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