Crafter Software Corporation, a web content management solution, announced a new partnership with an l IT consulting and services company Global Quark. Global Quark provides IT consulting services and solutions for enterprises located in Mexico and throughout the Latin American region. Through the partnership, Crafter Software and Global Quark will deliver a portfolio of services and solutions for enterprise customers in the areas of content management, web and mobile applications, intranets, and e-commerce.

Ektron announced an expansion of its content and web experience management offerings to include a unique, cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that offers a secure, scalable, and agile alternative to the traditional model of on-premise WCM.

The Search Agency, a global online marketing firm and independent U.S. search marketing agency, released findings from the latest edition of its Mobile Experience Scorecard: Web-Only Retailers, which found that the average time the top 100 web-only retailer sites took to load was 2.99 seconds, almost two seconds longer than Google's recommended load time. Google also recommends Responsive Web Design (RWD) for mobile sites, yet only nine out of the 100 sites in the study used RWD to improve mobile experiences.

Widen Enterprises has released a new version of the Widen Media Collective, its digital asset management (DAM) solution, featuring asset-level analytics, stylized collections, video clipping, and updates to the mobile app and REST API. Version 7.1 continues to add new features to Widen's flagship DAM solution based on customer-driven ideas that allow marketing and creative teams the ability to extend their digital assets to greater audiences and better understand the value of their digital library.

Making sense of large amounts of disorganized information that is spread across wide swaths of an organization has always been the defining challenge of knowledge management. In recent years, the ability for organizations to capture information about themselves, their customers, and every facet of their business has increased exponentially; the phenomenon, of course, is known as "big data." As troves of data grow, so too does the potential to leverage it, and one key to keeping up with that potential is through the implementation of systems and solutions that streamline your organization's ability to analyze it, access it, and act on it. In short, big data is spurring the symbolic "long tail" of institutional knowledge to grow ever longer, and organizations must be prepared to adjust their knowledge management strategy to compensate.

The amount of data produced each day is staggering. In fact, the Harvard Business Review points out that "more data cross the internet every second than were stored in the entire internet just 20 years ago." Because of this, internet users experience "information overload," where they become overwhelmed with the bevy of information available -- even pushed on them -- through multiple technologies.

Purveyors of traditional electronic content often rely on content management systems (CMS) to maintain and update text, visuals, and other media on websites. But companies that offer consumer packaged goods (CPG) face more complex challenges when they want to deliver high quality e-content to consumers who trust that the information listed for a product in a brick-and-mortar or online store is accurate. Hence, they typically turn to product content management (PCM) systems and software.

Traditional web publishing won't cut it anymore--not in an age when digital experiences by users are so highly valued. That's one of the key findings of a report issued by Forrester Research. It's also a sentiment echoed by many industry experts who recognize the increased importance of creating and managing multichannel customer experiences and the transitioning of web content management (WCM) into digital experience (DX) management.

Today's consumers have ravenous appetites for econtent-enough to earn them the nickname "digital omnivores." While that moniker may already be familiar to many electronic publishers and content providers, they may be surprised to learn that, between 2011 to 2012, the digital omnivore population surged 160%, according to the results of Deloitte's recent "State of the Media Democracy" survey.

The overarching trajectory in the evolution of web content management (WCM) that emerged in 2013 largely reflected the trends that have been defining nearly every other corner of the technology sector in the last several years. The equalizing principle of ease of use for nonexpert users, a drive toward mobile functionality, a preference for a solution that integrates well with other systems, and a strong inclination toward user-driven or social content creation-these tenets are now the new normal for the creation, management, and distribution of enterprise content, particularly web-based content, and they drive expectations of technological functionality for both internal and external stakeholders in any enterprise.

With mobile devices outselling traditional computers, mobility has clearly become an enterprise concern. Whether customer-facing or employee-facing, converting key services and information to mobile-friendly experiences is no longer optional. The marketplace offers a wide variety of tools that can help you go mobile. These range from simpler tools that help you quickly "mobilize" existing sites to more sophisticated tools that allow you to create complex mobile apps, including specialized native apps for specific mobile devices.

With both content and technology always evolving with the fast pace of culture, web content management (WCM) systems must keep up. This is no easy task, and it keeps the industry leaders on their toes. "WCM is about creating and managing content in a central repository with the purpose of delivering it-publishing it-to the web," says Irina Guseva, senior analyst for Real Story Group, "as well as to other channels such as mobile, social, print, and email." And that requires continual adaptation.

Content managers used to have a relatively easy time of it-although, they likely didn't realize it then. Not that long ago, content was published on a website and accessed through page views. But a lot has changed over the past couple of years. Today, consumers of content have a wide range of devices to choose from when accessing that content-from desktops, to laptops, to iPads, iPhones, smartphones, and Kindles, etc. The experience has become far more complex-for content providers and, arguably, for consumers as well.

If you're like other publishers, you have a lot of content; a lot of great content. You also have a lot of channels on which you're pushing out that content and an equally diverse group of users to whom you're delivering it. But how do you make the most of that content? By ensuring you can reuse and repurpose it many times across multiple channels and platforms. Through its reuse, companies can get more mileage out of their, often expensive, content. Yes, there's also the cost factor that can't be ignored. "The main reason content is reused is it saves a huge amount of money," says global content strategist Scott Abel.

You're responsible for procuring and implementing a new software technology project within your organization. Maybe, it's a new ECM, WCM, or DAM system. You identified your stakeholders, got the budget in your pocket, and lined up a technology selection consultant. Missing anything? Some organizations tend to overlook or underestimate internal change management issues. And any new software being introduced is a major change for any organization, small or big. Here are some helpful tips on how to manage change in enterprise technology projects.

In a typical information management technology project--be it ECM, CMS, or DAM--you, as a customer, are bound to deal with vendor services. Here are a few pointers to consider and pitfalls to avoid. First and foremost, you will be spending a lot of money on vendor professional services. Usually, customers spend more on services than software, often three times as much. To meet customers' consulting needs, most vendors maintain their own professional services (PS). There are others as well that also (or instead) may have services through a partner channel of integrators, consultancies, and resellers who can help customers implement the package.

The battle for marriage equality-the ability for people of the same gender to legally wed-is being fought in courtrooms around the U.S. and beyond. Fourteen states, the District of Columbia, and five Native American tribes in the U.S. allow people of the same sex to marry. The nations of Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, and Uruguay do as well. England and Wales recently joined that list. And marriage equality bills are pending in another dozen countries. Aside from a few places on this planet where civil rights are in limited supply, the momentum seems to favor a move toward marriage equality globally.

How often have you heard, "We're not in charge of that" or "We don't own that content" from people within your organization? In today's ever-changing global marketplace, digital strategy teams across the globe struggle to manage projects using the right resources and talent. Too often, they are stuck in silos and cannot effect any change, while others without important first-line knowledge about what customers really want are making important strategic decisions.

Usually I talk about WCM on its own, but I wanted to further explore the topic of digital asset management (DAM) projects. And here is why: DAM remains one of the technologies that is most frequently integrated with WCM. Where there's text/data/info on the web, there are most likely images and videos associated with that information. DAM is prone to common implementation mistakes that can make your project seem like a complete and utter waste of money. But knowledge is power. Therefore, I'll outline some of the most common DAM project mistakes that that you can avoid them or, at least, expect them and be able to handle them gracefully.