Web Content Management (WCM): Managing the Customer Experience and Saving Millions

Web Content Management (WCM) is an increasingly fragmented market.  WCM has always been a special blend of content management that is distinctly different in requirements from standard Enterprise Content Management.  And now, new forces are coming into play, particularly technologies like social media and analytics are driving the direction of new features and functionality that is becoming more standard-place with WCM.

Stephen Powers, principal analyst at Forrester Research, says that the new generation of Web Content Management caters no longer to just the C’s of  content and collaboration.  WCM products now factor in additional ‘C’ requirements which include: context, channel, consistency, community, consumer behavior, and creation.

Some have called these changes to WCM: Web 2.0 Content Management.  Others are using a number of other terms.  WEM, for example, is sometimes used to describe the new generation of Web Content Management tools that are evolving.  Here WEM can correspond to either “Web Experience Management” or “Web Engagement Management”.  To differentiate between these two very similar and overlapping ideas, you’ll sometimes see Web Experience Management abbreviated as WXM, and lately you’ll see people combining the two terms by using WEM/WXM.  And in parallel to WEM/WXM, you’ll also see related, customer-focused  categories, going under the names of  Customer Engagement Management (CEM) and Customer Experience Management (CXM), both of which are often combined into the single term CEM/CXM.

Forrester defines Customer Experience Management (CXM) as “a set of solutions which enable the management and delivery of dynamic, targeted, consistent content, offers, products, and service interactions across digitally enabled consumer touch points.”

Forrester’s Powers commented that “the future of WCM does not lie in simply managing content. The library services portion of WCM technology — check-in/checkout, workflows, permissions, etc. — has become commoditized.  Instead, decision-makers view WCM as a vehicle to better engage customers and prospects and move them through the marketing funnel.”

Megan Burns, principal analyst at Forrester Research, says that getting the customer experience wrong can be costly.  Millions of dollars can be lost as a result of presenting a poorly executed customer experience.