Trends in SaaS Web Content Management - 2009

By Jarrod Gingras at 2008-11-17 17:34:00 |

The technology marketplace has seen consistent growth in the acceptance of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models, and Web Content Management is certainly no exception. Yet, the major SaaS-based Web CMS vendors that we evaluate - Clickability, CrownPeak, and OmniUpdate - are all relatively small players, and they have had to evolve to meet changing customer demands. In particular, our recent research for the latest edition of The Web CMS Report 2009 uncovered several inter-related trends in the SaaS Web Content Management space:

• Customers are looking beyond software services for agency-like consulting
• Vendors are turning more to implementation partners
• Vendors are paying more attention to developers' needs

Let's look more deeply at each trend.

More than software

In many cases, customers tell us they selected the SaaS route to avoid dealing with their own IT teams. Some customers go so far as to claim they are getting their own dedicated IT departments through the customization services that SaaS providers offer. Contrary to the SaaS reputation of providing an outsourced utility, in fact, SaaS WCM customers tend to see SaaS providers as a kind of outsourced consultancy. Often, clients develop trusted relationships with their SaaS provider's technical developers.

This trust had led many customers to expect more than just technical development help. Customers - especially SMBs - tell us that they are starting to request complementary services such as visual design or HTML production help from their SaaS providers. It will be interesting to see how SaaS providers react to this trend. Will they decide to cater to these demands and become more of a full-service consultancy, or will they stick to being just the tech guys?

The former sounds promising, but carries perils for both suppliers and customers. These sorts of "softer" consulting services are quite different from customizing or extending a Web CMS. Bringing on temporary design help is unlikely to become a sweet spot for any SaaS vendor. Instead, we anticipate - for better or worse - an acceleration of the trend towards SaaS vendors arranging 3rd-party partnerships with consulting firms.

More Partners

The turn to partners has its roots in staffing challenges that SaaS WCM vendors are experiencing in their core services such as development, implementation, and customer support services. Traditionally, SaaS vendors have kept their implementation and customer service solely in-house. This strategy has been relatively successful, and SaaS WCM vendors tend to get strong customer ratings on customer service and responsiveness. Nevertheless, we've heard recent rumblings that response times have lagged more than previously noted.

Not surprisingly, we've seen a movement by SaaS vendors to develop strategic partnerships with systems integrators to help augment their implementation and service teams. On the lip of a recession, SaaS vendors are treading cautiously here, trying to figure out the best approach to adequately train these partners. As more and more partners come aboard, it will undoubtedly be a challenge for SaaS vendors to uphold the reputation for good service that they have garnered in the past.

Nevertheless, the switch to consulting and integration partners represents a shift in the industry. Historically SaaS vendors and traditional services firms were competitors on the savannah, both looking for the same game. Today, it's not clear how these partnerships will pan out. For example, most consulting firms are themselves not set up for providing ongoing support and updates, favoring upfront implementations and then moving on to the next big kill. As a customer, you may need to pay special attention to effective project hand-offs.

The other question to raise is how much leeway any consulting partner will have, to touch the guts of the hosted system. For obvious reasons, SaaS vendors tend to keep a tight rein on the core system components, lest they do something to damage all their customers at once (although that still sometimes happens!). The answer here lies in having more widely available and documented application interfaces.

For Developers

Exposing APIs represents a long-term trend among SaaS vendors. Not all customers want to outsource their IT/development function, and the rise of integration partners means more developers get trained on the systems. Developers inevitably demand more flexibility and access.

Traditionally, though, SaaS development environments left something to be desired, with developers working via some sort of online interface. Almost universally, the developers we spoke to hated to create templates and other artifacts within an online environment. Developers are usually comfortable with a desktop IDE and feel constrained when forced to use an online IDE with limited or different functionally.

In response, WCM SaaS vendors have tried to adapt their offerings here. This adaptation has taken different tacks from vendor to vendor. Clickability has taken the approach to add many features of an IDE like VisualStudio to their online IDE. CrownPeak has given up trying to replicate desktop IDE functionality online and instead offers a downloadable application that serves as an integration with a variety of popular IDEs. The application will upload code to the CMS through Web Services.

Conclusion

This is certainly an exciting and challenging time for WCM SaaS vendors. Existing customers should expect organizational changes at the vendor and see some new people supporting their initiatives. Existing and prospective customers should have realistic expectations about the services their SaaS WCM vendor can provide.

As presently constituted, the hosted WCM vendors that we cover remain primarily software vendors and not full-service consultancies. However, customers should expect to see WCM vendors bolstering their offerings through partnerships. One of the appeals of the SaaS approach is that you get everything in one place - with only one "throat to choke" when problems arise. So be careful what you wish for: asking more from a SaaS vendor could mean having to work with multiple suppliers. To be sure, this could ultimately give you the holistic solutions you seek, but you'll want to carefully investigate the people with whom you'll be working - from both the WCM vendor and their partners.