2018/2019 CONTENT AUTOMATION RESEARCH: CONTENT PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES, TECHNOLOGY TRENDS, AND INVESTMENT OUTLOOK WITHIN ENTERPRISE CONTENT

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1 2018/2019 CONTENT AUTOMATION RESEARCH: CONTENT PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES, TECHNOLOGY TRENDS, AND INVESTMENT OUTLOOK WITHIN ENTERPRISE CONTENT PUBLISHING Joseph McKendrick, Research Analyst Produced by Unisphere Research, a Division of Information Today, Inc. 2018/2019 Sponsored by Produced by

2 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary...3 The Content that Matters...4 Content Management Patterns...5 Content Technology Budgets and Purchasing Priorities...6 Content and Digital Transformation...8 Tools of the Trade...9 Content Pain Points...13 Content Insights...17 Conclusion...20 Demographics...21

3 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Content is king, and is the super-charged fuel of the digital age. But for many organizations, there is way too much of it, scattered across various systems. Plus, there is not enough understanding of who views what content, and what is motivating them to consume the content. As more organizations seek to embrace digital transformation, they are turning to content automation as a way to deliver information quickly and effectively to their customers. These are the findings of a survey, conducted by Information Today, Inc., publishers of KMWorld and EContent magazines, in partnership with Quark Software Inc. The survey of 262 executives and professionals included business heads, managers, and content specialists from a range of industries, with financial services, and manufacturing, and high tech having the largest representation. A majority, 58%, are business-to-business companies, primarily selling products/services to other businesses. Just about all of the respondents, 93%, are involved in the purchase of new content technology. The survey finds content automation as a category has grown significantly in awareness (90%) and in adoption, with more than 60% of organizations adopting or expecting to adopt end-to-end content automation platforms. In addition, 92% are familiar with the concept of content automation. Highlights of the survey include the following key findings: n Content that serves both internal requirements and customer requirements are critical to today s organizations. n Managing and extracting value from fast-growing content stores is the norm for most organizations seeking to manage their services to customers and employees. n Content technology budgets are on the upswing, with more support going to customer experience initiatives. n Customer experience may be a priority, but content management in a digital transformation context means improving employee experience as well. n A majority of companies are planning to bring in content automation solutions to help manage the growing volumes of content required for demanding customers and employees. There is no strong preference for cloud-based or on-premises software. Adoption of artificial intelligence in content management environments is still low today, but clearly growing. n Managers are pushing back against ad hoc or manual approaches to managing content, especially with its proliferation across many places within enterprises. Editing and preparing content is also a burden for many. n Organizations have insight into who is consuming their content but much less visibility into how the content is being consumed. On the following pages are the detailed results and analysis of these new technologies and approaches.

4 4 THE CONTENT THAT MATTERS Content that serves both internal requirements and customer requirements are critical to today s organizations. What are the forms of business-critical content that are seen as integral to emerging enterprise content management initiatives? While it is no surprise that customer communication is seen as a business-critical content type, an internal content type, policies and procedures, is a close number two, the survey finds. In fact, if you were to group standard operating procedures (a similar content type) with policies and procedures, together they would top the list of business-critical content types. (See Figure 1) The increasing importance of internally focused content reflects a growing recognition of the impact of this information on external customer satisfaction, costs, and regulatory compliance in certain industries. When breaking down the data into industries, there is a large degree of consistency of importance with some exceptions. For example, technical documentation is the top business-critical content type in manufacturing and high tech whereas sales enablement ranks number one in retail. When breaking this data down by job role, senior decision makers top five business critical content types were the same with one exception. They ranked market intelligence more highly than everyone else, with this content type coming in at number three on their list. Figure 1: Which of the following applications do you consider the most business-critical content for your organization? Customer communications (bills, statements, welcome kits, etc.) 42% Policies and procedures 35% Sales enablement collateral 32% Technical documentation 27% Standard operating procedures 26% Financial reports/investor materials/annual reports 23% Market intelligence 21% Product data sheets 20% Training material 20% Magazines/books/ newspapers/journals 10% Government legislation 7% Investment research 7% Catalogs 5% Medical documentation 5% Other 3%

5 5 CONTENT MANAGEMENT PATTERNS Managing and extracting value from fast-growing content stores is the norm for most organizations seeking to manage their services to customers and employees. Respondents also provided insights on their patterns and processes for creating, managing, and distributing their most essential content. Overall, enterprises are faced with challenging requirements for content creation, including the creation of high volumes of similar documents and revisions, cited by roughly seven in 10 respondents. Reuse of documents is another pattern adopted by seven in 10. More than 60% also reported their content management processes are relatively uniform across their enterprises. (See Figure 2) At the same time, regulation and compliance mandates loom large for content managers and creators. Forty-four percent of respondents indicated that their created content needs to comply with changing regulations. This is even higher in industries such as financial services, in which 83% cite this requirement. Figure 2: How accurately do these statements describe your organization s content? (Fully/somewhat agree) Fully agree Somewhat agree Total We create a high volume of similar documents. 28% 43% 71% We regularly reuse content across multiple documents. 24% 46% 70% Our content requires a high volume of revisions. 29% 38% 67% We use similar creation processes for all of our content. 24% 40% 64% Our content is highly regulated. 29% 32% 61%

6 6 CONTENT TECHNOLOGY BUDGETS AND PURCHASING PRIORITIES Content technology budgets are on the upswing, with more support going to customer experience initiatives. Budgets for content-related technology are expected to grow over the next five years, the survey affirms. Almost half, 46%, are spending more than $1 million on content management and related services, a number that is likely to grow. (See Figure 3) The average spend per organization on content technology in 2018 is $920,000 with financial services leading the way at $1.4 million annually. Seventy-nine percent expect their budgets to increase, and 68% say the increase will be greater than 10% a year. (See Figure 4) By industry, financial services is outperforming growth in other sectors. Customer experience (CX) reigns as the most important objective of content management strategies, the survey shows. Thirty-seven percent of respondents say improving CX is the single most important high-level business initiative tied to content management over the coming year. Reducing costs for the business ranks second with 24%. (See Figure 5) For content automation proponents and vendors, this points to the need to focus on making strong business cases (ROI) for why budgets should be diverted to technology that does a better job of managing the content life-cycle in order to drive business outcomes such as enhanced customer experience, reduced costs and content compliance. Figure 3: What will your organization spend this year on content-related technologies and services (including content automation), i.e., content creation, management, publishing, and distribution? (U.S. dollars) Less than $100,000 6% $100,000 to $499,999 28% $50,000 to $999,999 22% $1M to $1.9M 24% $2M or more 22%

7 7 Figure 4: How much do you expect your organizational spend on contentrelated technologies and services (including content automation) to change annually over the next 3 to 5 years? 20% or more growth 39% 10% to 19% growth 29% 1% to 9% growth 11% Expect to be flat 17% Decline 4% Figure 5: What is the single most important high-level business initiative related to your organization s content strategy for the next 12 months? Improving customer experience 37% Reducing costs 24% Increasing revenue 16% Expanding in our current market 11% Improving compliance 6% Expanding into new markets 5% Other 1%

8 8 CONTENT AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Customer experience may be a priority, but content management in a digital transformation context means improving employee experience as well. While customer experience is at the forefront of content management goals, companies also recognize there is a vital role internally as well. The ability to serve employees is considered the most critical aspect of content s role in digital transformation. As discussed earlier in this report, there is an increasing focus on internal content along with the content that is presented to the world. Many content managers also are concerned with delivering their companies content online, so it is available anytime, anywhere. A critical component of this is providing greater access to mobile devices, often the preferred choice of both internal users as well as customers. (Figure 6) Figure 6: Does your company currently have any of the following digital transformation initiatives? Improving intranet/portal content consumption experience for employees 63% Moving content online 56% Taking content mobile 54% Delivering responsive mobile content 48% Reducing reliance on paper 37% App development for customers and partners 36% App development for employees 35% Other 3%

9 9 TOOLS OF THE TRADE A majority of companies are planning to bring in content automation solutions to help manage the growing volumes of content required for demanding customers and employees. There is no strong preference for cloud-based or on-premises software. Adoption of artificial intelligence in content management environments is still low today, but clearly growing. How many organizations own content automation solutions? While ownership of content automation solutions is still low at 11%, more than one-third of respondents have projects underway, and an additional 14% plan to implement a content automation solution in the future. That represents 60% of the market that is committed to implementing content automation in the future. (See Figure 7) The manufacturing and high tech industries are furthest ahead with 24% of respondents that already have content automation solutions in place. Retail has the highest percentage of respondents with plans underway to implement a content automation solution. Overall, when it comes to cloud, while there is a sizable segment who prefer moving to cloud and SaaS-based content management solutions, most prefer to keep their options open. Only one in four organizations expressed a preference for onpremises software. (See Figure 8) t t Figure 7: Does your organization own an end-to-end content automation solution? Yes, currently underway 35% Don t know 10% Yes, already own 11% No, but planning to buy 10% No, no plans to buy 30% Figure 8: What is your department s first choice of solution to software? Cloud/SaaS 37% On-premises software (installed locally on servers/desktops) 25% Don t care just want the right solution 39%

10 10 While there is a clear preference for cloud/saas deployment of content automation solutions, a large percentage of the market is refreshingly still focused on finding the right solution over how it is deployed. That said, content automation proponents and vendors are advised to ensure they are moving to cloud/saas deployment for the future in order to drive additional growth opportunities. Surprisingly, even in highly regulated and sensitive industries like financial services, cloud/saas is still preferred to on-premises deployment. The survey also explored the emerging role of artificial intelligence in helping to manage and deliver the large volumes of content that are now part of every enterprise. Adoption of artificial intelligence in content management environments is still low today, but clearly growing. Currently, 19% have AI-driven content management efforts in place or being built, with another 44% making plans for this kind of capability. In a similar survey from 2017, only 9% had AI in place. (See Figure 9) Enterprises need to investigate how artificial intelligence and machine learning can help improve content discoverability for all content consumers so rather than hunting for the right content, it is available to them when and where they need it. Further possibilities exist to automate at least parts of the content lifecycle. AI helps make the content more targeted and interactive. The potential for AI-driven content management is seen in making recommendations to users seeking content, or to agents working directly with customers. (See Figure 10) t t Figure 9: Are you applying artificial intelligence to your content? Yes, already doing this 8% Yes, currently underway 11% No, but planning to do this 44% No, and no plans to do so 37% Figure 10: What are you applying artificial intelligence for? Content marketing recommendations 90% Customer service/support content recommendations to agents and/or 70% customers Predicting the most relevant sales content 50% Identifying the most used content and topics 50% Identifying and removing redundant content 20% Document classification 20% Decision Support Systems (DSS) 10% Other 5%

11 11 In terms of AI platforms, IBM Watson, preferred by 70% of respondents, overtakes Google Prediction for top spot. (See Figure 11) Authoring tools provide another key element of the content equation. Microsoft Word is the single tool used most, as cited by close to half (44%) of respondents. (See Figure 12) Content creation tools such as Word and Google Docs are designed for non-technical authors but the tradeoff is they create unstructured content that is difficult to repurpose and update across channels. This is supported in the research. When considering the statement, I spend too much time repurposing content for different channels (print, PDF, Web, mobile, etc.), almost 60% of organizations that use Word agreed. In contrast, only 25% of respondents at organizations using structured authoring tools agreed with the statement. Respondents were also asked about the frequency of their technology re-evaluations. Close to half of respondents are only re-evaluating content technology every three to five years, which suggests longer buying cycles and that organizations are slow to keep pace with shifting media consumption demands. (See Figure 13) Financial services and the manufacturing and high tech industries re-evaluate content-related technology on a more frequent basis, typically every one to two years. Figure 11: What is your organization s primary tool for artificial intelligence? IBM Watson 70% Google Prediction 50% AT&T Speech 20% Other 29% Figure 12: What is your organization s primary tool for authoring content? Microsoft Word 44% Microsoft SharePoint 8% FrameMaker 3% Quark Author 3% Arbortext 2% Madcap Flare 2% oxygen 2% Other 12%

12 12 Figure 13: How often does your organization change or re-evaluate contentrelated technologies (including content automation)? Multiple times per year 8% Every 1 to 2 years 36% Every 3 to 5 years 50% 5 years or more 6%

13 13 CONTENT PAIN POINTS Managers are pushing back against ad hoc or manual approaches to managing content, especially with its proliferation across many places within enterprises. Editing and preparing content is also a burden for many. Locating content or helping users to find content across ever-growing stores is an intense challenge for a majority of content managers. Seventy-five percent acknowledge their enterprise content is too difficult to find. has been on the corporate scene more than two decades now, and it has long been the most common way to flow content through review and approval processes. However, content managers report they are growing weary of handling s back and forth. The majority (56%) said they find an inefficient way to review and approve content. In addition, editing and updating content is another challenge for many organizations 54% of content managers say this is taking up too much of their time. Managing PDFs is also seen as a challenge affecting many content systems and processes. (See Figure 14) Figure 15 demonstrates the distinctions between organization types and sizes. Marketing departments see the most pressing need for more advanced and helpful content management solutions. (See Figure 16)

14 14 Figure 14: Do you agree with the following statements about the way you manage content? (Fully/somewhat agree) Fully agree Somewhat agree Total Content is in too many places and too difficult to find across our organization. 34% 41% 75% I find PDFs too difficult to review and annotate. I find an inefficient way to review and approve content. 33% 27% 33% 31% 56% 60% I spend too much time editing and updating content. 13% 41% 54% I spend too much time recreating content that already exists. 21% 29% 50% I spend too much time reviewing content. 11% 36% 35% I spend too much time repurposing content for different channels (print, PDF, web, mobile, etc.). 24% 13% 45%

15 15 Figure 15: Content is too difficult to find across our organization. Fully agree Somewhat agree Total All 34% 41% 75% Mid-sized organizations 27% 54% 81% Enterprises 25% 56% 81% Large enterprises 28% 44% 72% Decision makers 29% 46% 75% Managers 32% 45% 75% Individual contributors 22% 50% 72%

16 16 Figure 16: Which of the following departments need the most improvement in the content delivery experience (finding and consuming content)? Marketing 57% Customer service/support 48% Operations 43% Sales (tele and field) 41% Management 34% Training 21% Field service engineers 19% Human resources 15% Retail sales/point of sale 15% Other 4%

17 17 CONTENT INSIGHTS Organizations have insight into who is consuming their content but much less visibility into how the content is being consumed. A majority of respondents, 80%, report they conduct analytics or are building capabilities to keep track of published content, along with 10% planning to implement content analytics systems. (See Figure 17) There are significant differences between industries, with retail, manufacturing, and high tech claiming the best understanding of content consumption, and financial services and government the least. To a large extent, the IT and marketing departments share responsibility for developing analytics. This points to a growing need for collaboration between these two sides of the business, as delivering superior customer experience relies on both technology and market savvy. (See Figure 18) Only about half, though, are confident they have insights into who the consumers of their published content are, and the types of devices customers, employees, or partners are using. Fewer have an understanding of the behavioral dynamics into what is driving their audiences to consume their content. (See Figure 19.) Still, many organizations are practicing their due diligence to ensure that their content is compliant, up-to-date, and useful to their audiences. (See Figure 20) Figure 17: Are you doing any analytics or tracking on your published content? Yes, already doing this 40% Yes, currently underway 31% No, but planning to do this 10% No, no plans to do this 5% Don t know/unsure 2%

18 18 Figure 18: Which department within your organization is responsible for data analytics and insights on published content? IT 71% Marketing 61% Sales 26% Dedicated customer insights/ department/team 20% Operations 18% Product management 15% Brand managment 11% Service 4% Other 10%

19 19 Figure 19: How much do you agree with the following statements about your organization s insights on your content? Fully agree Somewhat agree Our organization currently has great insights into who is consuming our published content. 10% 32% Our organization currently has great insights into which devices our published content is consumed on. 12% 41% Our organization currently has great behavioral insights into how our published content is consumed. 10% 38% Figure 20: Does your organization regularly conduct formal content audits to understand if content is compliant, up-to-date, accurate, and useful? Yes 66% No 34%

20 20 CONCLUSION Content automation promises to help organizations to swiftly and automatically deliver the right content at the right time to customers and employees. There is content in many forms, from video to audio files to Word documents. To fully benefit from content automation, enterprises have to lift their content strategy to a corporate level. The following steps are essential to building and deploying a content automaton system: Build a corporate content strategy around customer experience. Ultimately, all efforts should be about delivering value and satisfaction to customers. In the digital era, compelling and relevant content is the key to delivery of superior CX. Content management needs to be a continuous enterprise engagement. Bring in the best solutions. Invest in technology that enables content to be interactive, engaging, and most importantly, appropriate for the device and media on which the content is being consumed. Employ analytics tools to better understand who is consuming various forms of content and why. Keep employees front and center. Employees are huge consumers of content, and the quality and availability of the content combined with the consumption experience can have a significant impact on the customer experience, internal process efficiencies, regulatory compliance, and employee retention. This starts with simply making it easy for employees to find content, but it can t stop there. Let your employees focus on where they can add the most value to the organization and not in inefficient content production processes, unnecessary manual review and approval processes, copying and pasting content, etc.

21 21 DEMOGRAPHICS Figure 21: What is your company s primary industry? Financial Services 17% Manufacturing and high tech 17% Retail 9% Publishing/media/marketing 8% Education 7% Government 7% Charity/nonprofit/religious 5% Healthcare products/services 5% Hospitality/tourism/travel 4% Telecommunications 4% IT services 3% Consulting services 3% Other 12%

22 22 Figure 22: In what region are you located? North America 75% Europe 10% South America 7% Africa and Middle East 3% Asia 3% Australia/New Zealand 2% Figure 23: Company size Large enterprise 63% Mid-market 25% Enterprise 12% Figure 24: What would best describe your type of business? B2B, we primarily sell our products/services to other businesses 58% B2C, we primarily sell our products/services to consumers 42%

23 23 Figure 25: How would you describe your current job role? Managers 39% Senior decision makers 31% Individual contributors 30% Figure 26: What is your current department? IT 26% Marketing 16% Sales 12% Product Management 8% Research and Development (inc. Engineering) 8% Operations 7% Services 6% Corporate 5% Compliance 1% Finance 1% Legal 1% Procurement/Purchasing 1%