WCM Software Buyer’s Guide part 3cdn.ttgtmedia.com/searchBusinessAnalytics/downloads/WCM_buyers... · WCM Software Buyer’s Guide – part 3 Your expert guide to web content management

E-guide

WCM Software Buyer’s Guide – part 3 Your expert guide to web content management

Page 1 of 20

In this e-guide

Does the Episerver Digital

Experience Cloud fit your

WCM needs?

Manage your digital

content using the

OpenText WEM platform

Is the Sitecore

Experience Platform right

for your WCM needs?

Is Adobe Experience

Manager 6.2 the right

WCM platform for you?

E-guide

Does the Episerver Digital Experience Cloud fit your WCM needs?

Mary Shacklett, President

Episerver Digital Experience Cloud offers users a responsive

design-based web content management platform with tools for

creating and managing digital content.

Episerver is a global provider of single platform content, digital commerce and

marketing. Its Digital Experience Cloud is a web content management platform

that provides users with a straightforward process for companies looking to

create engaging digital experiences for their customers. The platform also helps

address the integration problem many companies face when utilizing both

content management and e-commerce software.

How does Digital Experience Cloud support

WCM tasks?

Episerver's experience editor allows users to easily edit and update web content

in real time. They can create content directly on-page and view what any visitor

would experience while on the page. They can also interact with all types of

http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/tip/WCM-design-is-at-the-forefront-of-a-multichannel-strategy

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content and media from within the editor. Users can drag and drop content

blocks, media, videos, forms or pages onto a desired area and they will

automatically snap into place. They can also personalize blocks and pages to

show the most relevant information for each of their customer segments. The

system will self-optimize these blocks to show the version most likely to entice

action from individual customers.

To better engage with mobile visitors, Digital Experience Cloud incorporates

responsive design and segmentation and behavioral targeting. Users can add

the channels their organization uses most and instantly see how content will

look across social media, e-mail, print and more. They can also immediately edit

their content. Organizations can use historic information about the interests of

visitors and their current context to connect them with tailored messages, offers

or context-dependent messages via web, email or text messages. This

connector functionality would be especially useful for retailers.

Digital Experience Cloud users can also update all of their social media

channels, like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, within the same interface. The

platform also features real-time campaign analytics to track channel-specific

measurements and engagements such as retweets, comments and likes. It

supports Google Analytics to track a website's overall conversions and return on

investment of social media communications.

The Episerver Digital Experience Hub provides pre-built and pre-tested

integrations to a number of best-of-breed applications found commonly in

http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/podcast/Mobile-responsive-design-becomes-en-vogue

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/tip/How-customer-analytics-boosts-the-digital-marketing-experience


Page 3 of 20

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Is the Sitecore


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Is Adobe Experience



E-guide

customer environments. At its core, Episerver software is designed and built for

extensibility, based on a pure .NET system and numerous open standards. This

makes the product extremely transparent and familiar to .NET developers.

Episerver's open application programming interface (API) allows enterprises to

create integrations through REST, web services or a traditional .NET API. SSL

or VPN can be used to provide secure connectivity. The Episerver API enables

developers to create templates, modules, plug-ins and add-ons that enhance

the user experience for site visitors and backend users. For example,

developers can create tools for content contributors and administrators that

plug-into the Digital Experience Cloud editorial and administrative interface.

Episerver Connect for customer relationship management (CRM) is an add-on

that integrates Digital Experience Cloud with Salesforce and Microsoft

Dynamics CRM. It ensures a website's visitor data is synchronized with an

organization's CRM software and that the sales team receives all leads, while

also keeping data secure. To maintain a more accurate database, Episerver

Connect for CRM automatically checks for duplicate contacts and verifies email

addresses.

Episerver Connect for Silverpop, marketing software from IBM, also helps

marketers manage their online presence and deliver timely, relevant content to

their target audiences across every channel and device. Visitors accessing the

site from mobile devices have a complete mobile experience with the same core

functionality as desktop visitors.

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/essentialguide/Essential-guide-to-API-management-and-application-integration

http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/opinion/Design-a-WCM-system-that-enriches-customer-experience


http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/buyersguide/A-buyers-guide-to-choosing-the-right-CRM-product

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/tip/Enhancing-customer-engagement-through-a-mobile-experience

Page 4 of 20

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Who benefits from using Digital Experience

Cloud?

Episerver's WCM platform is primarily focused on mid- and upper-mid-market

enterprises. While Episerver does not focus on any specific industry verticals, it

is especially popular with companies in the financial services, retail and

healthcare industries. All of these industry sectors require WCM functionality

that is able to address the needs of customers through a variety of electronic

and brick-and-mortar channels (i.e. omni-channel marketing).

Users can easily integrate other systems by simply implementing the required

interface provided by Episerver. For example, for cloud repositories (e.g., cloud

storage) users can implement a standard content provider.

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How is the platform licensed and priced?

Episerver Digital Experience Cloud is priced based on two different versions:

Digital Marketing and Digital Commerce. Each has four different packaging

levels. The parameters that determine the packaging level are: number of

content items, number of page views, and the application-level service level

agreement (SLA). Service prices are monthly, with additional capacity beyond

the monthly allotment billed incrementally and as used.

Page views and content items in excess of the agreed amount are billed at the

contracted rate. Customers that do not fit into the standard packages have

additional options with associated pricing.

Episerver Digital Experience Cloud can be implemented as a software-as-a

service (SaaS) option, a perpetual license option or as a license with hosting

and managed services. The SaaS option has a cloud subscription option,

consumption-based pricing and scales for monthly visits under management

and SLA. The perpetual license option has an infrastructure-based pricing and

scales based on the number of sites and servers. The license with hosting and

managed services option also has infrastructure-based pricing, but scales

based on the number of sites and servers and network bandwidth.

Episerver is known for a "pay as you grow" approach with a variety of

configuration and deployment options that are especially useful for mid-market

http://www.episerver.com/actions/how-to-buy/

Page 6 of 20

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E-guide

companies that plan on expanding. The average entry-level Episerver project

begins at $60,000, with an average moderate project costing $125,000 and an

average high-end project tallying around $250,000. These prices do not include

the cost of maintenance, which are blended into the overall subscription fee.

Episerver relies on its business partner ecosystem for implementation and

support. Its sales, solution architects and expert services groups work very

closely with business partners to ensure that customers get up and running

successfully. Business partners work alongside the client's internal IT team to

integrate Digital Experience Cloud into existing systems and to help clients

develop and maintain their websites.

Next article

Page 7 of 20

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E-guide

Manage your digital content using the OpenText WEM platform


OpenText Web Experience Management (WEM) provides users with

tools for creating and managing digital content and delivering

personalized digital experiences.

The OpenText Web Experience Management (WEM) platform helps enterprises

deliver omni-channel experiences to their customers, business partners,

employees and others who interact with their published web content. It also

helps enterprises learn more about their audiences to optimize web-based

interactions with them by creating and storing detailed profiles of each content

viewer, which can then be used by their marketing team or other related

departments to enhance user experience.

Page 8 of 20

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How does OpenText WEM support WCM

tasks?

The platform supports both WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") and

form-based editing of content. Users can choose to edit or examine each page

as it will be rendered on different devices, which can be done by selecting the

appropriate device "format" from page preview controls. These formats target

devices such as smartphones and tablets.

OpenText WEM offers search functionality in many languages across text,

metadata and content attributes. The platform also includes InfoFusion,

OpenText's information access platform. The software supports basic and

advanced search based on full text, content attributes, metadata and content

types. The software also has an extension framework for search that enables

integration with third-party search engines. Organizations use this framework to

see how search is affecting a site's external search engine rankings and

performance.

Users can add social networking capabilities to their content. This includes

functions like tagging, ratings, reviews, commenting and moderation capabilities

for all generated content. Users can also add blogs, wikis, discussion forums,

photo and video libraries, micro-blogs, user profiles and social collaboration

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/WYSIWYG-what-you-see-is-what-you-get

http://www.opentext.com/what-we-do/products/discovery/information-access-platform

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/tip/How-predictive-marketing-analytics-is-revolutionizing-your-department


http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/450298673/Microsoft-LinkedIn-deal-to-shake-up-enterprise-social-networking

Page 9 of 20

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WCM needs?

Manage your digital

content using the


Is the Sitecore


for your WCM needs?

Is Adobe Experience



E-guide

features to their webpages, and can easily pull social content information into

the OpenText WEM platform.

OpenText WEM has a native edit interface which allows creative personnel to

mark content for publication to social sites such as Facebook or Twitter directly

in the authoring environment. The same content can be rendered appropriately

for the social site. Creative teams can place social apps/features from platforms

like Livefyre, Facebook or Twitter by dragging and dropping onto each page.

OpenText also offers full support for both responsive and adaptive design for

mobile web and provides OpenText AppWorks for mobile app development.

The platform also produces native reports and dashboards derived from the

OpenText Analytics Suite for visualization and big data analytics engines. This

enables OpenText WEM users to identify and analyze trends and content usage

so they can develop and execute targeted marketing campaigns based on the

insights.

Users are able to customize the software to specific industry verticals and their

content development and distribution needs.

OpenText can customize WEM for financial services, manufacturing, retail,

consumer packaged goods and other industries, and can also customize

content for different types of commerce (B2B, B2B2C or B2C transactions). The

product expands on this flexibility through integration with Hybris, an SAP


Page 10 of 20

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for your WCM needs?

Is Adobe Experience



E-guide

company that delivers a personalized shopping cart and extended self-service

sites that support interaction on multiple mobile and desktop devices.

Who benefits most from using OpenText

WEM?

The platform is best suited for organizations with high impression and

transaction-based websites. The OpenText WEM platform is highly focused on

helping organizations create, deliver and manage omni-channel content that

can be directed to any e-communication channel. It has the ability to focus

content to specific demographics segments and even to individuals through

personalized digital experiences. Additionally, the platform also offers

multilingual search functionality across text, metadata and content attributes.

How is OpenText WEM licensed and priced?

The platform is priced on a scaling factor based on the number of CPUs or

servers used. Development, QA and staging servers are included in the base

fee, and there is no extra investment for non-production infrastructure.

OpenText WEM includes free access to published REST/JSON APIs to

encourage development and application extensibility and does not charge for

this access.

http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/podcast/From-mobile-first-design-to-the-digital-experience

http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/tip/Open-APIs-key-to-successful-collaboration-platforms

Page 11 of 20

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E-guide

OpenText charges maintenance fees, using different tiers of protection services.

The OpenText Protect plan costs users 20 percent of the first year license, while

OpenText Protect Anytime is 22 percent. Additional costs for hardware or

personal resources like an administrator, authors, web developers, creative

teams and agencies are not included. OpenText Global Services WCM rates

are negotiable for large deployments and for packaged service offerings that

include consulting and/or implementation hours.

OpenText WEM can be installed by customers or they can take advantage of

OpenText Partners or the OpenText Global Services to install the platform for

them. OpenText additionally has an expert network of system integration

partners that consult on and deploy its WCM software.

Next article

Page 12 of 20

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WCM needs?

Manage your digital

content using the


Is the Sitecore


for your WCM needs?

Is Adobe Experience



E-guide

Is the Sitecore Experience Platform right for your WCM needs?


The Sitecore Experience Platform is web content management

software that provides organizations with a variety of tools for

creating and managing digital content and experiences.

Sitecore is focused on leading the connection between customers, web content

and commerce. The Sitecore Experience Platform is a web content

management platform that enables marketing teams to move beyond customer

attraction and conversion. Specifically, the Sitecore Experience Platform

delivers a greater ability to blend insights and decisions into execution and

action.

How does the platform support WCM tasks?

The Sitecore Experience Platform provides authors and editors with a variety of

options for updating their web content, primarily through its Experience Editor

tool, which is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editing environment. Another

Sitecore web content authoring tool is the Content Editor, which is a forms-

based editor. Sitecore also offers users the Sitecore Process Enablement &

Accelerator Kit (SPEAK) development environment, which provides users with a


Page 13 of 20

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for your WCM needs?

Is Adobe Experience



E-guide

programming framework that allows them to quickly develop applications with a

consistent interface. SPEAK comes with a predefined set of page layouts,

components and user experience guidelines for application development.

Sitecore Experience Platform also has a rule editor that lets users configure

personalization options for text, rich media, forms, social media widgets,

promotions, recommendations and other types of web content to the level of an

individual website visitor. The platform's personalization options are based on

rules and workflows that users define, and these rules can even be assigned

based upon a visitor's device or location.

These rules in Sitecore Experience Platform have two components: conditions

and actions. Conditions include things like the visitor's profile and history, the

page the visitor is viewing, the site the visitor is viewing, the current date and

time, and the visitor's location. Actions include things like whether to show or

hide content rendering and where the rendering should look for the data it

displays.

These personalization profiles and rule sets can be applied to multitouch

marketing campaigns by integrating Sitecore Experience Platform with other

Sitecore experience channels -- including email, mobile, social, commerce and

print.

The platform also features a tool called Experience Explorer. This tool allows

authors and editors to preview websites using simulated visitors. Experience

https://doc.sitecore.net/speak

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/2240237976/Customer-personalization-now-part-of-closing-the-deal

http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/opinion/Dont-misfire-on-your-targeted-marketing-campaign


http://www.sitecore.net/products/sitecore-experience-platform/cross-channel-delivery.aspx

Page 14 of 20

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Is Adobe Experience



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Explorer allows users to specify a profile and to change the profile on demand.

This is critical in order to build and test highly personalized sites.

The Sitecore Experience Platform automatically tracks visitor activity on users'

sites and turns that data into actionable insights. Users can assign values to

their content for profile scoring, trigger marketing, or sales activities based on

goals or thresholds, and they can target future content based on predictive

patterns. Drill-down reports and dashboard overviews help users learn from

every interaction and optimize every experience. They provide better insights

into revenue attribution and more detailed customer intelligence data.

For those wishing to integrate Sitecore with enterprise customer relationship

management and commerce systems, Sitecore offers RESTful web services

connectors and social media channels that provide the ability to map data

between Sitecore and these systems. Sitecore can also publish content as

RSS, XML or any other format that an enterprise application may require.




Page 15 of 20

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Who benefits from using the platform?

Sitecore Experience Platform is used to primarily address the needs of

marketing leadership, marketing technologists and marketing operations and

agencies, as well as implementation partners in larger and upper midtier

organizations.

Although Sitecore Experience Platform is broad in its support of most industry

verticals, the following industries are particularly well-represented in its

customer base: financial services, government, healthcare, retail, consumer

packaged goods, education and entertainment.

How is the software licensed and priced?

Sitecore has several different pricing options for its WCM platform. There is an

installation price, in which the platform is priced by the number of installations,

based on a perpetual license basis. The bring-your-own-cloud pricing structure

is done on a variable basis according to the volume of visits to the Sitecore-

powered site. Finally, there's the Sitecore xCloud hosting price, in which the

platform has a select range of hosting options available, and pricing is based on

volume of site visits. In general, Sitecore software pricing typically ranges

between $175,000 and $200,000. Prices may vary regionally due to local

conditions and costs.

Page 16 of 20

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Sitecore provides implementation and professional services through its Sitecore

Solution Partner network. It also features the Sitecore Business Optimization

Services, which focus on establishing the digital maturity of a customer

organization and developing practical plans that have been learned from

hundreds of implementations to make sure customers achieve their business

objectives.

Next article

Page 17 of 20

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Is Adobe Experience



E-guide

Is Adobe Experience Manager 6.2 the right WCM platform for you?


Adobe Experience Manager 6.2 is an enterprise-level WCM platform

with tools for creating and managing websites and digital content

that can be viewed across a variety of devices.

Adobe Experience Manager, now available in version 6.2, is an enterprise-level

web content management platform. The software enables users to build

websites, create and manage digital content, build forms, tailor content to a

variety of mobile devices and delivery platforms, and manage marketing content

and assets.

How does the software support web content

management tasks?

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) 6.2 lets users develop and administer their

own websites, customizing website content as needed, while also enforcing

corporate design standards for the website and controlling user access

privileges for editing and publishing content. The software offers WYSIWYG

previews of the content that users develop and that can be viewed as the user



Page 18 of 20

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would see it, whether this content is viewed from a desktop computer or a

mobile device.

AEM 6.2 is a low-code web content management (WCM) platform that furnishes

predesigned web content templates that enable non-IT users to quickly create

new templates and content, without having to code anything or rely on IT.

Authors and publishers have the option of using a standard classic or touch-

optimized Adobe user interface to do their work, or they can customize their

own user interface.

Adobe Experience Manager 6.2 allows users to define and implement workflows

that fit the needs of their web content authoring and publishing processes. AEM

6.2 also avails users with a global search mechanism that can sift through

enterprise-wide content if there is a need to research or find information on a

specific target topic. Built-in analytics tools give users visibility into which

content assets are used most, where they're used and which ones are driving

the most click throughs. This provides organizations with insight as to which

content is performing the best so that they can build more successful

campaigns.

The platform features a digital asset content repository where users can store

videos, photos, documents, dynamic media and other digital assets so they can

easily pull content out from the repository and integrate it into their web content

as needed. Both digital content and web content can be tagged to facilitate

better organization.

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/podcast/Customer-experience-gathers-steam-with-IoT-analytics

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/clickthrough-rate

http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Despite-its-allure-digital-asset-management-not-always-the-right-fit

Page 19 of 20

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The platform also integrates with other marketing software, enabling users to

combine their web content with marketing campaigns and promotions. It also

integrates with an e-commerce system that controls purchases, shopping carts,

checkout and order fulfillment.

Who benefits from using Adobe Experience

Manager 6.2?

AEM 6.2 is at its best in large enterprise settings where companies use

sophisticated web content development and have an IT staff that is able to fully

support and take advantage of its range of capabilities. The platform spans

mobile content management, e-commerce, marketing campaign management

and multisite management platforms. It's a good choice for enterprises seeking

a well-rounded WCM platform, in particular, organizations that have established

IT personnel and services capable of operating such a robust system.

How is the platform licensed and priced?

Adobe Experience Manager 6.2 can be installed as either a stand-alone, on-

premises WCM platform or as a hosted (cloud) offering via a third-party service

provider (including Adobe). AEM 6.2 is licensed and priced based on each

client's particular requirements. If the choice is to host AEM 6.2 on a third-party


Page 20 of 20

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Is the Sitecore


for your WCM needs?

Is Adobe Experience



E-guide

cloud, users typically pay an on-demand fee to the cloud services provider for

the resources that are consumed. Users can bring their own licenses to the

cloud provider so that there are no additional licensing fees.

Adobe offers Gold and Platinum levels of technical support for AEM 6.2. Adobe

Gold Support is designed to meet the mission-critical needs of large enterprise

customers. Adobe Platinum Support offers the same mission-critical support

levels as Gold, but also provides 10 direct customer contacts and on-site

maintenance services.

About the author

Mary E. Shacklett is president of Transworld Data, a technology analytics,

market research and consulting firm. Previously, Mary was senior vice president

of marketing and technology for TCCU, Inc., vice president of Product Research

and Software Development at Summit Information Systems, and vice president

of Strategic Planning and Technology at FSI International.

Mary has a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin, a

master's degree from the University of Southern California and a doctorate of

law from William Howard Taft University. Email her at

[email protected].

https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise.html

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WCM Software Buyer’s Guide part 3cdn.ttgtmedia.com/searchBusinessAnalytics/downloads/WCM_buyers... · WCM Software Buyer’s Guide – part 3 Your expert guide to web content management