The high cost of Web content management. (News, Trends & Analysis).

A recently released report from Jupiter Media Metrix (www.jmm.com), "The Content Management Threshold," states that businesses are "overspending drastically" on digital content management solutions.

According to the report, highly optimistic predictions for Web-based business initiatives have led some companies to spend a steep $25,000 per non-technical employee annually to manage simple Web site content. In many cases, customization, integration, and deployment costs can rise as high as six times the basic licensing fees. Jupiter analysts say that organizations with Web sites that do not operate at scale are better off evaluating lower-cost solutions or even home-grown systems.

"We're seeing companies overspending on online content management systems mainly because they don't know how to solve their own content management problems properly," said Matthew Berk, Jupiter Research analyst. "The majority of first-tier content management platforms are only cost-effective at a very high scale. Despite the maturity of broad solutions, businesses must be vigilant about matching their content management requirements to an appropriate solution and its cost."

Despite the prevalence of costly, failed content management systems, most organizations still view content management as the key to operating their Web site and, increasingly, their enterprise. Content management systems provide value by limiting the efforts of technical personnel required to support the productivity of non-technical content workers. According to an April 2002 Jupiter Executive Survey, 53 percent of companies will have deployed new document, content, or media asset management systems by the end of 2002. Moreover, almost one-fifth of Web site managers said they will be involved in content management consolidation projects as they unify systems to manage multiple Web properties.

Although just 31 percent of com-panies surveyed have developed home-grown content management systems, Jupiter analysts suggested that number may double by 2004 as companies recover from expensive, failed systems. Jupiter analysts advise companies to consider a home-grown system if a content management initiative applies to a single Web property, the parent company has no desire to manage content across an organization, the number of contributors is fewer than 20, and the workflow is relatively simple.