I am in the middle of a pre migration exercise and need a wee break so instead of doing it I am going to blog about it for a few minutes.

  Mim:switch Obtree site analysis tool.

Using the Mim:switch Obtree/Livelink WCM migration tool we have been analysing a site belonging to one of our customers. We have generated all the reports covering the number of objects,  orphaned and inactive objects, missing attributes, duplicates and slots that are populated and are now trying to complete the analysis document. Between this and the Google Analytics I have spent more time looking at statistics than any time since I was an Economist at the Scottish Office back in the 80's. 

St Andrew's House (Scottish Office)

I was at the Immediacy Partner Day on Wednesday in London and met the new owners (Alterian) for the first time. The mood amongst the Immediacy, sorry Alterian as they now are, staff was very buoyant. Alterian has come in and appears to have taken the time to understand the businesses - Immediacy and Mediasurface - and rationalised the operations to act as one company. The upshot of this is one support team, one product management team, one sales team etc. which broadens the offering the partners can provide.

It was a very interesting day not least as the team demo'ed the new version 6.1 and then presented their vision for the integration of the Alterian Digital marketing software into the WCM offerings.  If Alterian achieves what they are planning we will see some very innovative and exciting functionality in the WCM platforms some time next year.

The PEPPER smoothie website went live on Friday 16th May.

So what is PEPPER smoothie?...

Simply put, PEPPER smoothie is on demand web content management for business websites with zero upfront cost. Supplied via the Software-as-a-Service business model users simply pay a fixed monthly service fee to use our solution, built in Pepperio by Mediasurface (or should that be Alterian?), to manage their business website.

And what of the creative process talked about in previous posts?...

Let's just say that the website features juggling balls, spinning plates and a first for the sector (well, at least I've not seen one used elsewhere before), a Video MC - go take a look at http://www.peppersmoothie.com.

Today Mediasurface announced that their board has agreed to sell the entire stock to Alterian plc. A notification on the Mediasurface web site reads...

'Recommended Offer by Alterian plc for Mediasurface plc

The boards of Alterian and Mediasurface are today pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended offer by Alterian to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Mediasurface.'

The notification goes on to assure Mediasurface customers (which includes users of Morello, Immediacy and Pepperio) that their service will be unchanged.

Mimtech look forward to working with the new enterprise. 

I have just been looking through the Open Text Online communities and noticed that the Livelink WCM Presentation Server (Obtree) Road map page has been updated this morning. Future releases are detailed as

The page also includes the following text...

'This product is in maintenance mode and cannot be sold to prospects anymore. For new WCM projects please get in touch with your local RedDot salesforce, they are happy to support you for new deals.

Existing Livelink WCM Presentation Server customers can still buy additional licenses. For more information about the Roadmap, Support cycles, upselling etc. please contact RedDot - The Open Text Web Solutions Group in your country or get in touch with the Program Manager Thomas Eberhart teberhar@opentext.com .'

I'm off on the next stage of the creative process that is the making of our PEPPER smoothie web site. Not Paris this time but New York, as I said before, "Don't you just love the creative process?"

Quick plug here for Continental Airlines... do yourself a favour if you're ever flying from Edinburgh to NYC like I did yesterday and fly direct, no more having to fly via London (who needs T5 anyway?), Amsterdam or Paris.

Checked into the hotel mid afternoon, just check out that view from the bedroom, had a quick swin in the 27th floor pool then headed down to Dubé Juggling on Broadway - great shop. Don't worry, it will all become obvious when the new website goes live shortly.

It's now Wednesday morning and I'm heading out to John's Diner for breakfast before the short stroll over to Grand Central to catch the train north to Tarrytown where I'm hooking up again with Carlo Pelligrini over the Hudson in Nyack where we're going to be shooting video on Thursday.

Enough for just now, I'm getting hungry and John's Diner is supposed to be one of THE places to have breakfast in Manhattan. I'll post my review later.

I read this and thought of our customers. I am not going to  comment on it just put it up here...

From the Information World Review web site

'Another prediction that I have been making for some months (OK, years) is that Open Text would sell out, with SAP quite likely to be the buyer. It hasn’t happened yet and, as another strong Open Text financial quarter goes by, you could argue that it’s becoming less likely to happen.'

The same author predicted the Yahoo bid by Microsoft. 

We have some very exciting plans for the PEPPER smoothie website including a video driven navigation engine - seeing is believing and so Web3.0...

the creative process has taken me to Paris - don't you just love the creative process? -  for a few days to hook up with Carlo Pelligrini from the Juggling Matrix. Carlo is one of the very best motivational speakers in the world using the art of juggling as a metaphore for business change. We spent the whole day yesterday storyboarding, scripting and shooting talkthrough videos for the website and even managed to find time for breakfast, lunch and dinner with lots of coffee and a few beers along the way - well, it was warm enough to sit outside so it seemed a shame to let Paris go to waste.

You don't often get the chance to see this process in action so - and just to prove to the guys back in Glasgow that I've been working -  here's a sneak peak at one candidate talkthrough for the home page - can't wait to see the professional shoot and the transparent implementation.

With SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) set to be the big thing in the coming months I can confirm that we will soon be launching PEPPER smoothie - our full feature WCM offering in partnership with Mediasurface.

As they say in the USA, "we've just got a couple more ducks to line up" including a quick trip to Paris (life sucks!) and things will be ready to go - watch this space for more.