July 08, 2015
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) Review: "One Login to Rule Them All"
Online Training
9
TrustRadius
Adobe Business Catalyst is an all-in-one cloud-hosted system for building and managing web content and on online store. It has a built-in CRM framework, and sales, service, and marketing features including eCommerce and Email Marketing tools. It was acquired by Adobe in 2009, five years after the original company was founded.https://media.trustradius.com/product-logos/u8/3P/RW47J0C8SA3I.pngAdobeOne Login to Rule Them All2014-04-11T16:22:50.145ZWe exclusively use the Business Catalyst platform for all of our web clients. It is an all in one product for hosting, email, email marketing, content management, blogs and ecommerce. Business Catalyst allows our clients to manage all the various system needed to run an successful online business with one login.,Blogs are one of the best ways to generate new content and gain organic rankings with search engines. Business Catalyst's built in blog engine allows users to have their blog resident on their website instead of having to maintain to two sites. This helps to keep the website fresh and builds SEO.
Business Catalyst provides a comprehensive Email Marketing module. Users can create and schedule email series. BC also allows for other modules to be placed within the email so that as you update content on your website you are also populating your email newsletter.
Although not a feature of Business Catalyst itself, there is a great community of BC partners that support one another. The community shares their knowledge and successes as well as their trials and tribulations. The community happily welcomes new partners without condition or judgement. Through the knowledge shared partners can learn about the platform itself, site building in general, tips on working with clients and how to build their own business.
Business Catalyst support is excellent. Being able to chat with support in real time while you are talking a client through a problem is a great asset.
The Web Apps module is a powerful feature which allows users to add content to the site while locking in the design. Users simply fill out a form and the information is added to the site perfectly formatted.
The ability to replicate sites allows partners to reproduce a successful site thereby reducing build time and increasing productivity and profits.,The learning curve can be steep.
There is no access to the server side programming so some functionality needs a work around or cannot be accomplished.
It is more expensive for users than many of the other website options.,10,Business Catalyst provides partners and clients a single system to learn and maintain. No need to constantly switch gears to remember who has what CMS which makes support more efficient.
Business Catalyst has made it possible to create and launch sites in less time thus increasing profitability.
Business Catalyst is a large investment in the beginning about monetarily and in learning the system. It may not affordable to smaller agencies.,WordPress,3,10,Implemented in-house,9,No,10,One client wanted to take their site live on a weekday. I usually take sites live just before or after work hours on Friday in case there is a hiccup so business won't be interrupted.
This client also had chosen to host their email with Business Catalyst. BC actually employs a third party for email which partners cannot directly access.
Because we had never before taken a site live mid-week we were unaware that the email provider severely limits the number of outgoing emails for the first 24 hours to guard against spammers. Our client's email was pretty much shut down after a couple of hours because he had reached the limit. He was unable to conduct business.
I contacted support via online chat, described the problem and within an hour had the email provider increase the limit for the rest of the day. The client was able to continue his work and I looked like a hero. Yay!,8Pauline KrausAdobe BC - Get your business online quickly2015-07-07T17:11:25.771ZWe use Adobe Business Catalyst for our own website. We also help other companies get their businesses online using Adobe Business Catalyst.,Get a website online quickly
Build small databases quickly
Train end-users to use BC quickly
Build web galleries quickly,Need to be able to build a relational database inside BC
Need to be able to easily reference outside links in BC
Cancelling a website isn't always easy,7,Faster website deployment
Better organization since we can keep most clients under the same umbrella
Adobe brand recognition,WordPress,Joomla!,Developer,10-100 pages,2,2,Real estate websites
Charity website
Online stores,Manage our own website,Integrating MLS solutions into websites
Integrating other 3rd party solutions into our websites,9,Yes,Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Existing Relationship with the Vendor
Third-party Reviews,Wouldn't change anything with selection process,Implemented in-house,No,Change management was minimal,Occasional issues creating databases
Most issues are client-related,8,Online training
Self-taught,9,Easy to use; we provide training to our clients,7,No,There have been times when there was a desperate situation (aren't they all) with clients and support chat has come to the rescue quickly.,Galleries
Creating new pages
Creating menus,Email campaigns
Web apps can be complex depending on various factors,Yes,8,8,9,9,9,9,Billing, invoicing, and reselling,Yes,Better features
Better organization,integrating with 3rd party products,Yes,NoJerry Dever
Unspecified
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
60 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>
