WordPress In The Enterprise - WordCamp Uk 2009

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Move on to the next frame without saying much...

It really is just a tool. It offers no magic, no clever tricks, beyond ease of use. But it was never designed as an enterprise style solution, which means it has to be tackled in a different way... So let’s look at what we’ll cover this morning...

Let’s see – we have the levels of adoption for WordPress... Is it likely to grow? Is it early or late in the curve?What opportunities are going to come from WordPress in the Enterprise?And we’re going to go through some basics of implementing WP from within a culture of careful reliability, potentially high peak traffic, and wanting a hassle free approach.

Google Trends isn’t the be all and end all but it offers and interesting view of what people are searching for, and how much the new is talking about a subject.You can see that the WordPress market is bigger by numbers, but I can tell you now that it’s likely to be far smaller by revenue – most of those sharepoint searches are from within larger companies.There is a shortage of good implementers for both systems, but the shortage is still far greater for Sharepoint than for WordPress

We only know of one large corporate in the UKthat is going through a WP MU pilot on its intranet – BG Group.But... Not all big firms are so tied to their internal network. Telegraph uses Google Apps... For example. This means they worry less about integration and simply give their staff suitable tools to access their applications.Work is needed – we have just a couple of LDAP related plugins, and only that actually appears to work properly, but is poorly supported.So we have to think about where WordPress is right now.

where do you think WordPress is with regards to the enterprise space right now? I think it’s low on the curve just after the Technology Trigger... i.e. Very early. There isn’t much in the way of inflated expectations, but it’s possible to hit that very early on.So let’s talk about advantages of WordPress to the Enterprise... Can anyone tell me what they think the key advantages of WP in the enterprise happen to be?

Well – here’s some of my own thoughts...plugins, themes, etc.Free in fact!The Telegraph, I believe, had a blogging platform from a third party that went bust... This led to all manner of problems with getting data out of the system, continuity and so on. Open source offers a solution to that risk. enthusiasts are great... But until you produce something used and reliable, an enterprise won’t be calling...Training costs are minimal for WP, in spite of its sophistication. You can generally train someone in 1-2 days to be a good WP user.Some themes are absolutely stunning in their quality and capability... This helps, a lot. Support is patchy, however – if you supply these to a client be prepared to support them...Well, I guess with all those advantages, there’s going to be opportunities? Right?

MS Partner network is big, powerful and full of stuff.With Google Search Appliance you buy two boxes, one a 3-5 year term. You have a hot-swap facility and if one breaks you simply package it up and send it back to be repaired while the other one takes over.

Read from the screen here....And now, implementations.

Migrating between these environments can be tricky because you can’t just search and replace.mySQL administrator and Query Browser are your friends...

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WordPress In The Enterprise - WordCamp Uk 2009 - Presentation Transcript

WordPressin theEnterprise
Presented by
David Coveney
WordCamp UK 2009
Introduction
'We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees.'
(Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)
Communication vs. Direction
Companies communicate more with their customers, but they also communicate more with their own staff.
WordPress is a tool to help with both problems.
Key Points Today
WordPress Adoption Levels
Opportunities
Implementations
WordPress vs. Sharepoint
It looks good
Reality is:
Very little take up so far
Current LDAP plugins (favourite so far is WPDirAuth) are still crude
More Work Needed
Where is WordPress Today?
Advantages for WordPress
Highly Extendable
Cheap
Open Source prevents lock-in or, worse, your supplier going bust
Well understood by an army of enthusiasts
Easy to use
Plugins and themes can be excellent
Barriers to WP in the Enterprise
Automattic’s consultants list isn’t much of a partner network
Nobody to sue!
Support network is patchy and standards are highly variable
LDAP integration/single signon could be better
High availability plug and play solutions not yet available – think Google Search Appliance
Opportunities
WordPress skills requirements likely to grow
100x more jobs on Jobserve for Sharepoint today
WordPress is nowhere near as functional or well integrated
Beware price pressures
One client wanting Windows Single Signon support and better LDAP may sponsor us to write a suitable plugin for GPL release... Fingers crossed.
Look at value added products – WP Appliances, hosted solutions, restricted access solutions, added workflow tools etc
Implementations
Environment Structure
Plugins
Theming
Environment Structure
Plugins
WPDirAuth is the biggest
Usually need something to restyle the login
Test plugins like crazy
Upgrade late!
Theming
Generally Simple
Needs to be professional
Fully matching branding guidelines
Usually... IE6 support is mandatory
In Summary & Q&A
Interest starting to be shown
Could become big
Waiting for the right tools
Constant and rapid change of WP
Some barriers
Standards Setting and Recognition?
Thanks and Goodbye!
David Coveney
http://twitter.com/davecoveney
http://www.interconnectit.com
http://spectacu.la
0151 709 7977