Skip to main content

Digital Transformation

Gartner PCC – Using Generation 7 Portals to Engage Customers

Jim Murphy and Ray Valdes are presenting on the topic of Generation 7 Portals.  Portals have been around since 1998 and have evolved over 7 generations according to Jim.  Gen 7 Portals include the following features, which have been built on the previous generations:

  • Analytics
  • Portal-less Portals
  • Context aware
  • Portal ubiquity
  • Emerging UXP
  • Widgets dominate
  • Mobile dominates

Both speakers dove into the demand drivers for Gen 7 Portals and include the following concepts:

  • Context aware computing
    • Context will be as influential to mobile consumer services and relationships as search engines are to the web
    • Includes identity, community, intent, environment contexts
    • This is personalization on steroids.
  • Common optimization processes
    • Multivariate testing
    • Profiling and segmenation
    • Personalized content management
    • Advertising
    • Visit Remarkting
    • Cross channel integration
  • High level of social analysis
  • Public APIs and Widgets
  • Responsive Web design and implementation

Jim and Ray hit on a key topic that I am interested in and in which I receive lots of questions from our customers:  When to use a portal versus a web content management system versus and ecommerce system?

Unfortunately, there is not a clean, clear-cut answer to this question.  We do a lot of strategic analysis to help customers answer this question because the answer depends on each customer’s unique needs.  Gartner’s advice is that you should invest in a single foundation and compliment it where necessary.  Few companies should invest in more than one foundation. Most companies should buy a platform rather than try to build it themselves.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mark Polly

Mark Polly is Perficient's Chief Strategist for Customer Experience Platforms. He works to create great customer, partner, and employee experiences. Mark specializes in web content management, portal, search, CRM, marketing automation, customer service, collaboration, social networks, and more.

More from this Author

Follow Us
TwitterLinkedinFacebookYoutubeInstagram