Online Community: Platform & Vendor Satisfaction

Online Community Research Highlights: Platform and Services Satisfaction http://www.onlinecommunityresearch.com! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 0

Platform and Services Satisfaction ! •  Research was conducted Jan – March 2009! •  200+ Survey Respondents ! •  Purpose of study was to look at the drivers of satisfaction for online community platforms and service providers, as well as the current state of satisfaction with leading platforms! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 1

Platform and Services Satisfaction ! Highlights! •  Budgets for online community platforms & services! •  Key factors in selecting a community platform! •  Satisfaction scores for leading platforms! •  Issues affecting satisfaction with custom (in house) platforms! •  Which platforms are customers migrating from! •  What services community teams contract! •  Feature wish lists! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 2

Satisfaction: Industry! Industries of Respondents! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 3

Satisfaction: Community Lifespan ! How long has your online community existed?! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 4

Satisfaction: Budgets ! What is your organization's annual online community budget ?! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 5

Satisfaction: Most Important Attributes ! Which of the following community platform vendor and system attributes! are the most important?! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 6

Satisfaction: Platform Overview ! Overview  •  Drupal (17 Respondents)! •  iCohere (7 Respondents)! •  Jive Clearspace (8 Respondents)! •  Jive Forums (11 Respondents)! •  Joomla (6 Respondents! •  Leverage Software (5 Respondents)! •  Lithium (6 Respondents)! •  Ning (5 Respondents)! •  Telligent (10 Respondents)! •  Web Crossing (6 Respondents)" •  Custom (57 Respondents)! •  Others! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 7

Platform: Drupal! Drupal   Overall Quality / Reliability" •  Scored high in the Ability to Customize" •  Scored low in Metrics & Technical Operations" •  1 of 16 respondents looking for new platform! •  “The code is brittle. It is missing e- mail listserv integration which is really important in the nonproﬁt sector.”! •  “I like that we can leverage in- house skills to enhance work performed by vendors. We're not held hostage after the community goes live.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 8

Platform: iCohere! Overall Quality / Reliability" iCohere   •  Scored high in Post Purchase Support" •  Scored lower in Metrics & Ability to Customize" •  1 out of the 7 respondents looking for a new platform! •  “The user interface is a bit dated, with clunky navigation that turns off more younger members used to more sophisticated sites; hoping they will be updating.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 9

Platform: Jive Clearspace! Overall Quality / Reliability" Jive Clearspace   •  Scored high in Delivery & Post- purchase Support" •  Scored low in Metrics & Reporting" •  1 out of the 8 respondents looking for a new platform! •  “…I hear constant complaints.”! •  “We have done a bunch of custom development to integrate it with the rest of our collaboration tools. We would prefer the platform's pieces to be more loosely coupled and easier to extend and customize.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 10

Platform: Jive Forums! Overall Quality / Reliability" Jive Forums   •  Scored high in Scalability & Ability to Customize" •  Scored low in Metrics & Reporting" •  5 out of the 11 respondents looking for a new platform*! •  “Jive had promised to do the segmentation but did not deliver.”! •  “We get few complaints about the platform from external users.”! •  “We haven't kept up with upgrade curve, so we're using software that is no longer supported by the company, and our users are noticing the lack of robust feature-set “! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 11

Platform: Joomla! Overall Quality / Reliability" Joomla! •  Scored well in Ability to Customize" •  Scored low in Metrics & Reporting" •  4 out of the 6 respondents looking for a new platform! •  “Joomla serves well but we will be moving people towards Ning for ease of use and customization.”! •  “Joomla is poor, Lithium is giving it a good effort.”! •  “Open source platform, no vendor involved. Self managed.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 12

Platform and Services Satisfaction ! Leverage   Overall Quality / Reliability" •  Scored high in the Technical Operations & Deadline" •  Scored low in User Experience & Ability to Customize" •  1 of 5 respondents looking for new platform! •  “Metrics and reporting received a poor rating because it doesn't really come with any. I had to pay for them to send me weekly metrics that were meaningful”! •  “Inﬂexible, poorly-thought out; feels "rushed to market.””! •  “Platform lacks in customizability. Would have gone with a different platform if I'd been involved in the decision making process.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 13

Platform: Lithium! Lithium   Overall Quality / Reliability" •  Scored high in the Ability to Scale, Post-purchase Support and Deadline" •  One of 2 vendors not to get a Poor / Unacceptable mark" •  1 of 6 respondents looking for new platform! •  “We use a Joomla front-end with Lithium forums. Joomla is poor. Lithium is giving it a good effort.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 14

Platform: Ning! Ning   Overall Quality / Reliability" •  Scored high in the Ease of Community Management and Deadline" •  Scored lower in Metrics & Reporting" •  1 of 5 respondents looking for new platform! •  “Overall, our experience with Ning has been very good. The only downside, really, is the inherent unpredictability of how they're going to adjust their product, policies, and business model, and how we'll be forced to react.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 15

Platform: Telligent! Telligent  Overall Quality / Reliability" •  Scored high in the Ease of Community Management and Scalability" •  Scored lower in Community Members Like" •  2 of 10 respondents looking for new platform! •  “I've found Community Server to be the best combination of "out of the box features" + "ability to customize." Most platforms have one or the other...few have both.”! •  “We're expecting the majority of the issues to be addressed in CS8.”! •  “Very pleased with the upcoming feature roadmap... very progressive.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 16

Platform: Web Crossing! Web Crossing ! Overall Quality / Reliability" •  Scored high in the Community Members Like & Deadline" •  Scored lower in Metrics & Post- purchase Support" •  2 of 6 respondents looking for new platform! •  “We expect to be migrating to a new platform within the next year.”! •  “The experience of users in Message Center is so addictive... once they get it they adore it.“! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 17

In House / Custom Platforms! In House / Custom! Overall Quality / Reliability" •  Scored high in the Community Members Like & Deadline" •  Scored lower in Metrics & Post- purchase Support" •  8 of 27 respondents looking for new platform! •  “A mistake buying bespoke - too expensive to change functionality and upgrade. Want an off-the-shelf platform that we can customize.”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 18

Platform and Services Satisfaction ! Other Platforms! •  ATG - 1 “Better” ! •  Bazaarvoice – 2 “Fair”! •  Blue State Digital – 1 “Fair”! •  CollectiveX – 1 “Best”! •  Hivelive – 1 “Better”! •  Mzinga – 2 “Better” , 1 “Fair”! •  PhBB – 1 “Better”! •  Pluck – 1 “Better”! •  vBulletin – 2 “Best”, 2 “Better”! •  Wordpress – 1 “Best”, 1 “Better”, 2 “Fair”! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 19

Platform and Services Satisfaction ! Actively planning to move to a new platform" Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 20

Contracted Services! Contracted Services" Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 21

Wish List for Products & Features! •  Robust Metrics Dashboards" –  ROI! –  Reputation Management / Company Response! –  Advanced: Engagement, Loyalty & Health! –  Metrics & Reporting on / off domain! •  Robust Feature Sets" –  Ideas app! –  Social bookmarking! –  Wikis! –  MrM: Member Relationship Management! •  Integration With Other Systems " –  CRM, CMS! •  Customization" Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 22

Resources! Platform & Vendors Satisfaction Report" http://store.onlinecommunityresearch.com/oncoplandses.html! Online Community Research Network" http://www.onlinecommunityresearch.com! Forum One Networks: Services" http://www.forumonenetworks.com/services! Contact Bill Johnston:" bjohnston@forumone.com! 415.299.9638! @billjohnston & @ocreport ! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 23

http://www.onlinecommunityresearch.com! Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 24

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Online Community: Platform & Vendor Satisfaction

by Bill Johnston on Oct 25, 2009

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Online Community: Platform & Vendor Satisfaction — Presentation Transcript