“The major trend in the 2009 market for WCM vendor pens is that ‘average’ seems to be considered ‘good enough’. Only a few vendors stand out, though many try. FatWire emerges as a clear winner as they manage to both be stylish and innovative while keeping focus on the core functionalities.” – Peter Sejersen, Lead Analyst.
The world is flooded with pens, in particular from WCM vendors. Still, the right pen for your needs can be hard to find. Use this analysis to understand the marketplace dynamics and to make the right choices for 2010. To assist buyers in selecting the right one, we have developed an objective matrix and scoring system, which we’ve used to crown FatWire, as maker of the best WCM pen for 2009. See all the pens here. For detailed assessment, consult our complimentary research: 2009 WCM Pen evaluations.
FatWire is the clear leader in a crowded marketplace
Popular amongst users
As good analysts, we also interviewed users for the research and here are some quotes:
“The FatWire pen is the best structured pen I ever used. It is easy to use and also really scalable – I already used two pens together!” says Volker Grünauer, Head of E-marketing at Wienerberger, the world’s largest producer of bricks.
“I love my FatWire pen because of what it conveys and what it does” says web manager at the WHO European Regional Office Kanti Kumar and continues: “It’s a healthy pen! Despite its name, the FatWire pen is slim (eats healthy), warms up very quickly (keeps fit) and has never failed to write (no illness). And it doesn’t use ink made of toxic material (saves the climate) nor does it consume any other consumable product (lives healthily).”
What are your requirements?
Jon Marks, Head of Development from LBi, London – a leading full service digital agency – reminds us that there are also alternatives to FatWire: “My personal favourite is the Vignette pen. It’s much the same as all the other pens, but it’s probably worth something now that they’re not making them any more. And I like purple,” says Jon.
Theresa Regli from CMS Watch also has her own favourite: “I admit, despite straying away from the use of vendor pens due to our strict stance of vendor impartiality, I do like my IBM pen. It’s really true to the brand. It’s big. It’s blue. And after writing with it for more than a few minutes, it feels very heavy. The Terminalfour pen feels lightweight and agile by comparison,” says Theresa.
A big thanks to all that helped making this research possible and to the vendors for handing out free pens.
Full disclosure: The evaluations is this post are as true and objective as it gets. No vendors were hurt during the collection of the pens (but some were dismissed when they required a too long briefing about their product).
James Hoskins December 18th, 2009 16:42
I can’t believe EPiServer has been left off this Magic Pyramid! If J Boye keep overlooking it I’ll have to assume it really is a Danish/Swedish thing
Their pen has been a faithful companion of mine for over a year now. It has a sleekness and style to it (not unlike they’re interface) but is pragmatic and not too flashy, complicated or over the top. It’s lightweight but solid and hasn’t let me down yet.
Personally believe it deserves a mid-pyramid position
Tristan Renaud December 18th, 2009 16:42
Thanks Janus, very funny.
This reminds me the famous story of the Nasa’s pen: how can you make a pen working in space /for the Space station)? There is no gravity there, so the physics of pen does not work. So the Nasa’s engineer designed a 1 K$ pen (each) with pressurized helium and auto-regulation mechanisms to compensate the drop of pressure of helium after a few hours of using the pen, so that the pen would write exactly the same way. It was also required to change the helium tank regularly. Just a mess.
When they started working with Russian cosmonauts, the Russian said “what the f… is this pen?” “we are just using pencils for 0.1 $ each”.
That’s why you don’t get any (commercial or not) open source in your top 10 list. We don’t have money to spend on such things. But we have ugly t-shirts for our annual football event. We are available for the contest of the WCM ugliest t-shirts
Tristan (jahia)
Bill Beardslee December 18th, 2009 16:42
Peter,
This is one of the funniest posts I have seen in some time. We as an industry need to laugh at ourselves more often, and you have provided us with such an opportunity. Nice work.
Now, back to designing the dotCMS 2010 platinum pen collection….
Bill
Dave Scalera December 18th, 2009 16:42
This is great stuff!!!
I’m sure somebody is going to bring up which pens were built by a 3rd party vs. the ones that were assembled by the vendor themselves!
Brian Bentzen December 18th, 2009 16:42
Great fun Peter:-)
I have a Terminalfour pen that I really enjoy using.
But I wouldn’t mind having a Google pen – to show off among Google nerds:-)
And by the way. Isn’t there any Plone pens … ?
Michael Marth December 20th, 2009 16:42
Agree with Jon Marks: I also still have my most excellent Vignette pen.
Other than that check out my collection of CMS baseball hats:
http://marth.ch/cmshead/collection/the%20collection.html
Liz Johns December 21st, 2009 16:42
What a great post, however sadly lacking is the Swiss-made Alterian writing implement. Built using the highest quality materials and couriered direct from the Alps in the gentle care of Switzerland’s finest truckers. I shall send samples post-haste to rectify this awful situation. If I could have written this using my Alterian pen, I would have. As it is, I have sufficed by simply pecking out the letters on the keyboard with it, which was almost as much fun.
Christian Løverås December 21st, 2009 16:42
This is one of the better WCMS evaluations I have seen, and I’m sorry the Escenic pen did not make it. As mentioned on Twitter, this is the current pen: http://tweetphoto.com/6900135 I’d be happy to send you one for evaluation.
Elaine Chen December 21st, 2009 16:42
At FatWire, we are very proud to be the recipient of highest honors in the WCM Pen Magic Pyramid. But we are not resting on our laurels. We will continue to innovate as we develop the next generation of our robust and easy to use writing implements.
Adriaan Bloem January 2nd, 2010 16:42
Awesome post Peter
…but I do have to say it’s quite biased against open source
Fantasy CMS for government February 18th, 2010 16:42
[...] quick blog search suggests I’m not alone. Even their free pens get a [...]
Klaus-M. Schremser November 7th, 2010 16:42
Hi Peter,
as you could see at this year’s J. Boye 2010 Conference our pens are as EASY & FAST as our CMS product (which by the way won the Web Idol 2010)
.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/genticssoftware/5154436871/in/photostream/
best regards, kms