Item: Crownpeak CMS
Rating: 10
Author: Andy Wood

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Crownpeak DXM for website design and build implementations for our client's customer marketing in the UK, Europe, and the USA. Crownpeak delivers on our core customer marketing principles - European GDPR compliance, and the principle of capturing customer data as part of transparent value exchange is baked into the platform. Their partner relationship and technical roles understand what marketers need from a WCMs investment. We're able to collaborate with them to tailor solutions for client best-fit. DXM is composable too, so we have the flexibility of integrations with several best-of-breed APIs across CRM, PIM, DAM, Commerce already in place. The SaaS model, means we get version updates with new features and functions without our developers getting involved in integration and update tasks. We know exactly what year-on-year platform costs will be, so we can plan content marketing and CRM budgets - rather than spending time and money on developer tasks associated with version updates.

Pros and Cons

Due to the headless nature of the platform, publishing is super fast straight to HTML.
One repository of content capable of feeding different applications across different languages.
Flexibility of integrations fits well with the compossible enterprise model

Back end look and feel is a little dated, could do with some updating on interface design.
Navigating content tree's can be a little long winded with deeper content sites, although it's hard to see a way around this.

Return on Investment

Total cost of ownership model has removed nasty upgrade surprises and freed us up to plan and spend budget on customer content marketing.
True SaaS model has removed developer time, effort and cost on version upgrades, reducing total annual cost of ownership.
Flexibility of 3rd party integrations (composable API model) is a cost effective way to avoid the cost and restrictions of single monolithic enterprise systems, so we can be flexible and cost efficient, working with 3rd party investments our clients have in legacy systems.
DQM - content, search and accessibility quality checkpoints - saves time and money on QA and optimisation, as well as ensuring brand safety on key content.

Alternatives Considered

Episerver Digital Experience Cloud

Crownpeak DXM has a better total cost of ownership with a real and straightforward SaaS model for version updates. DXM has a better composable enterprise capability, allowing for easier and more effective API integrations. Crownpeak partner relationships are more open and collaborative with a real working relationship and desire to support our client implementations - this goes beyond the usual software vedor/ digital marketing services relationship and adds a lot of value to our business and our clients end product. DQM quality assurance tools integrate with DXM seamlessly and add a lot of value to QA at website deployment, multiple market rollout, and ongoing optimisation.

Role of Reviewer

Content Author / Administrator

Size of Website Built with Crownpeak CMS

100-1,000 pages

Adaptability

Although it has plenty of 'out the box' features, Crownpeak DXM acts like a headless CMS. It's interoperable with other systems and tools in the customer communications and digital business toolkit, including CRM, PIM, and Commerce tools. This fits well with the composable enterprise model, allowing us to work with the 3rd party systems our clients already have in place and (as long as these legacy systems are 'fit for purpose') composing 'best fit' solutions for our clients needs and saving time and money.

Key Insights

Do you think Crownpeak CMS delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Crownpeak CMS's feature set?

Yes

Did Crownpeak CMS live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Crownpeak CMS go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Crownpeak CMS again?

Yes

Support Rating

Sales, technical and account support have been great for us. Reactive when we have questions, but also proactive in getting involved to understand client requirements from our CX perspective and offer thoughts on interoperability, adaptation and integration possibilities. Developer training was also a good experience, with some very experienced and knowledgable trainers spending quality one on one time with our team.

Usability

DXM could benefit from UI upgrades. Training and experience with the admin tool will overcome any challenges however.

Other Software Used

Salesforce Experience Cloud (formerly Salesforce Community Cloud), Optimizely Content Cloud (formerly Episerver Content Cloud), WordPress

Likelihood to Recommend

Crownpeak DXM is particularly well suited to customer-centric CX Driven digital implementations. It has plenty of 'out the box' features which we use on a regular basis with our clients, but it also acts like a headless CMS with the ability to share content across different platforms and integrate with 'best of breed' CRM, PIM, Commerce tools for example. We work closely with Crownpeak to scope and define CX driven solutions for our clients, and it's especially useful when we need to be interoperable with other systems and tools in the customer communications and digital business toolkit. We've used it in B2C commerce situations, in B2B closed environments, and with brands with large volume product inventory management.

Implementation Rating

SaaS model is perfect for us to avoid slow and costly version updates to get access to new features and functions.
Crownpeak is a true SaaS model, so we get all the good new stuff without the need to invest in effort, time or money.
this frees our teams to focus on content creation and deployment, which is pretty fast because the DXM publishes straight to html through the headless model.

Crownpeak DXM (SaaS, headless, adaptable, interoperable)

Overall Satisfaction with Crownpeak DXP