What Does Gartner's ECM Magic Quadrant Mean To You?

Content management reports and analysis always are interesting fodder for discussion, and now that Gartner's 2008 Magic Quadrant report on enterprise content management is complete, it's certain to have an equal number of vendors crowing about their inclusion, as well as those who question Gartner's findings.In a nutshell, Gartner's Magic Quadrant reports identify and rate two key attributes for each vendor: their ability to execute and the completeness of their vision. The sweet spot is the upper right-hand corner of the grid, which assembles the vendors that excel in both areas.

CMS Wire has a good, albeit SharePoint-centric article on the results, which shows us that EMC, IBM, Microsoft, Open Text, and Oracle lead the way, with other vendors nipping at their heels.

This year's report takes a look at a total of 18 enterprise content management vendors, including the mainstays mentioned above, as well as Interwoven, SAP, and some lesser-known (but solid) names such as Alfresco, Day Software, and Xythos.

While Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) doesn't lead overall -- that honor appears to go to EMC -- it continues to be the closest thing to a household name that the enterprise content management industry has, which tends to make it the center of attention.

It's not available on the site yet but, Gartner should offer the individual report for sale soon. It's also probably worth noting that Gartner's Magic Quadrant reports are generally pricey -- usually around $2,000 for 15 to 20 pages of content -- so that may be a consideration for some organizations.