Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms, Q2 2024
How does Forrester define the Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms market in 2024?
Customer journey orchestration (CJO) is the heart of the journey-centric technology stack, connecting journeys and fostering data-driven decision-making based on customer paths and perceptions. The market is driven by two major customer challenges: 1) integrating data sources for real-time, unified views to uncover cross-channel issues and opportunities, and 2) hyperpersonalizing conversational journeys for evolving customers. Vendors are investing heavily in generative AI to extract meaning across richer data sources, making platforms more accessible to diverse stakeholders. The evaluation assessed nine providers across 30 criteria, categorizing them as Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Challengers based on current offering strength and strategic vision.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms, Q2 2024 in 2024
- Publication Date: 09-Jun-2024
- Document ID:
- Summary: In our 30-criterion evaluation of customer journey orchestration (CJO) providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps CX professionals select the right one for their needs.
- Authors: Joana de Quintanilha, Martin Gill, Tope Olufon, Sara Sjoblom, Demi Starks
How did the Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms market evolve in 2024?
- CJO is the heart of the journey-centric technology stack, connecting journeys and fostering data-driven decision-making
- Two biggest customer challenges: 1) integrating data sources for real-time unified customer journey views, and 2) hyperpersonalizing conversational journeys
- CJO vendors investing heavily in generative AI to extract meaning across richer data sources
- GenAI makes platforms more accessible to diverse stakeholders for understanding journey success, friction, and frustration
- Nine vendors evaluated: Alterian, CSG, Engage Hub, Genesys, inQuba, Medallia, Qualtrics, Quantum Metric, and Roojoom
- Evaluation based on 30 criteria across current offering, strategy, and market presence
- Key purchase considerations: seamless data integration, responsible AI adoption, and journey optimization aligned with business goals
- Predictive AI and machine learning have been key criteria since 2018; genAI now dominates discussions
- Growing focus on measuring journey outcomes, health, and profitability beyond typical metrics like NPS
- Vendors offering out-of-the-box data integrations, preloaded market data, and orchestration playbooks for faster time to value
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- A comprehensive journey orchestration platform with core capabilities required for journey orchestration (e.g., data fusion, journey discovery, journey testing and optimization, and journey automation and orchestration) with a proprietary, productized software platform
- Provided evidence of its journey orchestration customers' success with the platform, including employee and partner workflow automation and orchestration
- Access to a wide range of data sources to perform journey orchestration on multiple journeys across the customer lifecycle (not exclusively focused on marketing or digital)
- Strong customer interest demonstrated through Forrester client inquiries, consulting engagements, media requests, and market impact queries
What are the common features of top products in the Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Vendors offering one-off, custom-coded journey analytics systems based on loosely integrated disparate technologies varying from client to client
- Vendors that only offer services on top of another vendor's software without proprietary platform
- Vendors exclusively focused on marketing or digital channels without access to wide range of data sources
- Vendors without standalone journey orchestration platform capabilities
- Vendors unable to provide concrete evidence of customer success with employee and partner workflow automation and orchestration
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- A comprehensive journey orchestration platform with core capabilities (data fusion, journey discovery, testing/optimization, automation/orchestration)
- Proprietary, productized software platform (not custom-coded or service-based)
- Provided evidence of customer success with journey orchestration
- Access to wide range of data sources across customer lifecycle
- Strong customer interest demonstrated through Forrester client inquiries
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Connecting data across sources — 4%
- Identity resolution and privacy — 4%
- Customer journey analytics — 4%
- Business operations intelligence — 5%
- Journey discovery and storytelling — 5%
- Journey hierarchy, strategy optimization — 8%
- Journey path and success analysis — 8%
- Business impact, journey ROI analysis — 8%
- Journey building, simulation, and testing — 4%
- Predictive journey AI — 4%
- Generative AI — 4%
- Real-time decisioning — 8%
- Customer journey orch. across channels — 4%
- Cross-journey orchestration — 4%
- Employee, partner journey orchestration — 4%
- Dynamic content personalization — 2%
- Cross-silo collaboration and usability — 4%
- Employee and partner workflow automation — 4%
- Data integration — 4%
- Security — 4%
- Scalability — 4%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 20%
- Innovation — 15%
- Roadmap — 15%
- Partner ecosystem — 15%
- Adoption — 15%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 10%
- Community — 10%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research provides a comprehensive evaluation of the nine most significant customer journey orchestration (CJO) platform providers using 30 criteria. It examines vendors' current offerings, strategies, and market presence to help CX professionals understand how each provider measures up in their ability to integrate data sources, deliver AI-powered insights, enable real-time decisioning, and orchestrate personalized customer journeys across channels.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: CX professionals, marketing leaders, digital teams, and technology decision-makers should use this research when evaluating and selecting a customer journey orchestration platform. It is particularly valuable for organizations looking to: 1) integrate multiple data sources for unified customer journey views, 2) implement AI-powered journey personalization and optimization, 3) measure journey outcomes beyond basic completion metrics, 4) orchestrate customer, employee, and partner journeys, and 5) accelerate their journey-centric transformation initiatives.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: All vendors must offer: 1) A comprehensive, proprietary journey orchestration platform supporting core capabilities including data fusion, journey discovery, journey testing/optimization, and journey automation/orchestration; 2) The ability to access wide-ranging data sources (CX, marketing, operational) to orchestrate multiple journeys across the customer lifecycle, not exclusively marketing or digital; 3) Concrete evidence of customer success including employee and partner workflow automation; 4) Strong market reputation demonstrated through Forrester client interest via inquiries, consulting engagements, and media requests.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Offering consists of custom-coded, one-off analytics systems rather than productized platform
- Only provides services layered on another vendor's software without proprietary technology
- Platform limited exclusively to marketing or digital channels
- Cannot demonstrate customer success with journey orchestration including employee/partner automation
- Lacks sufficient market presence or client interest
- Does not support core journey orchestration capabilities as standalone offering
- Unable to integrate diverse data sources across customer lifecycle
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Expedite seamless data integration to deliver insights at speed - Look for out-of-the-box data integrations, preloaded market/competitor data, and orchestration playbooks
- Facilitate adoption of responsible AI - Ensure solutions combine predictive AI and genAI, adhere to privacy/regulatory compliance standards, and support ethical data use
- Optimize journeys to align customer outcomes with business goals - Seek vendors measuring beyond typical metrics (completion, NPS) to include journey cost, operational efficiency, EX metrics, friction, sentiment, emotion, and profitability across customer, employee, and partner journeys
- Evaluate embedded AI-enabled tools for automated strategy recommendations, impact assessment, journey prioritization, and scenario planning
- Assess advanced journey atlas creation and dashboarding capabilities for tracking, measuring, and optimizing journey strategy and business performance
Q: How has the Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms market evolved in 2024?
A:
- Heavy vendor investment in generative AI to extract meaning and context across richer customer, employee, and partner data sources
- Platforms becoming more accessible to growing, diverse stakeholder groups for understanding journey success, friction, and frustration
- Increasing focus on hyperpersonalizing conversational journeys for ever-changing customers
- Growing need for seamless data integration to deliver real-time insights at speed
- Shift toward responsible AI combining predictive AI and genAI for business decisions and customer trust
- Expansion beyond typical metrics to measure journey cost, operational efficiency, EX metrics, friction, sentiment, emotion, and overall profitability
- Focus on journey-centric transformation to remove guesswork from orchestration
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Current Offering (50% weight) evaluates the technical capabilities and features of each vendor's platform as it exists today, including data integration, analytics, AI capabilities, orchestration features, and operational aspects like security and scalability. Strategy (50% weight) evaluates the vendor's future direction and business model, including their vision for the market, innovation capabilities, product roadmap, partner ecosystem strength, customer adoption rates, pricing models, and community engagement.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms, Q2 2024, 09-Jun-2024, ID
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