MarketView: Content Software Technology 2005: Money In The Middle; Action At The Fringe

This Content Software Technology (CST) MarketView contains an analysis of key players, trends, and essential actions for CST vendors. Companies in this category provide the software technology that underlies the information life cycle from content authoring through its ultimate consumption in enterprises. The CST market is in the beginning stages of being roiled by a perfect storm of forces including open source technology, software as a service (SaaS), application 'mash-ups,' the Web 2.0, and the arrival of the publish-and-subscribe model. To get a handle on the wide range of technologies represented by these companies, this MarketView provides an overview of key players in four main sectors relating to content: Creation (including authoring and social publishing players), Distribution (covering digital rights management, e-commerce, and Web aggregation), Management (including portals, enterprise content management, and enterprise suite providers) and Use (workflow/collaboration, knowledge management, and discovery/mining/business intelligence). Coverage includes the larger, more visible players such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, FAST, Documentum, and Verity, as well as smaller, less visible players such as Ektron, KnowNow, Entopia, and Intelligenxia. The MarketView identifies key trends in the space, including the move to less complex, cheaper solutions and tailored, integrated solutions. Drivers such as the concept of software as a service are gaining ground, while key inhibitors such as the over-featured and under-differentiated products of today still remain. The MarketView concludes with a list of essential actions for CST players. By Marc Strohlein, Vice President and Lead Analyst