It’s that time of year again. Time to reflect on what we did this year and what the next one will bring. 2012 looks to be just as great — and we think some big changes are coming. Here are our top 12 predictions for what will be coming in 2012.
#1. Content as a REST Stop. Content as an Accessible Business Platform
Content is quickly becoming an important asset for organizations to manage carefully and thoughtfully. But the number of devices, interfaces and/or channels that need to be managed simply cannot be forecast. Before January 2010 no one even knew what an iPad was. Now organizations are scrambling to build interfaces to support it. 2012 will be the year that companies start to think about managing their Web content as a platform that can be drawn from like a well using REST-type API’s. In this way, there can be complete separation from the presentation of content and the management of it. Watch for new standards for Web Content Management, such as the WEMI standard, as well as CMIS to become more important. Then, new channel displays can be quickly assembled when needed and integration/interoperability between best-of-breed tools will become easier.
#2. Big Data Comes To Web CMS
A recent IDC study concluded that digital information is doubling every two years. That is certainly happening in Web content management systems. As WCM systems take over more responsibility for more platforms, tracking more usage, customer and other types of behavioral and other metadata, the repositories for these systems are becoming huge. Savvy customers — even those in smaller companies — will start looking at their CMS vendors for how they handle and scale large sets of information.
#3. Social Business Process & Governance Become Priorities
With the explosive growth of content display channels, so too will come the equally explosive growth of interfaces to manage, collaborate and share content. Identity management across devices, business processes and content quality governance will become big priorities in 2012.
#4. Contextually Aware Content And Behavioral Targeting — The New WEM
Web Engagement Management has been all the rage for the last couple of years. As mobile interfaces start to overtake the desktop in the sheer quantity of Web experiences, watch for “context” and “behavior” to drive Web Experience Management. Gartner has said that “context is as important to mobile as search was to the web.” In 2012, this becomes a reality for many organizations. Forward-leaning organizations will begin to develop content strategies that use context (device, location, time, behavior, etc.) to target more relevant content to their consumers.
5. RIP Websites — The Web Is Now Everywhere
In 2012, we’re going to start to see the idea of organizations publishing a single website die. Much more focus will be placed on publishing content when, where and how the consumer needs it. New trends like Mobile First, where interfaces now dynamically morph into interfaces appropriate for any screen size and device, and technology such as HTML 5, that help content publishers create hybrid solutions for tablet devices, will become much more commonplace. The key is that content management systems will need to be able to accommodate publishing content as a service — consumed by multiple interfaces and optimized for relevance using context.
#6. Best of Breed Across the Enterprise
As it becomes easier and easier to create information flow between applications, inserting “best-of-breed” applications as specialized point solutions will make much more sense for the enterprise than the “suite” of applications. As more and more hyper-focused types of solutions emerge, enterprises will be able to plug and unplug various types of content focused solutions: from email campaign management, web analytics, web content management, to CRM and others.
