Content Management Plays Crucial Role In Digital Transformation

Web content management is a critical component of an organization’s digital transformation. That’s the conclusion of Gartner Inc.’s new “Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management” (WCM) report, which provides an overview of the WCM market and evaluates vendors in the market.

Web content management is a critical component of an organization’s digital transformation. That’s the conclusion of Gartner Inc.’s new “Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management” (WCM) report, which provides an overview of the WCM market and evaluates vendors in the market.

Let’s start with a definition: WCM is about more than merely publishing content online. Rather, according to Gartner, it is “the process of controlling content consumed over one or more digital channels through the use of specific management solutions based on a core repository. These solutions may be procured as commercial products, open-source tools, cloud services or hosted services.”

To be sure, engaging with consumers across an ever-growing number of channels–such as voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home, or IoT devices like smartwatches or connected appliances–is no easy feat. Competition is stiff, too. Companies that specialize in WCM technologies are responding by integrating multiple user functions to build complete digital experience platforms that provide a full suite of services that follow the entire customer life cycle. They’re also ensuring their solutions play nicely with other systems.

“Integrations with adjacent technologies are of paramount importance, and customers are increasingly looking for less complex approaches and more API-driven, prebuilt capabilities that can be easily extended and customized to meet their needs,” wrote the report’s authors, Gartner analysts Mick MacComascaigh and Jim Murphy. “It is essential to rethink how vendors and customers approach integrations, as, through 2020, integration work will account for half the time and cost of building a digital platform.”

Gartner’s annual report also found that “consequently, the horizons of WCM are expanding,” such that “WCM technology increasingly serves as a central content hub in digital experience programs for the entire customer journey, across all touch points.”

“The WCM industry is quickly evolving in response to the imperatives of customer experience strategies, which include digital transformation and continuous optimization using, for example, AI,” the analysts said. “WCM technology remains essential for organizations on the path to becoming digital businesses.”

Indeed, the use of AI-driven content management practices has to the potential to deliver measurable results for companies. According to the report, “Although Gartner believes that nearly half the world’s CEOs expect AI to have a material impact on their businesses, they are struggling to implement AI in useful ways.”

“Despite some advances in terms of weaving the machine learning and natural-language-processing aspects of AI into the fabric of WCM technology, WCM vendors still have to find practical, real-world uses for AI in their tools,” the analysts said.

A complimentary copy of the report can be found here.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management, Mick MacComascaigh, Jim Murphy, 30 July 2018. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.