Segmentation and Analytics is a differentiator for Interwoven as most enterprise content management (ECM) vendors have concentrated on providing solutions that combine unstructured information and structured data to perform tasks such as invoice processing, claims handling, or forms processing with integration to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Interwoven’s solution has a closer relationship with customer relationship management (CRM) products.
The product has been designed to address the needs of marketers to acquire high-value customers, grow revenues from existing customers, and improve customer satisfaction. The ability to analyze the behavior of visitors, and segment different types of customers enables organizations to optimize the content on web pages so that it can be targeted at specific groups of customers.
Segmenting customers is a task that would previously have been handled by the CRM system, but there would have been no direct link between that and the ECM or web content management (WCM) system. By including web activity tracking, organizations are able to see the actions that users perform on a website. The information received can also be used to identify problems caused by poorly designed sites that result in potential customers having difficulties navigating around a site, and abandoning their visit as a result.
One of the market sectors where Interwoven is very strong is legal, and, following the acquisition of Hummingbird by Open Text, it has found additional interest from disgruntled Hummingbird customers in the legal sector. Interwoven has been growing steadily, both in terms of the total number of customers and revenues, for many quarters, and the development of the Segmentation and Analytics application should appeal to organizations that may not have considered the company previously.
There is very little to choose between many of the ECM vendors now in terms of functionality, so it is refreshing to find a vendor providing a solution that will appeal to a different type of user.
It looks likely that all of the major independent pure-play ECM vendors will be acquired by larger multiple product vendors that wish to move into the management of information, and to build large vertical stacks of functionality. As a pure-play vendor, and one of only three major vendors that currently remain independent, it is only a matter of time before the company comes to the attention of one of the large vendors wanting to move into this area. It is to be hoped that whoever eventually acquires Interwoven leaves the company’s products intact, as Segmentation and Analytics is a real differentiator.
Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)
