Hosted XML Content Management: Is It Right for You?
Publishing organizations have long recognized the value of migrating content to XML to attain the benefits of content reuse, reduced localization costs and single-source publishing. But, many of these organizations have never been able to justify the high cost and long implementation cycles required to install an in-house XML content management system (CMS).
Recently, a new alternative has emerged—the "Software as a Service (SaaS)" model, which offers a hosted XML content management environment on a subscription basis. According to research firm InfoTrends, more than 40% of their survey respondents would either "prefer" or "definitely consider" a hosted content management solution.
Software as a Service: What is It; Why Should I Care?
The SaaS business model is essentially designed to offer a full-featured solution in a hosted environment. The software application sits in a centralized, secure data center and is served up to end users completely via a browser. Rather than buying and implementing an expensive in-house solution, the customer pays a subscription fee to use licenses on the system. The vendor has to perform to the specifications of a service level agreement (SLA), or there are typically financial penalties to pay. SaaS is gaining acceptance as an alternative business model, led by the popularity of applications like WebEx and Salesforce.com.
Any organization can benefit from an SaaS business model, regardless of its size:
- Small-to-midsize business: For small- to-midsize businesses, SaaS allows access to software that might otherwise be too costly or complex to implement or support.
- Enterprise: For larger organizations, SaaS allows departments to avoid having to make large capital expenditures and having to pay for internal support costs. Large corporate environments typically turn to SaaS to support short-term projects, software that will only be used occasionally or by a small number of employees and for applications that need to be available outside of a firewall to partners, contractors, suppliers or customers.
Traditional CMS vendors typically charge most, or all, of the purchase price at the time a contract is signed, before the system is even installed. Usually, the customer is responsible for the system deployment (often working with a consulting/integration firm). The vendor charges 18% to 20% annually for software support, and is not accountable for implementation failure, even if the system is never actually used in production.
By contrast, an SaaS vendor is responsible for configuring the environment and delivering a turnkey application. License fees to an SaaS vendor do not start until the system is production-ready, and there are financial penalties for failure to meet the metrics in the service level agreement.
Many "traditional" CMS vendors are considering (or announcing) that they will now support a hosted model as an alternative delivery mechanism. Most of these companies will struggle, because they will now be held more accountable for a successful production implementation and will have a difficult time adjusting to having to wait for payment. It will also be very hard for these companies to give up their ongoing profitable maintenance revenue. (For example, 45% of Oracle's revenue comes from maintenance.)
Implementing or upgrading a content management environment is a significant and risky undertaking, and there are many options available for consideration. But if you properly define your business needs, stick with solutions that conform to standards, start with a small pilot project and look for rapid ROI models (such as SaaS), your chances for success will increase dramatically. Choose wisely—the rewards are well worth it.
Example of an SaaS CMS: DocZone.com
DocZone.comprovides the first commercially available XML content management platform available exclusively with the SaaS "on-demand" business model. Our customer base spans many industries, from automotive to hardware/software manufacturers to healthcare solution providers to utilities. Some examples include:
- A European automotive company is using DocZone to facilitate the creation, localization and automated publishing of glove box manuals in up to 30 languages, including bidirectional languages such as Arabic;
- A global healthcare company is implementing DocZone to manage the editorial, localization and single-source publishing of technical manuals, Web-based training materials and HTML help from the same set of source content; and
- A localization provider is using the DocZone platform to facilitate its translation and content optimization services to its end-user clients, allowing them to pass on significant savings for translation and desktop publishing of multilingual content and making it a more competitive player in the localization industry.
DocZone (
www.DocZone.com) is a privately held company headquartered in Heemstede, the Netherlands, with a wholly owned US subsidiary headquartered in Bedford, New Hampshire. DocZone.com has direct employees in the Netherlands and US, as well as a close network of development and integration partners. DocZone.com is a KMWorld Trend-Setting Product of 2006.