Web CMS - Mind the Gaps

The Web Content & Experience Management (WCM) technology marketplace continues to evolve rapidly, with a continued emphasis on empowering the digital marketer. We can all agree that's a good thing, but my sense is that many WCM tools getting pitched today have gotten way ahead of most organizations' ability to exploit them.

So a practical digital team will carefully assess both what the tools can really do, as well as their own capacity to exploit emerging capabilities.

In particular, you will want to mind two key gaps.

WCM Capacity Gap
Source: Real Story Group

The Vendor B.S. Gap

The first gap lies on the right-hand side of the diagram above. WCM Vendors exaggerate about what their platforms can do, either by concealing the level of customization effort, or demonstrating rose-tinted scenarios, or focusing on all the intra-suite integration they are working on.

Of course, as a technology customer you know this is nothing new. RSG's WCM evaluation research is designed to help you close that gap. And a savvy buyer will carefully test any platform before signing a contract.

Still, as a nearly two-decade observer of the WCM space, I believe this gap has never been wider. You want to remain particularly wary of what the likes of Sitecore and Adobe claim here.

The Customer Capacity Gap

The other gap, on the left, falls more on ourselves than the vendors. Many of our organizations simply do not have the capacity to exploit advanced digital experience technologies. "Capacity" can mean many things, like:

  • The breadth, depth, and experience level of your digital team
  • The availability and quality of marketing technologists
  • Suitable content richness and breadth for segmentation and personalization
  • Solid CRM infrastructure for core customer data
  • And so on...

This means that, while vendors exaggerate what their platforms can do, many customers still can't take advantage of real capabilities that do exist.

Lately we've been working with many of our subscribers on both gaps. If you are an RSG subscriber, reach out to schedule an advisory call (login required). If you're not a subscriber, check out your options.

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Gil, Partner, Cancentric Solutions Inc.
iStudio Canada Inc.

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