August 12, 2013, New York – The forces of digital disruption have empowered consumers and created growing demand for rich, engaging, and consistent content experiences across multiple channels. As CMO’s struggle to keep up with chaotic changes in developing these content-driven strategies, it’s clear that very few organizations have all of the in-house resources necessary to implement them. Most will at some point turn to external service providers (digital agencies, systems integrators, consultancies, etc.) for assistance. But which providers are optimal for which technologies and approaches? This has been an excruciatingly difficult question to answer – until now. Digital Clarity Group (DCG) has released a groundbreaking new report that maps the expertise of North American service providers within the context of their evolving support for content-driven customer experience management (CEM).

Web Content To Customer Experience Management

DCG’s Guide to Service Providers for Web Content and Customer Experience Management is the only comprehensive guide to the North American landscape of service providers. The 270+ page report maps 42 service providers along multiple criteria, including:

• Web content management (WCM) and related technology partnerships
• Specific areas of expertise, and primary industry area focus
• An overview of their project approach and differentiated value proposition
• A selection of recent news, appointments, and awards
• A perspective of what the company has to offer from both their clients’ point of view and DCG’s

Scott Liewehr, DCG’s President and one of the report’s authors said, “One of our founding principles is that we won’t assist with technology vendor selection unless we also participate in the selection of service provider partners. We believe that this emphasis has been instrumental in our clients’ successes. And it only makes sense that we be the ones to release this revolutionary market landscape report for other companies to be able to do the same.”

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A Service Provider Assessment Framework

One of the biggest challenges in finding the right service partner to work with is that, unlike software vendors, service providers don’t offer the same standard “product.” In theory, each client receives a distinct project team with its own unique characteristics. People-centric, skills-based services are also hard to “demo.” So, in addition to the service provider profiles, DCG’s report provides a Service Provider Assessment Framework. This framework provides the company with a set of considerations to use as part of the evaluation criteria for selecting a strategic service provider.

As Cathy McKnight, DCG Partner and one of the report’s core authors said, “Successful execution of a customer experience management strategy requires true expertise and, most of all, experience. Our aim with this report, and everything we do at DCG, is to enable our clients to select the right service provider to help deploy these solutions. It can make or break an organization’s plan.”

The CEM Imperative

Reflecting the overwhelming growth of the importance of content, 83% of the service providers in the report have “content strategy” as one of the core areas of expertise for the company. DCG’s position is that WCM software (and the vendors that produce it) will continue to occupy a central and privileged place within CEM for two fundamental reasons:

1. Websites (especially on mobile devices) remain the predominant channel for customer interaction.
2. The primary WCM workloads – namely, the creation, management and distribution of digital assets – persist at the core of omnichannel experience management.

As Tim Walters, DCG Partner and author of the report said, “Consumers already have great digital experiences and respond to them positively. The only question for a CMO is whether their company will be one of the providers of choice. CEM is an imperative because you’re either competing with superior customer experiences… or you’re not even part of the game.”

Digital Clarity Group’s Guide to Service Providers for Web Content and Customer Experience Management is available now.

About DCG

Digital Clarity Group helps business leaders navigate digital transformation by providing clear, actionable advice across four themes: Consumer Engagement, the Social Enterprise, Innovative Change, and Adaptive Technology. The firm provides research, consulting, events, and advisory services, and provides exclusive perspectives and downloadable Insight Papers at http://digitalclaritygroup.com.

Contacts

Digital Clarity Group
Tiffany Elliot
[email protected]
647.403.3205