We have just wrapped up a big couple of weeks with the launch of Percussion CM1 Version 2 at the Inbound Marketing Summit, FutureM Marketing Week and our own Tequila Moonrise party attended by over 150 marketers. You can read the coverage of the launch here. And another customer has gone live on Percussion CM1, congratulations to Graceland University.
We work hard on how we position our products to be sure that we are connecting with your real business problems, but occasionally, we are reminded how important that is.
During the Inbound Marketing Summit we participated in a panel with several other WCM vendors. Unfortunately, the panel was not a big hit with at least the part of the audience that was actively tweeting. Jeff Cram post on the CMS Myth blog showcases many of the tweets if you are interested.
There were a number of things the show organizers might have done differently to make it go smoother (make it a breakout rather than a main session, should have not recruited a moderator on the Friday before the show to name two...) But, I do think we need to take the audience to task as well.
Aside from the lack of an open source participant, one of the main themes of the back channel was “It’s all about content guys, technology is a dime a dozen, it doesn’t matter.” And yet, the number of people at that same show who told us that they dislike their WCM was amazing. Sorry, that just doesn’t track.
Of COURSE it’s all about the content, we couldn’t agree more. But if you think technology is a dime a dozen, then you just aren’t paying attention.
We talk to dozens of companies, education institutions and government agencies of all sizes every day. I am sure that our competitors do as well. The simple fact that we are all still in business tells you that people DON’T have it figured out. It tells you that they DON’T like how their technology supports their strategy. And it tells you that technology is NOT “a dime a dozen.”
And if you are a senior marketer and you aren’t worried about how you are going to get more content online faster, how you are going to take advantage of whatever comes next on the web, or how you are going to engage better with your customers online etc, then bravo! But the rest of us are trying to push the limits of our strategy.
And that is the biggest takeaway for us—a reminder that people want their technology to help them solve their business challenges. You don’t want more complexity, or more integrations, less usability, and you don’t want your technology to get in the way of your ability to innovate online.
In the end, you want it to just work.
Today, Percussion has formally launched Percussion CM1 Version 2, the next step in our mission to productize web content management. You can read the press release here, learn more about the product on our product pages, or request a demo to see for yourself how we are changing the game for web content management. If you happen to be in Boston for the Inbound Marketing Summit September 14 and 15 we will be demonstrating the product at our stand and celebrating at a launch party called Tequila Moonrise on the evening of September 14th.
We here at Percussion believe strongly in delivering on the long promise that web content management should first and foremost solve the core business challenge of easily creating content and publishing it to the ever expanding number of channels. As the “Web Rate of Change” continues to accelerate, ease of use is critical as is the flexibility to adapt for whatever comes next.
Fundamentally these problems have not been solved yet. Our mission is to lead the industry toward a productized approach to web content management and away from complex technology frameworks that require substantial amounts of customization to simply get running.
While we also believe firmly in holistically managing your customer experience we look for natural opportunities to bring appropriate functionality into the WCM product. For example, managing your blog as part of your content management system makes sense, trying to use a WCM to replace your CRM as the hub of customer information does not. Forcing you to bolt on tools and services in the chase for some ill-defined future state simply forces needless complexity in the chase for more services dollars.
These complex frameworks often require four, five and even six times the cost of the license in services costs to even begin making it work for you. And much of that is spent on building or customizing core functionality that should be available out of the box. Instead, we believe strongly that you should spend your energy, your internal development time, or services dollars on the things that truly differentiate you online.
As proof of our commitment, a license for Percussion CM1 Version 2 costs $20,000 with a $5,000 annual subscription covering upgrades and maintenance. Most importantly, our deployment tools make it possible for many of our clients to deploy it on their own, without spending additional dollars on deployment services.
Percussion CM1 Version 2 represents our collective experience over the last 10+ years in web content management to ensure that the product does what you need it to do. But we aren’t stopping here. Our model of adding new functionality through widgets and gadgets coupled with our Agile development strategy means that new features and capabilities are available every four to six weeks. This ensures that you have an easily upgradeable product that gives you the flexibility to address “What’s Next” on the web.
Percussion CM1 Version 2 is just one important step in this productization journey. We are bringing this same functionality and capability to our enterprise flagship CM System as well. For example, our new Blogging functionality as well as Tags and Categories will also soon be made available as part of CM System. We are relentlessly pursuing ways to continue making it easier for you to achieve your online objectives, and we will be introducing those in the coming weeks.
It’s a great day here at Percussion. We are excited to bring these innovations to market, and look forward to continuing to bring new value to our customers. If you want to a simpler approach to how you manage your content across your online strategy, we welcome you to join us on our journey!
