CMS Spotlight on... Episerver

If you’ve already read True’s Spotlight on Kentico CMS and Spotlight on Umbraco CMS, then you’ll know that you are in the right place for a no-nonsense CMS review.

This time, Matt Sutherland, True’s Head of Technology gives us the lowdown on another True favourite: Episerver.

Over to you, Matt. 

What is Episerver?

Episerver powers more than 30,000 websites worldwide, empowering digital leaders to easily create standout experiences for its customers, and always with measurable business results. The Episerver Digital Experience Cloud™ unifies digital content, commerce and marketing in one platform, including omnichannel solutions for smart personalisation and intelligent campaigns.

Founded in 1994, Episerver has offices in the US, UK, Sweden, Australia, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, Singapore, Vietnam and the UAE.

What are the standout features?

Episerver has some stand-out strengths:

• It is fully featured, offering everything you need to create a world class website by putting content, commerce and marketing in one screen.
• AI-driven personalisation for recommended content and products, search results and triggered messages. This makes it easy to personalise the customer experience and convert more business goals.
• It is engineered for Enterprise-level organisations meaning security, agility and compliance are baked into every aspect of the platform.
• It is easy to use for content managers and developers.

Who uses it?

With over 30,000 Episerver websites in use worldwide, you don’t have to look far to see one up and running, no matter the field or industry. Episerver’s users include Aspen Insurance, BT, English Football League, Farrow & Ball, Golf Breaks, Metro Bank, Pennon Group PLC (South West Water and Viridor waste recycling), Pizza Hut and even the city of Stockholm.

What does Gartner say?

Gartner, a global leader in IT research and advice, published their latest Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management in July 2018 (report is gated). The quadrant categorises CMS businesses as Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries or Niche Players, based on completeness of vision and ability to execute. Episerver is classed as a Leader.

According to Garnter “A vendor in the Leaders quadrant has the market share, credibility, and marketing & sales capabilities needed to drive the acceptance of new technologies. These vendors demonstrate a clear understanding of market needs, they are innovators and thought leaders, and they have well-articulated plans that customers and prospects can use when designing their infrastructures and strategies. In addition, they have a presence in the five major geographical regions, consistent financial performance, and broad platform support..”

Why do we love it?

Aimed at enterprise level customers, Episerver is feature-rich, flexible and robust. It’s great to work with for content editors and developers and it is a marketing strategist’s dream.
 
1. AI Personalisation
 
What that means for us:

• We have powerful AI tools to tailor content for users, driving sharper targeting for our clients and helping to increase digital marketing conversion.

What that means for our clients:

• Granular insight into customer behaviour, allowing clients to direct customers and prospects to more relevant content and products and ultimately increase conversion.

What that means for the end user:

• A personalised brand experience that delivers what they want.

2. Customer service and self serve
 
What that means for us:

• Developers have support when they need it and retain the ability to rapidly deploy.

What that means for our clients:

• Assurance that business service levels are met and exceeded.

What that means for the end user:

• A site and brand they can rely on.

3.  Commerce
 
What that means for us:

• Commerce functionality is integrated with content, so we can build transactional experiences with regular site content.

What that means for our clients:

• A one-stop shop for editing content and managing commerce.

What that means for the end user:

• A richer shopping experience that flows seamlessly.

4. Episerver Digital Experience Cloud
 
What that means for us:

• Server setup and hosting is taken care of, allowing for more rapid development and deployment. Powerful features such as Episerver Find are included, for integrating search into the website.

What that means for our clients:

• Allowing Episerver/Microsoft to host the solution means security and compliance are taken care of and automatically tested and updated. Using Azure means server resources can scale according to demand so sites can always handle traffic spikes or seasonal variations. 

What that means for the end user:

• A site and brand they can rely on.

5. Great support and training
 
What that means for us:

• A range of courses for developers and client services means we can provide high quality solutions.

What that means for our clients:

• Certification offers assurance that projects will be delivered to a quality standard. A range of courses for editors means clients can make the most of the included features rather than be faced with an array of useful options that lie unused.

What that means for the end user:

• A site that makes the most of its platform to bring users exactly what they need and more.

How could Episerver be better?

Episerver has so many positives that it’s hard to really answer this question.

On the technical development side, other platforms provide great tools for easily migrating content between environments. And Episerver is a little more niche than some other platforms, making it harder to find solutions to problems at times. Thankfully, that’s where Episerver’s excellent Solution Architects come into play.

Matt's Diagnosis:

If you’re after an enterprise-level solution to manage content, commerce and marketing with powerful search and personalisation features all in the same product, Episerver is for you.

Want to know more?

If you’d like to know more about our CMS and digital experience platform expertise or find out what solution would be best for your business, please talk to Sam.

Also in this series: CMS Spotlight on... Kentico and CMS Spotlight on... Umbraco.