Delivering Cross-Channel Digital Experiences at Scale: Considering e-spirit

Transcription

1 WHITE PAPER Delivering Cross-Channel Digital Experiences at Scale: Considering e-spirit Sponsored by: e-spirit Melissa Webster May 2014 DIGITAL EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT IS A BUSINESS-CRITICAL CAPABILITY Digital experience management should be a core competency for any organization that hopes to engage its customers via the growing array of digital channels including the Web, social networks, mobile devices, , and so forth. Some 2.6 billion people more than a third of the people on the planet and the vast majority of those who live in developed economies use the Internet today, and the pace of digital business is only accelerating. This is reflected in the rapid growth of ecommerce, the rise of digital marketing, and the shift to self-service. There are usually dozens (and often hundreds) of people in an organization who play a role in creating and delivering digital experiences. Marketers need to create relevant, personalized experiences that build brand, increase conversions, and inspire customer loyalty and advocacy. Field enablement teams and customer service staff need to create easy-to-use extranets for business partners, suppliers, and customers. Corporate communications departments need to quickly publish up-to-date company information, press releases, and shareholder information. Schools need to engage with their current and prospective students, faculty and staff, and alumni. Healthcare organizations need to communicate with patients, staff, and research partners. Nonprofits and faith-based organizations need to communicate their mission and inspire support. Internal departments such as human resources need to publish information to the corporate portal to help employees succeed in their jobs. Enabling all of these stakeholders to quickly and easily create compelling digital experiences and collaborate effectively in what is essentially a highly distributed, mission-critical publishing process while ensuring high availability and performance at scale is the role of the modern Web content management (WCM) system. The Digital Experience Gap As IDC research shows, however, many companies still rely on legacy or homegrown solutions that are woefully inadequate for the task. Poor authoring tools make it difficult for staff to keep content up to date. Weak workflow capabilities negatively impact user productivity, time to market, and business agility. Poor performance or availability results in a poor customer experience. And legacy and homegrown solutions usually cannot deliver the dynamic, personalized cross-channel experiences that customers have increasingly come to expect. May 2014, IDC #248266

2 Web content management is an integral component of today's broader digital marketing stack. Modern Web content management systems must integrate with a long list of digital marketing technologies, including ecommerce solutions; Web analytics; testing, targeting, and recommendation engines; campaign and offer management solutions; and all kinds of Web applications. Legacy and homegrown WCM solutions lack out-of-the-box integrations with the other components of the digital marketing stack, and they can be difficult to extend. This, in turn, negatively impacts the marketer's ability to deliver a truly compelling customer experience that builds brand, customer loyalty, and revenue. The High Costs of Homegrown Solutions IDC survey research conducted in the spring of 2014 shows that a significant percentage of companies are still using a homegrown Web content management system despite the fact that commercial solutions have been broadly available for more than 15 years. These are companies that would never consider using a homegrown solution in their other business-critical functions, such as accounting, human resources, sales force automation, and supply chain management. Why are they still using a homegrown WCM solution? False Economy Some companies believe they are saving money, thinking that, because the initial development costs for the homegrown solution have already been borne, the homegrown system is essentially "free." Initial development costs are just a small part of the equation, however. Companies still incur significant ongoing costs to maintain and enhance their homegrown solutions, and this claims valuable development and QA resources that could be better spent on IT projects that deliver new business value. Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to fix bugs or add new features to legacy code without creating instability, and lack of support for current standards makes it challenging to integrate these systems with new applications. As a result, organizations are unable to respond to user requests for new functionality, and homegrown systems fall further behind the capabilities of commercially available solutions. Fortunately, modern Web content management solutions can be very affordable. Outdated Process Some companies are still mired in the traditions of the 1990s when a Webmaster in the IT department managed all of the aspects of the company's Web site(s), including content authoring, staging, and publishing. These organizations may not realize the extent to which making IT a bottleneck in the authoring and publishing process adversely impacts user productivity and business agility. Systems designed for a Webmaster typically lack the WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop content authoring capabilities, robust workflow and security controls, and standardized interfaces for integration that modern WCM solutions provide. Webmasters may be perfectly happy with HTML editors, but these tools are beyond the skill level of the (nontechnical) business users in marketing, corporate communications, sales, HR, and other departments who are responsible for creating and maintaining the organization's Web sites, extranets, and intranet. Without easy-to-use authoring tools, content 2014 IDC #

3 creators must resort to various (non-html) tools, handing their copy off to the Webmaster for conversion creating delays and introducing all kinds of errors. This is death for marketers, who must be able to quickly make changes to existing Web pages, create microsites for new products or offers, upload press releases, post to executive blogs, or push content to social networks like Facebook or Twitter. And it's not just a problem for marketers: Everyone who publishes Web content needs his/her content live quickly. A publishing process that's dependent on IT creates needless delays and additional review/approval processes that are entirely avoidable. Modern Web content management systems give users, designers, developers, and systems administrators the tools they need to collaborate effectively and streamline the publishing process. Inertia Finally, sometimes it's just inertia. Change can be threatening, even for organizations that realize their current solution is holding them back. Moving to a new system takes some training, custom integrations may need to be reworked, and it can be difficult to build consensus in a highly decentralized organization. Fortunately, modern Web content management systems are often very easy to implement. IDC believes it's time for companies that are still running a homegrown Web content management system or some other aging legacy solution to seriously consider replacing it. In the sections that follow, we lay out the requirements for a modern Web content management solution and contemplate the role of WCM vendor e-spirit in this business-critical area. REQUIREMENTS FOR A MODERN WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Modern Web content management systems enable organizations to deliver engaging, personalized experiences across all of the digital channels their customers use today on the Web, via social networks, on mobile devices, via , and even print at scale and with excellent performance. To achieve this, they must: Provide an excellent user experience for all participants including both site creators and customers. A good user experience is just as important for the content authors, designers, developers, and IT systems administrators who create digital experiences as it is for the end customers who consume them. Deliver the performance and quick response time needed to engage customers and retain them as well as the scalability and availability required to meet peak demand across the broad array of workloads, from relatively static but high-traffic ecommerce sites to highly "dynamic" personalized customer "conversations." Of course, modern Web content management systems must be easy to use, easy to implement, and easy to integrate with the rest of the digital marketing tools, Web applications, and back-end systems of the organization. Let's briefly review the core capabilities of a modern WCM solution IDC #

4 Ease of Authoring Modern Web content management systems include intuitive, easy-to-use authoring tools that enable nontechnical staff whether marketers, communications staff, or line-of-business users to easily create and publish Web site/portal content without reliance on IT. Modern systems provide WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop authoring interfaces for both power users and casual contributors. Modern WCM systems also templatize content so it is easy to maintain. Separation of structure and presentation is the key to maximizing content reuse and creating dynamic, personalized, and responsive experiences across all digital channels. It's also key to enabling content authors and designers to collaborate effectively. Robust Workflow Capabilities As noted previously, companies need to move away from the mentality of "Web site as a craft" (where the IT department is responsible for what is a largely manual publishing process) to "Web publishing as a business process" (where content creators and business owners drive an automated publishing process). Modern WCM solutions provide powerful workflow capabilities that automate the overall publishing process and enforce compliance with corporate standards and policies. Granular controls and permissions ensure that only approved content is published (and, conversely, that all required changes are made). Workflow enables distributed teams to collaborate effectively, and this is critical for organizations that need to manage global Web sites. Multichannel Publishing; Dynamic, Personalized Experiences Modern WCM solutions deliver multichannel experiences in a unified publishing workflow. Reuse of existing content across channels saves time and money and ensures a consistent brand experience. Marketers must be able to push fresh (repackaged) content into multiple channels to the Web, to blogs, to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, into HTML campaigns, and so forth to keep customers engaged and move them along the buying cycle, nurturing the relationship and deepening customer loyalty. We've seen growing adoption of responsive design to ensure optimal experiences on mobile devices, and automatic device detection and HTML5 support have become core requirements for today's WCM systems. But that's just the tip of the iceberg: Marketers need to be able to syndicate content to a growing list of digital channels. Modern WCM systems enable them to publish to all channels, leveraging a common set of authoring tools and workflow capabilities. Customers not only expect a multichannel experience but also increasingly expect that experience to be personalized for them and more of a conversation that reflects their relationship with the brand. Consequently, digital marketing is becoming increasingly analytics driven as companies seek to leverage "big data" insights with predictive analytics to drive personalization in real time. Modern Web content management systems need to help marketers go beyond simple contextualization of content based on demographics and device information to real-time dynamic experiences that "continue the conversation." 2014 IDC #

5 Integration and Extensibility Today's Web sites aren't just a collection of Web pages: They are business applications that provide targeted information and transact whether it's about buying a product, making a reservation, giving to a charity, registering for a class, enrolling for benefits, signing in to see the results of a medical test, or applying for a loan. Modern Web content management systems must easily integrate with a long list of other systems and applications, including enterprise applications (CRM, inventory management, HR, etc.), portals, Web applications, ecommerce systems, cloud services, Web analytics, and online marketing tools. Such solutions provide integration frameworks and/or out-of-the-box interfaces. Good integration capabilities are particularly important to addressing the needs of online marketers. Marketers need a solution that either includes or integrates with Web analytics, A/B or multivariate test tools, behavior analytics, marketing automation, and so forth so they can measure engagement and take action to continually improve the customer experience. They also need to be able to publish video, host online communities, provide good site and product search, and enhance the user experience through content marketing and recommendations. All of this typically requires the integration of third-party digital marketing solutions. Robust integration capabilities not only enable the WCM system to deliver value, but they also provide investment protection. Companies can freely leverage their existing investments (ensuring user acceptance and eliminating the need to "rip and replace"), and strong integration capabilities also "future proof" the WCM system. Performance, Scalability, and Reliability It goes without saying that modern WCM solutions need to offer high performance, scalability, and reliability. Visitors quickly abandon unresponsive sites, and there's nothing worse for a marketer than a site that crashes in the middle of a hot promotion. Web site performance directly impacts brand, revenue, and customer loyalty. The WCM solution must also be able to quickly identify and fix broken links and optimize pages for search engines, readability, accessibility, and so forth (or integrate with third-party tools to accomplish this). CONSIDERING E-SPIRIT e-spirit AG ( was founded in Dortmund, Germany, in 1999 and is part of the adesso Group, one of Germany's largest IT service providers. e-spirit has offices in more than a dozen cities in Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Austria, and Switzerland. e-spirit is growing its network of implementation partners, including regional systems integrators and interactive agencies, and has established partnerships with leading technology companies such as IBM and SAP. More than 1,000 brands around the world from diverse industries including many global brands rely on FirstSpirit, the company's flagship Web content management solution. Marquee customers in the United States and Europe include Speedo, Nintendo, Airbus, BASF, Bosch, Commerzbank, 2014 IDC #

6 Geberit, KLM, MAN, Olympus, Saturn, adidas, Santander Bank, the Schaeffler Group, and Trelleborg Sealing Solutions. Key Capabilities of FirstSpirit e-spirit has pursued a best-of-breed strategy, seeking to complement the existing investments of its customers in digital marketing tools, ecommerce systems, enterprise portals, and Web applications and make FirstSpirit a must-have component of their broader Web stack. e-spirit has also focused intently on the two overarching requirements we outlined previously. Its Global User Experience strategy highlights e-spirit's commitment to the content value chain, making developers, integrators, and content owners productive and empowering them to deliver a great customer experience. Its SmartDynamics strategy underscores e-spirit's commitment to delivering personalized experiences with excellent performance, availability, and scalability. FirstSpirit is easy to learn and easy to use: Content contributors need minimal training to become productive with FirstSpirit's WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop authoring tools. FirstSpirit can pull content from a variety of sources and publish it to a long list of channels and endpoints, including publicly facing Web sites, extranets, and intranets; mobile devices and social networks; ecommerce sites and Web shops; campaigns; and even print. Robust workflow capabilities ensure control over the publishing process. FirstSpirit has certified out-of-the-box integrations with leading portals, application servers, and ecommerce solutions such as SAP Enterprise Portal (NetWeaver) and hybris Commerce Suite, IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM WebSphere Commerce, Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle Commerce (ATG), Google Analytics, Demandware, Intershop, Liferay, and JBoss Application Server. FirstSpirit is Java and XML based and readily integrates with customers' existing systems and applications, giving customers maximum choice. FirstSpirit AppCenter lets developers quickly integrate existing Web and cloud applications to create rich, engaging sites, and FirstSpirit's SmartDynamics approach lets companies deploy complex, highly personalized Web sites. Finally, FirstSpirit provides excellent performance, scalability, and reliability. Unlike many Web content management solutions, FirstSpirit publishes pages to a Web server rather than serving the pages directly so content can be cached by both the Web server and the content delivery network (CDN). This strategy ensures high performance and low latency at global scale; it also ensures high availability, as Web site uptime isn't dependent on a proprietary server process. It's the combination of dynamic personalization and caching that makes FirstSpirit adaptable to very different workload profiles IDC #

7 CHALLENGES/OPPORTUNITIES Many factors can help maintain the status quo, and customers will need to find a way to overcome these if they are to modernize their Web publishing process. There is no debating, however, the relative merits of moving to a modern Web content management solution. Customers that are struggling along with homegrown or outdated legacy solutions should take a fresh look at the hard and soft dollar costs of continuing to run those systems. Companies that have highly decentralized budgets will need to form a cross-departmental committee to build the business case and establish requirements. The benefits will outweigh the costs. Ultimately, companies will need to choose between a best-of-breed strategy and a suite strategy. e-spirit competes in the former camp, which continues to flourish as a lively, independent market. e-spirit faces the usual challenges of building awareness and growing its customer base in new markets. Its partnering initiatives have been an important ingredient in its success on both of these fronts so far, and e-spirit's entry into the U.S. market should give the company an opportunity to accelerate its traction. CONCLUSION Web publishing needs to be a core competency in every company that hopes to compete in the digital age. Whether it's delivering compelling, branded B2C ecommerce sites, enabling B2B channel partners, or communicating with employees, the ability to create, manage, and deploy engaging Web experiences is critical to business success today. Modern Web content management systems give content authors, designers, and developers the tools they need to collaborate effectively and create compelling cross-channel digital experiences. They provide the workflow management and security capabilities required to streamline the publishing process while ensuring full control. And they provide the application integration framework that lets companies deliver digital experiences that both engage and transact. IDC believes it's time for organizations that still rely on a homegrown or legacy WCM solution to take a hard look at its costs and disadvantages. They should ask themselves the following questions: Does our current CMS support the digital marketing functions that are vital for the success of today's Web and ecommerce sites? Can we manage content and campaigns in one place? Are we tying up IT budget "reinventing the wheel" maintaining and enhancing a custom system that isn't competitive with commercially available WCM solutions? Can we fairly claim that our existing system is a best-of-breed solution? Does it have the modern publishing capabilities that today's Web content management vendors provide? Does our current solution empower our content creators to publish content without relying on IT? Does it provide intuitive WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop authoring tools? Does it separate content, presentation, and structure so that it's easy to reuse content and so that designers can control the site's look and feel via templates? Are sitewide branding changes a simple, straightforward process? 2014 IDC #

8 Does our current solution ensure control over the publishing process? Does it provide flexible, configurable workflows that let us streamline the publishing process and manage projects of any complexity? Does it ensure our review and approval policies are followed? Does it provide fine-grained access controls to prevent unauthorized changes? Does our solution enable business users to repurpose content across all of the channels they use to connect with our company's customers, partners, and employees, including Web, mobile, social, campaigns, and so on? Does it let us deliver an optimized experience for each of these channels and for the particular device the site visitor is using? Is our solution integrated with our enterprise portal so that a single solution serves all our Web publishing needs not just for our publicly facing Web sites but also for our extranets and intranets? Is it integrated with our B2C and B2B ecommerce solutions? Are we confident we can easily integrate it with new applications in the future as requirements dictate? Does it support important Web standards? Does our homegrown solution provide the performance, reliability, and scalability we need to meet current and future needs? Does it provide version management capabilities? Can it roll back changes, provide a site snapshot as of a given date/time, and provide an audit trail? Does it provide multisite and multilingual support? If the answer to some of these questions is "no," it is probably time to consider replacing the existing system with a modern, commercially available WCM solution. Companies should look for a solution that offers an easy-to-use, intuitive authoring interface; robust workflow and content management capabilities; multichannel publishing; ease of integration/extensibility; and performance, scalability, and reliability. Commercial solutions such as e-spirit's FirstSpirit can be very affordable and can often be implemented very quickly IDC #

9 About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make factbased decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. Global Headquarters 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA USA idc-insights-community.com Copyright Notice External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Copyright 2014 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.