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ARInsights ARchitect vs. Cision Communications Cloud

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    ARchitect

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AARInsights’ SaaS platform is used by B2B tech and services companies for managing their analyst relations (AR) and influencer relations programs. The flagship solution, ARchitect, along with multiple complementary products, help improve AR professionals’ efficiency and productivity.N/A

    Cision Communications Cloud

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ACIsion Communications Cloud is used for identifying key media and influencers, connecting with audiences, monitoring traditional and social media, and analyzing outcomes.N/A
    Pricing
    ARchitectCision Communications Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ARchitectCision Communications Cloud
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    ARchitectCision Communications Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    ARInsights
    No answer on this topic
    Cision
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Would buy again
    45 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Delivers good value for the price
    32 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    44 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    37 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    36 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    ARchitectCision Communications Cloud
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
    Score5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Critical Mention
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    Score7.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ARchitectCision Communications Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    8.0
    (280 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (17 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (54 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (192 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ARchitectCision Communications Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    ARInsights
    If you have an AR program across the globe and want to track all interactions you have with them, this tool is right for you. As you can imagine the tool is only as good as the data you put in, so you do have to make it part of your work day to input the data. Say a team member leaves and you have to jump in to cover for them, you are able to see all the interactions they have had with analysts
    Incentivized
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    Cision
    For a small start-up, the cost-benefit to add lift to press releases [and] particular milestone accomplishments is definitely there with the Cision [Communications] Cloud. Much of what we do, by necessity, is done internally without the benefit of outsourced press folks, so the Cision [Communications] Cloud ease of use and reporting is very important.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    ARInsights
    • The Event Manager function is a great way plan, invite and send agendas to your analyst attendees.
    • Projects - although needing more work - is a great way to track progress during an evaluation.
    • Premium content is perfect for tracking mentions, sharing reports that are relevant to your constituents and reporting.
    Incentivized
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    Cision
    • Their upgraded press release templates and ability [to] pull in an entire, completed release makes the [process] faster and easier, and allows for more graphics, such as company mastheads, [are done well].
    • The media tracking offers the ability to find relevant placements across the entire country.
    • The journalist database streamlines the process of finding relevant reporters to directly connect [to] on news releases that are relevant to their beats.
    • The process of setting up, creating, and distributing a release is seamless, easy to use, and not labor-intensive.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    ARInsights
    • We would like to see some project management functions to track RFI, log follow-up actions and assign tasks inside the team.
    • I'd be good to see email open state in the analyst interactions tab.
    • An easier way to report insights from interactions would be hugely useful.
    Read full review
    Cision
    • In the media influencer database, the classic Cision allowed us to do a zip code radius search to really drill down to the neighborhood level. That's because we do localized media advisories and press releases for events at neighborhood schools. One part of a big city like Chicago really doesn't care what's happening in another part of Chicago that's too far away. The zip code radius search was a feature in the classic Cision but not with the current Cision Communications Cloud. We've asked for this to be restored several times, but nothing's happened. In fact, we were told to use DMA — which actually goes wider in a search (bigger than a city), not more narrow as needed. This reflects a basic misunderstanding of what we need.
    • Another missing feature involves a merge field when sending out an email press release through Cision. This is the "select insert field" button in the upper right that's used to personalize a release with the media contact's name and other information. This is key for localization of the release. Many media outlets won't run a release unless it's local. While "county" is a feature in the influencer database when putting together a media list in Cision, "county" is not available to insert into a press release as a merge field. Counties are important because this is how many newspapers and health departments are organized and identify themselves. I've asked for this to be implemented, to no avail. As a workaround, we've had to use "contact city" or "outlet city."
    • After refining a media list in Cision using filters, I've had to download the list and take it offline to see the big picture, screen for duplicates, etc. While there is a button on the bottom left intended to help with this, it doesn't do the trick. That's because there may be multiple contacts with the same email address. In addition, one media contact may represent numerous media outlets, so this same contact could show up several times. It would be nice to have a better way to see the whole list online and eliminate both duplicates as well as those who previously opted out.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    ARInsights
    As a freelancer I am unlikely to have the budget to use ARchitect on a regular basis I would however look at it seriously if asked by a client or if I was working in an agency with a significant AR practice I would look at it seriously.
    Incentivized
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    Cision
    While I am happy with the product performance overall, TrendKite's recent merger with Cision is cause for concern. When we first signed on with TrendKite, I spoke with several users and the best response I received was that the company was a startup and we could expect there to be hiccups along the way as the company grew and the platform got more robust. That has certainly been the case. However, now that they have merged with Cision — a company that has grown too fast, has not focused on improving its product and has poor customer service — I have concerns that TrendKite will lose some of the qualities that have made it a great company and great product to work with.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    ARInsights
    It's super easy to use, and anything that I cannot figure out, their team usually helps me within hours of my asking!
    Read full review
    Cision
    The flexibility and customization of Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is among its most important features. Changing the dashboards, using keywords in the saved searches to pull out the best stories and the integration with marketing automation tools gives me confidence that I will able to continue using this tool well into the future. The future implementation and integration of the media contact database will complete the suite, making list management and email marketing programs much smoother. *This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    ARInsights
    No answers on this topic
    Cision
    Easily accessible 24/7.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    ARInsights
    No answers on this topic
    Cision
    Generally, Cision performs well day to day, but it's got some annoying bugs that slow down usage/require user workarounds which is inefficient. More seriously, a few months ago, as a result of a major system upgrade, certain critical functionality was not working and I was unable to use the service for more than a day when I had time-sensitive work to execute
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    ARInsights
    In the instances I have had issues its been a little tricky to figure things out, some of the videos are helpful but getting email responses are not great compared to online chat and I have found that the response rates have been more than a day in some instances which is not as responsive as I would like compared to other platforms.I have seen ARInsights have made a number of new hires in the area of account management so I am sure that will have improved the support provided
    Incentivized
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    Cision
    For Cision TrendKite in particilar, support always responded, but it was sometimes slow. For some of our booleans and search queries, we would need help refining and excluding terms/phrases that weren't relevant to our client or campaign. This sometimes took 1-2 days just to get a response back, which sometimes was too late when a last-minute report was due. This was only with the support staff, not necessarily our customer success manager or sales rep.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    ARInsights
    No answers on this topic
    Cision
    The online training sessions available for the Cision Communications Cloud are helpful and informative. There's more than one option - initially, I signed up for the live webinar classes on basic functions and that is what I recommend other new users do as well. If I have specific questions or something I want to learn more about, I can search the online database and find article or online training videos to get the information I need.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    ARInsights
    No answers on this topic
    Cision
    There is no implementation at the customer's end so this doesn't really apply to my instance of Cision (possibly to all instances of it).
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    ARInsights
    Prior to using ARchitect, we were using Salesforce. While we did have some customization added, it did not nearly have the robustness that ARchitect provides -- especially since it is designed for AR professionals. We've been using ARchitect for about 8 years and have never looked back. Some examples of vast improvements: 1. Analyst firms/bios. With Salesforce, we needed to maintain all analyst bios -- something that ARchitect does. 2. Analyst coverage. We used to track all analyst coverage by visiting multiple analyst websites and manually pasting into spreadsheets. We now not only get a feed of coverage that can be exported into Excel, but we can also customize reports by topic. 3. Reporting. Salesforce did not provide the same reporting capabilities that ARchitect provides.
    Incentivized
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    Cision
    It's a similar product. I think Meltwater sells itself as being a bit more niche, but I have not found many significant differences between Meltwater and Cision. Meltwater's sales process is a very high pressure and their prices are inflated.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    ARInsights
    No answers on this topic
    Cision
    Easy to use, but still room for improvement.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    ARInsights
    • The Event Module has taken days if not weeks out of the prep process for big events.
    • ARchitect is a great way to allow communication with peers, without the need for extra emails, ect, because everyone on the team can see what each other is doing and who they are talking to about which topics.
    Incentivized
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    Cision
    • Cision has a net positive impact on time savings for staff so we can be quicker to market
    • Cision has a positive impact on internal savings as it is used internally across multiple accounts and with the internal PR team
    • Cision is extremely useful when it comes to resourcing and conducting outreach in those DMA's where our agency doesn't have a physical presence
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    ARchitect Screenshots

    Screenshot of The database of 10,000+ contacts, where users can search for, discover, and gather information on industry analysts and other prominent B2B influencers.Screenshot of Interactions (inquiries, briefings, meetings, etc.) with analysts and B2B influencers, tracked and managed in a calendar view.Screenshot of A Content Summary that can be used to compare brand’s mentions with competitors’, with tools to identify, track, and analyze research reports, blogs, tweets, and media quotes by industry analysts and b2b influencers.Screenshot of ARchitect’s Emailer solution, with an email designer used segment target lists, schedule and execute campaigns, and report on results.Screenshot of Projects in ARchitect allow users to plan, organize and manage projects (such as vendor evaluations, product launches and analyst days), view progress and stay on track.Screenshot of Briefing books that include analyst bios, analyst research and media coverage, and prior interactions recorded in ARchitect, to prepare executives for their next analyst meeting.

    Cision Communications Cloud Screenshots

    Screenshot of Media Monitoring and Analytics are just part of the complete Comms Cloud. It combines deep data dive with a database of journalists and influencers, and a media relationship management tool.Screenshot of Track brand mentions in real time across the millions of online stories on the internet. Monitor millions of stories and breaking news happening daily across the web. Professional services consultants teams are in place to ensure best practices while setting up a monitoring account.Screenshot of Cision’s media and influencer relationship management tools include audience insights, combined with a pitchable database that enables brands to uncover the best media contacts and social influencers to reach their target audience.Screenshot of Identify the social conversations and influencers that are impacting a brand. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube monitoring capabilities track brand mentions across all major social channels. Analyze results for social mentions or campaigns on the fly with its reporting features.