A quarter of companies polled in a new survey believe their company websites are costing them business due to a lack of analytics.
Over half of participants in the survey by Danebury Research and Umbraco said they need to extend website functionality by connecting to new technologies that enable analytics, personalisation and transactions.
Almost a third (30 per cent) report that their companies are paying for CMS features that will never be used. Despite these findings, 32 per cent of respondents are delaying migrating to new content management systems (CMS) and digital experience platforms (DXP) that would allow them to gain the required functionality to meet customer demand.
“The survey findings indicate that organisations are leaning more heavily on their digital platforms and demanding more of their CMS providers as they expand their digital services to engage with customers on their preferred devices and in their local language,” said Kim Sneum-Madsen, CEO of Umbraco.
The survey, conducted among 150 UK decision-makers with responsibility for websites, working at organisations with between 100 and more than 10,000 employees, found that the most important factors influencing CMS selection were the cost (43 per cent)), familiarity with the brand (35 per cent) and personal recommendation of the CMS (35 per cent).
For enterprises with more than 10,000 employees, brand familiarity, ongoing support and security updates, the ease and cost of adding new features and the ability to support multiple languages, heavily influence CMS selection.
Software licence fees and reduced time to market were the most important factors in CMS selection for enterprises with 5,000 – 10,000 employees.
Over half (54.7 per cent) of the respondents across all sectors agreed that they need to be able connect company websites with additional technology to increase functionality as their businesses evolve.
When asked about new demands on CMS, over half of the survey participants (50.7% per cent) agreed that their websites need to deliver personalisation, analytics and transactions, in addition to the usual content management. This finding was highest among respondents from the retail (68 per cent), manufacturing (56.3 per cent) and technology (50 per cent) sectors.
Almost half of all respondents (46 per cent) agreed that they need to empower their marketing teams to rapidly adjust content in response to customer needs. This figure rose to 60% in the retail sector, just over half (53.3 per cent)in the public sector, and half (50 per cent) of respondents from the technology sector.
“We understand organisations’ reticence to move off monolithic CMS,” said Sneum-Madsen. “However, over time, this strategy risks making them more vulnerable to market changes and new competitors that are using more nimble technology architectures that deliver what customers want. Moving to a composable digital experience platform offers a more sustainable route that avoids wasting budget on unused features and allows organisations to select, connect and invest only in technologies that deliver to the business and the bottom line.”
