The CMS Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant for WCM hasn’t been around for long: barely four years have passed since the decision was made to separate it out from the Magic Quadrant for CMS (since renamed ECM).  4 key points caught Franck’s attention in the 2013 edition.

 

The near non-existence of challengers. This category has really only ever had two players (Microsoft and IBM) who are by far the enterprise portal market leaders, whereas web publishing was an integral part of their strategy just 5 years ago. This is a sign that communication marketing has split away from transactional business to foster swifter, more constraint-free development.

 

The still significant presence of niche players. Having previously been filled by publishers who specifically deal with media and press solutions, and those who specialise in e-commerce or social media, this quadrant is now home to small, very open solutions. This is clearly the entry point for all market players who have yet to be listed by Gartner (Joomla, Liferay and Magnolia notably come to mind).

 

The Visionaries quadrant is gradually emptying. Buy-outs (Adobe acquiring Day Software, Oracle acquiring Fatwire) and the organic growth of their partnership ecosystem have meant that there are now only 5 players in this section of the Magic Quadrant (Ektron having now returned to this quadrant following a stint in the market leaders quadrant).  If we examine movement in this particular quadrant, it would still appear to be the laboratory for future leaders.

 

The tight pack of market leaders observed in previous years is now starting to open up, with Adobe beginning to edge away into the lead. Despite the fact that Interwoven (which has since changed its name to Autonomy, and then HP) stood out from the crowd for a good few years, it has never managed to truly outmanoeuvre the market giants such as Oracle or OpenText. Worse still, the visionaries have successfully closed the gap on the firm by boosting their strategy and broadening their capacity to deliver. We are still a long way from the portal market Quadrant, however, whose leaders have clearly made it to the very top of their category.

 

What are the key findings from the July 2013 edition?

 

Adobe burst into the leaders quadrant last year, just one year after acquiring Swiss firm Day Software.  It is now widening its lead from the pack to become the irrefutable market leader. This is first and foremost down to its remarkably well-marketed packaging, offering veritable integration with creative and marketing suites. Secondly, it is because IT teams used to be the ones driving the WCM market, but over the past few years end-users have taken the controls, and what they are looking for is simple, quick and open solutions.

 

Now that CQ5 (soon to be renamed Experience Manager) has been implemented numerous times, the feedback obtained is as follows:

-      Consultants and developers continue to say that the basic features are by no means revolutionary, and that the solution’s integrability is relative and always demands non-negligible technical adjustments, although the overall development environment is well rated.

-      Users have been won-over by the solution’s user-friendliness and the obvious integration with creation tools such as Photoshop and InDesign.

-      Buyers sometimes struggle with the solution’s integration with the Marketing suite, which isn’t always in-line with their corporate strategy (cloud usage is still confidential, non-Adobe software components such as in CRM, Campaign management, etc.).

 

Yesterday’s leaders such as HP/Autonomy, Opentext and SDL Tridion, despite being renowned for their wealth of functions, are now struggling to position themselves as visionaries and have regressed quite substantially in this quadrant, which has been extremely beneficial for Adobe.

Furthermore, Sitecore made amazing vertical progress last year, but now appears to be stagnating somewhat. There would seem to be two clear reasons behind this observation: the choice of technology (.net), which does not always correspond to a marketing team’s web strategies (more integration, more portability); and the product’s capacity, which means it struggles to be a real contender when dealing with large-scale organisations.

 

 

Dangerous ground. Last year we expected positive news for two key players. Oracle had expected to regain lost ground with the integration of Siebel, ATG… but this vision was not shared by the market. HP has had trouble winning confidence following the buy-out of Autonomy, although there has been a notable improvement in service, and its strategy is gradually becoming clearer. We can also see that between 2012 and 2013, the main leaders have regressed due to a clear lack of vision and problems with correct delivery.

What can be learnt from July 2013’s Magic Quadrant?

 

The WCM market must continually accommodate new demands, notably in terms of integration.  This doubtlessly explains the sense of frustration users feel faced with these players’ visions – players who at times appear to be chasing a runaway train. The majority of market leaders are still attempting to anticipate the aforementioned demands by steering clients towards wider purchasing goals (cloud marketing, meaning based marketing, customer engagement environments, etc.), but at times they fail to consider a firm’s ability to determine its own strategy.

 

This can consequently result in situations whereby the buyer is already equipped with heterogeneous software components (having adopted a clear best-in-class strategy and having chosen to maintain a certain independence, with the all-IBM or all-SAP era now a thing of the past), whose integration in the WCM requires additional work. As a result, the exorbitant license fees demanded by the market leaders give rise to lengthy debate.

We are seeing an increasing number of open source solutions arriving in the quadrant. Last year we saw the arrival of Acquia (Drupal), which consolidated its position in 2013. Today, however, the niche players quadrant is only filled with players that are considered small by virtue of their acquisition budget, despite the fact that they actually provide the majority of web content management features users are looking for. This could possibly herald a new trend within this market – a trend for substantial belt-tightening as far as functionalities are concerned combined with a desire for more openness, with customization work consequently being funded by the savings made on license fees.

 

 

This trend for openness ultimately results in an ever-more obvious need for expertise:functional and software architecture, java/php/.net development with in-depth knowledge of the products to be integrated (security, campaign management, CRM, DAM, ecommerce, etc.). It is for this very reason that the majority of users decide to join forces with integrator partners such as TBSCG, who are capable of providing support across a number of fields including architecture, development environment organisation and content production.