Squiz reports rapid increase in rate of paying customers for open source software solutions in 2007

When commentators talk of the latest internet industry boom, they talk of web 2.0 and dot com 2.0 before predicting the inevitable crash 2.0. But this time it's different. There are clear signs of a new maturity in the marketplace. Customers have a better grasp of what they're looking for and some of the leading vendors are embracing open standards that give customers greater flexibility, compatibility and freedom than ever before.

Squiz UK, a leading developer of open source web content management systems, has seen the shift in mentality first hand. As Stephen Morgan, Director of Squiz UK explains, "The Web 2.0 buzz kicked off a new round of investment in the web and there is indeed a huge boom happening in the internet industry at present. However, what interests us is not the amount of money being spent - we remember the bust years - but the way it's being spent.

During the last boom, customers would come to us with open cheque books asking for a website and content management system with no idea of what they were actually buying into. We would then have to convince them that the quality of the underlying software and the way it's developed is as important as the look and feel of the website itself. This time, most people have been burnt once or twice before. They call us because they already have a sophisticated list of requirements. They know that they not only want a product that meets those requirements but a partner who can help help them drive it forward without locking them in through licensing fees and proprietary standards. And we're finding that MySource Matrix wins on the features front and open source software development gives them all the freedom they could hope for."

This represents a fundamental shift in buyer behaviour and for Squiz it's meant an excellent first half of 2007. Sales are up 100% on the corresponding period in 2006. Staff numbers have doubled. And traffic on www.squiz.co.uk is up 60%. As are downloads of the open source CMS, MySource Matrix.

And as the demand for MySource Matrix grows, so too the ability of the open source CMS to deliver more functionality.

"As more organisations use and invest in the software," continues Morgan, "the functionality increases. Major updates of the CMS are released on average every 3 months, and new modules are included as our customers and the market demands them: Sophisticated email tools, revamped e-Commerce capabilities, and so on."

Offline the momentum is noticeable as well, with increased participation in Squiz's best-practice seminar series, and extremely high demand for the white paper 'how to SEO like a pro'. (see: http://www.squiz.co.uk/resources/white_papers_open_source_cms )

Is this a flash in the pan? Is it the millennium all over again? Far from it explains Morgan. "We can see the next 6 months looking as good if not better. Plus the inaugural MySource Matrix International Users Conference [in Australia in September] will help plot the course of Open source content management."


About Squiz:

Squiz helps some of the UK’s leading universities to gain more control of their web sites and intranets. For example, Oxford and the University of Greenwich both use Squiz’s MySource Matrix Content Management System to manage their online production processes. In doing so they’re saving money, improving the services they’re delivering to users, and gaining more control of their web development. We develop MySource Matrix as an open source product and then provides support services around it to help our clients get more value from their web spend. We’re kind of like the Red Hat of the CMS world. Our approach is successful because of the strength of our CMS and our experience in diverse fields. We’re also cost-effective because being open source, MySource Matrix costs nothing to acquire or use.

Contact: Alister Cattell at acattell[AT]squiz.co.uk; http://www.squiz.co.uk/mysource_matrix