British Consultant Makes Case Against Enterprise Content Management Solutions
A British Information Technology consultant named Alan Pelz-Sharpe has been interviewed on the Web Site called Lighthouse on the Web. The interview takes the form of a series of refutations of orthodox views within the Content Management software and consulting communities.
His comments reinforce the position of people like us who believe that the enterprise-level content management systems, such as Vignette, Interwoven, and Macromedia Spectra do not represent a complete solution to content management needs. No matter what solution is chosen, a great deal of system integration and workflow design is likely to be needed.
CTDATA actually thinks that all of these products are useful, so long as clients understand what they are buying. Rather than look at these products as ready-made systems throughwhich content flows on day 1, they should be viewed as construction kits that need to be assembled with care. No company can order a series of industrial automation components, place them haphazardly inside a building, plug them in, and call it an assembly line. Similarly, no company can take Vignette out of the box and create a sophisticated Web presence in short order.
Kudos to Lawrence Lee of Tomalak's Realm for continuing to operate his site. His is the first Weblog we found that pointed to this article.