The EPiServer 'triangle'

1/21/2009 1:13:15 PM #

I'm inclined to agree with you Dan that EPiServer is a capable mid-market CMS tool. However, I think that EPiServer sells largely on its competitive licensing fees, reduced development effort required (compared to other CMSs, particularly open source ones) and its intuitive and capable admin interface. There are several CMSs that work well the mid/upper-mid market space that have lower (or no) licensing costs. However, any financial savings are usually wiped out by increased initial development costs, shaky technical support, additional development effort post deployment and the hidden but very real cost of editing content using an inefficient/user-hostile admin interface.

Dim Sung |

3/2/2009 12:56:16 PM #

I think that the main "sweet spot" that EPiServer hits is the integration with the pluggable architecture of the .Net Framework. This does give you a huge amount of flexibility in terms of delivering functionality and integration with other systems. EPiServer is a great middle-market .NET-based option, but there isn't a great deal of competition in this space[!].

The competition from open source in the middle-market is a real long-term challenge for EPiServer. As Dim Sung points out, there are many hidden costs in open source ownership, however these are often over-looked by budget owners who are trying to squeeze as much functionality and development as possible into a £100-250k budget.

Ben |