A week after answering its loudest analyst critique by announcing it will rename and rebrand as Optimizely, Episerver was named a “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) for the second year in a row.
You can get a complimentary copy of the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs here.
Episerver, which will retain its name until the third quarter of 2021, had been jockeying for position in the most prestigious of Gartner’s quadrants in recent years. Despite the backing of private equity and a flurry of acquisitions to both strengthen existing and add new capabilities, brand recognition had topped Gartner’s concerns in each of the last two releases.
That changes now with the acquisition and adoption of the Optimizely brand, which has long been a household name in digital marketing synonymous with experimentation, testing, and personalization.
In the Magic Quadrant report, Episerver was also credited for its vision and understanding of the DXP market. With roots in content management, Episerver has made a number of acquisitions in recent years to equip customers to manage the continuum of customer experience:
- 2016: Acquires Peerius to enhance its existing, segment-based personalization with more profile-driven and behavior-based personalization of products and content.
- 2016: Optivo is acquired for its campaign management and marketing automation capabilities.
- 2020: Insite Software, a B2B-specific commerce platform, is acquired to improve Episerver’s existing commerce offering specifically for B2B use cases.
- 2020: Acquires Idio to further improve content personalization capabilities using predictive analytics, AI, and machine learning.
The acquisitions have often led to new product bundles, including the Episerver Intelligence Cloud, which packages web-based content and product recommendations with intelligence and data insights. The latest package to go to market, Optimization as a Service (OaaS), is inspired by the Optimizely news and combines testing, targeting, and recommendations for improving conversions and performance. Gartner cited Episerver’s product packaging, pricing strategy, and transparency as strengths for their appeal for both large enterprise and midsize organizations.
With the increase of remote workers and spotlight on employee experience, Gartner raised cautions with Episerver’s business-to-employee capabilities, as well as its corporate leadership, strategy, and long-term roadmap amid a flurry of activity in recent years.
Digital experience platforms (DXP) are defined as integrated (either via APIs or native) features and functionality for composing, managing, delivering, and optimizing contextual digital experiences across the customer journey.
Kentico named “Niche Player”
Another C2-supported DXP, Kentico, was listed as a Niche Player by Gartner. Kentico’s Xperience platform offers content management, digital commerce, as well as email marketing for on-premise as well as a cloud-hosted PaaS solution. Kentico is often leveraged by government, education, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing industries across B2B, B2C, and B2E.
Kentico was credited for its brand recognition, value, and less complex implementations that increase speed to market and value. Cautions included fewer capabilities compared to other Gartner counterparts, particularly in customer insights and data management, as well as potential confusion with its separate headless offering, Kontent.