Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

By: Amit Xerxes, Expert Platform, SapientNitro

Sapient Corporation 2013

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Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

There is a new generation of Web Content Management (WCM) solutions, which industry analysts are referring to as Web Content and Experience Management (WCXM) systems. The goal of a WCXM solution is to enable the authoring and delivery of engaging customer experiences, across multiple channels with integrated personalization and targeting, analytics and optimization, and other key experience management capabilities. For an organization implementing a WCXM solution, success comes down to the choice of the technology itself, and whether the appropriate package (or packages) was chosen for the given business problem. Given the plethora of vendors and packages, the number of activities involved in a package selection, the breadth of research and exploration needed, and the number of stakeholders that need to be aligned, WCXM package selections can be a significant yet altogether worthwhile undertaking. The key though is to link the package selection process directly to the business objectives of the customer.

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DEFINING A WCXM SOLUTION

Lets start by defining a WCXM solution. A WCXM solution enables a strong multi-channel customer experience, by combining traditional web content management capabilities around content authoring, publishing and delivery with a broader spectrum of customer experience management (CXM) capabilities (e.g., web content management, digital asset management, personalization, social media). The shift from traditional media to multi-channel digital marketing has further accelerated the deployment of WCXM solutions. Global digital marketers recognize the need to engage with their customers on an ongoing basis, deliver relevant and localized content, and reach their target audience wherever they are. WCXM solutions and packages have evolved in response to that need.

WeB Content and eXPeRienCe ManageMent

CONTENT MANAGEMENT DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT PRESENTATION AND SITE MANAGEMENT CONTENT INTEGRATION

MULti-CHanneL eXPeRienCe deLiVeRY

WEB CONTENT DELIVERY

RICH MEDIA DELIVERY

MULTI-CHANNEL DELIVERY

CONTENT SYNDICATION

APPLICATION INTEGRATION

digitaL MaRKeting CaPaBiLitieS

Analytic & Web Optimization Consumer Data Management Multi-Channel Marketing Social Media and UGC

digitaL CoMMeRCe CaPaBiLitieS

Product Content Management Product Merchandising

SUPPoRting CaPaBiLitieS

Search Personalization & Targeting Multi Channel Advertising

Figure 1. Building blocks of a WCXM solution

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Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

This high-level view showcases a number of different WCXM capabilities. While fundamental capabilities like content management and web content delivery are still relevant, they are combined with other capabilities like digital asset management, multi-channel delivery, and a broader ecosystem of content and applications. The two most common use cases for WCXM solutions include digital marketing solutions for global brands and marketers, and digital commerce solutions for online product retailers. In both cases, the solution will need to support a wide breadth of capabilities, much beyond what a traditional WCM system would provide. Mapping WCXM Solutions to Vendor Packages The next step is to map the building blocks of a WCXM solution to the package vendor landscape. It is important to recognize that this vendor landscape and marketplace is highly fragmented, and there are a number of different players out there, which makes package selection challenging.

THE VENDOR CATEGORIES THAT TYPICALLY SUPPORT A WCXM SOLUTION ARE: Web Content Management (WCM) (e.g., Adobe CQ5,SDL Tridion) Digital Asset Management (DAM) (e.g., Adobe, Autonomy, OpenText) Social Media (e.g., Adobe, Jive, SDL) Search Engine (e.g., Oracle Endeca, Autonomy,Google) Analytics and Optimization (e.g., Adobe Analytics and Target, IBM Unica and Coremetrics) It is somewhat unlikely that a single package will provide all the capabilities needed for a complete WCXM solution and each WCXM solution may or may not have an explicit need for every package category, Also, some vendors will have a suite of products that span across multiple categories (e.g., Adobe) while some will have a specialized offering for one specific category (e.g., Jive). The right package configuration for a solution is a function of the business requirements for a particular WCXM solution.

Web Content Management (WCM) Package

web content

OPTION 1

Digital Asset Management (DAM) Package

Images

Video Cloud/ Video Hosted Solution

video

OPTION 2

Web Content Management (WCM) Package

Web Content Images and Videos

Figure 2. Different WCXM package configurations

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There can be some overlap, in that the same capability may be supported by packages across different categories. Also, the level of support for a particular capability may differ across categories. And, even though its possible to pick and choose a product across each category, its important to figure out how the products will be integrated together. This can be even more cumbersome if the chosen products are from different vendors. Given all of the above, it is critical for any WCXM package selection team to define their business needs and requirements upfront, and map those to a proposed package configuration. Its also important to recognize that this mapping may evolve over time, as needs and requirements mature.

Framework for an Effective WCXM Package Selection A traditional WCXM package selection process typically recognizes two phases in selecting a WCXM package. In the first phase, the goal is to apply industry knowledge, analyst knowledge, and prior experience against the customers key business requirements to rapidly narrow down a long list into a short list. In the second phase, the goal is to execute a more detailed evaluation, including going through vendor RFPs and demos, to help make a final recommendation. However, this process has some flaws. The traditional package evaluation scorecard and other artifacts used in this process are not necessarily aligned to the customers key business needs. And package vendors respond to RFPs with standard product documentation and product marketing collateral and demonstrate their products using pre-configured demos. Essentially, the best demonstrator wins. Scoring the various packages against the same standard features and functions can sometimes lack the clarity to make a recommendation.

PRODUCT A

PRODUCT B

PRODUCT C

PRODUCT D

PRODUCT E

CMS USABILITY (FRIENDLY INTERFACE AND INTEGRATED WORKSPACE FOR CONTENT MGMT) CMS USABILITY (CLEAR SEPARATION OF CONTENT AND PRESENTATION) TEMPLATE, PAGE LAYOUT AND SITE NAVIGATION MANAGEMENT

EXTENSIVE SEARCH & REPORTING CAPABILITY

TAXONOMY AND METADATA MANAGEMENT

MULTI-TENANT/-SITE CAPABILITY (CONTENT SHARING AND LOCALIZATION) MULTI-LANGUAGE SUPPORT (ESPECIALLY DOUBLE LANGUAGES)

MULTI-CHANNEL/CAPABILITY (CONTENT PROVISIONING TO MOBILE, KIOSK, ETC.)

Figure 3. A conventional package evaluation, feature-driven, scorecard

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Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

PHASE - 1
BUSINESS PROBLEM DEFINITION Key Objectives - Define the customers business problem - Understand the primary need for a WCXM solution - Gain consensus on the desired high level solution Activities: - Stakeholder interviews to capture pain points with current solution - Workshops to hash out and elaborate critical business requirements - Workshops to define/agree on the high level conceptual technology solution stack across package categories Deliverables: - Definition of business problem and key business requirements - Critical Business Needs/Use Cases for the WCXM solution - Direction on the high level conceptual technology solution stack

PHASE - 2 RAPID ASSESSMENT AND INITIAL RECOMMENDATION

Key Objectives - Rapidly evaluate the package technology landscape against the customer key business needs /use cases - Arrive at a shortlist of relevant packages that need further detailed evaluation Activities: - Map the customer use cases to desired package features and functionalities - Define and review key evaluation criteria based on the critical use cases - Define a long list of potential packages across different categories - Conduct a rapid assessment and score each package across the evaluation criteria based on available intelligence - Review the output of the rapid assessment with stakeholders Deliverables: - Evaluation criteria for rapid assessment - Long list of technologies/packages for rapid assessment - Completed evaluation scorecard as an output from the assessment - Recommendation on package shortlist for further evaluation

PHASE -3
SCENARIO-BASED EVALUATION Key Objectives - Define business scenarios to inform detailed package evaluation - Execute a detailed evaluation of the short listed packages against the defined business scenarios - Arrive at a final recommendation of the best fit package Activities: - Define business scenarios that reflect how the WCXM solution will be used - Ensure coverage of critical requirements and key use cases in the scenarios - Review and agree on the business scenarios with all stakeholders - Facilitate customized vendor demos that are aligned with the business scenarios - Facilitate internal deployments and proof of concepts for the short listed packages - Use a collaborative scoring mechanism to score the packages - Arrive at a final recommendation Deliverables: - Business scenarios that reflect the key customer use cases for a WCXM solution - Assessment of each shortlisted package against the business scenarios - Recommendation of the best fit package

Figure 4. Roadmap and recommended approach

The process outlined above is largely self-explanatory, but there are a few key things that are worth clarifying. First, as mentioned earlier, a WCXM solution may cut across multiple product categories, and hence it is important to translate the business need for a WCXM solution to the specific capabilities that are needed. Next, this view of the relevant product categories for a WCXM solution needs to be translated into a conceptual architecture view. The purpose of a conceptual architecture is to define, without naming specific packages, the individual building blocks and the total set of unique packages that will be used, what each building block is responsible for, and how they come together. It is important that the expectations of each product and system within each package category are clearly defined.

Finally, it is useful to convert this view into a solution roadmap, highlighting how the solution will be incrementally built and rolled out over time. Given the need to justify return on investment (ROI), and given the time-to-market driver for most WCXM solutions, it is likely that each capability and corresponding package category will be introduced into the platform in an incremental manner. Mantras for an Effective WCXM Package Selection The primary purpose of a WCXM package selection is not to compare features and functions across different vendor packages, but to analyze which package is the best fit for the specific business environment. While there is no silver bullet, there is a set of mantras to guide you.

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Mantra #1: Choose the best fit for the customer A WCXM package selection is not about choosing the fanciest product, but choosing the most appropriate product. To do this correctly, it is important to define the key business use cases for the WCXM solution. It is also important to define business drivers for a WCXM implementation, and link those to evaluation criteria for the package selection. As an example, the business use case for a WCXM implementation could be: Ability for online marketers to rapidly create new compositions for digital campaigns and manage their lifecycle from creation to launch without any IT intervention, ensuring a rapid timeto-market for these campaigns. This business use case can then be mapped to specific package features and functions that are relevant to the customers business needs (e.g., page layout management, content control, in-context page editing). Testing the WCXM packages for their applicability within the customers business context is one of the key goals of running such a selection exercise, and having well-defined use cases and mapping of product features to business drivers is a good starting point to get there. Mantra #2: Evaluate for the complete solution WCXM package selections dont just evaluate WCM packages; they also evaluate DAM, search, social media, analytics, and other products, to recommend a complete solution. Given the breadth of capabilities in a full WCXM solution, it is possible that you may need to execute package selections across multiple categories and identify the best fit per category. A guiding factor is the preference for a pre-integrated single vendor solution versus a custom integrated best-of-breed vendor solution. With the former, a large enterprise product vendor that offers a suite of packages in one cohesive offering delivers the complete solution. With the latter, the steer is towards identifying the best package and vendor per product category, and then evaluating the feasibility of integrating them together. The single vendor solution can help accelerate the overall package selection process, in that the focus is on evaluating proven product suites offered by vendors like Adobe and Oracle. The customer receives a pre-integrated suite and the ability to rapidly assemble a full platform. The best-of-breed vendor solution is more applicable in scenarios where the customer already has an established enterprise solution, a vendor product for one or more categories, and a mandate

vendor product for one or more categories, and a mandate to integrate with what already exists. This model has the potential to leverage the best product for each package category but integration may be more challenging. In both cases, the selection effort is not just for a particular product or package category but also for an entire platform. Mantra #3: Focus on critical business requirements WCXM package selections tend to be more successful when focusing on critical business needs instead of a comprehensive feature evaluation. It is important to recognize and appreciate that there are a number of standard capabilities that each WCXM solution will require, and these will be common across all WCXM implementations. These will include capabilities around creating and editing content, taking content through workflow, and publishing content to a delivery system. On the other hand, each WCXM solution will have critical business needs that will define success criteria. These could range from how content is translated and localized to how content is personalized for different users. Most WCXM packages will have an out-of-the-box solution for standard capabilities, but the level of support that each WCXM package will have for more advanced and business critical needs is likely to differ across packages. Given that, it is important to separate standard features and functions (commodities) from critical business needs (differentiators). Within a given vendor segment, for example, there is a good likelihood that the value of comparing commodities will be low and will not provide significant insight. Any significant effort spent in building such a comprehensive evaluation scorecard is going to be hard to justify, and a frustrating effort at that. On the other hand, the ability to surface key differentiators quickly will likely result in more meaningful insight to aid the selection process. It is also important to use the right tool for evaluation so this process can be made more effective. When comparing commodities, the traditional detailed evaluation scorecard can be replaced by a more visual artifact that quickly surfaces key strengths and weaknesses of the various packages and also highlights and separates the commodities from the differentiators.

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Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

PACKAGE A
Content tYPeS Content aUtHoRing/ContRiBUtion Content oRganiZation Content PReVieW Content taXonoMY

VeRSioning

aUditing & RePoRting

Content tagging and Metadata and Seo

SCHedULed PUBLiSHing & UnPUBLiSHing SeCURitY aUtHoRiZation & USeR ManageMent

WoRKFLoWS

PUBLiSHing & UnPUBLiSHing Content PeRSonaLiZation & taRgeting Content SeaRCH

aRCHiVaL

Content eXPiRation

tRanSLation/ gLoBaLiZation

CMS adMiniStRation

PACKAGE B
Content tYPeS Content aUtHoRing/ContRiBUtion Content oRganiZation Content PReVieW Content taXonoMY

VeRSioning

aUditing & RePoRting

Content tagging and Metadata and Seo

SCHedULed PUBLiSHing & UnPUBLiSHing SeCURitY aUtHoRiZation & USeR ManageMent

WoRKFLoWS

PUBLiSHing & UnPUBLiSHing Content PeRSonaLiZation & taRgeting Content SeaRCH

aRCHiVaL

Content eXPiRation

tRanSLation/ gLoBaLiZation

CMS adMiniStRation

Figure 5. A more successful, visual scorecard

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Mantra #4: Focus on editorial process and authoring needs Content editors and authors are key stakeholders in ensuring the successful adoption of the solution. A WCXM package selection must consider their needs. The editorial and authoring process can be significantly different across WCXM solutions, and is largely a function of who the editors and authors are, how they are organized, and what their specific needs are. This also influences their preference for an interface and the degree of control they desire. Consider these two scenarios: Digital marketers within a CPG firm who prefer to work with a WCXM user interface that gives them complete control over the page template, layout, design, placement, and content without IT intervention. Online editors within a news organization who prefer to work with a WCXM user interface that allows them to rapidly create, classify, tag, approve, and publish content to all channels using a standard set of pre-defined templates and layouts. Here, there is a focus on control of the full-page composition in the former scenario versus a focus on rapid content authoring and publishing in the latter. The first scenario lends itself to a page-driven authoring process, whereas the second one lends itself to a content-driven authoring process. This difference has a significant bearing on how content authors work with the WCXM solution and what they expect of it and must be factored into the WCXM package selection process. Other differences in the editorial process could span across how content is approved, how content is translated and localized in various languages, and how content is published to various delivery channels. Mantra #5: Use business scenarios to drive evaluation It is recommended that a set of business scenarios be defined to best articulate how the customer would use the WCXM solution. The business scenario can capture a real-life usage model for how the content authors, end users, and various other stakeholders would work with the solution. It can then be mapped to specific, desired features.

Take this example: Mr. XYZ, a web editor in Switzerland knows there is new product information available for localization for his website. Through the CMS, he accesses the new product information in English and translates the text into three languages for the Swiss market: German, French, and Italian. He creates his own additional page with more details that are needed to sell the product locally. This can then be shown to editors in other markets with the same languages and are available as masters for their local versions of the content. This business scenario reveals a few things: The use case for multi-lingual content is heavily centered on localization driven by regional and local web editors, and less on pure play automated translation. Localization happens at the market level and could include multiple languages within a single market or geography. Editors are decentralized across markets and hence each market may have its own local editors to localize content for that market. Master/child relationships need to be set up in a multi-level hierarchy across all localized content. This insight can be extremely helpful. Package vendors can now get a more accurate brief of business needs, as opposed to a random list of product features. Hence, these business scenarios can be used to construct a much more meaningful vendor RFP document for package selection. Business scenarios can be critical to guiding all activities executed as part of the detailed evaluation phase. They shape and inform vendor RFPs, product demonstrations, proof of concepts, assessment of the short-listed products, and the final evaluation scorecard deliverable. While product features can be a good starting point to get through an initial rapid assessment, to get to the real value, critical business needs have to be articulated as formal business scenarios, which can then be used to shape evaluation activities thereafter.

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Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

Mantra #6: Align vendor demos with business scenarios The adage actions speak louder than words is applicable here. Every WCXM package selection should be executed with enough time to allow for an orchestrated product demonstration. And these demos must go beyond sales talk to deliver real value by showcasing how the product would address specific business scenarios. When planning for such vendor demonstrations: Align all stakeholders around the purpose of these demos and ensure they are committed. Create formal demo scripts for the short-listed vendors and make them available well in advance of the actual demo. Ensure these demo scripts are aligned to the defined business scenarios. Set explicit expectations with each vendor that they must not use a canned demo and instead must tailor their demo to align with the given demo scripts and business scenarios. Evaluate each product from multiple perspectives (e.g., business capabilities, editorial and authoring processes, business scenarios, etc.).

Use the demo to further enrich the initial assessment and evaluation scorecard by asking stakeholders to provide a rating for each product after the demonstration. Vendor demo scripts created by package selection teams can be made even more effective by directly aligning them with the desired business process. The WCXM platform needs to be able to support this end-to-end process and integrate the work of each stakeholder. Hence, when executing a WCXM package selection, it is best to capture this business process in a simple process flow diagram and share it with each short-listed vendor. A process flow diagram is a high-level representation of the business requirements, and can give the vendors insight to understand how their product stack is likely to be utilized. This process flow can be used to further enhance the vendor demo script, to provide guidance on which platform capabilities will need to be leveraged, and to support specific use cases. A vendor demo that is aligned with the defined business scenarios and desired business process is one of the most effective methods of validating the fitment of the package.

Figure 6. A Business Process Flow to support a WCXM package selection

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Mantra #7: Get your hands dirty The final decision around a preferred WCXM package can be made simpler by planning a pilot phase within the organization. The intent of this pilot phase is two-fold: to gain stakeholder consensus around the preferred package and to get early insight around exactly what it would take to implement the package within the customers business and technical environment. The specific activities that can potentially be executed as part of this pilot phase could include a sandbox deployment of the short-listed packages, hands-on time for the editorial and authoring team, well defined Proof of Concepts (PoCs) and prototypes, and bake-offs between the products. Each of these activities will enable various stakeholders to work with the short-listed packages and tools, ultimately empowering them with more information to make a better decision. Key executive sponsors and decision makers can have greater confidence in the decision, one that is guided by insight gained through package trials within their own environment. Dealing with softer evaluation criteria In addition to the focus on business scenarios and functional use cases, there are other softer evaluation criteria that need to be factored in to a WCXM package selection. Non-functional requirements, technical architecture considerations, commercial considerations, vendor and product strategy and sustainability, and the strength of the vendor partner ecosystem are all examples of such criteria that deserve some amount of focus. An evaluation scorecard can actually be a useful tool for reviewing and assessing the packages along these dimensions. Some of these criteria include: IT and technical architecture guidelines. In large customer organizations particularly, IT and enterprise architecture functions or teams have well-defined guidelines around how new products or packages should be evaluated, selected, and introduced into the current mix. Non-functional requirements (NFRs). Package selection teams tend to overlook this aspect of the solution during the evaluation process. However, it is important to have a reasonable view of the size and scale of the WCXM solution, in terms of performance, scalability, and high availability.

Total cost of ownership. The total cost of ownership for a WCXM solution is driven by a few key factors including licensing costs of the chosen package, development and implementation costs for the solution, and ongoing platform and application support costs. Solution accelerators. Solution accelerators enable acceleration of the WCXM solution implementation thus reducing time-to-market. A solution accelerator can manifest itself as a site in a box, a development framework, or a specific industry solution offering. Partner Ecosystem - As much as the success of a WCXM implementation is dependent on the choice of the package itself, it is also a factor of the strength of the partner ecosystem and the various service providers, system integrators, and technology partners, that enable the deployment, integration and customization of that package for a particular customer. It is hence also important to validate the strength of this partner ecosystem around the shortlisted products/vendors. Product roadmap and vendor strategy. All major enterprise WCXM vendors should have a well-defined roadmap and strategy around the direction for their product. It is important to validate alignment between this product roadmap/vendor strategy and the solution roadmap for the customer. Vendor sustainability. A WCXM package selection is not just about selecting a particular package; it is also a commitment to a partnership with the product vendor. Its important to assess the vendors current position in their marketplace, their ability to maintain that position over time, their ability to improve and innovate the product offering, and their ability to expand their partner ecosystem. Industry Models and Best Practices WCXM package selections have been discussed across various industry analysts. Many have shared their own models and best practices to execute this process. Both Forrester Research and The Real Story Group have defined a methodology for package selection that can be applied WCXM package selections.

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Package Selection Process for WCXM Solutions: Mantras for Success

Forrester STEP model Forresters Scenario-based Technology Evaluation Process (STEP) model for package selection highlights the advantages of a scenario-based package selection process over traditional vendor RFPs to drive the overall package selection process. According to Forrester, these scenarios need to consider key business requirements, combined with any editorial, marketing, and technical considerations. And scenarios should be defined to cover the end-to-end use case. For example, if the business goal of a WCXM solution is to streamline digital marketing initiatives across multiple channels, the defined scenarios should specify the entire process of how digital marketers would author, create, and launch campaigns for multiple channels, how customers would interact and engage with them across channels, and how effectiveness would be measured. The Real Story Group The Real Story Group recommends a similar evaluation process for WCXM package selections; only in this case, they have precompiled a set of most common scenarios for the implementation of WCXM solutions. According to them, the business drivers for a WCXM solution are different for each solution and the scale and complexity of the solution can be different across implementations. Correspondingly, each WCXM package selection needs to consider the scenario that is most applicable for a particular implementation and evaluate the fit of various packages against that scenario. Also, a large number of WCXM implementations correspond to a set of common scenarios, ranging from microsites to community sites to interactive marketing sites to global marketing initiatives, and it is reasonable to categorize each WCXM solution as corresponding to one of these common scenarios. The Real Story Group has also introduced supporting tools, including their own online Custom Shortlist Builder that enables a customer to navigate through these scenarios to find specific packages that best deliver.

Conclusion The success of a WCXM implementation is heavily dependent on the choice of the package itself. It is crucial that package selection teams thoroughly examine the customers business need, key goals, requirements, and constraints, and pay particular attention to how the customer intends to use the WCXM solution within their organization, and translate that understanding to a set of solid business scenarios to guide the package selection process. It is my hope that you are one step closer to understanding the complexities of WCXM solutions and therefore better able to make the best decisions around package selection for your WCXM solution, and how best to execute this process for your unique business needs.

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About The Author

Amit Xerxes is an Expert Platform at SapientNitro, with a focus on Content Management and Collaboration (C&C) and Web Content Management (WCM) technologies. Amit has been involved in conceptualizing, architecting, designing, and implementing C&C solutions at SapientNitro, across various WCM packages and technologies, over the last 12+ years he has spent here. In his current role, Amit supports organizational capability development at SapientNitro for C&C technologies, and mentors a team of C&C technology specialists across different WCM packages. Amit has also supported numerous WCXM package selection initiatives across various client projects, and in the process, has developed a broad understanding of the overall package selection process for WCXM solutions, and the strengths and weaknesses of various WCXM packages.

Amit Xerxes

References The following research collateral and references from various industry analysts were consulted and used as input to develop this whitepaper. 1. Forrester Research The Online Customer Engagement Software Ecosystem 2. Forrester Research Reinventing the Vendor Selection Process 3. Forrester Research Scenario-Based Technology Evaluation Process (STEP) 4. Forrester WAVE Report for WCXM, Q3 2011 5. Real Story Group Vendor Map 6. WCXM Marketplace Analysis from The Real Story Group 7. Real Story Group CMS or WCXM Vendor Analysis 8. Real Story Group Custom Shortlist Builder Tool 9. Real Story Group Vendor Evaluation Report for WCXM Solutions 10. Gartner Magic Quadrant for WCM

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