Kentico CMS

Our Core Findings:

Usability: 5/5 Stars – Easy to use.  Your content administrators will love Kentico.

Scalability: 4/5 Stars - Your developers will like the potential to grow with Kentico. They have a level of access to the code base that similar .NET based products don’t offer.

Built-in Functionality: 5/5 Stars  - Building a professional functional site has never been easier. Period.

Marketing Tools: 5/5 Stars – SEO tools, Blogs and scalable things like web parts and business forms give marketers the things they need.

Price: 5/5 – Why pay 10-30,000 USD for a CMS that does less and does it less efficiently than Kentico? (aka Ektron)

The Kentico Details:  A CMS Product to Consider

Most companies these days don’t want to have to wait for a website guru that knows HTML or other web languages to make every little change on their website.  These bottlenecks are frustrating and take ownership away from the marketers and sales professionals that need to derive value from the web site.  Active content creation, site management and social media integration are now highly desirable marketing activities that must be pursued.

Thus, it’s not surprising that many in-house marketing and sales teams now want to “own the website”  themselves and get basics tasks done quickly without having to lean on IT for basic things.  For sure, IT and outside agencies may be needed to implement, deploy and build custom functionality – but the core marketing activities, for instance, must be completed by marketers. It remains the job of internal IT professionals to help ensure the solution is stable, secure, scalable and, ultimately, usable by those folks that should be updating it.  Hence, choosing a CMS is a big decision.  A mistake can be very expensive.

Kentico is one of the hottest CMS products on the market today.  With a low cost of ownership, excellent features and phenomenal customer service, Kentico met or exceeded all of MyTechHub’s review criterion.  Hands down, it’s our favorite .NET CMS solution we’ve ever used.   Developers will like the ability to quickly build sites, edit all HTML source code,  and the open extensible architecture.

This certainly was our experience as well.  Using broken out HTML, we were easily able to build a test site with a full design in Kentico in less than 2 hours – with no prior experience.  For the record, it took us one hour to configure and install Kentico on a .NET server (we’re php people).. Comparatively,  the experience of building a new site was much more pleasurable than building in Sitefinity or Dot Net Nuke.

We were frustrated by many other Kentico reviews we found on the net – as they were largely written by developers for developers.  Yet, developers just develop, what about the marketing folks that are supposed to be using the site every day?  Kentico offers a very rich solution set to marketers, including:

• User friendly interface
• WYSIWYG Editor
• Popular, Built in Modules
• Low Price

We found the WYSIWYG editor to be very easy to use and functional.  The overall user experience was well designed. With the main screens, including: Content, My Desk,  Tools and Administration it was fairly easy to quickly navigate around the CMS.  For sure, the  Tools tab will take some getting used to – but its all still fairly intuitive.

Our bottom line:  Kentico is a great tool at a great price.  Your marketing team should love it, coupled with some content administrator training it should dramatically alter how they manage their website.  Highly recommended.

Kentico Resources at a Glance

1) Kentico Devnet

2) Wakefly

3) Johny Code

One Agency Chooses Kentico

Thanks to my friends at Wakefly for bringing Kentico to my attention. After sifting through the many CMS solutions available, Wakefly chose to use Kentico’s Content Management System for their clients.  In addition, Wakefly had a long history of working with php based CMS solutions like Drupal and Joomla and .Net based solutions like Dot Net Nuke, Ektron and Hubspot.

“Through careful evaluation of the many options, Wakefly chose Kentico’s CMS because of its ease of use and functionality,” said Director of Search Marketing Jeff Demers.  “A good example of how Kentico’s CMS solutions function to help clients is the Lumension.com website.”

Lumension required seamless integration of content from the website to their customer relationship management systems and a methodology that could reduce the time needed to get content online.

The implementation of Kentico CMS reduced the bottlenecks within their IT department, streamlined content publication and produced a common branding across the entire website.  By using forms and templates, data collected on the site was uploaded directly to the CMS and was made immediately usable by their organization.

Read this and other Kentico case studies here.

In order to ensure that companies stay ahead, achieve operational excellence, reduce downtimes and thwart costly repairs, the Protection Technology Group – a company founded on the ability to provide custom-engineered solutions for unique protection circumstances – advises companies to not just simply weather the storm but rather pinpoint a service provider that provide a full power and signal integrity solution.

Leading the Industry – PolyPhaser and Trantsector together provide system protection for communication and power lines including:  RF lightening protectors, power surge protections, Ethernet surge protections and other industrial surge protection and power conditioning solutions for AC, DC, and data/signal.  From lightening arrestors to secondary transient voltage surge suppressors and surge outlets, PolyPhaser and Transtector offer the best in surge protection in the industry.

Peace of Mind – For over four decades PolyPhaser has been the leader in providing RF lightning protection and grounding solutions to the wireless communication market.  Not only are they a global manufacturer of RF surge protection solutions, they lead the market with an innovative DC block and DC pass RF product portfolio.  They specialize in:

●      Coaxial RF Protectors

●      Data Protectors

●      Grounding Solutions

Customer Focus – Exceptional service, delivery and superior design have made the Protection Technology Group one of the most widely recommended resources for surge protection solutions.

According to The Protection Technology Group, meeting customer’s needs is paramount and, to that end, customers are at the center of everything the company does.  Innovative solutions enable customers to achieve the ultimate system performance.  For more information, visit www.protectiongroup.com.

In essence, Smartphones put a mobile computer in your pocket. They store sensitive customer and company data, download email, access key corporate applications and assets, surf the web and more. They are a lot like laptop computers.

And just like laptops, Smartphones are vulnerable to security concerns. They can easily be lost or stolen. They are vulnerable to data loss.

Increasingly clever hackers launch SMS, email and web-based attacks using phishing or other tactics to penetrate users’ mobile devices. Of course, worms and Trojans are always lurking and probing for opportunities to disrupt the workday. What are mobile device users to do — fret that the person sipping a latte next to them is actually trying to steal information as they chat with clients or colleagues?

All the talking, exchanging of information and storing of critical corporate documentation on Smartphones is, not surprisingly, keeping IT teams up at night. However, implementing large-scale security upgrades and enforcing security policies for thousands of mobile employees is no easy task. Few companies have the expertise across myriad mobile platforms and technologies to execute such deployments flawlessly.

That’s where a firm like Enterprise Mobile, with expertise in the major mobile technologies, can become businesses’ best friend. The company guides organizations through the intricacies of the mobility ecosystem, including devising optimal approaches to device management (including security) and application deployment. Working with outside experts such as Enterprise Mobile can smooth security deployments and application upgrades while giving businesses confidence in their mobile security posture.

“It’s imperative that enterprises employ the device management solution that’s right for their business, implementing the most appropriate security policies for the mobile devices their workforce uses,” said Enterprise Mobile’s Chairman and CEO Mort Rosenthal.

These simple words of wisdom are echoed by businesses. A recent InformationWeek Analytics 2010 Mobile Device Management and Security Survey revealed that 73 percent of enterprises will deploy or plan to deploy software for mobile device management to address security issues. This figure is up nearly a quarter from the 52 percent who were planning security-related deployments two years ago.

An image of blue whale being carried away in a net by birds, the fail whale has become a pop icon synonymous with service interruptions and malfunctions. Despite its early bad reputation, Twitter, established in March of 2006, has worked hard to get a handle on its outage issues.

However, usage has increased at a rapid rate — with 2 billion status updates in June alone, according to Pingdom. The traffic is causing Twitter to re-evaluate its systems and discover some serious bugs in the system.

In a blog post on Twitter’s website, the company listed key factors to the recent outages including a spike in usage due to the World Cup as well as additional bugs found during short-term and long-term system improvements and upgrades.

“From a site stability and service outage perspective, it’s been Twitter’s worst month since last October,” spokesman Sean Garrett stated. “As we go through this process, we have uncovered unexpected deeper issues and have even caused inadvertent downtime as a result of our attempts to make changes. Ultimately, the changes that we are making now will make Twitter much more reliable in the future. However, we certainly are not happy about the disruptions that we have faced and even caused this week and understand how they negatively impact our users.”

Twitter has blamed the recent issues on the faulty planning, monitoring, and configuration of its internal network and that they were addressing these issues by doubling the network’s capacity, fine-tuning its monitoring, and re-calibrating its load balancing. According to partial data from the month of June, Twitter was down for over 5 hours — the worst outage since August 2009, when Twitter was unavailable for almost 7 hours according to Pingdom. While major overhauls are being preformed to improve the user experience at Twitter, the reality is that the problems are likely to get worse before they get better.

Looking to find a way to generate revenue for the site, Twitter began an advertising program in Aprile to offer “promoted tweets.” The website charges businesses to have their tweets displayed at the top of search results. The social-networking site has already landed some heavy hitters including Best Buy (BBY), Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, and Starbucks (SBUX). However, any future service interruptions may prevent other companies from spending valuable advertising dollars on an unreliable system.

Guests walked in to a brightly-colored jungle world at the Galen Center in Los Angeles surrounded by dancers, acrobats, and even a gigantic elephant puppet. Microsoft will be releasing a wide variety of games for Kinect, with 15 games available at the official launch on November 4.

The games promoted at the convention certainly reached out to their male demographic: “Medal of Honor,” “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” and “Gears of War 3.” However, the real crowd-pleaser was the showcasing of a new Star Wars game in which the player controls a Jedi Knight complete with light-saber fights and climaxing with a battle against Darth Vader himself.

In addition, Microsoft has not forgotten about the sports gamers. That lineup includes interactive games requiring the player to run physically in order to win as well as classic fitness games like yoga. But Kinect is not all about gaming. Users can also use voice commands to start and stop movies or play music as well as use the built-in camera to video chat with other Kinect users or those using Windows Messenger on their computers.

Microsoft is determined to give Sony (SNE) and Nintendo (NTO) a run for their money. Whereas the Wii and the newly-released PlayStation Move use sensors to track motion by the player, the Xbox 360 Kinect uses camera technology to capture the color and depth of the player, enabling the movements of the entire body to be tracked without the use of a remote control.

Still, the Kinect device does have some shortcomings compared to Sony’s PlayStation Move. With Move’s earlier release date of September 19 and forty Move-specific games set to be released by year’s end, Sony may be in a position to control the interactive-gaming market. Sony aimed to set the price at a reasonable level, establishing a bundle pack of Move’s essential Eye, controller, and “Wii”-style sports game for only $99.

The battle lines have been drawn and only time will tell how the public will react to this fundamental change in gaming. Will the public ditch the joystick once and for all in favor of a more hands-free option, or will classic gaming rule the day?

The country’s state-secrets law has been amended in a way that makes Internet and telecommunications firms now responsible for helping the government police the Web. Still, China maintains that its people have unfettered access to the Internet. “Chinese citizens fully enjoy freedom of speech on the Internet,” the white paper states. In another section, China reaffirms its determination to govern the Internet within its borders under its own rules. “Within Chinese territory the Internet is under the jurisdiction of Chinese sovereignty,” the document states. “The Internet sovereignty of China should be respected and protected.”

The document explains why the Chinese government wants to curb the alleged harmful effects of illegal information on state security, public interests, and children, stating that “laws and regulations clearly prohibit the spread of information that contains content subverting state power, undermining national unity [or] infringing upon national honor and interests.” Websites, blogs and information deemed sensitive by the Chinese government is routinely blocked using a range of technological tools dubbed the “Great Firewall of China.”

The white paper also reveals just how fast the Internet has developed in China in the 16 years since it was first connected. The government expects that nearly half the population will have access to the Internet within five years, compared to 30 percent now. The document also mentions that foreign individuals and firms can use the Internet in China if they abide by the country’s laws.

Google (GOOG) recently pulled out of mainland China, saying it was no longer willing to accept government censorship. Its Chinese-language services are now based in Hong Kong.

According to Adobe, the current bug affects Flash Player 10.0.45.2, the most up-to-date version of the popular media-player as well as older editions on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris. PDF viewer Adobe Reader 9.x and PDF creation software Adobe Acrobat 9.x on Windows, Macintosh, and Unix are also vulnerable. Adobe stated in a June 4 security advisory that hackers are already exploiting the flaw. As a result, they would be able to highjack targeted computers. “There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against Flash Player, Reader and Acrobat,” the advisory stated.

Danish bug tracker Secunia rated the threat as “extremely critical,” the highest ranking in its five-step scoring system. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), an arm of the federal Department of Homeland Security, also posted a warning of the vulnerability. The problem exists not only inside Flash but also within the “authplay.dll” file packaged with every Windows copy of Reader and Acrobat. It can be exploited by rigging PDF documents and using “drive-by attacks” that entice users into viewing malicious Flash streaming-media on attack sites.

The attack comes just after Brad Arkin, Adobe’s director of security and privacy, said in the security spotlight that the company had taken action that resulted in more secure code. He also has repeatedly stated that Adobe abides by its self-imposed, 15-day, rush-patch deadline to fix flaws. If that is the case, the patch should be released not later than June 19.

In the meantime, Reader and Acrobat users are advised to protect themselves by deleting or renaming authplay.dll. Since Flash Player 10.1 Release Candidate “does not appear to be vulnerable,” users can also download this version from Adobe’s website

The deal will make Nokia the exclusive global-provider of Yahoo!’s maps and navigations services, while Yahoo will become the exclusive provider for Mail and Chat services in Nokia’s Ovi platform.

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said: “delivering great user experiences — both online and on your mobile — is what this alliance is all about. We’re enabling millions of Yahoo! customers in key markets including North America to discover the unique capabilities that Ovi Maps brings.”

At an accompanying press conference, Kallasvuo admitted that Nokia has failed to make a splash in the U.S. smartphone market. Nokia, however, remains the dominant force in the global market with the lion’s share of smartphone and cell-phone sales. “We are an unusual global company in the sense that we are clearly a global leader in our industry, and yet we do not lead in the U.S.,” Kallasvuo said.

Nokia, a Finnish handset maker, has felt threatened by Apple as the iPhone has seen spectacular year-over-year growth. Nokia on the other hand, while still dominant, has lost some market share. One recent study found that the iPhone is the third-largest smartphone platform in the world, with 15.4 percent of the market. The leaders are Research in Motion (RIMM) with 19.4 percent and Nokia’s Symbian with 44.3 percent.

The two companies are engaged in a number of lawsuits related to patents. The first shot in the legal battle was fired by Nokia last October, when it accused Apple’s iPhone of violating patents related to GSM and wireless LAN technology.

Under the terms of the new Nokia-Yahoo! deal, select co-branded service offerings will become available in the second half of 2010, with global availability expected in 2011. “What a combination,” Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said. “We’re excited to expand the reach of our best-in-class Mail and Messenger services, bringing personalized experiences to more people across the mobile web, particularly in emerging markets where we are seeding the next generation of Yahoo users.”

Nokia’s partnership with Yahoo! comes as Apple’s relationship with Google (GOOG) has soured. Google is the default search-provider and powers the Maps and YouTube applications on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The company also announced Google TV, a new Android-powered platform that aims to take on the Apple TV in the set top-box market.

In addition to search, Yahoo! and Apple (AAPL) also have a partnership for software on the iPhone, as the No. 2 search company provides data for the native Stocks and Weather applications found on the iPhone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs even gave a surprise motivational speech to employees of Yahoo! in 2007.

At a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen on April 27, Medvedev announced that Russia and Denmark have agreed to cooperate in high technologies and modernization of the Russian economy. He further pointed out that the total volume of direct Danish investment into the Russian economy makes up nearly one billion dollars. “I cannot say that this is a huge sum, but it’s a start. These investments were made into the medical industry, pharmaceutics, energy cooperation,” he said.

Medvedev noted that Danish partners now participate in creating energy-efficient cities in Russia. He said such a project is being implemented in Tatarstan and in a number of other regions. A document on cooperation in high technologies and modernization of the Russian economy must also be signed, Medvedev said.

Belarus also signed a high-tech cooperation deal. The High-Tech Park of Belarus and the International Software Quality Institute (iSQI GmbH), Potsdam, Germany, have signed an agreement on cooperation. In line with the agreement, a certification center for IT experts will be set up in the High-Tech Park. The center will provide international certificates in such areas as project management, business analysis, innovation management, security management and others which are compliant with the standards adopted in more than 40 countries.

The German region and Belarus should develop closer cooperation in the area of high technologies, Minister-President of Brandenburg Matthias Platzeck noted as he signed the document. “Belarus can become a bridge to the Russian Federation for us and Germany can help Belarus go further to Eastern Europe,” he said.
Germany is one of the High-Tech Park’s largest partners in Europe. It accounts for 12% of the export of the Park’s software.

Large and small errors in the translation of marketing materials (brochures, ad campaigns, websites, and so on) occur every day as companies make the move into the global marketplace and promote their products and services in local languages. How can an organization ensure that its translated campaign carries the effect of the original? How can they avoid the enormous cost of having to launch a new marketing campaign in each local market?

The answer is “transcreation” — the process of linguistic and cultural translation that helps companies avoid potential problems from the very beginning. It is a method of naming products and working with catchphrases and idioms across multiple language-markets while also maintaining brand and message consistency.

Here are five steps to take a marketing campaign to a global audience:

1. Assess the campaign and its content. Evaluating the goals of the campaign is essential. If the marketing is already active in a market, take a close look at the concepts, graphics, and headlines to assess their cultural relevance and appropriateness. When starting out, try to select concepts, copy, and graphic elements that will work evenly across cultures. For example, avoid symbols — such as a red star — that carry deep political meaning in some parts of the world.

2. Build a qualified translation and localization team. Select a group that has a rich understanding of both the source and target languages as well as expertise in areas including marketing, copywriting, sales, customer service, graphic design, and business development. Good transcreation takes time and effort, so allocate adequate resources including demographic studies and market tests. Conducting due diligence is a given.

3. Create a transcreation brief. This document should include fundamental information about the company, product, and campaign to ensure that all teams understand the nuances of the language and local and business needs. It should specify the target audience (age, lifestyle, and behavior) as well as the thought process that has gone into producing the original text. The brief should also explain how to approach certain elements such as branded terms that must remain in English or have particular translations, taglines, and images.

4. Hand over to translation/localization agency. Once the transcreation brief is finalized, the organization can now send the document and associated materials to its agency. This translation/localization agency will create the actual content that needs to be localized. Make sure to communicate the thought process behind the original creative and what concerns there might be about any of the target markets.

5. Transcreate. The agency will start with the translations, closely following the original text. The translation is then refined and edited to make sure it sounds as if it had been written for the target market (but within the parameters and objectives of the campaign).

The transcreation process involves various items, mainly images and text as well as logos, slogans, brand/product names, and taglines. In some cases, not all of the meanings contained in a sentence can be carried over to the target language. A wordplay just does not work often in a different language, and a translator has to choose whether to stick to the meaning (at the expense of style) or develop the concept that best adapts to the structure and use of the target language (at the risk of losing some of the meaning). The agency will work with the company (and, if appropriate, its overseas team) to look at the choices and narrow down the options, taking into consideration the campaign visuals and supplementary text.

The most-effective way to create a localized marketing campaign is simply to recognize the intricacies involved in the process and have the patience to do it right from the beginning. When moving their products and services into new market, businesses cannot afford to underestimate the importance of people’s sensitivity to their language and culture. Having a global creative process that includes transcreation, not just translation, will save many rewrites — and headaches — down the road.