Rich Media Publishing and Management Part 3: Peering into the Crystal Ball

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
In this camp are those who believe that rich media will be so pervasive that customers will not want to create, manage, and distribute their rich media content in a separate technology silo. There are two very different approaches to integration with other technology platforms. Either the vendor aims on specific verticals and applications with laser sharp focus (example Sonic Foundry), or on broad horizontal applications which get broader, more integrated. Companies such as Autonomy can offer their platform as middleware for integration into ubiquitous productivity and communications applications.

One reason that an integrated scenario is attractive is that it requires a lot of resources to develop all the rich media publishing and management features a customer could need. And, corporate prospects are not sufficiently clear about their needs or applications for a developer to "go to the bank" with those requirements.

Paul Ritter, analyst and program manager with Yankee Group, points out that vendors are pursuing a variety of options given the current state of affairs and their limited resources. "There’s not a large company in this segment developing its own software solutions at this time. The big brand name providers are partnering with software developers to build an end-to-end solution. In the future, we believe that mergers and acquisitions will be the rule in this segment. After the large DAM, ERP, and CRM vendors are done with their investments, very few undercapitalized companies with silo applications will remain."

Customer’s Make the Decision
Ultimately, everyone agrees that the future lies in the hands of the customers who have the budgets to spend on rich media publishing. If spending picks up in the near future, the stand alone platform providers will escalate in value and have the resources to continue expanding their solutions. If large numbers of big customers adopt or maintain a wait-and-see posture, the valuation of the providers in this segment will be well within the reach of the broader application providers such as Oracle, Computer Associates and others with deep pockets.

All we can say is that it is an interesting journey and the last chapter on the rich media publishing and management segment has not been written!