As North Plains expands offerings and makes acquisitions, the buying puzzle becomes more complex. For potential buyers and customers of North Plains, never forget

We've released a major update to our Web Content and Experience Management (WCXM) Evaluations, which review 35 major CMS products from around the globe.

First and foremost, you will notice the name change:

The North Plains/Xinet acquisition news this week weren't particularly shocking. DAM vendor North Plains has been steadily growing in the recent years, and there were (and still are) several holes in the product -- not to mention the company -- that needed to be filled.

Today we publish our 2012 Digital & Media Asset Management Market Overview. Things are markedly more exciting in the DAM & MAM world as we start 2012, versus the relatively calmer 2011. Product development has picked up, in particular among mid-size and large DAM vendors, as they attempt to beef up their feature offerings to cover more of the digital & media management spectrum

Some vendors we cover in the Digital & Media Asset Management Report are in a committed, pure DAM/MAM relationship with their customers. Others – like Nuxeo, Adobe CQ and VYRE – which we have just updated with new evaluations – tend to favor a more open relationship incorporating aspects of WCM, ECM and DAM.

Those of you under the impression that Web Engagement Management (WEM) and Customer Experience Management (CEM) are mere buzzwords may want to pause and observe. I am not saying that I am in favor of creating more acronyms

It’s been only a little over year since EMC admitted its ineptitude in the realm of Web Content Management, and graciously invited FatWire to share the stage and play the role of a lovey-dovey partner. Today, another WCM vendor joined the affair -- SDL with its SDL Tridion Web CMS

In the nearly three years since we first began in-depth research into the Digital & Media Asset Management market, I've been nothing short of fascinated by the process of uncovering more and more details about DAM vendors and their tools.

Last week we updated our evaluations of seven DAM vendors

Last week we updated several WCM vendor evaluations, including

I'm currently advising two Fortune Global 1000 companies on a vendor short list for their upcoming digital asset management procurement

As I talk to people in the content-technology industry (if I may call it that), I'm struck by a common thread that has begun to emerge in conversations involving roadmaps and futures

At CMS Watch we evaluate an awful lot of products, and making sense of all this research can be a challenge.

I've heard too many people say DAM is "kind of like WCM" or "just like document management, but for pictures."

Digital Asset Management vendor ClearStory announced last week that they've been acquired by The FeedRoom, a web video management software and services provider