A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Sitecore Firms Seek To Integrate Digital Experience Technologies To Drive Business Introduction In the age of the customer, it is more crucial than ever before for companies to provide a unified experience that bridges the various touchpoints customers use to engage anytime and anywhere. But as customer devices and channels proliferate, many firms rely on disparate and often channelspecific technologies. As a result, these companies risk providing disjointed, unsatisfying, and even alienating interactions. Therefore, forward-thinking companies with an eye on orchestrating cohesive digital experiences to win, serve, and retain customers are thinking beyond traditional web content management (WCM) systems. Instead, such firms are adopting more holistic experience management technologies that better fit not only their business objectives, but also the nonlinear paths today s customers take between business discovery and product purchase. In November 2014, Sitecore commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the adoption of technologies that support digital experience delivery. To do so, Forrester leveraged data from its Business Technographics surveys and supplemented that data with a custom survey of 54 US business technology (BT) decision-makers with oversight of digital experience investments and/or implementations. February 2015
1 Rising Customer Expectations And Mobile Priorities Pressurize Business FIGURE 1 Rising Customer Expectations Pressurize Most Firms Corporate Strategy Customers have become increasingly powerful and demanding as technology gives them tremendous information power of choice, research, and even price. Subsequent metamorphoses in the strategies of firms that seek to win, serve, and retain these customers include: Investments fueled by rising customer expectations. Consumers now use a myriad of touchpoints across journeys that are anything but linear when interacting with companies. What s more, these interactions are 1 increasingly digital in nature. As these ways of evaluating and purchasing products and services become more and more table stakes, it s incumbent on firms to provide the digital capabilities their customers expect. It s no surprise, then, that addressing rising customer expectations and creating strategy for digital technologies rank as the top two initiatives among enterprise BT services decision-makers (see Figure 1). An emphasis on mobile priorities. Mobile has become a critical need. Global smartphone penetration is forecasted to grow from 28% in 2013 to over 50% by 2017, and the worldwide tablet installed base grew by a 2 staggering 42% in 2014. In response, firms must enable the anytime, anywhere capabilities to meet the rising expectation of customers to be served in their mobile 3 moments of needs. Business and marketing strategy transformation. Sixty-three percent of enterprise BT services decisionmakers ranked the creation of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy as a 4 or 5 on a five-point scale of importance. Consider, in addition, that a majority (56%) said the same for a major business transformation, which Forrester defines as consisting of fundamental changes in business systems, processes, roles, and culture, and the implications of the confluence of these factors is plainly clear. Digital Experience Technologies Offer A Solution The role of good digital experience in meeting the needs of increasingly discerning and always-addressable customers is apparent in itself. The benefits realized by the firms we Base: 368 US enterprise BT services decision-makers Note: Answers of 1 through 3, inclusive, are not shown. Source: Business Technographics Global Business And Technology Services Survey, 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. surveyed, however, go beyond the obvious. Specifically, BT decision-makers see good digital experience as enabling of: Topline growth. Business technology decision-makers understand and expect business value. Cost cutting is never gone, but respondents are looking for more: BT decision-makers testified that they see improvement in customer lifetime value (82%), topline revenue (81%), customer retention (75%), and conversion rates (71%) as a result of digital experience investments (See Figure 2). Bottom-line improvement. If all that growth is not enough incentive, respondents also cited savings on operational expenses, including customer service and customer marketing, as key benefits of digital experience technologies. Solid majorities not only share such sentiment for metrics like customer service operations (84%) and customer acquisition costs (78%), but also for marketing campaign operations (68%) and merchandising operations (63%).
2 FIGURE 2 Digital Experience Technologies Improve The Top And Bottom Lines Base: 54 BT decision-makers with oversight of digital experience investments and/or implementations Note: Answers of small improvement, no improvement, and don t know are not shown. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Sitecore, December 2014 Firms Are Expanding Digital Experience Delivery Beyond Content Fourteen technologies support digital experience delivery, management, and measurement activities. All 14 enjoy solid adoption today: An average of 60% of survey respondents indicated current use across mainstay and emerging applications and platforms (see Figure 3). What s more, an average of only 16% of respondents reported that they have no plans to adopt any one of these technologies: Web content management ecosystems. The mainstay web content management platform is widely adopted, with nearly three-quarters (74%) of survey respondents reporting having one in place. Newer entrants into the category are gaining traction, too; 56% currently use digital asset management and 54% use an online video platform. Additionally, firms planning to adopt these two technologies comprise 28% and 22% of our sample, respectively, compared with the 19% planning adoption of traditional WCM. Marketing applications. Given the modern proliferation of channels and touchpoints, it follows logically that firms are expanding capabilities to deliver the right message through the right medium. Components enabling email marketing, the pioneer of digital channels, are in place at 68% of respondent organizations, with an additional 15% planning adoption. Much like their WCM ecosystem counterparts, capabilities for newer marketing formats are also seeing increased adoption: 54% of respondents have content marketing tools, for instance, and another 26% will put them in place soon.
3 ecommerce software. Online retail sales in eight countries tracked by Forrester Research approached the 4 trillion dollar mark in 2014. This remarkable shift in buying behavior means that firms must offer customers comprehensive tools to navigate and purchase their inventories virtually. Sixty-one percent of respondent firms have done so already by adopting ecommerce platforms, and 15% will be adding them. engagement toward smartphones and tablets. More firms plan to adopt mobile applications than any other technology we asked about, with 31% of custom survey respondents indicating such on top of the 63% that already have such components in place. Mobile applications also tied for last place among the technologies for which companies have no adoption plans. Beacons and other location technology. Despite the staggering rise of ecommerce, in-store experiences are no less important. Physical recognition capabilities, such as in-store beacons that personalize customer communications based on proximity to or location within stores, are gaining in popularity. Over half (55%) of respondent firms currently or will soon utilize such technology. Mobile applications. Mobile leads near-term adoption plans, underlining the fundamental pivot in consumer FIGURE 3 Firms Invest In Digital Experience Components But Often Leave Them In Silos Base: 54 BT decision-makers with oversight of digital experience investments and/or implementations Note: Answers of small improvement, no improvement, and don t know are not shown. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Sitecore, December 2014
4 FIGURE 4 Poor Component Integration And Content Proliferation Hinder Digital Experience Initiatives Lack Of Integration Plagues Most Firms Digital Experience Delivery Enterprise decision-makers understand the importance of good digital experience and have big plans to improve their current capabilities. In fact, our custom survey data shows that a majority of BT decision-makers have already adopted various supporting technologies. However, these leaders face many barriers when building, buying, developing, delivering, and measuring great digital customer experiences: Poor integration is the No. 1 barrier to digital experience delivery. Technologies that don t work well together hinder digital experience efforts among our survey respondents. In fact, when we asked custom survey respondents about the factors that impede success on digital experience initiatives, the greatest number of respondents (78%) cited software products that aren t well-integrated (see Figure 4). Content silos hamper process and consistency. Dovetailing off of poorly integrated software products, content silos are the No. 2 barrier, with 72% of survey respondents reporting their digital experience to be held back by an excess of content repositories. Without central content repositories, consistent and pervasive customer experiences are endangered by manual processes that are prone to human error. Multiple customer databases impede relevance. Nearly 40% of survey respondents also have too many customer databases to which they are expected to deliver exemplary digital experiences. This fragmentation inhibits customer analytics, segmentation, and targeting, and ultimately thwarts personalized experiences across touchpoints. Organizational shortcomings prevent collaboration. In the aggregate, organizational issues such as a lack of executive leadership, the inability to find necessary creative and software help, and dispersed or insufficiently numbered staff members present a major obstacle to digital experience execution. At least one-third of survey respondents experience such hindrances. Base: 54 BT decision-makers with oversight of digital experience investments and/or implementations Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Sitecore, December 2014 Firms Need Deployment Choices And Better Integration To Fulfill Their Missions Today s pain points shape tomorrow s buying priorities. Enterprise decision-makers are keenly aware of what they need in order to maximize their return on investment. Going forward, the following digital experience delivery priorities will shape investments: Deployment flexibility tops sourcing priority list. 2014 was the year in which SaaS subscription revenues nearly 5 equaled license revenues for business applications. Mirroring this trend, a choice of deployment options (such as cloud or on-premises) tops the list of most important characteristics for digital experience delivery platforms (see Figure 5).
5 Integration in many forms dominates aggregate sourcing priorities. Cited by 59% of respondents, ease of integration with existing business systems came in as the second most important characteristic for digital experience delivery platforms, echoing the challenges that respondents experience with multiple content and customer database repositories, Adjacent wish list items for common data repositories, analysis, segmentation, and targeting (52%), along with common user interfaces (52%), rounded out the top four. Roughly half of respondents also desire a common code base for additional synergy. FIGURE 5 BT Seeks Deployment Choices Including Cloud And Integration Ease From Digital Software Businesses need to anticipate future customer touchpoints. Recent evolutions in how consumers interact with companies have driven home the point that businesses must anticipate continuous adaptation to emerging channels and devices. As such, 50% of survey respondents said they require easy addition of new delivery and measurement touchpoints. Base: 54 BT decision-makers with oversight of digital experience investments and/or implementations Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Sitecore, December 2014
6 Conclusion In order to compete, let alone differentiate, in today s market, businesses must provide capabilities that meet ever-rising and evolving customer expectations of getting what they want in their immediate context and moments of need. Digital experience technologies play a crucial role in enabling these capabilities and demonstrate clear topline and bottom-line benefits for the many companies that are implementing and expanding them. The success of digital experience initiatives, however, doesn t reach full potential without integrated and centralized technology, content, and organizational structures that foster the cohesive, channel-agnostic interactions customers anticipate. This concept isn t lost on enterprise business technology decision-makers, who seek not only integrated technologies and common interfaces but also flexible deployment options, including cloud deployments, and the security of knowing their capabilities will evolve along with consumer trends. Methodology This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by Sitecore. To create this profile, Forrester leveraged its Business Technographics Global Business And Technology Services Survey, 2014 and Business Technographics Global Software Survey, 2014. Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with custom survey questions asked of US business technology decision-makers with oversight of digital experience investments and/or implementations. The auxiliary custom survey was conducted in December 2014. For more information on Forrester s data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, visit www.forrester.com. Endnotes 1 See Develop Your Digital Customer Experience Strategy, Forrester Research, Inc., January 13, 2015. 2 Source: Forrester Research World Mobile And Smartphone Adoption Forecast, 2014 To 2019 (Global), Forrester Research, Inc., August 8, 2014 and Forrester Research World Tablet Adoption Forecast, 2013 To 2018 (Global), Q4 2014 Update, Forrester Research, Inc., December 19, 2014. 3 See: Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask, The Mobile Mind Shift, Groundswell Press, 2014 4 Forrester projected 2014 online retail sales in the US, Mexico, Europe, Brazil, Argentina, China, India, and Japan to total $957.3 billion. Source: The Global ecommerce Opportunity, Forrester Research, Inc., March 28, 2014. 5 Source: US Tech Market Growth Remains Solid For 2014 And 2015, Forrester Research, Inc., October 22, 2014. ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester s Consulting services connect you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting. 2015, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester, Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com. 1-SA2P6N