New “Component Content Management” Report Coming Soon From CMS Watch and The Rockley Group

CMS Watch, an important analyst firm and research group in the content management arena, has partnered with The Rockley Group to produce the industry’s first report on component content management systems. The forthcoming report (expected Summer 2007) will help enterprises sort through the complexities of choosing the right tool for managing discrete components of content in a multi-channel world.

Component Content Management systems manage content at a granular level (component) of content rather than at the document level. Each component represents a single topic, concept or asset (e.g., image, table). Components are assembled into multiple content assemblies (content types) and can be viewed as components or as traditional “documents”. Each component has its own lifecycle (owner, version, approval, use) and can be tracked individually or as part of an assembly. CCM is typically used for multichannel customer-facing content (marketing, usage, learning, support). CCM can be a separate system or be a functionality of another content management type (e.g., ECM or WCM). 

The benefits of component content management include: 

• Greater consistency and accuracy (content is the same wherever it is reused)
• Reduced content creation and maintenance costs (there is less content to create, review and manage because content is reused)
• Reduced delivery costs (content is separate from format so content can be published to any channel with no reworking of the content)
• Translation costs are reduced (content objects not documents are translated reducing the cost of matching content, and once a component is translated it is translated wherever it is reused)

Content Component Management space vendors include: Astoria, AuthorIT, DocZone, PTC, SiberLogic, Trisoft, Vasont, XHive, XyEnterprise, Percussion, Tridion, Documentum, and Interwoven.

The report will also evaluate major structured authoring tools, including JustSystems XMetaL, PTC Arbortext Editor, Adobe FrameMaker, Microsoft Word, and In.Vision Xpress Author.