Whenever a potential customer asks me about what it is that differentiates Vamosa from the rest of our competitors, I have to stop and think hard about the definition of 'competitor'.  If by competitor, you mean somebody who says they do what Vamosa does, then there is plenty of competition out there.  When we started the Vamosa concept 6 years ago, the concept of content migration was abstract and avoided at all costs by the ECM vendors.

Now that we have made a lot of inroads into the area of content - analyzing it, structuring and then deploying it , we now find that everybody says they do it - and they seem to think they always have.  In my humble opinion, impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery.  But that is only when the impersonator is a good impressionist.

To this end, I have to say that we are asked to help out a lot of companies which have used one of our 'competitors', and we have had to pick up the pieces and show it how it is really done. 

This brought me round to the concept of quality versus quantity.  I think that is where we really differ from the other guys out there who attempt to replicate what we say, and what we do.  Some of the guys can 'migrate 2,000 web pages' - and that is the best that they can come up with as a reference.  When I look at the number of Vamosa customers who live in the 100,000 plus page space, or the 1,000,000 document plus space, then I have to think, we handle quantity very very well.

But at the end of the day, we still live in a 'garbage in - garbage out' sort of world, so quantity is not the ultimate measure.  To the teams of Vamosa guys working out in the field with our customers, the real qualifier of success is quality.  But not quality in the authoring sort of way - that is handled pretty well by the vendors of content management systems.  I am talking about content quality in the same way we talk about TQM - total quality management.  TQM was all about ensuring that quality was built in across all processes and by all stakeholders.  TQM for quality means that when the content is published it adheres to the quality principles of the business - all of the metadata is meaningful, and the naming conventions and storage mechanisms all work ins the corporate environment.  TQM for quality is like applying data management principles to content and knowledge.  And the other thing about TQM is that it is a continuous process, it doesn’t just happen when you initially build and populate, it also applies to every change, update, deletion or modification.  The great thing about web content and document management systems is that they are infinitely flexible; the worst thing about them is that they are infinitely flexible.

So no when I look at what we do in Vamosa, with our built in high volume capabilities, and our connectors to lots of technologies, I think we can tick the box for quantity. And when I think of our “analysis, structure, deploy and then analysis” content quality cycle; I think of quality.  That is when I get the clarity of thought - some of our competitors will talk about quantity, some (not many) will talk about quality, but only Vamosa leads its marketing propositions with quantity AND quality - that's why I get a headache when I'm asked about competition!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

The swan song of Tsunami Ken's tenure as social convener for Vamosa Inc was held on Saturday 9th December 2006. 

In dramatic fashion, Kenny Boy organised a politically correct, religiously neutral Holiday Extravaganza in the imaginatively named 'Felt' (oo err Missus!) - a combination of restaurant/nite spot/pool venue.  A great time was had by all (thanks Kenny Boy!) and here are a couple of snaps showing some of the highlights. 

Other, more incriminating, pictures are available for $10/£5 if you want to some cheap gossip. 

Kenny, Eric, and Johnny; if you give me $20/£10 each, then the pictures will never see the light of day.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM US ALL IN BOSTON!

Grace is said before scoff: Johnny prays for forgiveness while David snaps the sleazy fun

Steve O Gets Down to Business: Steve has to pot this one to get his tie back

Hadrian Gets Excited: Calm down Mr Engel, your eyes give away what you are thinking!

I have just spent a few days at the Gilbane Conference on Content Management here in Boston.  It was a well attended event and (as is the norm), there was a very healthy bunch of commercial sponsors - companies who shell out a lot of money to get the chance to show their wares, talk to delegates and generally showcase their latest and greatest innovations.  So all is good in the world of software - but is it?

My cynicism radar was definitely working overtime.  Having attended some of the sessions - and I thoroughly enjoyed some of them - I have to say that there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm in some for vendors.  If you believed some of the self proclaimed 'industry watchers', 'demand side analysts' and 'CMS experts' you would think that the commercial software vendors are a cabal of evil, hell bent on relieving all those poor unsuspecting organisations of their software budgets, and delivering very little in return.

Now I have worked in software for 20 years, and in IT for 23 years, so I have seen my share of this view from customers, but I have to say I am getting a little bit tired of this view.  We all know what bankers do - they bank; retailers retail and defence contractors help to defend.  The software industry is a very dynamic and fast changing sector.  The level of talent and the level of innovation that exists within the sector is second to none.  With innovation comes risk.  Thousands of software companies are formed every year.  The amount of risk sustained by the software sector is unbelievably high.  Software as a sector really does punch way above its weight when it comes to its attitude to risk.  With risk comes reward to some, but a lot of strife to the majority of software startups.

So the next time somebody turns round and questions the motives of the software industry, ask them if they realise the level and speed of innovation that is produced every year.  The ability to bring products to market which really address true real world problems.  The ability to make things faster, or cheaper, or easier to use.  This comes from innovation and from a healthy and positive attitude to risk.  This does not come cheap.  Not in monetary terms, nor in the blood sweat and toil shed each and every day by the small guys, the innovators, the risk takers.

Ijonas Kisselbach, the CTO at Vamosa has become a bit of a blog dictator (in the nicest possible way!).  He is using all means of perusasion at his fingertips to 'encourage' the use of blogs.  I have to admit that I have no real idea what I can write that is of interest, but due to the fact that I am now based in the New World, with all of my old colleagues and pals in the Old World, then there must be somethings to write about!

I have spent the last two years jumping in and out of the US and Canada trying to develop a startup customer and partner base for Vamosa.  Now that I am based in our Boston office, and have set up a whole new half-life here, the sheer enormousness (is that a word?) of it all sometimes really blows my mind.