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Marketing Software Smackdown: Product Suite vs. Individual Solutions BRIDGELINE WHITEPAPER SERIES © Copyright 2014 Bridgeline Digital Inc. | Bridgeline.com | 1-800-603-9936 INTRODUCTION Marketers are continuously asked to accomplish what feels like an insurmountable, almost unattainable, goal: Do more with less. There is nothing tautological about this task; you don’t do more with less, you do less with less. So, marketers look outward to fill holes causing inward inefficiencies – mostly in the form of business software. Perhaps, that’s where we’ll begin. Before going any further, here’s a brief overview of common enterprise-grade solutions necessary to help marketers, of all kinds, fight the good fight: Content Management System to power a A company website eCommerce capabilities to manage your digital storefront. Email Marketing software to execute highly personalized campaigns that capitalize on every client communication. Web Analytics that peel back the curtain and provide insight into what web content is working, what’s not, and suggestions on how to improve overall effectiveness. Social Media tools that allow marketers to engage with customers and measure sentiment. Marketing software can be the ace up a digital strategist’s sleeve. More specifically, the most innovative software will empower non-technical users to meet organizational objectives; in effect, allowing marketers to be marketers again, all while proving out ROI. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Sure it does. But “Business Utopia” doesn’t exist, because technology is … well … complicated. So, the truth is, as a marketer, you’re forced to infuse your creativity within your company’s technology, and challenged to understand the complexities of how software can -- or cannot -- integrate with one another in order to steer your team toward success. In the end, you’re faced with a choice while creating a digital engagement strategy: Should you select individual products or an all-encompassing product suite that combines the aforementioned capabilities to power your Digital Marketing initiatives? Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 1 After examining use-studies, industry research reports, and more, we’ve identified 5 reasons why a product suite puts your organization in the best position to succeed in both the immediate and long-term future. 1. Assured Implementation success 2. Easier Adoption & Usability 3. Modules That Speak The Same Language & Play Well Together 4. Streamlined Troubleshooting 5. Easier & More Efficient Selection Process Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 2 1. ASSURED IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESS It’s no secret that a product or service fails to perform to its potential without initial implementation success. If you go the route of disparate solutions, your business is taking on considerably more risk. There is a troubling history, particularly within the CMS community, of thousands of cautionary tales that bemoan failed technology projects which were derailed long before even going live. The primary cause? Companies outsource their implementation processes to thirdparty vendors. Instantly, red flags emerge: Do these third-party vendors know the software? What’s their track record with meeting deadlines? How about staying within the project’s budget? These questions, among others, are important to ask during your selection process. By selecting a product suite, your company avoids these risks. More often than not, vendors touting multi-module platforms perform thousands of implementations every year. They’re experts at this process since they know the product better than anyone else. The takeaway: With a product suite, you’re dealing with one, holistic product. Therefore, one implementation …. and mitigated risk. Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 3 2. EASY ADOPTION & USABILITY Let’s fantasize, just for a minute, and live in Business Utopia. Suppose your implemntation partner comes through; without any mishapps, your solutions are each properly installed. Unfortunately, even if this is the case, knowing how each tool will integrate with one another gets real hazy, real fast. This dynamic plays into what the consensus of industry analysts consider to be the most important factor to consider when weighing which methodology to take on at the outset of a business software selection -- a product’s usability. From basic properties – like a single sign-on login screen – to more important aspects, with a product suite, Digital Marketers are only dealing with modules that work in tandem and conjunction with one another. Usability, over any other intangible, is what separates a product suite from disparate solutions. Think about one navigation pane, serving up an a la carte menu, featuring the components and capabilities every digital marketer needs. Here, users can jump from content editing capabilities on their website, to examining their most recent A/B email test, to measuring conversion rates and other KPIs through reporting mechanisms embedded within their eCommerce solution, all the way to monitoring customer sentiment on Social Media websites. And guess what? Not only do you have a 360 degree view of your digital marketing progress, but by leveraging a product suite, the learning curve is reduced. After mastering a product suite’s CMS, core components of the email management, analytics, social media, and eCommerce modules should come naturally. Furthermore, the software is typically taught through detailed training classes offered by the vendor, who (again) know the technology better than anyone else. All told, compared to understanding the ins-and-outs of individual products that have completely different mainframes, dashboards, and user processes, the adoption cycle of a product suite is significantly curtailed. Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 4 3. MODULES THAT SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE AND PLAY WELL TOGETHER Still not convinced? We’ll stay in our Marketing Nirvana, the Business Utopia, for aguement’s sake. Let’s pretend you survive multiple implementation processes unscathed and manage to get all your technology live. You even learn how to leverage each separate solution’s feature-set. Believe it or not, despite these efforts, your Digital Marketing processes could still easily become fragmented by using disparate solutions. How? Individually speaking, disparate solutions may work just fine, but when combined together, there’s no telling whether a data point in each software will speak the same language as the other(s). For instance, instead of easily extracting reports that measure your efforts, your team could be stuck struggling to piece data of a massive, multi-campaign puzzle together. Reconciling information and dealing with unnecessary headaches is the last way your team should be spending its time. With a product suite, you’re guaranteed that the software will seamlessly flow to execute your digital marketing strategies as well as measure success. Customer journeys are (accurately) documented on your website. A conversion through an email campaign is automatically reflected in your analytics and eCommerce solution – meaning, not only are your processes streamlined, but the integrity of important data is maintained. Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 5 4. STREAMLINED TROUBLESHOOTING We’ve all been there: You’re trying to record your favorite television show and come up empty handed. The next day, you call the cable to company to address the shortfall, but they tell you the problem is your internet connection, while your internet provider cites a malfunction on your TIVO. Suddenly, you’re dealing with five different companies, who each have plenty of excuses, with little accountability... Or answers. With a product suite, you’re dealing with one company who knows their solution better than anyone else. Given that expertise, there tend to be less broken promises, and if errors do occur the root issues are easier to resolve and manage going forward. Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 6 5. EASIER & MORE EFFECTIVE SELECTION PROCESS Our last reason helps this whole debate come full circle. Before any implementation is even discussed, training time allotted, or stakeholder interviews occur, your organization must initially deploy a team – or committee – of employees to decipher the pros and cons as well as total cost of ownership for every tool you plan to utilize in order to meet your objectives. An onerous selection process may seem like a foolish reason to revamp your approach to digital marketing software; however, keep in mind, each capability has a specific market that needs to be examined – which ultimately drains resources. On the other hand, only researching one, all-encompassing suite alleviates the selection process. Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 7 LEARN MORE ABOUT BRIDGELINE DIGITAL’S INTEGRATED IAPPS PLATFORM These five reasons are just some of the benefits of choosing a full-scale product suite, replete with all your digital marketing needs, including website management, versus individual products. At Bridgeline Digital, we’ve developed the iAPPS platform, an award-winning product suite with capabilities in content management, eCommerce, email marketing, analytics, and social media. In its 2013 Vendor Landscape report, Info-Tech Research Group recognized the iAPPS platform as a “Champion”, touting its ability to equip enterprise businesses with easy-to-use tools that optimize digital assets and capitalize on growing trends in Digital Engagement. If your organization is in the process of selecting a digital marketing solution, you’re undoubtedly sifting through copious amounts of research and analyst reports about various products. If your business is considering a .NET-based solution and SaaS licensing options, the iAPPS platform should be on your shortlist. For more information on the advantages of using a full-scale, end-to-end product suite, to power your businesses web assets, please visit bridgelinedigital.com, email info@bridgeline. com, or call 1-800-603-9936. Award Winning iAPPS Product Platform A Digital Marketing solution that deeply integrates Web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, Social Media management, and Web Analytics to help marketers deliver online experiences that attract, engage and convert their customers across all digital channels. Bridgeline provides end-to-end Digital Engagement solutions and boasts an award-winning team of interactive services professionals across our 11 offices worldwide. Stay up-to-date with trends Contact Bridgeline Digital blog.bridgeline.com [email protected] bridgeline.com 1-800-603-9936 Bridgeline Digital Whitepaper © 2014 -10 Reasons iAPPS Commerce Should Be On Your Commerce Shortlist Connect with Us: 8