online community: platform & vendor satisfaction

Online Community Research Network! October 21,2009 0

Online Community Research Highlights: Platform and Services Satisfaction

http://www.onlinecommunityresearch.com!


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!



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!


Satisfaction: Industry!

Industries of Respondents!


Satisfaction: Community Lifespan !

How long has your online community existed?!


Satisfaction: Budgets !

What is your organization's annual online community budget ?!


Satisfaction: Most Important Attributes !

Which of the following community platform vendor and system attributes!are the most important?!


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!


Platform: Drupal!

Drupal

•  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.”!

Overall Quality / Reliability"


Platform: iCohere!

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.”!



Platform: Jive Clearspace!

Jive Clearspace

•  Scored high in Delivery & Post-purchase Support"

•  Scored low in Metrics & Reporting"


•  “…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.”!



Platform: Jive Forums!

Jive Forums

•  Scored high in Scalability & Ability to Customize"


•  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 “!



Platform: Joomla!

Joomla!

•  Scored well in Ability to Customize"



•  “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.”!




Leverage

•  Scored high in the Technical Operations & Deadline"

•  Scored low in User Experience & Ability to Customize"


•  “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.”!



Platform: Lithium!

Lithium

•  Scored high in the Ability to Scale, Post-purchase Support and Deadline"

•  One of 2 vendors not to get a Poor / Unacceptable mark"


•  “We use a Joomla front-end with Lithium forums. Joomla is poor. Lithium is giving it a good effort.”!



Platform: Ning!

Ning

•  Scored high in the Ease of Community Management and Deadline"

•  Scored lower in Metrics & Reporting"


•  “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.”!



Platform: Telligent!

Telligent

•  Scored high in the Ease of Community Management and Scalability"

•  Scored lower in Community Members Like"


•  “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.”!



Platform: Web Crossing!

Web Crossing !

•  Scored high in the Community Members Like & Deadline"

•  Scored lower in Metrics & Post-purchase Support"


•  “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.“!



In House / Custom Platforms!

In House / Custom!

•  Scored high in the Community Members Like & Deadline"

•  Scored lower in Metrics & Post-purchase Support"


•  “A mistake buying bespoke - too expensive to change functionality and upgrade. Want an off-the-shelf platform that we can customize.”!




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”!



Actively planning to move to a new platform"


Contracted Services!

Contracted Services"


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"


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:"[email protected]!415.299.9638!@billjohnston & @ocreport !


http://www.onlinecommunityresearch.com!

online community: platform & vendor satisfaction

Technology

community lifespan

respondents custom

industries of respondents

survey respondents

new platform

platform overview

drivers of satisfaction

satisfaction scores