Content Management's Evolution Continues

by Barry Bealer

June 2003

From SEYBOLDREPORTS.com, Volume 8, Number 38; June 25, 2003

In May of 2002 our firm teamed with The Center for Publishing at New York University to survey publishers regarding their content management initiatives. The survey, titled The Bracket Report - Publishers Adoption of Content Management Systems and Technologies, included mostly STM publishers (the results were reviewed in the May 6, 2002 issue of the Seybold Report). While many of last year's trends continue, we've observed interesting changes as well.

Perception of Content Management Products

In 2002, only 20% of the respondents thought existing content management products met most or all of their needs. Today, some publishers who previously said no product could work for them are in the process of selecting a product from a pool of several strong contenders. There are multiple forces at work here, but one of them is certainly that content management products have matured in ways important to publishers, especially in the areas of managing XML content, delivering content to print as well as electronic products, and integrated collaboration features. Publishers do continue to distinguish between data-driven and document-driven systems and to build custom systems for the former.

Single versus Multiple Systems

Another factor affecting the perception of content management products is that, more and more, publishers see content management as multiple systems working together to support the content lifecycle rather than as a single monolithic system that does it all. Examples of component systems include manuscript tracking, collaboration, peer review, document and content management, production workflow management, and digital asset management. As publishers complete work on their core content management initiatives, they often begin focusing on systems with few direct ties to revenue but which are important to the publisher's competitive position.

Cost to Implement

Last year saw a wide range of total investment in content management by publishers, with about half the respondents spending less than $250,000 and about half spending more. While the numbers appear not to have changed significantly, the software expense involved has been dropping. The content management marketplace is maturing, and in that context prices have come down for the more successful vendors, in some cases as much as 50%. Publishers are also becoming more adept at managing software projects, which helps to control costs for custom as well as product-based solutions.

ROI

In 2002, 40% of publishers surveyed expected to see a return on investment within a year of deployment. Almost 80% expected a return within the first 3 years. This trend continues; publishers expect a return almost immediately, and most say that they are seeing those returns.

From our perspective, the clearest trend of all is the right content management and delivery infrastructure can be a significant competitive advantage. Publishers who invested carefully and aggressively in the past several years are now leveraging their capabilities to deliver products in ways that are simply not feasible for their competition. It's time for publishers who didn't make the investment or who were more timid in the kinds of change they imposed in their operations to leverage the improved product marketplace to help catch up.