Mike Davis
FatWire buys Infostoria in move to WEM
FatWire Software, the Mineola NY-based web content management (WCM) vendor announced last week that through acquisition, it was joining the line of CM vendors declaring that they have Web 2.0 strategies, but refreshingly it identified exactly how these would distinguish its offering by moving into the arena of web experience management (WEM).Comment: It appears that the term 'now with added Web 2.0' is being incorporated within all the major (and minor) content management vendors marketing message. Principally because it is regarded by the corporate 'spin doctors' that go under the label of marketers as 'this season's must have'. FatWire's acquisition Infostoria appears to be coming from a different angle, rather than a 'bolt-on' of blogs and wikis (which FatWire already has) it is extending the WCM into the Web 2.0 environment to get greater user engagement with content whether internal to the organisation or external to customers, partners or others.The strength, and perversely for organisations, the inherent weakness of Web 2.0 technologies is that they are user-controlled, and can at one extreme distract users and at worst expose organisations to risks resulting from inaccurate or inappropriate content. The company believes that for the most part current WCM tools are fragmented, which causes a challenge as often such tools are not only trying manage the end user web experience, they are trying coordinate content and processes from disjointed staff. The two elements that the Infostoria functionality adds to FatWire's content management offering are conceptualisation, and participation within the management and control of a corporate WCM system. According to FatWire the former should support an organisation's creative teams by streamlining collaboration in the creation of content across departments, and facilitate grass-roots knowledge exchange through some light-weight, project management functionality. The latter should enable organisations to offer a more engaging web experience for their customers, partners, and employees by providing a channel for direct feedback into the organisation.FatWire already has wiki and blog functionality within its Content Server and it intends to transition existing customers over time. In the first instance the Infostoria functionality will be offered as an add-on rather than an integral part of Content Server and will therefore be separately licensed.This acquisition is a canny move for FatWire which has an international customer base ranging from financial services to local government. With increasing numbers of customers, partners etc. interacting with organisations via websites, static presentations are a big turn-off. And whilst the term 'experience' is also becoming pretty hackneyed, if a user feels (and it is of course a matter of perception) that the website is dynamic and responsive to their personal needs, they are more likely to both uses it and spend more time on it.
