(Note:- For less of a general ramble and some informed and insightful technical commentary on latest EPiServer developments check out Jon On Tech here… )

Squeak, my faithful hearing aid, and I headed for the EPiServer Partner and Customer Day at the Cumberland Hotel yesterday. Squeak is a relatively new companion – the latest breed of digital aid with enhanced sound filtering and directional microphone control. However, on its last major outing with its twin brother Squeal, to a recent Michael McIntyre gig at the Anvil in Basingstoke, both let me down considerably when they had a major disagreement with the sound system, which led to an unbearable level of distortion and, sadly, a ruined evening. There’s nothing worse than sitting in a theatre full of hysterical laughter having not heard the joke – and particularly having to do it for 2 long hours. 

So – I’m pleased to report no such problems with the acoustics and sound system at The Cumberland – which were excellent – and meant that I heard every detail and also enjoyed the various conversations I had with previous and new acquaintances during the networking sessions. The only slightly disconcerting experience was being able to hear conversations several tables away during the lunch break and a realisation that I now possess an almost bionic superpower. That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration and is more than likely just restoring an ability I should have anyway – but it was an interesting surprise all the same.

As with previous EPiServer events I’ve attended over the last couple of years, I sit in the audience listening to the information from two perspectives. The first as a customer, super administrator and web project manager and the second as a former competitor. Having spent some time developing CMS product strategies and helping drive forward CMS software developments I have deep respect and admiration for those who can listen to customers and partners to identify their pain points and product needs and can bring required changes and new developments to market quickly and effectively. Scanning the horizon, liaison with customers, articulating requirements and working with management and development teams to prioritise work and deliver high quality working software is the hardest and most frustrating role I have ever done and, picking up on my last post, could often be described as a ‘thankless task’.

Having used EPiServer CMS5 pretty intensely for almost 2 years now, it works in ways that I’ve long imagined this type of mid-market WCMS solution could and should work.  It’s an affordably packaged offering with the ability to handle multiple websites, microsites and landing pages in one seamless editing and administrative environment. Different ‘task based’ editing options  are available – from full in context WYSIWYG to an intuitive and dynamic editing interface which enables easy access to multiple country treeviews, page language controls and action windows. It also has sufficient and granular administrative control for more complex globalisation needs requiring access and permission control for a broad spectrum of users and capabilities.

It would appear that EPiServer has moved faster than many in a proprietary environment by remaining 100% channel focused and adopting all the best lessons and philosophies of the Open Source community. On balance it seems to have been more effective than many comparable proprietary vendors in opening up its code base and empowering development partners to create meaningful, useful and broadly viable product extensions.

So, watching Rikard Ljungman, EPiServer’s VP of Product Development, present their upcoming Marketing Arena offering and then listening to subsequent presentations giving more insight into EPiServer Community, I found myself recalling various product scope documentation and presentations from a few years’ back and thinking “that’s what I wanted the Marketing Solution to provide and that’s how I thought the Community tools should be integrated”. Obviously it’s easy to say this in retrospect and I had a real ‘kicking myself ‘ moment when I realised that much of the SEO capability EPiServer is launching is similar in many respects to the Accessibility Checking tools that were already well established in the product I was managing and could have been a relatively quick and easy win – if I’d been a lot smarter.

No doubt I’ll be accused of being an EPiServer ‘fan boy’ with these comments but I’ve been managing web projects of all shapes and sizes over quite a few years now with some of the biggest solutions around – to some of the smallest ones and quite a number in the mid-tier space in-between. I’ve been pretty demanding of the EPiServer product and its implementors and impressed with the flexibility and adaptability I’ve experienced in return – so this is simply giving credit where I believe it is due.

I’ve also fallen into the trap of being too enthusiastic and believing too much of the hype that often accompanies new developments – which  I’ve also been guilty of producing myself on occasions – so I’ve had my fingers burnt slightly and learnt a few lessons following the EPiServer events last year. Hopefully EPiServer has also learnt lessons in integrating its development partner’s work into its own branded product set and testing these upcoming new releases more thoroughly this time round 🙂

As with many activities and tools where you spend a fair amount of your working life, ‘familiarity can breed contempt’ and I think the real test for me will be EPiServer and its partner bases’ ability to recognise and address key pain points and bugs quickly. If developing the latest and greatest functionality comes at the expense of improving the core web content management capabilities that make for a reliable, productive and effective user experience, then EPiServer will risk turning off established and loyal customers who are its best advocates and often help to do the marketing job for them.