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Where content meets technology

May 10, 2006

One size fits none

CMS Watch recently referenced Martin White's EContent Article further disproving the one size fits all vision for content management. It seems the pragmatic "best of breed" approach has beaten the industry sanctioned, monolithic ECM message in almost Gandhi-like fashion ("First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.") and no one really believes that one CMS implementation can serve everyone. Even if a single CMS product could do it all, customizations and configurations to benefit one group would spoil it for other groups trying to do different things.

So where is the discussion going to go? I think the interesting problems are: a) how to optimize a technology (and process) to solve a finite set of business problems really well; and b) how to share content across a heterogeneous content environment. These are harder, more interesting, problems. Problems that are solved with continuous, incremental improvement and focus on the user - not big bang silver bullets that are more likely to blow up in your face than hit a target.