ARC Implementation Report: Avoiding Web Experience Management Failure
Overhauling your company’s web presence is an exciting process and foundational for changing how you are perceived in the marketplace. It provides the opportunity to present a new image of your business to customers and competitors, and it lays the groundwork for more efficient and exciting possibilities for realizing your company’s vision going forward.
The process is complex, however, and there are so many moving parts, that without the benefit of firsthand experience, it’s almost impossible to understand how to use time and resources to complete the process on budget and on time. Companies often spend hundreds of thousands more than they planned and invest years to get the website fully operational, or worse yet, abandon the implementation altogether.
The leading cause of delayed, stalled, and failed web and mobile experience implementations isn’t selecting the wrong product or platform. It’s a lack of understanding of what’s required to make the right platform operational. The plain fact is that an organization can have a clear understanding of its requirements, purchase a suitable web experience management (WEM) platform, and still be at a loss about how to proceed.
In the words of one of our clients: “We’ve seen the best WEM platforms on the market. We’ve evaluated them. And we bought what we believe to be the best fit. We also understand the digital marketing goals we would like the platform to help us achieve. But when it comes to actually implementing the product, there’s so much we don’t know that we hardly know where to begin. It feels to us as though there is a big gap between purchasing the best WEM technology and actually getting it working – we don’t know if we will be able to fill it.”
This gap between purchasing the right product and implementing it is the problem that few in the industry want to discuss. Software manufacturers realize this, but they are reluctant to discuss the issue publicly for fear of creating the perception that their software is difficult to implement. Software implementation firms also realize this, but when they talk about the problem openly, they run the risk of having prospective customers see them as only trying to generate additional business.
To meet this need, Ars Logica will launch the ARC Implementation Report in late 2018. By interviewing a wide variety of companies that have recently installed new WEM platforms and analyzing their feedback, we will bring to light the problems companies face in getting their newly purchased WEM platforms fully functional.
Through the hard-won experience of other companies, businesses will be able to learn about the factors that correlate with successful implementations, such as:
- Information architectural planning
- Adequate budgets
- Staffing requirements (sizing/skill sets)
- Product education and training
- Transfer-of-information processes between marketing and IT
- Awareness of learning curves, both technological and process-oriented
- Realistic timelines
- Selecting the right service provider
The report will also help companies identify suitable implementation service providers by assessing and highlighting their respective strengths and weaknesses. The research will assess solution partners implementing the latest major releases of leading WEM platforms. Available in late 2018, the ARC Implementation Report will likely be the first report of its kind, equipping software buyers to avoid painful but needless implementation missteps. This research will be an essential tool in helping businesses complete successful WEM implementations on time and on budget.