The CMS Vendor Meme
CMS Watch recently introduced a "Reality checklist for vendors", asking CMS vendors to answer a series of questions.
Kas Thomas from CMS Watch recently published A reality checklist for vendors, asking CMS vendors to answer 15 questions. The rules:
- A CMS vendor is challenged to honestly answer all items on the "Reality checklist for vendors" suggested by CMSWatch's Kas Thomas (aka the "we-get-it checklist for vendors").
- If possible the vendor has supply screenshots, links or other means to make it easy to verify the answers.
- The answers also need to be supplied in a short form of one to three stars (denoting "no", "sort-of", "yes").
- Answering all questions on his blog allows the vendor tag some other WCMS vendors.
- A tagged vendor should provide a link back to the blog that tagged him.
Escenic's answers
Update: Based on a comment from Kas Thomas, we have now changed our four zeroes to ones: "Escenic gains credibility by scoring themselves low on so many things. They actually need to add 4 to their score, because technically the scoring for each item can’t go lower than one star, and they gave themselves zero on 4 items."
1: Our software comes with an installer program: Sort-of (2)
Escenic Content Engine is deployed as an Enterprise Java Archive (EAR) on a variety of Java application servers, such as Apache Tomcat. There has not been any customer requirements for an installer program to do this.
Escenic supplies the Escenic Assembly Tool (an Apache Ant script) which packages entire websites into Java Web Archives (WAR files), which are deployed in standard way on the application server. As deployment procedures vary for different application servers, Escenic does not provide an installer program.
Escenic Content Studio, the application used for managing content, is installed and started with Java Web Start. Installation is as easy as clicking a button on a web page, and after that he Escenic icon on the desktop works like any other installed application. Escenic Content Studio checks for updates and new modules every time the application is started, and installs them automatically, transparent to the user.
2: Installing or uninstalling our software does not require a reboot of your machine: Yes (3)
Neither Escenic Content Engine or Escenic Content Studio require a reboot. Escenic Simple Publishing may be used for editing directly in a web browser, which requires no installation at all.
3: You can choose your locale and language at install time, and never have to see English again after that: Yes (3)
The default langauge can be set on the server during installation, and all users installing Escenic Content Studio will get that language automatically via Java Web Start. Each individual user may also change the language at any time. The preferences are stored on the server, so any preferences, clipboard items, etc will be the same regardless of which computer the user logs in on.
Escenic Content Studio uses dictionaries similar to ispell dictionairies enabling customers to proof in many languages. Advanced proofing is provided by Tansa text proofing.
4: Eval versions of the latest edition(s) of our software are always available for download from the company website: Yes (3)
The standard Escenic license includes all new versions, which can be downloaded at any time from Escenic Technet. Customers may also get a ready-to-use image containing an Escenic website complete with content (two websites, actually - there is also a mobile version using Escenic Mobile Solution) to try out new functionality.
Note: As Escenic Content Engine runs in an application server (Apache Tomcat, BEA WebLogic, Caucho Resin, etc), uses a database (MySQL, Oracle, MSSQL, etc) and an LDAP server (OpenLDAP, MS Active Directory, etc), there are legal issues and licensing restrictions preventing us from allowing anyone to download a complete, working installation from our website. An installation is also more complex than downloading some code to run on a webserver, which is why we normally use a server image. Still: Potential customers may of course evaluate our software, and existing customers may test new releases at any time by downloading from Escenic Technet.
5: Our WCM software comes with a fully templated "sample web site" and sample workflows, which work out-of-the-box: Yes (3)
This is covered by the Escenic Template Kit. The image mentioned above may also be used for this.
6: We ship a tutorial: Yes (3)
Escenic provides several guides, ranging from administration and syndication to user guides for Escenic Content Studio and other products. The Escenic Content Studio user guide may be used as a tutorial.
7: You can raise a support issue via a button, link, or menu command in our administrative interface: Yes (3)
There is a link in the administration interface for submitting a support request. Escenic Technical Support may be contacted using a web form, email and phone. The support system allows customers to follow the progress of support issues, with the entire correspondence available online.
Escenic has Partners who normally do first-line support, and it is recommended that at least one person from the customer completes the necessary training to help users with basic support issues.
8: All help files and documentation for the product are laid down as part of the install: Yes (3)
Yes, all PDF guides are part of the install, and may also be downloaded at any time from Escenic Technet. Escenic Content Studio contains the same help information as the guides, as both are created from the same XML (DocBook/EasyBook) sources.
9: We run our entire company website using the latest version of our own WCM products: No (1)
Not quite. We run the latest release of version 4, but have not yet upgraded to version 5. See the Product Roadmap for more information.
10: Our salespeople understand how our products work: Yes (3)
Yes, all salespeople are capable of performing demonstrations and answering normal user questions.
11: Our software does what we say it does: Yes (3)
Yes.
12: We don't charge extra for our SDK: Yes (3)
Escenic Content Engine has had an open Java API since 1999, and it is included in the standard license. Both JavaDoc and several developer guides (standard and advanced JSP guides, JSP tag reference, syndication guide, etc) are available on Escenic Technet.
Normal website development is not done in Java, but with Java Server Pages (JSP) using the Escenic JSP tag libraries in combination with JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) and others, such as The Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI).
As Escenic development is standard JSP development (or Java for more advanced components, customization or integration), there are a lot of development environments to choose from. Escenic's own developers use both Mac OS, MS Windows and Linux with JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Adobe HomeSite, GNU Emacs, etc.
In version 5, all communication between Escenic Content Studio and Escenic Content Engine is done with RESTful web services. This makes content editors much less affected by network problems, allows for better scaling and load balancing of publication servers, and also makes firewall configuration very simple. It is possible to use SSL for encryption. With REST, other languages than Java may be used in combination with Escenic Content Engine. The web services will be publicly available and documented in version 5.1, please see the Product Roadmap for more information.
13: Our licensing model is simple enough for a 5-year-old to understand: No (1)
Our model is designed to fit both small installations such as Sermitsiaq (Greenland) and large media groups such as Axel Springer AG (Germany) and News International (UK). Licenses may be based on traffic, number of editorial users, the media group's size and number of properties, etc. There is no "per CPU" or "per core" license.
This may, unfortunately, make the license model difficult to understand for a 5-year-old. It does, however, make our licenses adapt to a large variety of customers.
14: We have one price sheet for all customers: No (1)
Please see the previous answer.
15: Our top executives are on Skype, Twitter, or some similar channel, and: Feel free to contact them directly at any time: No (1)
Executives use Skype and other instant messaging services, but these are not published on the contact us page on our website. We have previously had all employee email addresses on the website, but we now only list the main contacts for each office, such as Oslo and Dhaka.
Escenic does use Twitter actively, and we may be contacted at any time: http://twitter.com/escenic
Redpill Linpro, one of our partners, run an IRC server where developers from Escenic R&D participate: irc://irc.linpro.no/#escenic
Summary
Score: 36/45. Not stellar, but please read the answers for more details.
Note: Escenic customers use Escenic Content Engine, Escenic Community Engine, Escenic Mobile Solution and other Escenic solutions as crucial parts of their business strategy. The choice of CMS system is a thorough process involving the entire organization, both at management and end-user level. The CMS evaluation process may take months, and often includes different workshops, "proof of concept" projects, etc. The 15 questions and answers above would not be the most important in such a process.
Escenic would like to tag: CoreMedia, Polopoly and EidosMedia .
(Adding md5 hash 9c56d0fcf93175d70e1c9b9d188167cf as suggested by Bertrand Delacrétaz. Google search for more occurrences).
