As industry analysts, we are constantly trying to categorize technology offerings from vendors in meaningful ways. At Real Story Group, we categorize more than 250 products from 198 vendors at a variety of levels.

At the highest level, we evaluate Digital Marketing technologies and Digital Workplace technologies. 

Within these 2 big buckets, we break down 8 distinct marketplaces: Web Content & Experience Management, Digital & Media Asset Management, Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software, Marketing Automation & Social, Enterprise Mobile Technology, Portals & Content Integration, Document Management (ECM), and Cloud File Sharing & Collaboration.

In our research of each of these marketplaces, we group the vendor offerings in broad categories according to various criteria. Over the next few weeks, we'll be releasing our 2014 Logo Landscape graphics that show our groupings within each of our 8 coverage areas. 

Today, we'll start with the 2014 Web Content & Experience Management Logo Landscape that shows how the 36 Web Content and Experience Management vendors we evaluate in the Web Content & Experience Management Report fall into the following 5 groupings:

- Upper Range Platforms

- Legacy Platforms

- Mid-Range Platforms

- Mid-Range Products

- Simpler Products

You can download a copy here.

Of course, these categories are merely a starting point for buyers looking to build a shortlist. Indeed, any two-dimensional graphic like this has limitations.  In this case we focus on complexity/richness/cost as the key factor on the X axis, but other considerations like geography, license model, delivery model, situational usability, technology base, and architectural approach should also factor into your decision making.

So we recommend that you identify a variety of criteria -- like we specify in our Custom Short-List Builder -- to get you to to a good starting point to conduct further diligence and testing before you ultimately make a buying decision.

If we can help you here, please let us know.