I did a little checking, and it appears that the issue you were dealing with was fixed in both 6.1 (your current version) and 6.2. However, it could be that you folked decided to move up to 6.2 to get the addition features that were released in that version, such as Outlook based workflow management, improved RSS handling, Dropout tracking in Webforms for marketers, and many others. We do have a variety of customers successfully working with OMS, and would be happy to help you connect up with them. Feel free to ping me in email. d g at sitecore dot net.

Best,

Darren Guarnaccia
VP Product Marketing

OMS depends on conditional rendering, which is a new feature in 6.1. Almost any complex Web site and even some simple ones could take advantage of conditional rendering, and upgrading to 6.1 seems like a more cost-effective way to get these features than developing them custom, and then upgrading Sitecore in the future anyway (Sitecore customers definitely don’t switch CMS products every few years).

Conditional rendering depends in turn upon the rules engine. Almost anything you can do through the rules engine, you could previously do in code and/or configuration. Now you can implement those customizations through the browser-based user interface.

Sitecore 6.1 also introduces edit frames and the field editor, which could have unlimited uses for developers designing solutions for the Page Editor, again avoiding customizations to achieve these features in 6.

Of course, every Sitecore release has performance enhancements, minor corrections, and various other features. Like any upgrade, getting to this release now could make future upgrades easier.

You can get pointers to documentation on the various 6.1 features here:

http://sitecorejohn.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!960125F1D4A59952!412.entry

I know JBoye as a very respectable consultancy, so I expect you take Darren Guarnaccia up on his offer and look forward to hear you comment once you have a more thorough picture of the product.

As many of you point out, I’m aware that OMS brings bring new functionality to the Sitecore framework, besides web analytics. My question is simply whether it is a good thing for customers? If a simple demo requires several hours, my conclusion is that the new solution is rather complex.

@StevenSingh: Vendors and system integrators like you are definitely encouraged to participate in the discussion on this blog. Openness and dialogue are great, as we can all learn from each other.

@JensMikkelsen: Thanks for the useful link and for the open thoughts about the new version. It’s great to see that you have provided a free guide for some of the new OMS features. As you point out: “OMS is still in its early stages and there is still room for improvement – especially regarding usability for the marketing persons”. That is probably something system integrators like you can help to improve, but who will pay?

@DarrenGuarnaccia: I agree that “customers need more effective solutions, and not a bunch of point solutions requiring vast integration.” However, often “less is more” as we have learnt from Mies van der Rohe and Google. For the ordinary business user whom you refer to as the main target of OMS, I still find it hard to believe that they will see the new feature set as making things easier. I would be happy to be proven wrong. Also, I would love to get a demo, which is why I signed up for the ’instant demo’ 2 days ago. When we visited Sitecore we actually had almost an hour, which should be enough – in particular if you start with the demo and don’t spend time explaining what a CMS is…

@JohnAustin: I did read your article and comment on Twitter, and I agree that planning is of course important. For OMS, I am afraid that the chart you provide in the article is too illegible to be understood. As you mention in the article: “It should be noted that Everest’s WEM capabilities will require significant strategy, planning, implementation, and a supportive management process to be effective” – followed by a list 10 things that needs to be done. This seems like a cumbersome task, and not something the ordinary user will be able to do.

Should everybody upgrade to 6.1 as soon as possible? Any customer perspectives?

It’s also important to point out that what Sitecore has done with OMS is far more than incorporate web analytics. OMS also provides quite a large amount of Marketing automation as well. Sure, Interwoven has parts of this (mostly MV testing from their Optimost acquisition) and Tridion (who coincidentally announced their OMS product 1 day after ours) has some light analytics, simlple AB testing and email campaign integration but we’ve gone well beyond these simple tools. We’ve incorporated a whole suite of lead management, nurturing and optimization technology in addition to our WCM solution. We’ve incorporated GeoIP targeting, lead scoring, campaign management, MV testing, sales enablement, segementation and profiling as well as out of the box CRM integration. This is well beyond what anyone else has done. But let’s again ask the question, why should a Sitecore customer care? Because Sitecore OMS and CMS now starts to solve the business challenge of customer acquisition and revenue generation. Like many other applications in other markets, Sitecore is simply evolving to expand the business value of its solutions.

Best Regards,

Darren Guarnaccia
VP Product Marketing
Sitecore