Item: Optimizely Content Management System
Rating: 8
Author: Bart Johnson

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Ektron CMS serves as the platform for seven of the organization's websites. The sites include a main, general organization identity website, and six smaller sites that support annual events and special interest campaigns. Sites are administered and updated by marketing staff, and a few other line department staff within the organization. The organization adopted Ektron CMS (at version 4) because it was cost-effective, and relatively easy to set up and manage.

Pros and Cons

The system has been very stable and dependable - up-time has been nearly 100%.
Content editing is relatively simple and flexible, and it's easy to include images and video in page layouts.
In user management, security and permissions are flexible and easy to administer. Content approval chains are simple to set up.
The system includes advanced features such as manual or rule-based content aliasing, widget-based page layout, blogging, content rating, and integrated analytics.
Ektron support staff are prompt and helpful when we encounter problems. Unlimited support is offered to licensees.
The system integrates seamlessly with our organization's customer management system for e-commerce.

Content editing has become challenging as new browser versions are released. Some operations of the content editor in v8.6 are unstable with recent versions of IE, Firefox and Chrome, and can cause loss of work if the user is not careful. We hope this will be addressed in the next upgrade. Only other option would be to lock down browser upgrades in our shop, but that doesn't seem safe.
The upgrade process has become more difficult with each new version. We used to perform upgrades and any needed cleanup in-house, but Ektron now recommends having this work done by a partner re-seller, adding significant cost.
Site search was based on index-server until v8.0. It was simple to set up, very reliable and met all our needs. Newer versions are much more complex to setup and require more resources.

Return on Investment

The system was simple enough to be set up and maintained by in-house staff. The initial purchase cost was much lower than competing systems.
System use is reasonably intuitive - it is relatively easy to train new staff and for them to become productive.

Alternatives Considered

RedPoint Data Management,Weblink

Our purchase was years ago, but at the time, Ektron was one of the few full-featured content management systems that fit our organization's budget. Others at the same price-point lacked features and flexibility.

Likelihood to Recommend

We have found the Ektron CMS to be reliable, cost-effective and well suited to our non-profit organization's needs. It was relatively easy to integrate with our customer relations management system for e-commerce. The system has a very long list of features and functionality available. Many of these are wrapped up in modular bundles, which can allow customers to save by purchasing only what they will use. The system may be best suited for shops that are comfortable working with Microsoft SQL and Dot Net framework.

Users and Roles

9 - Marketing, a few line-of-business departments, IT.

Support Headcount Required

Likelihood to Renew

After eight years of use, the Ektron system still works well for our organization. The issues noted elsewhere in this review have been manageable, so-far. In any decision to switch to a different CMS, we would need to factor in the significant cost of conversion of multiple websites, and the re-integration with e-commerce systems. Ektron has rewarded our loyalty by keeping licensing renewal costs very low in comparison to other systems.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Professional services company

Reliability and Availability

Have never had an issue with the Ektron system that caused sites to go offline.

Ektron system serves non-profit

Software Version

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Optimizely Content Cloud (formerly Episerver Content Cloud)