It’s amazing to me how many content management systems “CMS” are in the marketplace. It seems like every web software company has what they bill as an enterprise CMS or plug in module to another core application. Despite the fact that there are a number of noteworthy CMS to choose from there is still a huge marketplace for these solutions. I know it’s hard to imagine any company or division website without a CMS powering it but I think you would be surprised by the number.

I speak to hundreds of companies or divisions of companies each and every year and it amazes me that in the year 2009 so many Fortune, mid size and small businesses have no or an antique forms based CMS type application. What is even more amazing to me is the multitude of CMS applications in large corporations installed at different divisions, multi-lingual or password-protected websites. What a waste of time, resources and money.

In my opinion I see the current market break down something like this:

1. Implemented 50% - company or division has a newer CMS (within 3 years) that they are committed to and participate in expanding it. These companies may or may not be happy with their CMS but their investment is real and they are committed for the time being.

2. Antiquated CMS 30% - a company or division has a CMS over 5 years old. Absolutely lacking major features such as workflow, social networking, easy to use WYSIWYG editor, etc. These companies are always on the look but internal politics and perhaps budget keep these useless CMS in place. If you add back the man hours used just to keep these going it could be thousands of dollars each and every month.

3. Greenfield 20% - a company or division that has NO CMS and uses employees or contractors to update simple content. 20% of a multibillion dollar market is huge and I seriously believe these companies spend more time and money using manual labor instead of a valuable CMS (to see how valuable read this article covering CMS ROI. The greenfield market is huge and one would have to think they need to move quickly.

Final thought if you add international corporations especially China, India, former eastern Bloc (where labor is cheaper than purchasing a CMS) and the US Government the greenfield number would grow substantially. Maybe the government can use TARP to buy a CMS and finally unify government websites!

One can hope right?

Written by Tony Pietrocola