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 and Digital Workplace technologies. 

Within these 2 big buckets, we break down seven distinct marketplaces: Web Content & Experience Management, Digital & Marketing Asset Management, Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software, Marketing Automation & Social, Portals & Content Integration, and Document & Records Management (ECM).

In our research into each of these marketplaces, we group vendor offerings into broad categories according to various criteria.

RSG's 2016 Web Content & Experience Management Logo Landscape shows how major Web Content and Experience Management vendors fall into five 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, architectural approach, and vendor intangibles 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 our hard-hitting research can help you here, please let us know.