A vignette about Vignette's reinvention

NEW YORK--There was a time when many thought Vignette, a maker of expensive content management software, could have been one of the next great software companies.

In June 2000, the Austin, Texas company had a stock market capitalization topping $9 billion (and this was a few months after the market peaked), was the subject of a lengthy BusinessWeek feature, and had more than 1,300 employees. Then, of course, the bottom came out of the dot-com business, and Vignette all but disappeared from the spotlight.

Turns out Vignette is still very much in business, and was one of many software companies pitching their products this week here at the Web 2.0 Expo in the Jacob Javits Center. It's certainly a smaller, more humble company. With a market cap a nip over $300 million and about 680 employees, it's still in the content software business, focusing on video and new media technologies.

Is this reinvention?

"I think you could put it in those terms," said Lee Shepstone, chief technology officer for media at the company.

Does that mean Vignette, a decidedly Web 1.0 company (Vignette was an early publishing tool spun out of CNET Networks as an independent company) is now calling itself a Web 2.0 company?

"Yes and no, depending on the audience," Shepstone added wryly.

At the conference, Vignette unveiled Vignette Media, a new software package tailored for media and publishing companies (sort of a back to the future for the company). It's likely to be the first of many industry-specific or vertical products from the company.

But with Wall Street reeling, don't expect a return to the $11 billion market cap glory days anytime soon.

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[boru_dog]

Vignette is a dog. Every company I know that has implemented has commented that it is too expensive, not flexible and cumbersome to use. Everything a content management shouldn't be.

[avfolk--2008]

Vignette is a dog -- with fleas and heartworm.
Know two local companies that spent tons of money implementing their 'solutions'. When that proved
daunting -- they hired Vignette consultants to assist them. After six months of sheer agony, they parted
ways and chose another, more flexible, and far less-costly solution.

Vignette also retains it's original dot-bomb attitude and pricing. Not a worthy solution unless you have
money to burn and are accountable to no one for mistakes. Good luck on the spin guys.

[Web258]

Vignette is indeed reinventing itself. The new products they are bringing to market are cool. They have steadily been solving the complexity issues that dogged them in the past.

[vladislav13]

I really do wonder whether the last person's post comes from someone that uses the system on a day to day basis? I am part of a team that uses it on a day to day. We have all seen the slick marketing presentations. Nonetheless, I remain very cautious, if not sceptical as to the worthiness of the new solutions. So much of it is standard and free with other providers it seems.

[vladislav13]

I really do wonder whether the last person's post comes from someone that uses the system on a day to day basis? I am part of a team that uses it on a day to day. We have all seen the slick marketing presentations. Nonetheless, I remain very cautious, if not sceptical as to the worthiness of the new solutions. So much of it is standard and free with other providers it seems.

[Jase415]

During the dot-com boom, lots of us were using Vignette systems on expensive, overpriced, multi-server hardware as if money were no object. Then those companies went bust, and up sprang new businesses that were leaner, smarter, and embracing free and low-cost solutions. Vignette chose to ignore the Linux movement (even as companies like Oracle and Sybase were making their databases work on Linux, and semi-free to boot) so we moved to other content management, personalization, and delivery systems. Vignette's loss. They might be a lot more relevant now if they hadn't been so short-sighted back then.