Likelihood to Recommend 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 Our experience may be unique because we opted for an Epi core team to implement our website/console set-up and connection to our PIM and ERP. The experience may have been different with a 3rd party or it may not have. That said, we have been live with our primary website for almost 2 years and I still do not consider it was ever "done". We have been going back and forth on functionality issues and bugs since launch. I have low confidence that changes made the previous day will 100% be online the next - so my team rechecks the work they did the previous day to ensure everything is online. The addition of a second channel and enhancement requests have compounded the issues. I feel this product would work fine with singular or less complex market SKU offerings.
Read full review Pros 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 Episerver has a robust discount engine. This engine, combined with "visitor groups" allow our marketing department to categorize customers and offer a variety of discounts to targeted customers at specific times. Episerver has a full-featured, storefront experience that can handle everything you might want for an e-commerce website. Episerver offers A/B testing that can be helpful for trying out new content ideas and tracking the results. Read full review Cons 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 Support. Episerver used to have direct support and access to the tech team to discuss and resolve issues. The new support portal is not enough for developer needs. Quality Assurance. We find issues in the Episerver code that should have been resolved in QA before release. Sales. Episervers sells the framework as a solution while showing Alloy. While it helps Episerver sell more, it puts the implementation partner into trouble as the client thinks they bought the solution. Episerver does not provide a solution. It provides a framework that you can build a solution on. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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 Really want to be able to spend more time and resources on rolling out new things with Episerver but at the moment we seem to be fixing alot of issues and pain points with the way our system was setup.
Read full review Usability The administrative interface is largely intuitive and relatively easy to use. The complexity of business needs and ability to customize can affect this (i.e. you have to set up and develop with the user in mind), but the basic structure is largely solid. There are some areas of redundancy (such as Commerce Manager overlapping with other administrative areas) that can sometimes cause confusion or offer some functions in one place, whereas other related functions are managed on a completely different page.
Read full review Support Rating We had an incredible team at Episerver Supporting us with the go live, reviewing our integration, and pushing our integration partner to deliver a quality product
Read full review Implementation Rating 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 Fully understand what is OOTB feature of the platform before proceeding to develop. Then implement a customization of key features once you can prove they are working as OOTB to make them more user friendly and productive for the business. Eg pre order and e gift card
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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 Optimizely Commerce Cloud offers a very wide range of features for admin users. There is less a need for an IT specialist or programmer to be involved when changes need to be made.
Read full review Return on Investment 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 Positive: We have a usable website - better than what we had before and we are seeing a constant increase in adoption. Positive: Counter associates are using the website to help customers. Negative: Too much time being spent QCing previous work. Read full review ScreenShots Optimizely Customized Commerce Screenshots