The Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2020 · The forrester Wave™: intranet Platforms, Q2...
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The Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2020 The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up by Cheryl McKinnon June 16, 2020 LICENSED FOR INDIVIDUAL USE ONLY FORRESTER.COM Key Takeaways Igloo Software, LumApps, And Simpplr Lead The Pack Forrester’s research uncovered a market in which Igloo Software, LumApps, and Simpplr are Leaders; Akumina, Liferay, LiveTiles, Microsoft, Unily, and Interact are Strong Performers; and Atlassian, SDL, and Aurea (Jive Software) are Contenders. Personalized Communications, Design Tools, And Dashboards Are Key Differentiators Aging on-premises intranets are dying. Cloud platforms with flexible content and communication creation and delivery options will lead the pack. Vendors that provide granular personalization, design and templating tools, and integration with top productivity suites are revitalizing this market. Why Read This Report In our 26-criterion evaluation of intranet platform providers, we identified the 12 most significant ones — Akumina, Atlassian, Aurea (Jive Software), Igloo Software, Interact, Liferay, LiveTiles, LumApps, Microsoft, SDL, Simpplr, and Unily — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals select the right one for their needs. This PDF is only licensed for individual use when downloaded from forrester.com or reprints.forrester.com. All other distribution prohibited.
Transcript of The Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2020 · The forrester Wave™: intranet Platforms, Q2...
The Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2020The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
by Cheryl McKinnonJune 16, 2020
LiCensed for individuaL use onLy
ForreSTer.coM
Key TakeawaysIgloo Software, LumApps, And Simpplr Lead The Packforrester’s research uncovered a market in which igloo software, Lumapps, and simpplr are Leaders; akumina, Liferay, LiveTiles, Microsoft, unily, and interact are strong Performers; and atlassian, sdL, and aurea (Jive software) are Contenders.
Personalized communications, Design Tools, And Dashboards Are Key Differentiatorsaging on-premises intranets are dying. Cloud platforms with flexible content and communication creation and delivery options will lead the pack. vendors that provide granular personalization, design and templating tools, and integration with top productivity suites are revitalizing this market.
Why read This reportin our 26-criterion evaluation of intranet platform providers, we identified the 12 most significant ones — akumina, atlassian, aurea (Jive software), igloo software, interact, Liferay, LiveTiles, Lumapps, Microsoft, sdL, simpplr, and unily — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps application development and delivery (ad&d) professionals select the right one for their needs.
This Pdf is only licensed for individual use when downloaded from forrester.com or reprints.forrester.com. all other distribution prohibited.
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Table of Contents
Personalized Experiences And Cloud Delivery Drive Intranet Renewals
Evaluation Summary
Vendor Offerings
Vendor Profiles
Leaders
strong Performers
Contenders
Evaluation Overview
vendor inclusion Criteria
Supplemental Material
related research documents
The employee experience Maturity assessment
now Tech: intranet Platforms, Q1 2020
your intranet is dead: reboot Communication and Collaboration With employees at The Center
for aPPLiCaTion deveLoPMenT & deLivery ProfessionaLs
The Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2020The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
by Cheryl McKinnonwith daniel Hong, sara sjoblom, Peter Harrison, and Madison Bakalar
June 16, 2020
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
Personalized experiences and Cloud delivery drive intranet renewals
intranets remain the least loved of the typical applications provided to employees. The 66% of global information workers who are satisfied with their intranet pales in comparison with the more than 80% who are happy with their calendaring, word processing, spreadsheet, and email tools.1 aging on-premises and homegrown systems are poorly equipped to serve mobile or remote workforces. These systems are not nimble enough to handle shifting business models, frequent organizational changes, or the unanticipated work-from-home imperative driven by the pandemic. This must change. organizations that value their employee experience understand that technology choices matter.
forrester’s employee experience (eX) index reveals a relationship between technology satisfaction and employee engagement. employees who are the most engaged in their workplace are also highly satisfied with their collaboration tools and their ability to access the information they need to do their jobs.2 Today’s demands include timely delivery of relevant content via users’ preferred consumption channels — web, mobile, or expressed in the context of other essential enterprise applications.
no longer can content be bottlenecked by inefficient processes dependent on developers or webmasters to format and publish.3 newer processes focus on subject matter and communication experts as primary content creators. architectures are shifting to cloud, and integration with today’s top productivity suites and enterprise applications are essential.
as a result of these trends, intranet platform customers should look for providers that can:
› Personalize the communication and content delivery experience. Personalization capabilities must be two-sided. Content creators need to tailor information to precise audiences, but employees should also be able to set their own preferences. Content and communication creators want to define groups and personas that go beyond standard directory services groups. for example, a group of retail store managers in a region will pay attention to local and specific information and not send scattershot email blasts to all management job types. employees want to subscribe to announcements relevant to their role, region, or skill level and set language and device preferences.
› Provide flexible design and user interface tools. Branding, design, color schemes, accessibility, and templating tools are often used by designers. aging systems are bottlenecked when only a core group of intranet admins or webmasters can modify pages or sites. This approach fails to scale in global, multibrand, multilanguage sites with frequently updated content. Templates for sites, content types, or widgets that can be deployed multiple times help keep intranets relevant and responsive to changing needs. enterprises serving deskless workers should also look for intranet mobile apps that can be custom branded.4
› Integrate to essential productivity suites and enterprise applications. ad&d pros must determine the critical integration points between the intranet and other technology investments. decide if the intranet platform should operate independently or if it must integrate to existing content management repositories, search, or collaboration tools. essential data, such as employee
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
information in human resource applications or network directory services, is often required for user and group management. support for preferred identity management and single sign-on tools for cloud and mobile access is also important.
evaluation summary
The forrester Wave™ evaluation highlights Leaders, strong Performers, Contenders, and Challengers. it’s an assessment of the top vendors in the market and does not represent the entire vendor landscape. you’ll find more information about this broader market in our now Tech: intranet Platforms, Q1 2020 report.
We intend this evaluation to be a starting point only and encourage clients to view product evaluations and adapt criteria weightings using the excel-based vendor comparison tool (see figure 1 and see figure 2). Click the link at the beginning of this report on forrester.com to download the tool.
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 1 forrester Wave™: intranet Platforms, Q2 2020
Challengers Contenders LeadersStrong
Performers
Strongercurrentoffering
Weakercurrentoffering
Weaker strategy Stronger strategy
Market presence
Akumina
Atlassian
Igloo Software
Interact
Liferay
LiveTiles
LumApps
Microsoft
Simpplr
Unily
SDL
Aurea
Intranet PlatformsQ2 2020
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 2 forrester Wave™: intranet Platforms scorecard, Q2 2020
Akum
ina
Atlass
ian
Aurea
Igloo
Sof
twar
e
Inter
act
Lifer
ay
LiveT
iles
Lum
Apps
3.22
1.00
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2.14
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1.00
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1.00
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0.00
3.00
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1.00
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3.56
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5.00
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5.00
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3.00
1.00
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1.00
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5.00
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3.00
2.92
3.00
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1.00
3.00
5.00
3.00
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3.00
3.00
1.00
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3.28
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3.56
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3.00
3.00
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3.00
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3.00
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3.00
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3.00
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3.38
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weight
ing
Forre
ster’s
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3%
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Current offering
Repository and content services
Metadata support
Search and indexing
Dashboards and reporting
Delegated administration
Governance services
Collaborative content services
Internal communications
Information architecture
Knowledge graphs
Content analytics
AI and/or machine learning
Design tools
User interfaces
Templating
Integration and interoperability
Developer support
Personalization
All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 2 forrester Wave™: intranet Platforms scorecard, Q2 2020 (Cont.)
Akum
ina
Atlass
ian
Aurea
Igloo
Sof
twar
e
Inter
act
Lifer
ay
LiveT
iles
Lum
Apps
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3.00
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5.00
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3.00
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1.00
1.00
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2.60
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weight
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ster’s
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Strategy
Market approach
Product vision
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Partner ecosystem
Supporting products and services
Delivery model
Market presence
Customer base
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All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 2 forrester Wave™: intranet Platforms scorecard, Q2 2020 (Cont.)
Micr
osof
t
SDLSim
pplr
Unily
2.72
5.00
3.00
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weight
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5%
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7%
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3%
5%
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Current offering
Repository and content services
Metadata support
Search and indexing
Dashboards and reporting
Delegated administration
Governance services
Collaborative content services
Internal communications
Information architecture
Knowledge graphs
Content analytics
AI and/or machine learning
Design tools
User interfaces
Templating
Integration and interoperability
Developer support
Personalization
All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 2 forrester Wave™: intranet Platforms scorecard, Q2 2020 (Cont.)
Micr
osof
t
SDLSim
pplr
Unily
3.60
3.00
3.00
3.00
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3.10
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weight
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Forre
ster’s
50%
20%
20%
20%
15%
15%
10%
0%
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50%
Strategy
Market approach
Product vision
Execution roadmap
Partner ecosystem
Supporting products and services
Delivery model
Market presence
Customer base
Product revenue
All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).
vendor offerings
forrester included 12 vendors in this assessment: akumina, atlassian, aurea, igloo software, interact, Liferay, LiveTiles, Lumapps, Microsoft, sdL, simpplr, and unily (see figure 3).
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
FIGUre 3 evaluated vendors and Product information
Vendor
Akumina
Atlassian
Aurea
Igloo Software
Interact
Liferay
LiveTiles
LumApps
Microsoft
SDL
Simpplr
Unily
Product evaluated
Akumina Employee Experience Software Platform
Atlassian Con�uence Cloud
Jive Interactive Intranet
Igloo Digital Workplace Platform
Interact
Liferay Digital Experience Platform
LiveTiles Wizdom Intelligent Intranet
LumApps
Microsoft 365
SDL Tridion
Simpplr Connect Platform
Unily
Product version evaluated
4.8
N/A
9.2.0
N/A
N/A
7.2
6.41
N/A
N/A
N/A
Winter 2020
N/A
vendor Profiles
our analysis uncovered the following strengths and weaknesses of individual vendors.
Leaders
› Igloo leads with communication and collaboration and shines during crisis response. igloo software is one of the more mature cloud-native platforms, offering solid intranet capabilities as well as packaged applications for targeted use cases. it invests in scalability and serves the needs of multibrand/site firms with its networked enterprise architecture. specific apps for new employee onboarding, town halls, or knowledge management augment its core platform. igloo software must increase its pace of innovation as newer players enter the market and accelerate its mobility, ai/machine learning (ML), and user interface investments. Watch for simplified pricing/licensing models, better Microsoft Teams integration, and publishing enhancements.
igloo software’s breadth of overall collaboration capabilities, as well as its robust content governance and delegated administration models are key strengths. Weaknesses include maturity of its ai/ML and knowledge graph capabilities, which lag some newer market entrants. reference
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
customers gave high marks for content authoring, editing experience, and its professional services. They also attest to its value as a trusted hub during disrupted operations during a crisis. areas for improvement include the platform’s personalization capabilities and search. evaluate igloo software when robust intranet and communications capabilities are needed with added flexibility to adopt it either horizontally or for very targeted use cases.
› LumApps leads with superior employee communication and site design tools. Lumapps has served very large enterprises since its founding and has capabilities to enhance both the Google and Microsoft ecosystems. as a hub for employee communications, collaboration, and knowledge, the vendor delivers ongoing innovation with a frequent release cycle. Customers on this cloud-native software-as-a-service (saas) platform are never at risk of falling behind on old versions, unlike vendors with on-premises models. Lumapps has strategic partnerships with both Google and Microsoft, but delivering intranet and employee communications capabilities to extend both ecosystems equally well will continue to be a challenge. expect ongoing investment in ai and cross-application analytics to surface insights and serve knowledge management use cases, deepen their user persona capabilities, and extend their partner marketplace.
Lumapps has strong design tools as well as a breadth of internal communications options, with rich user profiles as an area of differentiation. Pages and widgets are the core of content delivery and provide a strong background information architecture. Weaknesses include aPis that are narrower than most other vendors, and developer communities are still works-in-progress. ai/ML and content analytics are also immature. reference customers are consistent in praise for content authoring capabilities and overall design experience but are less satisfied with search and reporting. evaluate Lumapps when a scalable saas platform that focuses on employee communications and works with major productivity suites is important.
› Simpplr leads with personalization for communication and content delivery. simpplr is a pure-play, cloud-native intranet and communication platform, with traction in digitally savvy large enterprises and tech companies. simpplr’s strategy is to deepen its analytics and engagement offerings, on top of a solid content and communication platform. Product vision is grounded in a superior user experience and a roadmap driven by data and customer insights. as a saas offering, simpplr may constrain customers from extensive customizations, and aPis are an area of investment. Watch for ongoing investments into its developer communities, in more packaged services offerings, and in its analytics.
simpplr’s strengths include strong repository, governance, and internal communication capabilities, as well as broad personalization options. However, its aPis and developer resources are relatively immature compared with other Leaders in this evaluation, and its ai services require upfront training by its professional services team. reference customers rate internal communications tools very highly, even for essential crisis communication. Professional services capabilities were also well-received, though integration with some third-party tools was noted as a gap. shortlist simpplr when a cloud-native, scalable platform focused on employee communications and content delivery is needed.
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
Strong Performers
› Akumina excels in design tools but is dependent on third-party content services. akumina focuses on a broad set of digital employee experience use cases, differentiating with its “Total visual Control” design capabilities. akumina is clear in its focus on extending the intranet experience across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and has one of the most flexible licensing models in the market — focusing on not just users but also instances of the platform, encouraging its use for multiple purposes. akumina’s dependence on third-party content repository services is by design, but this strategy limits it in a number of intranet modernization opportunities. expect deeper integration into the Microsoft ecosystem (such as incorporating knowledge graphs and employee-facing bots) and continued integration with popular enterprise applications, such as aggregating feeds and activities for roadmap items.
strengths include design and templating capabilities, as well as a broad set of predefined application integration widgets for common enterprise applications. Persona creation tools enable targeted communications. akumina’s dependence on Microsoft 365 results in relatively weak native collaboration and repository capabilities. reference customers attest to the power of akumina’s design tools, ease of content creation/editing, and ability to personalize communication. They express some dissatisfaction with performance, upgrades, and reporting. akumina is a good fit for firms that are focused on employee communications, desire strong brand/design control, and have adopted the Microsoft ecosystem.
› Liferay is a mature platform but misses a knowledge graph for smart content delivery. Well-known as a platform for websites and portals in addition to intranets, Liferay has a strong open source heritage and focus on developers. The vendor cultivates an established and diversified partner ecosystem to serve intranet design and deployments for clients across the globe. it has a well-defined set of solutions and buyers/influencers that it uses to drive its go-to-market approach and focus employee experience and knowledge management use cases, where it excels. Liferay’s product vision is also focused on infusing intelligent services into its stack but lags slightly in its delivery of low code and design tools to help customers tailor their intranet experience. expect to see investment in analytics to help content owners get better usage insights, as well as more ai tools, including natural language processing (nLP) for better knowledge discovery.
Liferay’s strengths include robust content repository services as well as a flexible metadata model and a cutting-edge search experience. Liferay has one of the more mature developer communities in this market. Current gaps include knowledge graphs to connect people and content as well as rich analytics to reveal relationships across content. reference customers are satisfied with Liferay’s design and templating capabilities but report some dissatisfaction with application integration, including Microsoft 365. shortlist Liferay when a flexible, open architecture is desirable and strong foundational content repository capabilities are required.
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
› LiveTiles excels in its design and templating tools but is thin on analytics. LiveTiles continues to build a global presence and rich set of digital employee experience tools via its services know-how and focused acquisitions. its strategy is to build a comprehensive set of intelligent workplace capabilities with the intranet as a foundation on which to grow. The vendor has a clear focus on serving large global enterprises and will make investments to extend its platform breadth as well as establish a presence in key markets. LiveTiles supports cloud, hosted, and on-premises deployments. This risks an uneven pace of innovation and enhancement across different delivery models, and customers not on cloud could get stuck on older versions of the platform. expect to see investments in reporting (including heatmaps), summarization, enterprise search, and employee-facing bots for information retrieval.
strengths include design and templating capabilities. nondevelopers have the ability to tailor and tune the user interfaces, and users can personalize their preferred communication channels, such as Microsoft Teams or mobile notifications. some dependencies on the Microsoft ecosystem for user profiling, collaboration, analytics, and search are weaknesses. Customer references rate the content authoring process and design tools very highly but are less satisfied with current reporting/dashboard tools. integration with Microsoft 365 was called out as a plus. shortlist LiveTiles when seeking an intranet platform that can serve design needs of large global brands and enrich the experience of existing Microsoft 365 investments.
› Microsoft has strong foundational tools but is weak in personalizing user experiences. Microsoft is a dominant player in the content, collaboration, and office productivity markets, with substantial intranet deployments on-premises and in cloud. The breadth of product capabilities in the Microsoft 365 cloud stack continues to evolve, with a powerful, continually innovating set of products and intelligent services to enhance the intranet use case. Microsoft’s attention to employee experience as the centerpiece of a modern intranet strategy is lacking as it continues to focus on technical buyers rather than internal communications or design pros. expect deep investment into knowledge graphs and additional use of ai and ML to deliver insights and connect content and people.
Microsoft 365 delivers robust content repository and collaboration services that scale to meet the needs of the largest of enterprises. Weaknesses include lack of granular personalization controls, inconsistent governance across content and page types, and minimal reporting designed for intranet administrators. reference customers express high satisfaction with content authoring and editing, as well as the product roadmap. Personalization and mobile are two areas that require improvement. Microsoft 365 should be evaluated by firms ready to modernize their on-premises or hosted sharePoint intranets or by firms that want a single vendor for content, collaboration, and communication.
› Unily distills deep intranet services expertise into its emerging cloud platform. unily provides a productized set of capabilities born from years of services expertise delivering intranet sites. its cloud-native product vision allows it to innovate quickly and leverage a rich set of Microsoft azure cloud services for ai, translations, and employee-facing chatbots. a crisp market focus emphasizes
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the employee experience. unily’s partner strategy is in early stages, as it recruits systems integrators and consultants to drive future growth. While its own services organization brings rich experience, the vendor needs a broader partner ecosystem to help scale its reach and support customers with a global presence. unily’s roadmap is collaborative, with customers able to vote on priorities, including app integrations. Watch for deeper use of azure ai services, including nLP and employee-facing bots.
unily’s key strengths are rooted in its support for rich persona creation and targeted communications, a strong metadata model, and a well-defined “grid and widget” approach for consistent content modeling. areas of improvement include search, which requires configuration to determine what text and metadata can be queried, and its default reporting capabilities. reference customers rate its flexible design tools highly, as well as page versioning and audit trails. areas of dissatisfaction include reporting, maturity of its ai, and search. unily should be shortlisted by firms desiring a modern, cloud-native platform and by those that want to leverage the Microsoft ecosystem.
› Interact delivers strong employee communication capabilities but lags in analytics. interact is a pure-play, privately held intranet platform provider focused on employee communication, and, while it leverages amazon Web services (aWs) as its primary cloud infrastructure, Microsoft azure is also supported. The vendor has a crisp product vision aimed at personalization, contextualization, and internal communication. its licensing model reflects its customers’ varied business models, and employee personas are also a plus. interact has an established partner model, however its reliance on its own in-house professional services can limit its ability to scale and grow globally. expect ongoing investment from interact of its partner marketplace for supported apps/widgets, deeper engagement analytics (such as email tracking), and mobility.
interact has notably strong governance capabilities for content, as well as flexible options for design tools, user interfaces, and rich, targeted internal communication tools. Current product weaknesses include reporting and dashboards and its ability to use content analytics to build relationships among pages/documents. reference customers express very high satisfaction with interact’s professional services team. Customers see its current mobile support and its reporting as needing improvement. interact should be shortlisted by firms focused on employee communications and by those that prefer a platform in the aWs ecosystem.
contenders
› Atlassian excels in collaboration but lags in support for internal communications. atlassian’s Confluence is broadly used by project teams to capture corporate knowledge and collaborate openly. its product and market strategy will address broader sets of intranet use cases as it invests in ai and other intelligent services to enhance discoverability of people and content across an enterprise — not just across teams or lines of business. its positioning and roadmap, however, must be better aligned to meet the needs of intranet decision makers from nontechnical teams,
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
such as those in human resources, employee experience, or internal communications. Watch for ongoing investment into intelligent services, scalability, and simplified licensing for customers that use multiple atlassian products.
notable product strengths include granular administrative controls over content creation, review, and consumption, as well as its collaboration capabilities. Personalization and internal communications are areas of weakness, with limited capabilities to define user personas and then tailor news or announcements to users’ preferred channels. reference customers report consistent satisfaction with the ease of the content authoring experience, as well as richness of the aPis and integration capabilities. Branding and design tools, as well as its mobile experience, are described less favorably by customers. atlassian should be considered when content-rich collaboration and an open approach to knowledge sharing are core intranet requirements.
› SDL offers robust content services but must work to productize its intranet offering. sdL is a mature content platform serving internally and externally focused digital experience use cases and is noted for its strong translation capabilities. its transition to a cloud-first, customizable framework means that customers will benefit from a faster pace of innovation. investments are continuing in areas of current differentiation, including a strong information architecture, robust global partner ecosystem, and advanced translation services. sdL, however, must work to provide a more productized platform designed for the intranet and employee communication use cases. intranet deployments today are services heavy. sdL’s roadmap priorities include improved user experience, more personalization options, and better content findability.
sdL’s market maturity is reflected in strengths that few other vendors can claim, particularly its overall repository services, structured approach to content authoring, information architecture, developer support, and relatively mature use of ai. areas of weakness include support for a broad set of employee communication channels, dashboards/reporting designed for intranet content owners, and overall collaboration capabilities. reference customers rate sdL’s structured content creation and approval very highly and appreciate the vendor’s professional services. reporting and dashboards, however, are areas of consistent dissatisfaction. firms should consider sdL when the intranet serves global, often complex, lines of business and requires rigorous content modeling.
› Aurea reinvests in Jive for the cloud era but risks holding on to its customer base. aurea is modernizing Jive, porting it to the cloud, and leveraging aWs for infrastructure. aurea’s strategy is to acquire and rearchitect mature products like Jive, make them available to aurea’s broader clientele as part of a “one subscription” licensing model, and enable low-friction adoption by users of its other portfolio products. The platform’s focus on “people-centric collaboration” limits its appeal for enterprises prioritizing personalized, contextualized internal communications for their new intranet. aurea’s strategy must focus on maintaining its market presence as an intranet platform while helping customers migrate to its cloud edition. expect the Jive platform to enhance its underlying knowledge graph capabilities, to infuse intelligent content services, such as semantic search and ai, and to benefit from the foundational integration work done across the aurea portfolio.
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The Jive platform offers strong collaboration services, including support for communities, rich user profiles, and discussion moderation. recognition and badging encourage employee engagement and participation. Current weaknesses include reporting and dashboards for technical and content administrators, integration capabilities with other enterprise applications, and flexibility of its metadata model. reference customers report challenges migrating from on-premises to cloud editions and integrating with Microsoft 365. Collaboration and workspaces, as well as content authoring capabilities, are highly rated. Jive should be considered by customers that use other aurea portfolio products when employee collaboration is a core requirement for an intranet platform.
evaluation overview
We evaluated vendors against 26 criteria, which we grouped into three high-level categories:
› current offering. each vendor’s position on the vertical axis of the forrester Wave graphic indicates the strength of its current offering. Key criteria for these solutions include content repository, creation and editing capabilities, design and user interface customization tools, integration with common enterprise and productivity apps, and a range of personalized internal communication capabilities.
› Strategy. Placement on the horizontal axis indicates the strength of the vendors’ strategies. We evaluated the vendor’s market approach and product vision, its ability to execute on its roadmap, its partnership strategy, its related products and services, and how it delivers its platform.
› Market presence. represented by the size of the markers on the graphic, our market presence scores reflect each vendor’s license or subscription revenue attributable to its intranet platform offering, as well as the number of paying customers on the platform.
Vendor Inclusion criteria
forrester included 12 vendors in the assessment: akumina, atlassian, aurea, igloo software, interact, Liferay, LiveTiles, Lumapps, Microsoft, sdL, simpplr, and unily. each of these vendors has:
› A minimum product revenue of $10 million. The vendor has a minimum of $10 million annual revenue related to its intranet platform offering. This includes licensing, subscription, and maintenance, but not consulting services.
› An intranet platform that is a packaged offering. The vendor offers an intranet platform packaged as a standalone solution and invests in go-to-market activities to attract, serve, and retain customers with this need.
› A focus on enterprise clients. The vendor targets and can scale to meet the needs of large organizations and can support implementations serving 5,000 employees or above. forrester customers demonstrate an active interest in the vendor’s offerings, including inquiry mentions and inclusion on shortlists.
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
supplemental Material
online resource
We publish all our forrester Wave scores and weightings in an excel file that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings; download this tool by clicking the link at the beginning of this report on forrester.com. We intend these scores and default weightings to serve only as a starting point and encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs.
The Forrester Wave Methodology
a forrester Wave is a guide for buyers considering their purchasing options in a technology marketplace. To offer an equitable process for all participants, forrester follows The forrester Wave™ Methodology Guide to evaluate participating vendors.
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The 12 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
in our review, we conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors to consider for the evaluation. from that initial pool of vendors, we narrow our final list based on the inclusion criteria. We then gather details of product and strategy through a detailed questionnaire, demos/briefings, and customer reference surveys/interviews. We use those inputs, along with the analyst’s experience and expertise in the marketplace, to score vendors, using a relative rating system that compares each vendor against the others in the evaluation.
We include the forrester Wave publishing date (quarter and year) clearly in the title of each forrester Wave report. We evaluated the vendors participating in this forrester Wave using materials they provided to us by March 2020 and did not allow additional information after that point. We encourage readers to evaluate how the market and vendor offerings change over time.
in accordance with The forrester Wave™ vendor review Policy, forrester asks vendors to review our findings prior to publishing to check for accuracy. vendors marked as nonparticipating vendors in the forrester Wave graphic met our defined inclusion criteria but declined to participate in or contributed only partially to the evaluation. We score these vendors in accordance with The forrester Wave™ and The forrester new Wave™ nonparticipating and incomplete Participation vendor Policy and publish their positioning along with those of the participating vendors.
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We conduct all our research, including forrester Wave evaluations, in accordance with the integrity Policy posted on our website.
endnotes1 We surveyed 14,180 global information workers who use a calendar on a PC at least daily for work purposes. source:
forrester analytics Global Business Technographics® Workforce Benchmark survey, 2019.
2 see the forrester report “forrester’s eX index: a deeper Look at The data.”
3 Many companies choose to build their intranet upon popular digital experience platforms (dXP). This is especially true when they’ve already standardized on a tool for their externally facing websites and have cultivated internal, technical expertise with the platform or want to reuse branding and design elements. for example, drupal is a popular choice, with vendor acquia providing cloud deployments and with intranet specialist partners leading deployments. other commonly used dXP platforms include adobe experience Manager, sitecore, and WordPress. some organizations will choose to take a more collaboration-centric approach to their intranet and adopt platforms such as Workplace by facebook or extend their G suite investments for their next-generation intranet.
4 employees use both tablets and smartphones to access their corporate intranets: 13% of global information workers who use a smartphone for work use their phone to access the intranet daily, and 26% use it to do so weekly; 18% of global information workers who use a tablet for work use it to access the corporate intranet daily, and 35% use it to do so weekly; desktop/laptop access still dominates, however, with 29% of global information workers who use a PC for work accessing the intranet via their PC daily and 43% weekly. source: forrester analytics Global Business Technographics Workforce Benchmark survey, 2019.
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