Day’s New CMO Kevin Cochrane Made My Day

Had a chat with Day’s newly-appointed chief marketing officer Kevin Cochrane on Thursday (interrupted by landing and boarding announcements) and this morning. Initially, wanted to get all the glorious details about Day’s new open source award, then we talked about CQ5 and transitions.

It’s a Swiss treats day for a Swiss vendor. Enterprise CMS provider Day Software has received the Swiss Open Source Award 2008 in the business category.

Recipe for success? Mix two tablespoons of Day with several pounds of a new chief marketing officer, who has arrived from Interwoven via the open source devout Alfresco. And, voila! The open source awards will follow.

Surely, I am not the first one to speak highly of Kevin Cochrane. He knows his oats, and that doesn’t go unnoticed.

Cochrane is a good fit for Day Software with his palpable passion about content management (without getting spread thin on all that ECM, DM stuff), combined with the ability to infuse others with this passion.

Day has been long (over)due for good marketing techniques. Even boring white papers is something Day has still to explore. Must give it to Day’s PR firm. LEWIS PR has been staying on top of things lately.

I suspect with Cochrane’s contagious swirl of activity, Day will have a better chance of finally starting to pop up on more of U.S. short-lists.

Additionally, Day is (finally!) getting ready to release the latest version v5.0 of its WCM platfrom – Communiqué. Scheduled for mid-November CQ5 promises to be nothing but a piece of heaven — at least that’s what it sounds like from the marketing folk ;). It’s been too long of a WCM slump for Day. CQ4 was released way back in 2005.

CQ5 looks nice on paper. I am always able to find flaws after seeing so many WCM systems, but, from what I’ve heard from Cochrane, CQ5 looks really promising. Still under embargo, so will tell you more next week after I get a chance to have a proper look-see at the product.

In his forth week with Day, the company’s new CMO is not a CMS newbie. He was the fourth employee at Interwoven, where he was responsible for Interwoven TeamSite product line for 10 years. But when key IT requirements aren’t being executed around core content management principles, R&D is short-staffed and the product is starting to deviate from responding to customers’ best interests — it is time to move on and start fresh. Alfresco fresh, in Cochrane’s case.

Alfresco, says Cochrane, offered that refreshing open source exuberance without any compromises. He spent 2.5 years at the commercial open source pioneer as a vice president of product management. But left even before Alfresco 3 was completed — although not without getting the commitment that Alfresco 3, with its so much needed GUI overhaul, would be brought to life.

At Day Software, Cochrane says he’s finding new things, hidden gems every day. Waking up every day and being thrilled about your job (“the easiest job in the world,” funny, haha, says Cochrane) is something not all of us have the luxury of.

Highlighting Cochrane’s wünderkind to wanderkind transformation, CMSWatch thinks Cochrane would spice up Day. I tend to agree: savvier (if any) marketing is definitely something that Day couldn’t get its act together on for a long time. Cochrane shows potential to shake things up and change this perception (which, as we know, is also reality).

More on Day’s ambitious 2009 plans, open source embrace, CMIS response, etc.,: Day Speaks on 2009 Plans, Open Source, CQ5 and More