Spotlight

Report:

The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q1 2023

How does Forrester define the Content Platforms market in 2023?

Cloud-first, flexible platforms now dominate the mature content management market. Technical buyers invest in these platforms to deliver apps for document management, content-rich process automation, and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. Investment remains steady with 67% of software decision-makers expecting to increase ECM spend. Business and technology leaders seek to extract more value from content repositories through intelligent content services that identify metadata, automate processes, and surface knowledge. Generative AI is inspiring experimentation and disruption of core authoring and search capabilities.

Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q1 2023 in 2023

How did the Content Platforms market evolve in 2023?

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

What are the common features of top products in the Content Platforms space?

No common features specified.

Scope Exclusions

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting

Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates the 13 most significant content platform providers using 26 criteria grouped into three categories: Current offering (50% weighting including capabilities like search, metadata, lifecycle management, collaboration, process automation, and AI/ML services), Strategy (50% weighting including product vision, execution roadmap, partner ecosystem, market approach, and commercial model), and Market presence (based on product revenue and number of customers). The evaluation focuses on cloud-first platforms designed for large enterprises with more than 5,000 employees.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: Technology management professionals and technical buyers should use this research when selecting or evaluating content platform providers for their organizations. It helps buyers understand how each vendor measures up across critical capabilities, assess vendor strategies and roadmaps, compare positioning of Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Challengers, and make informed decisions based on their specific requirements for document management, content-rich process automation, collaboration, and intelligent content services.

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: Vendors must have minimum product revenue of $40 million or company revenue of $500 million; focus on large enterprises (5,000+ employees) with global capabilities; maintain an active go-to-market strategy specifically for content platforms; offer a cloud-first platform with cloud-first roadmap; and demonstrate relevance to Forrester clients by regularly appearing on shortlists for content platform purchases or modernization initiatives.

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

A:

  • Product revenue below $40 million and company revenue below $500 million
  • Not designed for or unable to serve large enterprises with 5,000+ employees
  • Lack of active go-to-market strategy specifically for content platforms
  • No cloud-first offering or cloud-first roadmap
  • Not regularly included on Forrester client shortlists for content platform purchases
  • Declined to participate in the evaluation
  • Only partially participated in the evaluation

Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?

A:

  • Invest in expertise and packaged applications for vertical markets with rigorous governance, lifecycle management, data residency, and security requirements
  • Evaluate roadmaps that reach into adjacent markets (collaboration, low-code/no-code, digital signature, process automation, AI/ML, pretrained models)
  • Ensure support for hybrid and anywhere work as part of digital workplace strategy
  • Look for providers that can deliver apps to manage documents, automate content-rich processes, and enable collaboration
  • Consider vendor depth of expertise with specific industry needs and breadth of packaged apps and solution templates
  • Evaluate packaged integrations for vertical-specific applications
  • Assess ability to extract value from content repositories through intelligent services

Q: How has the Content Platforms market evolved in 2023?

A:

  • Cloud-first, flexible platforms dominating the mature ECM market
  • Steady investment in content management (67% expect increased spend)
  • Focus on extracting more value from content repositories
  • Vendors building intelligent content services to identify/extract metadata, automate processes, and surface knowledge
  • Generative AI inspiring experimentation and disruption of core authoring and search capabilities
  • Support for hybrid and anywhere work as part of digital workplace
  • Delivery of roadmaps reaching into adjacent markets (collaboration, low-code/no-code, digital signature, process automation, AI/ML)
  • Investment in expertise and packaged applications for vertical markets
  • Enhanced requirements for governance, lifecycle management, data residency, and security in regulated industries

Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?

A: Current Offering (50% weighting) evaluates the strength of each vendor's platform capabilities including search, metadata, lifecycle management, integration, collaboration, process automation, app development tools, and intelligent content services. Strategy (50% weighting) evaluates the vendor's vision, roadmap execution, market approach, partner ecosystem, supporting services, and commercial model. Market Presence is represented by marker size and reflects content platform product revenue and customer count.

Reference

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