SWOT Assessment: CoreMedia, CoreMedia 7

Transcription

1 SWOT Assessment: CoreMedia, CoreMedia 7 Analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats Reference Code: IT Publication Date: 09 Dec 2013 Author: Sue Clarke SUMMARY Catalyst Web content management (WCM) systems have evolved from being static information-providing systems that were rarely updated, to being dynamic interactive platforms where the lifecycle of a piece of content can be extremely short. However, during its life, the content is likely to be repurposed and delivered via multiple channels and to a variety of devices. CoreMedia 7 is a WCM system that provides a flexible, object-oriented content-modeling paradigm that is focused on providing dynamic online experiences across multiple channels, pages, and sites. It allows marketers to segment visitors, based on a number of factors such as profile information, the way they navigate through the site, and geographic location, and target them with specific content to personalize the experience. Key messages CoreMedia has been designed for business users, such as marketers, to create, preview, and deploy highly personalized web experiences and marketing campaigns to different audience segments. Extensive social capabilities include support for conversations around content with likes, ratings, nested comments, and rich media uploads. Content can be published to Twitter and Facebook and users are able to log on to the site using their social network credentials. CoreMedia automatically recognizes each visitor's device and renders the content into the appropriate format. The WCM market is extremely competitive, with much of the functionality becoming increasingly commoditized and a large number of vendors, making it difficult for vendors to innovate. Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 1

2 Ovum view CoreMedia is a midsized WCM vendor that has evolved into providing web experience management (WEM) capabilities. One of its differentiating features (although not unique) is the ability for the editor to provide automated taxonomy suggestions for keywords to make it easier to return content as a result of a search. It also integrates with semantic editors, allowing recommendations to be made in the context of a search request or selected content. In an e-commerce scenario, this provides cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Although CoreMedia does not include its own web analytics, it does integrate with Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst (Omniture), WebTrends, and Webtrekk. The analytics information can be used to personalize content and segment visitors as part of a marketing campaign. CoreMedia is able to display input from the analytics product to show the effectiveness of changes to a web page, allowing marketers to ensure that any ineffective or damaging changes are amended quickly. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENTERPRISES Why consider CoreMedia 7? CoreMedia has been designed for the role of the marketer and as such includes a number of features that support targeted marketing and campaigns. Targeted content can be delivered to both known and anonymous visitors, and cross- and up-sell opportunities can be exploited using rules-based capabilities. The sales process is helped by the integration with backend e-commerce systems including SAP and IBM WebSphere Commerce. CoreMedia is a horizontal product that will appeal to organizations in all market verticals. However, the company has particular expertise in the media, telecommunications, retail, financial, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector, and utility sectors, making it particularly attractive to organizations in these verticals. SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths Designed for business users to create, preview, and deploy highly customized Web experiences and marketing campaigns Users are able to build profiles for registered and anonymous visitors, on-the-fly, using demographic data, online behavior, social media activity, and content preferences. Using this information, visitors can be grouped into customized market segments for easier content targeting and enhanced engagement. Elastic social engagement enables conversations around content Social engagement features include likes, ratings, nested comments, and rich media uploads. Moderation ensures that only approved visitor-contributed content appears. Moderation of user-contributed content is also a possibility. Persistent offenders of the system can be blocked or Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 2

3 ignored. Ignoring users means that only they can see their content, so they are unaware that they are being blocked, making it unlikely that they will take on another persona to get around it. Content can be published to any device at any time in any format CoreMedia includes Automatic Device Detection and Adaptive Content Delivery. It automatically recognizes each visitor's device, and renders the content accordingly. Content contributors are able to preview how the content will look on any device. Content can be previewed within the editorial UI or directly on any external device. Blueprints provide for rapid development Included in CoreMedia 7 are development and deployment tools, which include open integration architecture, comprehensive APIs, and CoreMedia Blueprint. Blueprint includes best practices, templates, and other features that reduce time-to-market and total cost of ownership (TCO). Weaknesses CoreMedia does not include its own analytics capability CoreMedia does not include analytics, which may deter organizations that favor a one-stop-shop approach to WCM. CoreMedia provides integrations with Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst (Omniture), WebTrends, and Webtrekk, and allows customers to use the analytics product of their choice. CoreMedia is able to take the output from these products and display it through its own dashboards. The digital asset management (DAM) capabilities do not support video CoreMedia 7 includes basic DAM capabilities, but does not provide advanced functionality for video and other multimedia formats. Any type of binary file can be managed in the repository and delivered to users. Image files can be edited natively within the product, and the system provides tools for managing multi-variant and multi-resolution images. For more advanced use cases, a specialist solution is required. CoreMedia provides pre-built integrations with a range of third-party video systems including Kaltura and Brightcove. Opportunities Information within Big Data can provide new customer insights CoreMedia's contextualization capabilities integrate with Big Data solutions as a context source. Hidden in the Big Data are indicators, correlations, trends, relationships, and information, which can be used to enhance the customer experience once CoreMedia extracts this information from the Big Data systems. Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 3

4 Unified and consistent brand experiences can be a challenge With web users interacting predominantly with search engines such as Google and Bing and via social networks, it can be difficult to deliver a consistent brand experience across these channels. CoreMedia is well positioned to deliver content across multiple channels in a consistent manner due to its separation of presentation and content. Content delivery to mobile devices offers an opportunity The number of web users for which mobile is their primary device is increasing. This means it is imperative that WCM vendors provide support for a wide range of mobile devices to provide unified online experiences that can be delivered at any time to any device. CoreMedia's mobile content strategies support both native apps and mobile Web options, and provide an opportunity to increase its market share. Threats A high number of WCM products are available The WCM market space is very competitive with a high number of products for organizations to choose from. These range from standalone products to WCM capabilities within ECM platforms. With its strong social capabilities, CoreMedia should have an advantage over vendors with less well-developed social features. ECM vendors have the advantage of providing a single platform for all content management needs Organizations that prefer a one-stop-shop approach that have implemented ECM are unlikely to deploy a separate WCM system. Ovum would urge organizations to consider whether the WCM system within the ECM platform can deliver the full range of capabilities required. Specialist WCM vendors often provide more extensive features. Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 4

5 DATA SHEET Key facts about the solution Table 1: CoreMedia data sheet Product name CoreMedia Product classification Content management Version number 7 Release date February 2013 Industries covered All, but expertise in media, telecommunications, retail, financial, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector, and utility sectors Geographies covered All Relevant company sizes Midsized to global enterprises Platforms supported Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, CentOS Languages supported German, English, and Japanese out-of-the-box. Also delivered in Spanish, Russian, and Chinese. Supports double-byte character sets, international character sets, and right-to-left languages. Licensing options Perpetual, tiered CPM-based licensing, and subscription-based licensing Deployment options On-premise, on-premise (managed), hosted (dedicated), SaaS Route(s) to market Direct and partners URL Company headquarters Hamburg, Germany UK headquarters Covent Garden, London, UK North America East Arlington, Virginia, US Asia-Pacific headquarters Singapore North America West San Francisco, California, US Source: Ovum APPENDIX Methodology Ovum SWOT Assessments are independent reviews carried out using Ovum's evaluation model for the relevant technology area, supported by conversations with vendors, users, and service providers of the solution concerned, and in-depth secondary research. Further reading Author Web Content Management 2012/2013 (Technology Evaluation Report), IT (January 2013) Sue Clarke, Senior Analyst, Software Information Management [email protected] Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 5

6 Ovum Consulting We hope that this analysis will help you make informed and imaginative business decisions. If you have further requirements, Ovum s consulting team may be able to help you. For more information about Ovum s consulting capabilities, please contact us directly at [email protected]. Disclaimer All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Ovum (an Informa business). The facts of this report are believed to be correct at the time of publication but cannot be guaranteed. Please note that the findings, conclusions, and recommendations that Ovum delivers will be based on information gathered in good faith from both primary and secondary sources, whose accuracy we are not always in a position to guarantee. As such Ovum can accept no liability whatever for actions taken based on any information that may subsequently prove to be incorrect. Ovum. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited Page 6