Likelihood to Recommend The service provision is good the accounts customer service is poor so I would struggle to give BC a better than average review, if only they could offer customers a better accounts service then the value would be much higher.
Read full review I think this CMS is best suited as an enterprise level system. For small, or simple sites, there are better options, but for large high-traffic sites, this is a great CMS.
Read full review Pros Probably one of the easiest e-commerce platforms to work in, it does take setup, but compared to a lot of other e-commerce solutions, this is probably the best one that I have seen that can be designed and implemented custom. Their template system works very well and allows you to create and re-use templates across Adobe Business Catalyst. Their pre-built modules are great, giving people a great way to use common web elements without having to use a plug-in or find some solution, it is simply built in and generally works exactly as you would expect. Adobe Business Catalyst is more of an all-around solution, providing elements that most smaller companies would have a hard time figuring out, since it includes the ability to build websites, send and track e-mails, analytics. It really is a powerful tool that would typically require a fair amount of coding knowledge and expertise but with the system already built, it can be easily modified and edited by those with limited or no coding knowledge at all. Read full review Allows many staff members to contribute content to various portions of our website, and allows our Electronic-Communications staff to delegate tasks to these various staff (diffusing the work-load). CoreMedia allows for easy creation of different types of content (like teasers, articles, download objects, links, etc). Permission levels can be set, so only certain staff can upload content such as photos, videos, or audio files. The CoreMedia workflow process is easy to understand and follow. Once a staff member has submitted content for publishing to the web, they can then see who it's been assigned to for review, and at what time. You're able to leave detailed notes and stay abreast of where the workflow is at any given time. Read full review Cons Multi Client Management: The dashboard for managing multiple clients as a reseller is a little difficult to get to. There is also no very easy way for me to manage multiple clients at once. I have to log into and out of individual client accounts to do billing or management. Lack of Server support: There are certain server protocols and languages that are not supported using BC. For example I cannot build a custom php database and upload to BC. I am required to use their tools. Read full review Early learning within the company was slow. We elected a customized version of CoreMedia - which in the end may not have been the best decision. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Actually with Business Catalyst there is no renewal; once you are a partner, you are a partner for as long as you like. It is an investment in your business not simply a product you purchase...and as an investment in partnership with Adobe, both are committed to each other's success.
Read full review CoreMedia continues to refine and deliver new features. They also explore new technologies and trends, like social media integration. The platform is solid and growing. We are also slightly locked into using CoreMedia. Migrating such a large amount of content to another system would likely not be feasible or prudent.
Read full review Usability Overall it is a "plug and play" interface. The majority of the work is done in other software interfaces. Managing billing, user roles and custom reports are all that you need to manage in the actual BC user interface. For my business this is an incredible benefit as I have to leave my preferred software less.
Read full review Reliability and Availability very few issues with availability
Read full review Performance Very few issues
Read full review Support Rating The support provided by Adobe is excellent. Though the knowledge base, forums, blogs and online chat questions most all answers can be found. In the event that you are unable to find an answer or you have a unique situation simply post a question to the forums. These forums are regularly monitored by Adobe and its users.
Read full review Online Training bcgurus.com kiyuco
Read full review Implementation Rating Pretty easy to do
Read full review Set aside more time than you think you need to migrate content. That is the hard part. Implementing the technology is easy.
Read full review Alternatives Considered As far as the CMS for BC goes, there is none out there that compares. In the past we have utilized Joomla, Wordpress, Mambo, Drupal, Concrete 5 and others. None of them were as easy to use and train on that Adobe's Business Catalyst. Our alternative to BC is WordPress when our clients want a less expensive solution. For the most part that works OK but we have had issues with plugin incompatibility among other issues. We lost at least two clients because of similar issues. The other great part about BC's solution is that we can still work with our favorite site creation tool - Dreamweaver. The whole process continues to be more and more simplified with added features to the system. No other solution (that we've found) offers such an easy way to create custom web sites that are easily editable by our clients.
Read full review While CoreMedia has a better workflow, django CMS has a much easier user interface, wysiwyg editor, and is superior on every other level. Django CMS is easier to teach and support, easier to manage and develop, and provides much more flexibility in the development and design areas.
Read full review Scalability It's easy to build small sites or large sites and there is lots of templating.
Read full review Return on Investment As someone who uses it on behalf of other clients, our ROI with BC is definitely positive. We needed a mid-range CMS without huge licensing costs to satisfy mid-range clients who have some dynamic needs but doesn't need the expense or liability of enterprise level products. Without it we would have lost possible customers or taken bigger hits on projects because of the costs involved with satisfying their mid-level needs Our clients are all usually very positive about the BC platform and are able to use it themselves which lessens our Support time/cost. To use the Web App element,. which we do on almost every site, you need to pay for the highest plan. This brings along with it many features most of our clients would never use. A more basic plan with that Web App capability would be a big improvement on our costs. Read full review Increased employee proficiency compared to nothing at all. I really don't have anything else to compare it to though. Reports from Core do not help/. Read full review ScreenShots