Prospects want to know what they’re buying. They want to be sure that the software they’re interested in, will actually do the job to be done. So we’ve developed the FontoXML Sandbox in which you can play around on request. If you’re really serious about it, we’ll even set up a ‘private sandbox’ using your own content and schema.

After playing around in the Sandbox most people want to know more about the connection between FontoXML and the CMS or database in which the content is stored. And although we’ve connected many times with repositories like MarkLogic, Alfresco, Sharepoint and EMC D2, every individual case needs some proof in advance.

That’s where the term Proof of Concept (PoC) comes in. Using sample content and the right XML schema, we connect FontoXML to the repository and let authors do their job in this test environment. It teaches us whether there are any technical complexities to take care of, but more importantly, we learn how authors feel about this new way of working.

Most of the times our clients call it a ‘Proof of Concept’ but we’ve also encountered ‘Proof of Value’, ‘Proof of Solution’ and several other variants. Whatever term is used, we always focus heavily on the ‘author’s experience’. If authors don’t like the system, they won’t use it. We like to call it ‘Proof for Authors’.