WHITEPAPER // DIGITAL EXPERIENCE. Customer Experience is Everything. Maximize Your SharePoint Content.

Transcription

1 Customer Experience is Everything. Maximize Your SharePoint Content.

2 INTRODUCTION Web Content Management has evolved. Digital Marketing has evolved. The once termed new or emerging channels have evolved and matured, these channels being Mobile and Social. Increasingly, technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate which provides new challenges and new opportunities for the modern day marketer. Through television, in-car entertainment, games consoles, Google Glass and the plethora of other IP enabled devices emerging in the market today, the modern day Marketer is faced with an increasingly abundant amount of channels to reach their customers. To remain innovative and customer centric, the content deployment opportunities through all these channels must be at the heart of every brand s strategy, especially for brands that have heavily invested in content storage through Microsoft SharePoint over many years. DIGITAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Web Content Management (WCM) has evolved. Leading analyst s Forrester state that WCM is evolving from website publishing to digital experience support and leading analyst s Gartner state that WCM is key for organizations wishing to execute a strategy of Online Channel Optimization (OCO) Figure 1 Core and Adjacent WCM Components by Forrester

3 As described by Forrester in figure 1 above, there is additional technology required over and above traditional core WCM functionality to drive true customer experience online. Forrester states that buyers should seek solutions that have prebuilt integrations and partnerships with proven, mature best-of-breed applications for DX and online engagement efforts rather than all-in one suites. For a Marketer to realise an optimized, multi-channel approach through their chosen digital channels, requires a multitude of best-of-breed digital marketing vendors that complement the WCM ecosystem. Often enough, medium to large organisations already own some of these best-of-breed systems and would rather prefer integration as opposed to a rip and replace strategy involving a large amount of time and effort. By utilising existing tools and solutions already in place, organisations can realise a quicker time to value in the optimization of the customer experience. This includes, utilising existing content repositories in place such as Microsoft SharePoint or existing CRM systems such as Microsoft Dynamics. BUT ARE YOU READY? Implementing a CXM strategy is not easy, it requires analysis of existing tools and solutions in place and a clear direction based on business goals. Content is at the heart of that strategy. Without the content that you publish to your multiple channels, your multiple channels would be empty. Understanding your estate of content repositories is one of the first steps to achieving CXM. Secondly, it is about understanding how you can present this content to your multiple channels and then thirdly understanding how you can measure, improve and optimize your content. As shown in Figure 2 below, content marketing is complex where reuse of content is critical through multiple channels online and offline. Understanding your content and how your customer engages with your content is key to integrating the tools and solutions needed to maximize your assets to achieve true CXM.

4 Figure 2 Real Content Marketing by Search Engine Watch Let s take Microsoft SharePoint for example. SharePoint, through SharePoint 2007, 2010 and 2013 and SharePoint Online through Office 365, remains a leading platform utilised by many large organisations globally, through from document repositories, intranets, extranets and internet sites. Today, many organisations are faced with the complex dilemma of utilising this content not only through SharePoint, but also through the digital mediums available today to ensure that customer or brand relevant content is presented with customer context in mind. Historically, SharePoint has remained a siloed datasource to Digital Marketers requiring access to relevant content suitable for the web and other marketing channels, however through recent advancements in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013, publishing has been improved to provide internet site capability driven by SharePoint. Further to this, outside of the inbuilt capabilities of SharePoint, there is little integration with Digital Marketing tools and solutions to provide a true modern day CXM which has evolved through 2012 and into 2013 into Digital Experience Management (DXM).

5 WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF DIGITAL EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT Gartner and Forrester recognise that the Web Content Management vendors are critical and central to a DXM strategy. Gartner states that WCM has become the central point of coordination for initiatives involving the enterprise's online presence. This means, that multi publishing through to multiple channels such as social, mobile, web, games consoles, television applications, in car entertainment or any other IP enabled medium moving forward is recognised as core WCM functionality. In addition a true DXM WCM platform should have best of breed integrations with a variety of leading SaaS or in-house solutions including CRM, Marketing Databases, Marketing, Social Media, Analytics, E-Commerce, Testing & Targeting, Tag Management, Big Data Systems, Mobile (MBaaS), Search, Translation and Advertising vendors amongst others. These integrations should benefit the overall capabilities of the WCM and enhance interactivity with core WCM functionality to drive the customer journey and the overall customer experience. As Forrester states WCM Isn t A Suite Story, It s An Integration Story THE EKTRON APPROACH Ektron has been powering many of the world s largest sites for over 15 years with over 3700 customers relying on Ektron s WCM platform for their Web strategy. Recognized as a global leader by leading analysts such as Gartner in their Magic Quadrant, Ektron has embraced and led the way in CXM and DXM for many years. Ektron is a proud Gold and Silver Microsoft partner with a.net WCM platform built on the Microsoft stack. Further to this, Ektron WCM integrates Microsoft FAST search as the core search engine and integrates with Microsoft platforms such as SharePoint, Dynamics, Yammer, Windows 8 and Windows Phone for either content synchronisation, content publishing or data synchronisation to achieve true DXM for customers who rely on Microsoft solutions everyday within their organizations. Through Ektron s latest platform, Ektron 9, Ektron customers responsible for CXM and DXM in Marketing are able to create customer Personas for targeting of relevant content across multiple channels including mobile, social and web. Further to this, Ektron customers can build Responsive Design driven sites off their SharePoint content with the ability to synchronize SharePoint Metadata to power Ektron Personas. Ektron Personas can also be powered by the customer data stored within Dynamics CRM or from Microsoft s Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), to provide the best targeting available in the market place today. This is achievable through Ektron s leading solution called the Digital Experience Hub (DXH), which provides a data exchange API layer into market leading solutions. Through the DXH, Ektron 9 provides pre-built connectors into SharePoint and Dynamics, therefore reducing time to value in synchronising SharePoint content through to Ektron 9 powered websites.

6 Ektron 9 compliments SharePoint, even if SharePoint is used for Internet sites. SharePoint content used for either intranet, extranet and internet sites can synchronised and then used in Ektron 9 s platform to provide enhanced multi publishing, extended WCM features which are not present in SharePoint, simple Page building via a library of widgets, which are.net User Controls that allow functionality to be built into a Page by dragging components simply onto a Page, synchronisation between environments (Ektron esync) plus many more features that enhance any organization s SharePoint environments. Further to Microsoft solutions, Ektron 9 integrates with a variety of Digital Marketing ecosystem partners to enhance site or publishing functionality to achieve true DXM. For more information on Ektron 9 or to discuss your requirements for integration with Microsoft technologies, please contact your Ektron representative. About Ektron Ektron simplifies the creation, management and delivery of digital experiences for global organizations that are looking to drive revenue growth and improve customer satisfaction. Ektron helps companies deliver customer experiences to their audiences through digital channels by using content to engage consumers and drive business outcomes. Headquartered in Nashua, N.H., with offices in Australia, Canada and the U.K., Ektron has thousands of customers including: Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Las Vegas Sands, Microsoft, NASDAQ and National Health Services UK. For more information visit: