The Forrester Wave™: Web Content Management Systems, Q1 2015 report is out. Beyond Forrester’s usual leading-edge insights into this critical component of digital experience, we at Topdown see some important implications for customer communication management (CCM) as well.
Here are our key takeaways pertaining to WCM through the lens of CCM:
- WCM is (or should be) the backbone of digital experiences.
- WCM touches (or should touch) every step of the customer journey.
- Vendors extend their WCM backbones into marketing, mobile and cloud.
WCM as the Backbone of Digital Experiences
According to Forrester:
“Web content management (WCM) began life as a simple dynamic web page hosting product, but it has grown over almost two decades to become a multifaceted toolkit for building, managing, delivering, and optimizing digital experiences, the bedrock of your business technology agenda.”
We are seeing this as well, and Forrester’s findings continue to reinforce this simple but vital concept. CCM, along with other pieces of the customer experience, must become a part of a larger customer experience strategy and system that works harmoniously together to create a seamless digital experience. No. More. Silos.
Optimizing Experiences across Every Step of the Customer’s Journey
The Wave report emphasizes that “testing, analytics, personalization, segmentation, and architecture to support high-volume global sites and mobile apps are critical capabilities” throughout the customer journey, and they look to WCM vendors to support these requirements with “a steadily advancing toolkit of NoSQL databases, test and target tools, and rules-based personalization.” Yes. Personalization. Not personas.
Integration among Departments, Functions and Processes
The Wave reports great advancements and potential among WCM vendors’ offerings, but a few continuing challenges stand out. The main issue is inconsistent integration and uneven results when different software packages are deployed in tandem. In other words, the popular software suites and proprietary applications that different areas of enterprises are using don’t necessarily play well together. That needs to change.
Exciting Trends in WCM, CCM and Digital Experience in General
Forrester identifies or reinforces some exciting trends we’ve been seeing ourselves, and this Wave report is packed with powerful insights. We’ll be delving further into these ideas and will continue to share our take on them here on our blog and elsewhere. Stay tuned!
Give us a call at 1-800-361-1211 to see if a Topdown solution can help improve your customer communications management and enhance the digital experience throughout your customers’ journey.
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