WCM is a great web content management framework, with good functionality, great infrastructure support and a good number of really impressive case studies out there.

 

However, it is held back by a difficult, slow, unintuitive and cumbersome admin/authoring UI.  Each content item created involved at least 5-10 clicks, two or three page refreshes and limited cutomisation/cut'n'paste facilities.  Wilst the API can be used for creating and scripting content, it requires advanced skills and is beyond most SMBs.

 

Therefore, what is needed is a rich client to be run on the desktop, that allows fast and accurate creation of content, cut and paste from other applications, fast duplication of existing content, and increased ease of management.  Given that the WCM authoring portlet is just a Websphere Portal portlet, there is no reason why this functionality couldn't be deployed under Expeditor and/or the Notes8 client.  This would greatly improve the product and remove many of the reasons for resistence from web authors.