Byrne Tony Byrne

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Updates to our WCXM Evaluation Criteria

2-Jul-2012

With the latest major release of our Web Content Management & Experience Management vendor evaluations (version 21!), we updated our criteria to represent evolving customer needs. I think the changes are meaningful and signal where the industry is going.

The charts below show the before-and-after ratings from Version 20 to Version 21 for the same vendor. Want to guess which vendor? Leave a comment below...

Scenario Fit

Scenarios are the most important criteria and definitely changed in Version 21.  We added a new category of "mid-range" scenarios -- where many customers reside today. 

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Old scenarios New Scenarios

Technology Services

Our technology criteria didn't change, but that doesn't mean technology is unimportant, or that vendors have mastered it.  Far from it.  These attributes remain critical differentiators.

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Old Tech Chart Tech old chart

Content Services

Similarly, we made only one minor change to Content Services categories.  None of these are new concepts, but vendors still struggle to execute on them and customers still struggle to master them.  Remember: good experiences start with good content. 

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Content-old Content-New

Site / Experience Services

Not surprisingly, this category saw the most changes.  We broke out mobile as a separate rating, included some specific attributes for digital workplace (a.k.a., intranet) scenarios, and focused more intently on e-marketing services.  In the latter category, however, WCXM vendors remain comparatively weak next to best-of-breed alternatives.

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Site-Old Experience-new

Vendor Intangibles

Vendor intangibles are timeless, and cross all the technology marketplaces we cover.  Our criteria hasn't changed, but you can see that with this vendor, they lost ground in a couple areas.  In other words, vendors do change -- sometimes for better, sometimes (as here) for worse...

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Intangibles-old Intangibles-New

If you've never seen our evaluations before, you can always check out a free sample here.

    Excerpt from the CMS Evaluation

    Web Content Management Evaluation Stream looks at... Extended Services in Ektron

    "CMS400.NET has a slew of micro-applications, including polls, surveys, blogs, and threaded discussions with permissioned commenting, among others. The product also comes with its own email subscription/marketing system -- something customers typically procure via a third-party provider. Larger customers may want to procure these services elsewhere, since Ektron's capabilities here aren't as good or as flexible as what you can find elsewhere on the market. On the plus side..."
    (p. 634)

    Get All CMS Vendor Evaluations

    Learn the real strengths and weaknesses of major CMS vendors from around the world, in our Web Content & Experience Management evaluation research stream.

Tags: Web Content & Experience Management, Marketplace at Large, Selecting Technology, Vendor Viability & Financials