannot handle the scale, a well-positioned partner can step in.

Then again, look at some of the Rockfish clients. These are large organizations that presumably have content management systems scattered throughout, but promotional microsites are often easier to deploy without using a full-scale WCM/ECM solution. A partnership might provide an opportunity for the agency to introduce an enterprise scale WCM/ECM solution that can prove agile enough to handle both small, ad-hoc projects as well as large formal projects.

The best thing about working with agencies who have homegrown CMS is that they “get it.” They have the ability to sell content management to their clients, so the relationship is not simply a referral or a passed lead. They can hand over a qualified prospect ready to see a demo. I wish all engagements started that way.