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What’s Changed: 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms

What's Changed: 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms

What's Changed: 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms

The editors at Solutions Review highlight what’s changed since the last iteration of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms and provide an analysis of the new report.

Analyst house Gartner, Inc. recently released the 2019 version of its Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms. DXP covers technology that supports an organization’s efforts to digitize certain aspects of its business to provide better customer experiences. This type of technology has evolved from CMS, portal servers, and commerce servers.

High-quality DXP solutions feature a breadth of access, integration, and multi-channel continuity to ensure a holistic approach throughout a customer’s journey. DXP supports multiple use cases, including B2B, B2C, and B2E. Not every company needs this kind of technology, but brands with a business stake in digital spaces and brands with multiple touchpoints will benefit from this type of platform.

DXP is an up-and-coming, rapidly growing market. This results in vendors having considerably different definitions of what DXP is and great variance in their feature offerings and general software approach. It’s important to realize that no two vendors will be alike in this early market state, and choosing an appropriate DXP platform is a highly personal decision. It’s important to consider the future of your business and how your chosen platform will serve your business as it grows.

DXP solutions have evolved into two separate camps: vendors that offer a versatile centralized platform and vendors that have developed a core DXP experience that requires additional tools and components. Gartner predicts that “through 2021, 85% of effort and cost in a DXP program will be spent on integrations with internal and external systems, including the DXP’s own, built-in capabilities. By 2021, 90% of global organizations will rely on system integrators (SIs), agencies, and channel partners to design, build and implement their digital experience strategies.”

As is frequently occurring across numerous digital marketspaces, many DXPs have begun incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning into their products. This helps maintain cross-channel support through web and mobile and upcoming technologies like wearables, conversational interfaces, and VR/AR. It’s also clear that cloud-based technology is becoming more important within the market, as several companies investing in cloud-based technology have seen significant growth in their Magic Quadrant standings.

What’s Changed: 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms


In this Magic Quadrant, Gartner evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of 17 providers that it considers most significant in the marketplace and provides readers with a graph (the Magic Quadrant) plotting the vendors based on their ability to execute and their completeness of vision. The graph is divided into four quadrants: Niche Players, Challengers, Visionaries, and Leaders. At Solutions Review, we read the report, available here, and pulled out the key takeaways.

Gartner adjusts its evaluation and inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as software markets evolve. As a result, the following solutions have been removed for no longer meeting Gartner’s inclusion thresholds: censhare, GX Software, Jahia, and Oxycon.

IBM maintains its position in the leadership quadrant with its innovative focus on reliable and scalable cloud capabilities. Its Watson Content Hub now incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning in features like automated personalization and auto-tagging. In addition to growing vertically, Salesforce has managed to make the leap from Challenger to Leader with its Community Cloud and Lightning Platform. Its DXP also features a new WCM capability, as well as integration possibilities for third-party WCM tools. Salesforce will continue to see further growth if it continues advancing with its completeness of vision. Sitecore continues to innovate on its multichannel strategy with headless/head-optional approaches. Adobe’s focus on customer data standardization is evident in its Data Science Workspace and Experience System of Record programs. Liferay maintains satisfied customers with an active open-source community and flexible DXP architecture to allow for customized experiences.

Microsoft maintains its position at the top of the Challenger category with the popularity of SharePoint and Office 365 within Microsoft Cloud, especially within B2E use cases. Microsoft Teams, along with Graph, adds cross-channel presence and swift data access. Oracle is right behind Microsoft with its range of clouds and modules for a multi-faceted DXP solution. Oracle is taking advantage of market demands by further incorporating cloud capabilities in many of its solutions. Its wide range of products and breadth of solutions will benefit organizations looking for vendors with a large suite of resources. SAP continues to capitalize on its strong geographical presence, and its platform is compatible with multiple clouds.

OpenText sits right behind SAP and has fully established itself in the WCM market with its comprehensive TeamSite solution. Acquia offers a wide variety of functionalities that support B2C use cases, and its partner network continues to grow. This will be helpful for clients looking for region-specific availability.

Episerver has gained vertical and horizontal growth, now toeing the line between Visionary and Leader. With a comprehensive and modular set of capabilities, this is a solution well suited for B2C and some B2B use cases. Insight Venture Partners acquired Episerver in late 2018. BloomReach is gaining lateral traction, with flexible features that allow for quick responses to market demands. It has a greater ease of implementation relative to other vendors and is particularly useful in straightforward B2C use cases. BloomReach continues to expand its existing Hippo user community, active in Western Europe.

CoreMedia is transitioning to a more comprehensive DXP vision with its Content Cloud, showing growth in product maturity and marketing understanding. Its clean and intuitive UI will greatly benefit non-technical users, and its combination of features will fit a variety of B2C use cases.

SDL takes strides towards linguistics-driven AI, which pairs nicely with its editorial support and other content management capabilities. SDL had been head to head with Crownpeak but has managed to slip ahead with some gain in the “ability to execute” ranking. Kentico Software continues to expand from its European roots and is actively boosting its partner network. Squiz offers well-rounded solutions for customers in government, higher education, publishing, and utility industries.

Read Gartner’s Magic Quadrant Report. 

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