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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HCL Unica

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AHCL Unica is available as a cloud or on-premise solution that provides fully integrated marketing automation software for enterprise. It includes enterprise marketing automation tools that optimize marketing activities, to ensure excellent customer experiences and data privacy.N/A

    Plone

    Score10 out of 10
    N/APlone is a free and open source content management system built on top of the Zope application server. Plone can be used for any kind of website, including blogs, internet sites, webshops, and internal websites.N/A
    Pricing
    HCL UnicaPlone
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL UnicaPlone
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    HCL UnicaPlone
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.6
    3 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Plone
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG email editor9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic content9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Landing pages9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    List management9.53 Ratings00 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.7
    2 Ratings
    20% above category average
    Plone
    -
    Ratings
    Lead nurturing automation9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data quality management9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead segmentation and distribution9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.4
    2 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Plone
    -
    Ratings
    Calendaring9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.7
    2 Ratings
    25% above category average
    Plone
    -
    Ratings
    Social sharing and campaigns9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social profile integration9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.7
    2 Ratings
    26% above category average
    Plone
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.6
    2 Ratings
    23% above category average
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    25% above category average
    API9.73 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    9.4
    6 Ratings
    18% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings5.05 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of HCL Unica and Plone
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    9.4
    5 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HCL UnicaPlone
    Small Businesses
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Iterable
    Score8.2 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HCL UnicaPlone
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (19 ratings)
    10.0
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (13 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL UnicaPlone
    Likelihood to Recommend
    HCLSoftware
    I think it is wel suited for a business with a lot of one on one relations in the database. For example a supermarket that sells products to a client and gives a reduction on that product. It is nice if the selection process is not to complex and does not involve to many calculations. It is also nice if it is very clear what you want to follow up. In our environment we have lots of many-to-many relations. for example one product is held by more then one client. And that client might have more of those products with other clients. These kind of situation demands for a lot of calculations with derived fields(*), and there things go far too slow. Unica is probably not such a good solution for us, because our environment is too complex, and so is to process of creating the selection, we often have to change things in the selection flows. Because of the complexity it is difficult to see what the flow is exactly doing afterwoods, it also takes to much time to modify existing campaigns. The interface is not handy to work with, if you have long lists of variables, of tables or derived fields(*) you have to scroll through trough them, you can not really search them or reorder them. You can not drag and drop fields or other objects like derived fields in the flow, what would be easy if you have to make frequent changes to the proces flow. When you copy objects something the content of the object changes because the links with other objects or lost. (*) derived field: field to calculate something
    Read full review
    Plone
    The larger your organization, the more appropriate Plone will be. This is not to say that Plone is a worse choice for small websites, only that the minimum investment for a Plone site is certainly higher than for other platforms. If you already use Plone for your site and are looking for a redesign or an overhaul, I would only advise switching to a different platform such as WordPress or Drupal if your organization is downsizing. For any other situation, Plone is the natural choice for your growth.
    Read full review
    Pros
    HCLSoftware
    • Ability to translate Multiple SQL queries into a very easy to use visual GUI.
    • Provides the ability to pre-define segments, run them once in off hours, store them in their own system tables for quick youth and a significant reduction in CPU utilization on the database.
    • It’s use of Reusable objects. Including user variables to pre-define calculations one time, macros that you can create and pass values to parameterize the SQL code And the creation of templates to easily replicate work.
    • It’s ability to bring in external data on the fly that can very easily be mapped into any flowchart.
    • It’s flexibility and creating UNIX script via triggers to automate sending of files to multiple vendors with different FTP sites
    • It’s flexibility in the output layouts that it can create.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    • Plone is a folder-based system, organising content in a similar way desktop-users are doing for the last two decades. No need to teach non-tech customers some relational-database like paradigm for content management.
    • Plone is secure. It is the most secure CMS you can get your hands on.
    • Plone is flexible, and makes fast development easy.
    Read full review
    Cons
    HCLSoftware
    • Greater integration of real time (Interact) capabilities with outbound channels, in particular IBM eMessage Email & SMS delivery.
    • Additional outbound channels to be integrated into eMessage, including Facebook Fanpage & Twitter DM broadcasts. At the moment these are possible only through custom additional integration.
    • Support for additional marketing database technology, e.g. MySQL, Exasol, ParAccel, WX2.
    • Provision of database technology with software purchase, as Web technology (IBM WebSphere Express) is supplied for free, but no database is supplied - since IBM also market DB2, which is a supported technology it seems a shame.
    Read full review
    Plone
    • Not everything is configurable or editable by Plone, and when you need to adjust or add custom pieces in, you need to deal with Zope. Zope has an ugly, confusing and difficult UI and structure as a backend.
    • Using 3rd party products is difficult to do - there are a few different ways to get them installed, all of which take a bit of luck to get right.
    • Building custom products for Plone is not fun. You've got to deal with an archaic framework to tie in that is not well documented (there is documentation about many things, but not great documentation and there are a lot of holes in the documentation).
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    HCLSoftware
    There are three main factors to renew a licence: 1) Cost to migrate to another platform would be rather expensive and time consuming, plus the requirement of retraining employees to use a new tool 2) It has been proven time and time again that it is a market leader in the space (10 years +) 3) It can be built upon, with the addition of additional IBM EMM modules - despite theories it does have very strong digital capabilities.
    Read full review
    Plone
    We have critical systems running on Plone so will need it in the future.
    Free to use since its Open source, so we don't have to worry about licence costs.
    We know how to use and develop Plone and it has no limits.
    Read full review
    Usability
    HCLSoftware
    Unica provides functionality that is very simple and easy to use. For reporting, we can see Unica system tables. Contact history table, response history tables. We have all the information in one place. Performance-wise, Unica also handles large volumes of data and can run a 5-million-record campaign within minutes. This is something great.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    Compared to the amount of Plone sites, users and customizations we have in our organization, the amount of support requests and training needed is really small.
    The new user interface in Plone 6 is even better, it is super fast, has lots of different blocks for enhancing the page, has flexible layout system and is easy to extend with more features.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    Our Plone sites are very robust. We have critical systems on Plone and we have been running sites on Plone for over 20 years with very little unexpected downtime.
    Read full review
    Performance
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    Plone is very intensive in its operations, and if not configured well it can be slow. However it is designed and built with speed in mind and with proper use of coding, templates and caching can perform extremely well under high loads. It is capable of scaling to very high load availability environments with no specific coding requirements.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    HCLSoftware
    I didn't use the Unica support since it is with IBM, only before.
    Read full review
    Plone
    There are not too many Plone companies in the world. But the ones who are, are high level professionals
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    I have been participating Plone training and the trainers have always been professional. Materials were good and the instructions clear
    Read full review
    Online Training
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    Well organized, professional training with good materials and instructions
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    HCLSoftware
    - We had to rebuild a part of the datamart afterwards to tighten up and simplify the selection process. But as it was too time consuming to rebuild all the existing campaigns, we no run campaigns on different versions of the datamart. - The response tracking of the campaigns never worked out well, it was impossible to implement a direct response where there is a link between the lead and the response in our operational process
    Read full review
    Plone
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    HCLSoftware
    The contact history and the response history are so powerful. You can track whatever you want to help the call center to push relevant offers to our customer. In addition, predictive models can be built, with patience, in IBM Campaign. If you have some complaints from the call center about any campaigns, you can easily validate it into the contact or response history.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    Drupal: Plone is cheaper, so with Drupal is more complex to reach the required ROI. However, Drupal has a lower learning curve WordPress: For our necessities it has a more expensive learning curve than plone. Joomla, is easier to use. However, it have some issues on security and web content where Plone is much better
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    Plone has no limits. We have massive sites and can run them just fine
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    HCLSoftware
    • It helps my clients drive their business which in turn, drives more profit for them.
    • It helps my clients determine what works, and what doesn't work, in terms of their social marketing campaigns.
    • It helps navigate proper budgeting through determining what clients' users respond to, and what they find unique.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    • The impact Plone has had at the University of Oshkosh is as follows: this software allows student workers to learn about IT departments and CMS's in a user-friendly way. It gives many students great jobs that look great on their resumes.
    • Since there are great training manuals for Plone, there is increased employee efficient in the workplace. Training doesn't take long, and if there's ever a question, the Plone manual is a great tool to refer to.
    • If an employee using Plone quits, its easy to find someone to replace them with quick training and great resources.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    HCL Unica Screenshots

    Screenshot of HCL Unica Deliver is the email marketing and messaging execution module of the HCL Unica platform.

Its scalable digital messaging engine helps enterprise marketers design, personalize, and send high-volume, data-driven communications across multiple customer engagement channels.

It’s built for complex and compliant omni-channel campaigns with advanced segmentation, behavioral triggers, and real-time customer data.

Key channels supported include:
• Email — for personalized bulk and trigger-based mailings.
• SMS — send text messages to mobile subscribers.
• WhatsApp — conversational and promotional messaging.
• In-app and Push notifications — mobile push alerts via apps.