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HCL Digital Experience vs. Knova vs. RWS Tridion Sites

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HCL Digital Experience

    Score9.9 out of 10
    N/AHCL Digital Experience is based on the former IBM Web Content Manager and IBM WebSphere Portal products, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in late 2018. The product allows the user to create, manage and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile, and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).N/A

    Knova

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AKnova KM is a full-featured knowledge management software solution for large customer service and support organizations, especially those that must handle complex queries across channels in industries such as high tech, telecommunications, financial services, and the IT help desk. It was supported by Avolin, the company created from the sale of Aptean Vertical Business Applications to ESW Capital in 2018, and is now part of IgniteTech.N/A

    RWS Tridion Sites

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ARWS Tridion Sites provides web content management capabilities, connecting people, processes, and information across teams, brands, and markets, to deliver impactful online experiences globally. RWS Tridion Sites' DPX platform enables the use of either traditional or headless publishing. It includes advanced features such as automated personalization, multilingual capabilities and Semantic AI. The BluePrinting® technology at the core of RWS Tridion Sites simplifies reuse and…N/A
    Pricing
    HCL Digital ExperienceKnovaRWS Tridion Sites
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL Digital ExperienceKnovaRWS Tridion Sites
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    HCL Digital ExperienceKnovaRWS Tridion Sites
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of HCL Digital Experience and Knova and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    HCL Digital Experience
    5.0
    5 Ratings
    47% below category average
    Knova
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    9.0
    9 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Role-based user permissions5.05 Ratings00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of HCL Digital Experience and Knova and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    HCL Digital Experience
    4.1
    5 Ratings
    64% below category average
    Knova
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    9.1
    8 Ratings
    15% above category average
    API4.14 Ratings00 Ratings8.36 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language4.15 Ratings00 Ratings10.07 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of HCL Digital Experience and Knova and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    HCL Digital Experience
    2.9
    5 Ratings
    84% below category average
    Knova
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    8.5
    8 Ratings
    8% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor7.04 Ratings00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness3.15 Ratings00 Ratings8.07 Ratings
    Admin section3.15 Ratings00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Page templates1.15 Ratings00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Library of website themes1.15 Ratings00 Ratings8.24 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design4.04 Ratings00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
    Publishing workflow1.14 Ratings00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Form generator3.02 Ratings00 Ratings8.33 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of HCL Digital Experience and Knova and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    HCL Digital Experience
    1.9
    5 Ratings
    111% below category average
    Knova
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    7.6
    8 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Content taxonomy1.15 Ratings00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
    SEO support2.15 Ratings00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
    Bulk management2.13 Ratings00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions2.14 Ratings00 Ratings8.35 Ratings
    Community / comment management2.13 Ratings00 Ratings3.03 Ratings
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    HCL Digital ExperienceKnovaRWS Tridion Sites
    Small Businesses
    Yext
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Bloomfire
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    HCL Digital ExperienceKnovaRWS Tridion Sites
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.9
    (22 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    5.7
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.3
    (15 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL Digital ExperienceKnovaRWS Tridion Sites
    Likelihood to Recommend
    HCLSoftware
    HCL DX does really well at managing and maintaining the site. It allows the business to basically maintain the site while IT spent time developing new and enhanced functions. The main issue I currently have with HCL DX is not directly with the product but it does play a role. It is difficult finding skilled resources to support HCL DX in my experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    We expereienced an upgrade by Aptean in March 2014 and it actually created issues with our interfaces to Word and well as performance issues. As of November, we have most of the performance issues resolved, however our interface with Word is still not working. It takes alot of upfront work to convert with Word and with the upgrade that was affected. Authors are still frustrated with many issues in the formatting and editing of existing data. A vital tool to update the product home pages has not been available except for sporadic late night periods since the upgrade in March. Overall, many authors are not happy with this knowledge management tool
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    Love the product and I really like how we use it for public sites. The only negative aspect is that it is just hard to find Tridion devs that understand the tool, grasp .net, react, and understand the blueprint, etc.
    Read full review
    Pros
    HCLSoftware
    • With Version 8.5, IBM Web Content Manager introduced in place editing capabilities which allow authors to make content edits on sections of the page instead of going to the content itself. This feature allows authors to make changes in context of the page and preview changes within the actual look and feel of a live page.
    • Projects provide a collaborative atmosphere for the author community so that authors can interact and work as a team to manage inter-dependent content changes under one project and publish all changes at once, instead of working separately on individual content changes. This brings awareness across authors in an organization and easy knowledge share.
    • IBM Digital Data Connector is a cool feature that allows [users] to integrate external content sources onto the portal using IBM Web Content Manager presentation components. This allows UI/UX designers to present integrated external data in any manner they want, manage UI changes with an underlying approval process and leverage syndication to push changes live immediately.
    • IBM Web Content Manager offers a targeted content feature that allows business users to deliver personalized content to customers based on customer demographic information, browsing history and other transaction related information. Any rules created follow the publishing process thereby making it just a configurable item resulting in less turn around to turn on the feature on a website.
    • IBM Web Content Manager offers 'multi lingual solution' out of the box which allows content creation for almost all popular languages.
    • Syndication feature has improved a lot and it now provides a detailed views comprising of 'failed items', 'items that have syndicated successfully, 'items in queue'. Failed items view provides detailed and clear cut information of what resulted in failure helping IT to troubleshoot problems easily.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    • Aptean offers simple access to Knowledge Management for our Clients, Customer Support teams as well as internal support teams. Allows our knowledge management team the ability to provide consistent and up-to-date processes and troubleshooting tips for our associates as well as ADP Clients.
    • Aptean provides an easy to use user interface with tools for authors that mimic Microsoft Word (Cut, Paste, Spell Check, Bullets, Indentation etc). It also provides an easy to user user interface for our associates in accessing the Knowledge Management solutions. The Search tool is very powerful and allows the users quick access to the information they need!
    • In the more than 3 years that we have been using Consona/Aptean, we have had very little down time. This is important to our authors as well as end users in being able to access the information. Allowing the authors the ability to update the information in near real time is another key feature of keeping our information current.
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    • Makes it easy to spin up a new site quickly
    • Allows for numerous users to work on the same site without conflicting with each other's changes
    • Allows you to unpublish changes or revert to old versions if you make a mistake
    • Allows you to time publishing actions (for example, you can set it to happen overnight)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    HCLSoftware
    • IBM Web Content Manager should provide some easily usable connectors through a GUI to connect to bring content from custom data sources including connecting to Salesforce and custom databases.
    • Should further optimize and enhance creation of rich and responsive content driven UIs on various digital channels.
    • Should further optimize and enhance content personalization features.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    • We have experienced some slowness with importing pictures into our Aptean application. While they do eventually complete, it is very timeconsuming when several images are needed. Definitely tries our patience, or consider not including them at all!
    • Some of the formatting issues transfering our information from Word to Aptean are still challenging and require too much manual intervention than necessary.
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    • Tridion is complicated in enough ways that it makes it difficult to train new users. Therefore, we have to limit the number of people with access to the system since we have not yet implemented Workflow.
    • When something goes wrong (items fail to publish, or there is unexpected behavior with components), there is little explanation provided that would point us in the right direction to troubleshoot. As a result, content Authors and Editors have to frequently ask for IT assistance.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    HCLSoftware
    IBM products always moves forward to adapt to new requirements and technologies. I have used versions 6, 6.1, 7 and 8 of IBM WCM, and I know IBM is ready to revamp the tool based on emerging needs, and still provide the capabilities to migrate your old system to the newer versions.
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    Many business units are using the Aptean product for knowledge management and a change now would be too crucial to the processes that the associates are becoming familiar with using. We have spent a lot of time promoting our Aptean Knowledge Management tool and interfaced it with our call tracking system.
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    I am giving this a semi-high rating because we have already got Tridion up and running and we are still in the process of moving the sites over to Tridion. It is unlikely we will be moving things to a new CMS AGAIN in the near future as the cost to get Tridion was high.
    Read full review
    Usability
    HCLSoftware
    New versions has increased user experience facilitating usability.
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    No answers on this topic
    RWS Group
    The editor user interface is very user friendly and in-site editing makes simple updates fast and easy. The extensibility of Tridion is a big plus and the ability to add our own options into the default Tridion interface helps us integrate with external systems. Finally, the user permissions and security system helps us deploy it within our large organization.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    HCLSoftware
    We had some issues related with performing and the support was suitable and sucessful.
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    No answers on this topic
    RWS Group
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    HCLSoftware
    Implementation was successful due to Websphere application server used.
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    No answers on this topic
    RWS Group
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    HCLSoftware
    Magento and Prestashop are E-commerce CMS platforms. They are used in a different scale of application than WCM.
    Concerning Joomla, it's a useful CMS forsmaller website. Once again this is an other scale of application than WCM Liveray can compete WCM 7 concerning the : ¤ specific development ¤ security ¤ responsive
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    No answers on this topic
    RWS Group
    It is a nuclear missile compared to the other handguns and knives on the market today. But it also requires nuclear technicians and expertise that a handgun doesn't require. Do you need to decimate your competition and you have the investment capabilities necessary to put a nuclear missile into the sky? Then definitely do it. Especially if you need a very good multi-lingual blueprint provider like Tridion.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    HCLSoftware
    • Negative: Very complex architecture for on-premise deployments (too many servers to installed)
    • Positive: Easy customization
    • Negative: Architecture limited to cloud solutions
    • WCM is an old product and needs an update
    • Blog, and community are not integrated in Digital Manager for discussion
    • Templates are not available to integrate basic services (FileNet, more complex BPM , e-commerce)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IgniteTech
    • Increased Employee Effciency adding ability to look up processes and troubleshooting tips is invaluable.
    • Ability to share information with our Client Facing interface, which results in better customer service. Encouraging ADP associates and clients to become more self sufficient is what we're all about!
    • Ability to keep the information current with the effciency of the product.
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    • SDL is a very complex system. Creating custom components by external vendors turned out to be expensive.
    • The learning curve is very slow, so training takes a lot of time and cost.
    • The revamped corporate site looks clean, modern, and is mobile-friendly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots