Articles - Page 95

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Here's Why CMS Is Your 'Unsung Hero' in 2025

janus-boye

Marketing automation is a concept that’s a little tricky define, which is probably why many businesses find it just as difficult to implement.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-12-04 at 18.51.56.png" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/G9tqBcAbGTt02hLddNkpwVpFvrNc66BSyEBEgHZ6eIiO06nV5oAAXlDDmTUtyOWUAXUJSGqxr3O3GOn4w54iZecV79CX_WrfbgXMzNHm-ouLq1SkhWBtem41nVWkbGLzGiS0BC9y" />
A well defined marketing automation strategy can help to streamline business processes and improve the effectiveness of various marketing channels – such as email marketing, blogging, content marketing, and social media. However, a poorly structured automation strategy will do exactly the opposite.
<h2>What Is Marketing Automation?</h2>
After doing some research, I noticed that many descriptions of the marketing automation process have arisen from this popular definition by Hubspot:
<blockquote>
“At its best, marketing automation is software and tactics that allow companies to buy and sell like Amazon – that is, to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted customers. This type of marketing automation typically generates significant new revenue for companies, and provides an excellent return on the investment required.” – <a href="http://www.hubspot.com/">Hubspot</a>
</blockquote>
Lets focus on the wording of that for a minute:
<ul>
<li>
highly personalized
</li>
<li>
useful content
</li>
<li>
delighted customers
</li>
<li>
new revenue
</li>
<li>
excellent return
</li>
</ul>
Are these the things that usually come to mind when you think about marketing automation? I doubt it. I bet you think about your Twitter inbox instead, and the ridiculous amount of promotional spam you’ve received in the past week alone.
Unfortunately, many business owners instantly correlate automation with ‘spambots’ and little else. And this is what needs to change.
You will never see the value in your marketing automation strategy if you don’t have a clear understanding of what it can accomplish.
To get you started, I’m going to run through the most common misconceptions that businesses have about marketing automation – so that you can better understand how it can benefit your business.
<h2>1. Set-Up In Seconds</h2>
You need to schedule some time to get your software up and running, and whilst it’s not difficult – it’s not a 5 minute job either. Before investing in marketing automation software, it’s important to spend a certain amount of time to researching the marketplace and choosing the right product for your business.
Following this, you need to review your current content and assess whether this needs to be improved upon – before feeding it through your marketing automation workflow.
Most marketing automation software is designed to integrate seamlessly with your CRM, and this makes life a lot easier. But you’ll still have to do the groundwork when it comes to setting up campaigns and programs.
<h2>2. It’s Cold And Impersonal</h2>
When marketing automation is done right, it’s the opposite of cold and impersonal. Automating your marketing gives you extra time to focus on the quality of your messaging, so that your communication is personalized and relevant – i.e. not spam.
With marketing automation, you can collect data on your prospects which will allow you to categorize them by common interests, behaviors, and locations. Using this data, you can deliver targeted content based on each individual’s unique user profile.
<h2>3. It Does The Job For Us – We Can All Go Home!</h2>
Sorry, but no. Every type of marketing automation software needs a human being at the steering wheel in order to be successful – so you’ll have to hit pause on the iRobot movie marathon.
A successful marketing automation campaign must be supported by a strong digital marketing team who have analyzed your target market, created the content that market is looking for, and established preferred marketing channels.
<h2>4. Small Companies Don’t Need Marketing Automation</h2>
Marketing automation can benefit both small and larger businesses in different ways with pretty similar results. In the case of enterprises, automation will streamline internal processes, save time and money, and make life a lot easier.
In the case of smaller companies, automation will ease the workload of a startup founder, save time and money, and make life a lot easier. See what I mean? Marketing automation works just as well for small start-ups as it does for large businesses and SMEs.
<h2>5. The More Expensive It Is, The Better It Is</h2>
This doesn’t apply to marketing automation software any more than it applies to your everyday purchases. The amount of dollar signs on the price tag can’t tell you whether you’re choosing the right software option for your business.
Many marketing automation software vendors will offer free trials to start with, which you should definitely take advantage of. Following this, a lot of these platforms – such as Marketo, Parquo, and Hubspot – will offer a tiered pricing plan depending on your specific needs.
<h2>6. All Leads Are Created Equal</h2>
Not only will this assumption ruin your marketing campaign, it’ll also create unreasonable target expectations for your sales team. With marketing automation, you can send the best of your bunch of leads into your sales team – i.e. ‘high grade + high score’ leads.
However, not all of these prospects will be ready to purchase. So, it’s important to assess the journey that prospect took to become a qualified lead, and then take the next step based on that.
Some leads will need a little more ‘warming up’ than others, for example – someone who filled in a ‘contact us’ form will be more receptive to a sales call than someone who simply entered their details for a competition.
According to <a href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/">Marketing Sherpa</a>, “organizations that nurture their leads experience a 45% lift in lead generation ROI over those organizations that do not.”
So, if you first identify which leads are ready to buy, and focus on converting those, you can guide the others through the sales funnel until they reach a stage where they self-qualify.
<h2>7. Engagement Is Time Consuming and Unnecessary</h2>
The fastest way to get me (and most people) to unfollow your business on twitter, is by sending out 30 tweets a day without actually engaging at all. If I initiate a conversation about something you’ve shared on social media, I expect a response within a reasonable period of time.
However, this isn’t always how it goes. Many companies simply set up their automation software and leave it at that. And guess what happens then? You start to lose the attention of your audience; people stop engaging with your brand because they don’t feel valued enough, they stop following your brand, they stop visiting your site, and your sales numbers go into the gutter.
<h2>8. It’s All About Email Marketing</h2>
Many businesses seem to think that marketing automation is limited to email marketing only, but this isn’t the case.
As I mentioned previously, marketing automation can be used with various channels such as lead generation, social media, landing pages, and more.
<h2>9. Automation is For Lazy Marketers</h2>
Correction, automation is for busy marketers. It’s the lazy variation who give marketing automation a bad name in the first place. Quality marketing automation is hard work – and if it’s not, then you’re just not doing it right.
Once your marketing automation strategy works in tandem with other marketing activities, then it’ll increase business efficiency and provide you with extra time to work on other important tasks.
<h2>10. I Never Need To Work On Lead Generation Again</h2>
Many marketers seem to think that marketing automation is the holy grail of lead generation. It’s not. It’s crucial to recognize marketing automation as a single tool in your marketing toolbox, and not your only source of lead generation.
It’s up to you to create compelling and relevant content that will guide your customers through the sales funnel process, so that they will convert into strong leads for your sales team.
<h2>To Automate Or Not To Automate?</h2>
Marketing automation is definitely a buzzword at the moment and it’s a great way to increase your productivity, but if you want it to work for your business it really has to work in tandem with your overall marketing strategy.
Hopefully, this post has cleared up a few common misconceptions for you so that you can make an informed decision.
Do you have marketing automation system in place at the moment? We’d love to know how it’s working for you – why not let us know in the comments section below.

10 Common Misconceptions About Marketing Automation

grainne-logue

Thursday November 19th, 2015, was a momentous day for the open source community. After 1,716+ days of work <a href="http://garfieldtech.com/blog/drupal8-happy-not-satisfied">by more than 3,312 developers</a>, the Drupal community finally released <a href="https://www.drupal.org/8">Drupal 8</a>. There were release parties and celebrations all over the world. Guides where written about <a href="https://www.drupal.com/why-drupal-8">Why Drupal 8</a> and <a href="http://www.drupalpartners.com/blog/drupal-8-everything-you-need-to-know/">Everything You Need To Know About Drupal 8</a>. And big names (Like Red Hat, The Economist, Johnson &amp; Johnson) proudly announced that they migrated to the best version of Drupal ever made. It’s been an incredibly exciting time.
But I don’t want to talk about Drupal 8. I want to talk about Drupal 6. It may seem odd to talk about a seemingly ancient version of Drupal, but I think what happened with D6 should not be repeated with D8.
Full disclosure: I work for a Drupal development firm and we strongly believe that Drupal can be a wonderfully great fit for all types of industries and businesses. However, how firms got others to adopt D6… Well, read on.
The Over Promise Of Drupal 6
<a href="https://www.drupal.org/drupal-6.0">Drupal 6 was officially released</a> February 13th, 2008. With much the same fanfare and hullaballoo, Drupal 6 promised to be the, “easiest version of Drupal ever,” with a litany of tools and features that were supposed to change the open source world forever.
Now, with the release of D8, The Drupal Association has officially announced the <a href="https://www.drupal.org/drupal-6-eol">End Of Life of Drupal 6</a> – Come February 24th, 2016, D6 will no longer be supported.
Surprisingly, there are <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Drupal-Version-6.2x">3,000+ websites still on Drupal 6</a>. Not a huge number, but enough for us to launch a, “move from Drupal 6 to Drupal 8” campaign.
From mom and pop shops to financially robust SMBs, we’ve talked and emailed with people all over the US that are still on Drupal 6. With all the possibilities of Drupal 8, we thought it would be an easy sell to get these businesses to migrate from D6 to D8.
But it’s been the exact opposite: Because developers over promised Drupal 6, many SMBs have plans to no longer use the CMS.
Expectation Didn’t Meet Reality
As stated earlier, Drupal 6 promised the world to web developers. Quick and easy setup, drag-and-drop administration, great new core modules, easy theming, super secure, etc. Sound familiar?
What happened next was Drupal development companies got excited about all these fantastic features and used them as talking points to attract new web dev clients. The Drupal firms then promised the world to their customers and really sold clients on the idea of this, “user-friendly” and easier-than-ever idea of Drupal.
Customers, having their own idea of easy and user-friendly, drank the blue Kool-Aid and migrated or developed their site on Drupal. When they were delivered the final, “user-friendly” product, many felt duped – The backend was difficult to understand, page creation wasn’t intuitive, simple HTML elements were anything but and more. Expectation didn’t meet reality.
Despite this, many SMBs thought, “Oh. Well. I guess it’s just me. I’ll adapt and make it work.” After all, it was 2008 – Businesses expected websites to be difficult.
As new Drupal updates were released, these same SMBs were told that they should update their version for better speed, easier use, more safety, etc. Many companies did (After all, that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?) and were then hit with incredibly high development invoices. SMBs thought, “Oh. Well. I guess that’s just what it costs. I’ll adapt and make it work.”
Still somewhat believing in this open source idea, SMBs continued to update and use Drupal. Thinking that they’d save some money, many cut corners and hired cost-effective firms to update or maintain their Drupal sites. The bills and invoices were low, but then their sites stopped working, crashed or were hacked. These SMBs thought, “Oh. Well. I guess that’s just what happens when you go cheaper. I’ll adapt and make it work.”
Quick recap:
<ul>
<li>Drupal 6 user-friendly promise: Not realized</li>
<li>Cost of Drupal 6: Much higher than anticipated</li>
<li>Cost to update Drupal 6: Even higher than thought</li>
<li>Going cheap with Drupal 6: Even worse outcomes</li>
</ul>
At the same time as this was happening, the internet as a whole was getting, well, easier. A LOT easier. Websites became incredibly simple to make (Think <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_builder">Weebly, Wix and Webs</a>). Emailing and form capture got a lot more fun (Think MailChimp and 123Contact Form). Online eCommerce platforms popped up everywhere and were, out of the box, much simpler to customize (Just look at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_shopping_cart_software">all the options now</a>).
Further, smartphones started to penetrate the market, revolutionizing the way we work with this thing called an app. An app that was very intuitive, simple and, well, actually user-friendly.
So. If you were a SMB on Drupal 6 in 2013 and everything you were sold about Drupal didn’t meet expectations (simple, user-friendly, cost effective, etc.), you weren’t going to invest in anything else related with Drupal. Sure, <a href="https://www.drupal.org/drupal-7-released">Drupal 7</a> (released January 5th, 2011) promised new and great things, but you weren’t going to budge.
And Here We Are Today
Here we are on the new release of Drupal 8. A release where the community is promising fantastic new features and wonderful user additions that will supposedly revolutionize the open source world, once more (and it will). And, again, we’re going to our D6 customers telling them the wonders of D8. But this time, they’re not buying it. They have done all that they were supposed to, updated their sites and still are not satisfied with their solution.
Sure, you can postulate that Drupal is not the best fit for everyone. But there is a level where we, as development firms and open source enthusiasts need to ensure that we’re on the same page as our customers.
For Drupal dev firms, here’s your take away: Make sure that D8 is a darn fantastic fit for your customer. Make sure they know the hows, whys and whens of Drupal. Heck, even give your customers a walkthrough of the backend to make sure they can even comprehend it. Train them and foster their love for Drupal. Don’t just code and leave.
And for SMBs, here’s your take away: A CMS is a fantastic tool to grow your business. But make sure your expectation meets reality. Fully understand what is involved with any CMS (cost, maintenance, solution, and more) and use it to its full potential. That way, when it comes time, you’re more than ready to update.
I’ll leave you with this: No one person or company is perfect – Even <a href="http://buytaert.net/why-the-big-architectural-changes-in-drupal-8">Dries Buytaert</a> has learned a lesson or two. As for us, will we recommend Drupal 8? You bet your blue Kool-Aid we will… But only after a long conversation about expectations, realities and, well, being open (source) and honest with our clients.

With The Gloom And Doom Of Drupal 6, Let’s Learn From Our Shortcomings

mike-johnston

<a href="https://dotcms.com/products/cloud/" target="_blank">dotCMS</a>, the open source Java content management system and digital experience platform, has unveiled a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution for the enterprise market.
<a href="https://dotcms.com/products/cloud/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dotcms-250h-1.jpg" /></a>
The enterprise-grade platform, which can be utilized either on-premise or via the cloud, was the winner of the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-cloud-cms-for-smb/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award for Best Cloud CMS for SMB</a>.
dotCMS Enterprise Cloud is built to, “provide brands with a private, secure and fully customizable cloud-based platform capable of deploying web sites, intranets, extranets, portals, apps or any type of content-driven web application”.
<h2>“Removing Traditional Limitations”</h2>
By making use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing, dotCMS' SaaS solution has no incremental or per unit charges associated with adding users, editors, sites, apps, plugins, integrations or anything developers build in the system.
Will Ezell, dotCMS' CTO, hopes that this step into the relam of SaaS can help remove traditional limitations for brands:
<blockquote>
“Removing traditional limitations with software-as-a-service was the driving force behind dotCMS Enterprise Cloud. We were committed to delivering the same powerful feature set in a SaaS model, just as you would have on premise.
We found a way to deliver all the benefits of SaaS, without the costly constraints and limitations that hold businesses back from growing their digital enterprise.”
</blockquote>
Tim Brigham, dotCMS' CEO, has spoken out about his company's recognition of “overlapping needs” within modern brands:
<blockquote>
“We recognize the evolving and overlapping needs of marketers, developers and IT professionals. They’re looking for a SaaS content management, development and infrastructure solution that drives efficiencies, generates innovation and optimizes results in today’s digital economy.
DotCMS Enterprise Cloud is our direct and game-changing response to real-time marketplace requirements at a pace our customers demand.”
</blockquote>
I think dotCMS has done well to offer itself as a Software-as-a-Service solution – and I think that more enterprise-grade content management systems will be wanting to jump on the bandwagon.
Modern brands desire the flexibility and reliability that SaaS brings about. They want speedy deployment, lots of up time, and vendors on hand to handle issues, updates, backups and more. SaaS is the way to make that happen. 
The full story on dotCMS Enterprise Cloud can be <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/11/prweb13101485.htm" target="_blank">read here</a>. 
To find out more about dotCMS, <a href="http://dotcms.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>, or explore them <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-cloud-cms-for-smb/" target="_blank">via our CMS Directory</a>.

dotCMS Enterprise Cloud Released

‘Big data’ is certainly the buzzword of the moment, but it's also one bandwagon that big brands actually should be jumping on.
Most larger business already have bucket loads of data floating around in their systems. but all of this information is useless without the means to analyze it. Enterprise analytics platforms allow enterprises to gather and analyze this data so that informed and effective business decisions can be made.
<img alt="bigstock-Office-desk-24442193.jpg" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/R5EmqiRyeqKv3Xk7Ny1qpNyIUIVnurgLM0VHtQ9kZHCX1a9jVXs4eYAPP74nCXh8mYykvSZwJvJpUR-Oa0LOmPuKaC207vABWusCT7AasWyTy33GsmjBqV7X1KU1u8cam8ssSQOw" />
This is why finding the right analytics tool is essential in order to gain an insight into the business as a whole, and not just on a departmental level.
You can check out my 8 Awesome Alternatives to Google Analytics over <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/8-awesome-alternatives-to-google-analytics/">here</a>, but when it comes to larger enterprises – the requirements can be little more extensive than these platforms allow.
If you’re involved with a larger enterprise, you may need an analytics tool that’s more system driven and intricate. There are a few of these analytics tools out there that vary in terms of value/efficiency, so I’ve sourced the best of the bunch. In this post, you’ll find 6 reliable enterprise analytics systems that definitely hit the mark.
<h2>1. Moz Pro</h2>
Moz combines an easy to understand analytics platform with great data mining capabilities and research tools. So, whatever data you’re looking for – you won’t need to be an expert to find it. This platform allows users to track inbound marketing metrics, creates reports, and provides recommendations based on the findings.
One particularly useful tool is the Fresh Web Explorer, which allows you to track and analyze the latest online mentions and links to your business name/brand.
The Moz Pro Academy also offers short video lessons for anyone who needs a helping hand, making it a great choice for business owners who need to hit the ground running.
Find out more about Moz Pro <a href="https://moz.com/products/pro">here.</a>
<h2>2. ComScore</h2>
ComScore has become an industry standard for measuring digital movements and behaviors. Its analytics product – Digital Analytix Enterprise – combines audience demographics with data analysis, to drive growth and reduce costs for enterprises.
This analysis tool isn’t as user friendly as some of its competitors, but that won’t be an issue for seasoned marketers. Digital Analytix Enterprise also has a number of flexible features, including the advanced reporting tool – which allows users to choose from various methods of sharing key data and information within their organizations.
Find out more about ComScore <a href="https://www.comscore.com/Products/Enterprise-Analytics">here.</a>
<h2>3. Crazy Egg</h2>
Crazy Egg is a powerful analytics tool for measuring user behavior and engagement. With the heatmap and scrollmap, you can see exactly where your customers are clicking, what they’re clicking most, how many pages they scroll through – and where they stop scrolling. Crazy Egg will also tell you where those customers came from in the first place. On their website, they call it an ‘x-ray’ system – and it is. Plus, I’ll bet it’s cheaper than hiring a PI.
Crazy Egg can be set up in just a few minutes and it’s really easy to navigate once you get started.
Find out more about Crazy Egg <a href="http://www.crazyegg.com/">here.</a>
<h2>4. IBM Enterprise Marketing Management</h2>
IBM Enterprise Marketing Management is a highly developed tool that’s perfect for larger businesses and it has seen rapid growth as part of the company’s overall service offerings.
IBM’s analytics service aims to improve business efficiency, accuracy, and forecasting and it provides a range of features that will appeal to all enterprises – such as business intelligence, predictive analysis and enterprise performance management.
Find out more about IBM Enterprise Marketing Management <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/category/marketing-merchandising">here.</a>
<h2>5. Oracle</h2>
Oracle offers a range of business analytics services, including the popular Enterprise Performance Management tool. This product offers excellent data sourcing and visual analytics tools, alongside its planning and forecasting capabilities. Oracle EPM aims to assist businesses to improve performance, and better understand and utilize pertinent information.
With the extensive range of services available to enterprises, Oracle is pretty intricate, so it will suit businesses who are ready to take the time to assess which options are best for their business, and also allow for sufficient training and implementation.
Find out more about Oracle <a href="https://www.oracle.com/applications/performance-management/index.html">here.</a>
<h2>6. SAS</h2>
SAS has been a key player in the business analytics field for a number of years now. With its analytics tool, Enterprise Miner, businesses can quickly develop models to streamline the data mining process.
The SAS Rapid Predictive Modeler empowers users with limited statistical skills, by allowing them to generate their own models, and the easy to use GUI guides them through the data mining workflow tasks.
Find out more about Enterprise Miner <a href="http://www.sas.com/en_us/software/analytics/enterprise-miner.html">here.</a>
<h2>7. Piwik Enterprise</h2>
Piwik offers a premium service to fulfil the needs of Enterprise users. Piwik Enterprise can be tweaked to suit your business needs, and it offers features such as a self hosted platform, advanced server-side set-up, user support, and assistance with technical development.
Piwik will also monitor your account 24 hours a day to ensure that any issues are instantly detected and fixed.
Find out more about Piwik Enterprise <a href="https://piwik.pro/enterprise/">here.</a>
<h2>8. Adobe Analytics</h2>
Adobe Analytics offer a range of options which can provide real-time analytics and detailed segmentation across multiple channels of your business.
With Adobe Analytics Complete, you’ll gain a complete understanding of your business by utilizing features such as cross-channel analytics, a 360 customer analysis, and predictive marketing.
Find out more about Adobe Analytics <a href="http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/web-analytics.html">here.</a>
<h2>9. Woopra Enterprise Edition</h2>
Woopra Enterprise Edition is a customer focused analytics platform that helps businesses to better understand customer behaviour by delivering a comprehensive profile for each user. It creates these profiles by integrating information from sources such as your company's web, mobile, email automation, and CRM.
Woopra then provides key insights into individual customer behaviours and tracks users in real-time – allowing for real-time actions to be taken.
Find out more about Woopra <a href="https://www.woopra.com/">here.</a>
<h2>What Works For You?</h2>
Choosing the right analytics platform for your enterprise is no easy task, but hopefully this list has given you a few solid options to consider.
Each of the analytics tools I’ve listed has been designed to make big data analysis accessible for the average user – so you don’t need to be a stats whiz to utilize them to their full potential. And, as you’ve probably noted – most of these platforms offer very similar features.
Ultimately, you should opt for the analytics platform that best caters for your own specific business needs, so it’s important think about your budget, the scale of your business, and your key requirements over the next year.
If you’re already using one of these platforms, or have a suggestion of your own to add to the mix, we would love to hear more in the comments section below.

9 Powerful Enterprise Analytics Systems

If you haven’t used Google Advanced Segments yet, then you’re definitely not getting the most out of your Google Analytics.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/business-925900_1280548x0-is.jpg" /> Google Advanced Segments will provide you with essential information about your customers by allowing you to perform a deeper analysis of the traffic coming to your site. Just think of it as adding a few extra (awesome) filters to what’s already an excellent traffic analysis tool.
There are a number of ways to use the segments tool and a few marketing gurus recently shared their personal favorites on the Search Engine Watch website. Here are my own recommendations, with the most relevant segments adopted from <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2268458/16-secret-google-analytics-advanced-segments-worth-their-weight-in-gold">this post</a>.
<h2>1. Converters by Count of Visit</h2>
The Converters by Count of Visit segment allows you to track at what point your customers convert during the customer journey.
There are 3 segments available which show conversion rates after 1 visit, 2-4 visits, or 5+ visits. By applying these segments you can gather a more in-depth view of what content is consumed and what action is taken at different points of the sales funnel. This will allow you to see what’s working and not working in terms of conversions for your business.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 19.31.34.png" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QxEwOVHZo1-JP9G46rJNZ_gdLaBz8a_6_OJMOffmQma_PhZMMU4VzuIJDvs6BVk7L8luQfgRWm7QcxogEuWfr5vPa43uh_aNPWG_yMYRKe69a_JmgBlXfa-Cjm8S2irirniLla7h" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-CbCoV">here.</a>
<h2>2. Organic Image Traffic</h2>
Ever wondered how much traffic your images are bringing to your site? With this segment, you can view search traffic that comes specifically from the Google Images search engine.
Traffic is measured separately from Google organic search which will allow you to isolate and identify any image search trends. To use this segment, simply add it to your SEO reports and mimic your organic search analysis on items such as landing pages and keywords.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 19.42.56.png" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zdeuQVsMdpyVH6lePJ_nNVKNLW33ALWGqlcNDGPOUfO-4d6_WDynbXrFbrNA2EqcgoqTI1kBympFp_73k8oSYYR_sQM8ZZ46SbSVPCyP2WJp467BcFRONMbdagAsYeMWSqd1zmkK" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-OrgImg">here</a>.
<h2>3. Whales</h2>
Whales is an excellent segment that helps you to identify the top spenders amongst your website visitors. If your average customer spend is $50, you can set your Whales segment to capture visitors with a spend of more than $150.
By adding this segment to your standard or custom reports, you can determine where your top customers are coming from and what you can do to attract more of them.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 19.50.53.png" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/bjuwciol7EbuBuMh40I9vUh5WM91Z6EjYodNc0ILV6tpKY76klis_36wL6iLOgZqvqaJbVfd5VN9LzDSS4O7dMn-ITTrEqdZyaAQMADclmPgettr08NYdA4dOpUOiluDbys61JxH" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-Whales">here.</a>
<h2>4. Blog Bounce Remover</h2>
Blog traffic tends to have a high bounce rate and it’s important to be aware that it’s not highly indicative of how your site is doing. Many people will simply check out your blog to view an article and move on when they’ve finished.
However, the bounce rate for the rest of your site is important to keep an eye on and this segment allows you to monitor it more accurately. If someone lands on your blog first, just views one page, and then hops off again – the Blog Bounce Remover won’t count the bounce.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 20.03.53.png" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/d0_6newHWQ9QTQMDzG2GkqiJNvKYTfijEZa1AFIIvyy_Oo6xiW0gcFzfu7t5pTInrL0yP-u95tWNQgrQq_twXyvFMX3inDB70ToNXPt2iVNrhr9tWCEF1hzEhk8UXiV7IeNyaxzt" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-BlgBnc">here.</a>
<h2>5. Cart Abandoners by Traffic Source</h2>
This segment analyzes your traffic sources to find out why your ecommerce customers are abandoning your site before reaching the checkout.
By adding Cart Abandoners by Traffic Source to your goal funnel reports, you can measure the conversion rates of traffic from Facebook, Twitter, etc. and identify ways to improve the flow of your ecommerce site.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 20.12.49.png" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/XgwPjYbYLKG1hHyRr-ZviPnIHFNdBfh3UavChXt5qCQjKpHOq-Zeaaaes282_HxFrzmcv9OeUocUg5lQneTJTzuAbaVxBdrnRMf-UddmzozeyYF2rVl9sMl4bTppkSfLLOsEyGDG" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-Carts">here.</a>
<h2>6. Conversion Rates: Business Hours vs. Off Hours</h2>
Are your customers morning birds or night owls? This segment will allow you to measure when customers are most active on your site by comparing traffic received during business and off-peak hours.
It automatically sets business hours between 9am and 9pm (EST) but you can adjust this to align with your own company schedule.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 20.19.58.png" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/cFWCSw0TQrBkbtMSlOOaWKtaG3lWKcFOFcpelLoZUA-w24ujr4nsocOpv6496tFbkUM556K7kEhWFqb2z3FFzW-Bi6REywtkBjEgirlzM01X8miURYs8cH-XA01nQwKW1auc1c6M" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-Hours">here.</a>
<h2>7. Common ISPs</h2>
If your website is generating large amounts of traffic from a suspicious source, it’s time to investigate.
This segment will easily allow you to identify common ISPs on your site and filter out any unusual activity. You can apply this segment in the audience section of Analytics, under the Network Report.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 20.53.52.png" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/nTZY3xWR70HFLv-8se_NtbwPsREuvCuJEhAOYR11BI_5d0DY430rb2mnEP-53rVIEvjv7KYR3LRyHlcOLhsBUzbvl1EmLLscrOin6p-8QythBrDtTejA074xzPCdg-vjHchsorhs" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-ISPs">here.</a>
<h2>8. The Brand Interest Segment</h2>
This segment measures levels of customer engagement with your brand. It uses a series of 3 segments to analyze the actions of your website visitors:
<ul>
<li>
Visitors who viewed your blog but not your brand page
</li>
<li>
Visitors who viewed a brand page and not your blog
</li>
<li>
Visitors who visited both your blog and your brand page
</li>
</ul>
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 20.55.49.png" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/ew0Gg05bjSqjpf7kloB2xwJKhjtDaO4V-USHyI5yiBYb8sGIKsR-1MaXtn_LKbWPi51yfnKS8HynBULfvuhtNNdBkJVe8OlwoJkmgi8fhwo9AC1U24jKav6vbR7rbQC8zeckcZzk" />
By adding these to your content report, you can gain a much deeper insight into your customer engagement levels.
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-Brand">here.</a>
<h2>9. Detecting Content Piracy</h2>
If you’re worried that someone is stealing your content, this segment will weed them out pretty quickly.
Using the content piracy segment, you can track any traffic that is being generated against your Google Analytics profile by hostnames that aren’t yours. Once you’ve applied it to reports in the Audience section of your Google Analytics, it will red flag any of your website content that’s being copied without your consent.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 21.03.57.png" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/n9UIj23OVUir0T4IPcmgbBwnRAgpaox2FFvMZlFjbiYkRiOzTO6bAcHeOUPB1k2ppppyIFTE1XJFKC1lbMVmuULXtKAdzSx-lsRLPoySk8I0kbw1LIm0hbGnHdqBRGIFW9IayOND" />
You can add this segment <a href="http://bit.ly/GASS-Piracy">here.</a>
<h2>What’s Your Secret ‘Go-To’ Segment?</h2>
Do you have any of your own custom segments set up in Google Analytics? Or maybe you’ve already tried and tested a few of the segments listed here?
We’d love to hear about them and how well they’ve worked for your business. Let us know in the comments sections below.

9 Brilliant Ways to Use Google Advanced Segments

To wrap up our elcomCMS featured week, we’re taking a look at Elcom Technology’s latest eBook; “<a href="http://a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">8 Signs You Need a Social Intranet</a>”.
<img alt="Elcom_Logo_EWCM_Positive.jpg" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/P_-4209t6RAymr8QRYWn_9Vm4V8xZWtGjAbOIZ62pktga1KMbabiTzwg0ds_8UizkLV9FkymhDP7tbSltoYtED9vTaopQJRdlPNaql3kVbAosGq-Z5SlcESAeO9zsbxZ2RKAtAFt" />
So far during this, I’ve looked at elcomCMS’s <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elcomcms-cms-lms-intranets/">stance as a CMS, LMS and Intranet solution</a>, its aim to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elcomcms-motivating-workforces-increasing-productivity-driving-sales/">supercharge the productivity of workforces through social intranets</a>, and its <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/powering-powerful-brands-how-elcomcms-drives-hyundai-online/">solutions for Hyundai in Australia</a>.
In fact, one of the ways elcomCMS was able to help Hyundai in Australia, was through the implementation of a social intranet.
<h2>What is a Social Intranet?</h2>
An intranet helps to bring an organisation together in order to communicate and collaborate faster and easier.
Features like user profiles, asset management, workflows and directories help to unite each and every worker with the information they need – and fast.
elcomCMS has all of that, but it also goes a step further.
Social elements have been blended into the mix, giving Elcom’s intranet solution a casual twist.
Social feeds for example, similar to the ones found on Facebook or Twitter, give staff members a way to promote ideas, share opinions and ask for assistance, without having to leave the intranet.
Plus, the usage of blog posts, forums, social Q&amp;A, hash-tagging and @tagging, all help to round off a traditional intranet with all the modern social trimmings. A social intranet.
<h2>The Pain Points</h2>
Elcom Technology’s eBook focuses on the core pain points felt by brands large and small.
For example, workers often struggle to access documents when out of the office. Elcom claims to have the solution:
<blockquote>
“Information on your intranet should be accessible from anywhere, anytime on any device. Your mobile intranet is the key to closing that next deal, training your staff, auditing compliance, finishing projects on time and supporting everyone’s need to get the job done efficiently.”
</blockquote>
Additionally, Elcom’s eBook tackles the problem of meeting management, which is a typically tiresome process:
<blockquote>
“Create the event and agenda, post to the calendar, trigger the invitation and all the reminders to send automatically to the group, then use your social stream to post changes and drive them back to the calendar for updates.”
</blockquote>
<h2>Download the Free eBook</h2>
<a href="http://a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">8 Signs You Need a Social Intranet</a> is an eBook that is totally free to download. You only need to sign up with your name and email address in order to access the document.
Furthermore, you can visit elcomCMS via our CMS Directory for more information.

Free eBook: 8 Signs Your Brand Needs a Social Intranet

As we move through our week of featured coverage for elcomCMS, I feel that now is an ideal time to take a look at how the enterprise-grade platform has and will help enterprises.
Previously during this featured week, I touched on <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elcomcms-cms-lms-intranets/">elcomCMS’s stance as a CMS, LMS and Intranet solution</a>, and its aim to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elcomcms-motivating-workforces-increasing-productivity-driving-sales/">supercharge the productivity of workforces through social intranets</a>.
One of many <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/customers/success-stories/hyundai">large brands making use of elcomCMS, is Hyundai</a> – the world renowned car manufacturer. With 144 dealerships and 29 service points operating throughout Australia, they needed a platform capable of handling a heavy load, in all respects.
Let’s take a look at how Elcom Technology revamped Hyundai’s Australian online presence and Intranet infrastructure.
<h2>The Challenges</h2>
As you might imagine, implementing a new website and intranet for a brand as large as Hyundai, was no easy task.
elcomCMS had their work cut out for them. They needed to:
<ul>
<li>Replace the existing intranet</li>
<li>Develop an extranet for the ‘Auto-net Portal’</li>
<li>Replace the corporate website with a Content Management System in HTML and flash, allowing publisher to update flash content as well as other areas of the site</li>
<li>Provide management with the option to centralize or decentralize certain publishing properties</li>
</ul>
Here’s how Elcom Technology, along with Hyundai’s Information Technology (IT) and Marketing business units, got the job done.
<h2>The Solution</h2>
Elcom Technology and Hyundai worked together to produce a number of solutions for the list of challenges detailed above.
The intranet consisted of an Active Directory integrated information portal and collaboration environment.
Hyundai’s corporate website was to be supported by a WCMS, with embedded tracking and reporting functionality. This also included multi-site functionality, which helped to keep all 144 dealer websites under close control.
A dealer portal was also implemented, acting as a secure environment for the 144 dealers to access bulletins and sales related information. An owner's portal was also set up, to help Hyundai customers access personalized content.
RSS Syndication was also used, to aggregate content throughout the various areas of the
Hyundai intranet, extranet and corporate website instances.
According to Balasundaram Kothandaraman, Hyundai’s Senior Manager of IT, it was elcomCMS’ flexibility that made it the right fit for the job:
<blockquote>“Elcom was incredibly flexible and met all of the challenges of implementing this project head-on. They have created a system that meets all of our business needs, with continued room for growth.”</blockquote>
The Elcom Technology team made use of a range of elcomCMS modules to get the job done.
The modules used included; the form builder, dynamic content widgets, forums, membership, workflow, knowledge base, and more.
The full case study, which details the elcomCMS-powered solution for Hyundai’s website and intranet, <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/ArticleDocuments/861/Elcom_CaseStudy_Hyundai.pdf.aspx">can be downloaded here</a>.
Furthermore, you can visit <a href="/products/elcomcms/">elcomCMS via our CMS Directory</a> for more insight, and stay tuned for more featured coverage throughout the next week.
On a side note, elcomCMS has recently released a beneficial eBook titled, “<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/whitepapers-ebooks/8-signs-you-need-a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">8 signs you need a social intranet</a>”. You can download your <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/whitepapers-ebooks/8-signs-you-need-a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">free copy here</a>.

Powering Powerful Brands: How elcomCMS Drives Hyundai Online

Intranets are fast becoming the lifeblood of every major brand.
They bring workforces together on a micro and macro scale, acting as the central information and collaboration hub for the entire business.
<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img alt="Elcom_Logo_EWCM_Positive.jpg" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/GBmtsx612WU2lzhShWkP2odh6ui5XkBvX_fGU0rQTY-4Bly0re4EzXvFqjhF-MmpucJKbPal32XjwAe7UYeMqWOvbDbQXNpQ14lDO4b7XNFqIkHiGr_hhanT6jg1_LfAIjHO8THx" /></a>
In a typical Intranet setup, staff members can share ideas, communicate privately, arrange events, collaborate over documents, engage casually with the rest of the company, and much more.
But how should an intranet-less brand prepare for the deployment for their very first intranet? Here are some useful insights.
<h2>1. Define Your Goals</h2>
The number one aim of a corporate intranet is to boost engagement and efficiency among staff members.
But along the way to that goal, an intranet can bring many more benefits to the table.
The modern enterprise is constantly looking for ways to streamline the working life of their workforce, and so, before an Intranet is deployed, the strategy behind that goal needs to be honed.
Some goals which can act as stepping stones toward the final objective may include:
<ul>
<li>
Increasing engagement among workers.
</li>
<li>
Increasing user generated content.
</li>
<li>
reducing emails.
</li>
<li>
reducing meetings.
</li>
<li>
Improved organization.
</li>
<li>
Improved collaboration.
</li>
</ul>
Identifying the most relevant goals is the best first step a brand can take when approaching an intranet solution, whether they lie in the list above, or whether they surpass that list.
Those goals need to be identified so that the brand can begin searching for an Intranet platform that can provide the features needed to reach them.
Which brings me to my next point.
<h2>2. Choose the Right Technology</h2>
A brand’s goals and objectives may be achievable, but that doesn’t mean that just any intranet platform can achieve them.
With clients such as Hyundai, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Raine &amp; Horne &amp; Taking Shape, elcomCMS’ mobile-friendly Intranet solution is one worth considering.
The enterprise-grade platform boasts a wide range of built-in features right out of the box. Those features include; powerful workflow &amp; forms, team workspace, blogs, polls, enterprise search, asset management and version control.
More functionality can be added via optional modules such as; calendar, events, social, corporate directory, task manager, and more.
Integrated social features also help to round off a user experience which grasps and maintains the attention of workers.
Social feeds, like the ones found on Facebook and Twitter, help to keep everybody up to date on the latest news and ideas floating around the company. Meanwhile, features like; blogging, discussion forums, social Q&amp;A, hash-tagging and @tagging, all promote engagement in a way which is familiar, professional, and yet casual.
Third-party tools like Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and HP Trim can be integrated with too, in order to keep existing documents in check, and also to cause minimal disruption upon deployment.
<h2>3. Prepare Your Workforce</h2>
Finally, it’s highly recommended to prepare your workforce for the arrival of their brand spanking new intranet.
Provide them with the platform’s instructional material, webinars, blog posts and marketing content, in order to get everybody familiar with the features they’re about to tinker with.
This will help to ease the learning curve upon the deployment of the intranet.
As far as real life examples go, elcomCMS has aided a number of high-flying brands and organizations to identify their goals and prepare for an intranet deployment. Here are two case studies detailing the <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/customers/success-stories/hyundai">Hyundai website &amp; intranet project</a>, and the <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/customers/success-stories/taking-shape-intranet">Taking Shape retail intranet project</a>.
Be sure to visit elcomCMS on our CMS Directory for more insight, and stay tuned for more featured coverage throughout the rest of this week.
Further information on how to map your business requirements to your intranet can be <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/articles/how-to-map-your-business-requirements-to-your-intranet-platform/how-to-map-your-business-requirements-to-your-intranet-platform">found in this article</a>. Also, elcomCMS has recently released a beneficial eBook titled, “8 signs you need a social intranet”. <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/whitepapers-ebooks/8-signs-you-need-a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">You can download your free copy here.</a>

How to Prepare Your Business for Intranet Deployment (In 3 Steps)

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

#ffffff

The digital age has changed everything.
Processes that used to require teams of workers operating extensive hardware, can now be managed from a smartphone by a single person.
And yet, motivating a workforce is something that modern brands still battle with. Staff members still need fresh challenges, targets to aim for, colleagues to lean on, and information to work with.
<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">elcomCMS</a> aims to motivate workforces, increase productivity and drive sales through enterprise-grade intranets and extranets. Let’s take a closer look at how.
<h2>Integrations, Workflows, and Multi-site Functionality</h2>
elcomCMS is responsible for the intranets of top brand companies, including the likes of Hyundai, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Raine &amp; Horne &amp; Taking Shape. So it goes without saying that Elcom Technology, the Australian company behind the product, knows a thing or two about how to promote efficiency amongst enterprise-level workforces.
Their mobile-friendly intranet solution integrates with third-party tools like Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and HP Trim in order to keep existing documents in check, and also to cause minimal disruption upon deployment.
A wide range of built-in features make elcomCMS a beneficial platform right out of the box. Those features include; a powerful workflow engine, a corporate directory, asset management and version control.
And yet, more functionality can be added via optional modules such as; blogs, wikis, forums, event management, to-do lists, and more.
Additionally, elcomCMS’ multi-site management capabilities mean that their intranets can integrate with existing web instances, including; websites, extranets and external databases.
<h2>A Walk on the Social Side</h2>
elcomCMS’ Intranet solution also offers up social elements to help bring workforces together in a way that’s more casual yet still professional. And of course, efficiency remains the goal despite the inherent informality of social features.
Social feeds for example, just like the ones you find on Facebook or Twitter, give staff members a great medium to promote ideas, share opinions and ask for assistance – all without having to leave the company intranet.
Furthermore, the usage of blog posts, discussion forums, crowd-sourcing tools, social Q&amp;A, hash-tagging and @tagging, all come together to create a harmonious and familiar social work environment.
The familiarity is thanks to these social elements being borrowed from popular social networking websites and online communities like Twitter and Quora. This familiarity helps to ensure a shorter learning curve, too.
With these social elements in place, whole departments can collaborate in a way that promotes communication on a regular basis. A useful supplement to traditional emails and office meetings.
<h2>A Short (and Free) Intranet Webinar</h2>
According to Gartner, a staggering 84% of organisations today have a remote workforce. With this global trend, organisations are challenged to keep an increasingly distributed workforce collaborative and productive.
<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/on-demand-webinars/intranet-success-webinar" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">In this webinar</a>, Josh Anstey, VP of Customer Solutions at Elcom, shares industry insights into effectively using Intranets to communicate with a distributed workforce.
Check out elcomCMS on our CMS Directory for more insight, and stay tuned for more featured coverage throughout the next week.
On a side note, elcomCMS has recently released a beneficial eBook titled, “<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/whitepapers-ebooks/8-signs-you-need-a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">8 signs you need a social intranet</a>”. You can download your <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/whitepapers-ebooks/8-signs-you-need-a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">free copy here</a>.

elcomCMS: Motivating Workforces, Increasing Productivity & Driving Sales

We’re kicking off another featured week here at CMS Critic, and this time, we’re focusing on <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/" target="_blank">elcomCMS</a>.
Boasting clients such as Hyundai, VolksWagen and Target Australia, elcomCMS was born out of Sydney, Australia, by Elcom Technology back in 1996.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elcom_logo_ewcm_positive1035x0-is.jpg" />
The enterprise-grade platform has been utilized by brands and government bodies across the world for projects including; websites, corporate intranets, social intranets, mobile sites, eCommerce websites, and more.
To get everybody acquainted with elcomCMS, I’m going to take a look at its core functions revolving around web content management, Intranets and its stance as a learning management system.
<h2>elcomCMS as a Web Content Management System</h2>
elcomCMS is able to power websites and web-based instances fit for the world’s largest brands.
Some core features include; in-line editing, WYSIWYG content editing, drag-and-drop layouts, themes, powerful search functionality, team workspaces, Bootstrap front-end support, <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/product/base-features/base-features">and much more</a>.
The multi-site enabled design of elcomCMS gives brands the power to manage multiple websites, intranets, micro-sites and similar projects, via a single elcomCMS instance.
elcomCMS is also a modular product, meaning that additional features can be acquired via a <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/product/modules/modules">long list of modules</a>. Pre-defined <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/product/modules/module-packs/module-packs">module packs</a> are also available for brands working within specific industries.
For example, elcomCMS’ long list of modules can open the door to; A/B testing, eCommerce, social Q&amp;A, store locating, user memberships, and so forth.
Learn more about elcomCMS’ content management features.
<h2>elcomCMS as a an Intranet Solution</h2>
Corporate intranets are fast becoming the central communication and collaboration hub for brands and organisations the world over.
elcomCMS provides a focus on the organization, searchability and maintenance of internal documentation and knowledge assets.
It integrates with third-party solutions like Microsoft Office and SharePoint, and boasts over 100 features and modules, including; document management, version control, real-time updates, blogs, wikis, forums, a powerful search function, a workflow engine, and more.
Plus, thanks again to elcomCMS’ multi-site management capabilities, intranets can integrate with existing web instances including websites, extranets and external databases.
elcomCMS also caters for brands with staff members on the move, with mobile-friendliness coming out of the box with their Intranet solution.
Furthermore, elcomCMS streamlines the workload surrounding staff detail administration, with a powerful directory resting upon directory hooks and single sign-on technology.
<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/product/elcomcms-overview/intranets/intranets">Learn more about elcomCMS’ as an intranet solution</a>.
<h2>elcomCMS as a Learning Management System</h2>
elcomCMS is also capable of handling staff training projects. Impressively, Volkswagen and Kia make use of the platform to manage all of their dealership training programs
Features include; a simple visual user interface for mapping training programs, reports for employee progress, user profiles, to-do lists, visual qualification pathways, and more.
As ever, elcomCMS bridges the gap between its solutions by enabling organizations to offer their training courses through their elcomCMS intranets or portals.
<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/product/elcomcms-overview/learning-management/learning-management">Learn more about elcomCMS as a learning management system</a>.
Visit elcomCMS on our CMS Directory for more insight, and stay tuned for more featured coverage throughout the next week.
On a side note, elcomCMS has recently released a beneficial eBook titled, “<a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/whitepapers-ebooks/8-signs-you-need-a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">8 signs you need a social intranet</a>”. You can download your <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/en-au/resources/whitepapers-ebooks/8-signs-you-need-a-social-intranet?utm_campaign=8%20Signs%20you%20need%20an%20intranet&amp;utm_content=8%20Signs%20eBook&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=CMS%20Critic">free copy here</a>.

elcomCMS: CMS, LMS & Intranets

I recently published an <a href="/how-wordpress-needs-to-improve-itself/" target="_blank">article critiquing WordPress</a> – and it caused a stir.
WPTavern, a blog geared exclusively towards all things WordPress, picked up on it, and responded with an article titled, “How Not to Communicate Grievances with WordPress”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wordpress-589121_960_720618x0-is.jpg" />
The author, Jeff Chandler, is somebody whom I have respect for. He has commentated on some of my WordPress coverage in the past in a positive light.
However, in this instance, I think his WordPress fanaticism may have obscured any respect he may have had for me.
His article was abrupt, and the comments left on it by WordPress-crazed readers was, at times, aggressive.
<h2>The Accusations</h2>
Chandler made a few accusations in his article. On top of his offended tone, he wrote that I was “writing baseless assumptions”, and also that CMS Critic was “choosing not to be part of the solution.”
In the original article, a line read that, “[CMS Critic] generally publishes negative things about the WordPress project.” Thankfully, Chandler removed this line upon the delivery of proof otherwise.
The crux of Chandler's argument though, was that I didn't provide solutions for the problems I raised. In short then, his article was based on a lack of logic.
If a car manufacturer receives thousands of complaints about faulty brake lights, the public would naturally expect the manufacturer to take responsibility for those malfunctions. The public would expect them to come up with the solution, and they would expect them to either directly or in-directly implement them. Pretty standard stuff.
If somebody writes about those malfunctions in order to highlight them and bring them to the attention of the manufacturer, nobody would see anything wrong with that, either.
Certainly, nobody would accuse that writer of “”writing baseless assumptions” or accuse the publication of, “[choosing] not to be part of the solution.”
Yet, when it comes to WordPress, a (relatively small) section of the WordPress community seems to have a problem with applying that very same logic.
Instead, I am made to feel in the wrong for highlighting these issues, and also that I'm at fault for not providing the solutions for them, too.
<a href="/how-wordpress-needs-to-improve-itself/" target="_blank">As mentioned in my original article</a>, I don't believe I need to provide all the answers for WordPress' list of issues (despite doing so for a number of them). Just as the car buyer doesn't need to assist the manufacturer in fixing those brake lights.
<h2>WordPress Commentary: Stepping on Eggshells</h2>
This isn't the first time CMS Critic has written about WordPress in a way which isn't totally positive (although we have rightly praised WordPress many times), and thus we've come to expect somewhat of a backlash when our coverage isn't wholly favorable.
In this case, it was a totally unwarranted, over-protective, and sometimes ad hominem, backlash.
I feel that a section of the WordPress community makes it hard for journalists and bloggers such as myself to voice anything other than positivity. Thus, writing about WordPress feels a little like stepping on egg shells.
<h2>No Conspiracies</h2>
As for the attack on the integrity of CMS Critic; there is no conspiracy. No bias. No foul play.
Although Chandler retracted his statement that CMS Critic adopts a negative approach towards WordPress, I feel it's something that needs addressing.
I am paid to test, review, report and commentate on various content management systems.
Sometimes, that includes voicing my opinion on the shortcomings of WordPress. Not to victimise the world's most popular CMS, but to hopefully raise awareness for its aged shortcomings.
And if you aren't convinced, check out some of our more positive coverage of WordPress <a href="/wordpress-is-a-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="/the-incredible-growth-of-wordpress/" target="_blank">here</a>. Not to mention, WordPress used to power CMS Critic, and is the platform of choice for <a href="http://www.employtheinternet.com/" target="_blank">my very own blog</a>.
<h2>Don't Shoot the Messenger</h2>
All in all, my message here is simple. Don't shoot the messenger.
I haven't invented any of these WordPress issues. They're well known by the community, and are long standing.
The fact that I don't have all the answers to all the problems doesn't negate a single one of them. Neither does it entitle anybody to accuse me of “writing baseless assumptions,” nor CMS Critic of ” [choosing] not to be part of the solution.”
The real kicker, is that Jeff Chandler actually agrees that the onus is not upon me to come up with solutions:
<blockquote>
“The onus may not be on Ismail or any of us to come up with solutions, but he and others can help discover and be part of solutions by taking an active role in giving constructive feedback in <a href="http://hughlashbrooke.com/2015/11/03/a-non-developers-guide-to-getting-involved-in-wordpress-core-development/">the right place</a>.”
</blockquote>
So, instead of writing about these flaws on CMS Critic, Chandler wants me to provide such feedback in a more direct manner.
But these issues aren't new. WordPress is aware of them. My aim here is to apply a different type of pressure in the hope of actual improvement.
If we all continue to down the official channels with pleasant tones and heaps of praise, we'll continue to see shoddy default themes, weak updates, and constantly ignored issues.
It's time to abandon the fanatasicm and change the way we advise WordPress. Pressure needs to be applied in public, because they don't seem to be listening anywhere else.

How Not to Show Your Support for WordPress

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.phpfox.com/">PHPFox</a>, the popular social network builder, has just released its latest version in the form of PHPFox 4.1.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfox-emblem_1.png" />The platform comes in two flavors; Nebula and Neutron, with the latter being their newer and more modern offering. Recently, <a href="/phpfox-appoints-sales-community-manager-scraps-developer-fee/#">PHPFox appointed a new Community Manager and scrapped their developer fees</a> in order to encourage third party app and theme development.As well as rolling out a new default theme and a couple of extra features, the PHPFox team have also announced a shift in focus for upcoming updates.<h2>Focusing on Features</h2>With this release, PHPFox have announced that they're moving away from maintenance builds, and are now shifting their development focus into the creation of new features. Sounds like good news to me.The biggest improvement that PHPFox 4.1 brings, is a new default theme using the <a target="_blank" href="http://getbootstrap.com/">Bootstrap Framework</a>. According to PHPFox, “this will allow designers to create many exciting new themes based on the already very large database of themes available to Bootstrap.”The new default theme looks to be based heavily on the latest Facebook design. Not necessarily a bad thing of course, considering that most online community users will appreciate the familiarity.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/php.png" />In addition, PHPFox 4.1 introduces the feature to relocate cover photos for a users profile and a notification when there are new feeds on the dashboard, without the need of refreshing the page.Here's what PHPFox Lead Developer, Raymond Benc, had to say upon the release.<blockquote>This release not only marks our first wave of new features under development but also includes the coding skills of our new developers that will be taking our product to the next level over the next few months.We are currently working on 4.1.1, which will be a maintenance build that will include additional improvements to our new theming system. Simultaneously, we are starting the development of the 4.2, which will include a heap of new exciting features.</blockquote>Interestingly, PHPFox also announced that they will now close down their public <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/moxi9/phpfox">Github</a> repositories in order to improve our internal quality control.So, new developers, and a renewed focus on features for upcoming versions, and a serious move to protect internal development. Exciting times seem to lie ahead for PHPFox users.To find out more about PHPFox 4.1, <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.phpfox.com/2015/11/27/phpfox-v4-1-0-released/">check out the official announcement</a>.

PHPFox 4.1 Released

<a href="https://www.act-on.com/" target="_blank">Act-On Software</a>, the marketing automation software provider for small and mid-sized businesses, has announced the launch of its latest solution customized for various industries. They've called it Act-On Industry Solutions.
<a href="https://www.act-on.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/act-on_logo.png" /></a>
The industries targeted by Act-On with this release, include; healthcare, travel, finance, manufacturing &amp; retail.
Essentially, Act-On Industry Solutions is a digital collection of marketing assets, pre-built automated workflows, and industry-specific benchmark results designed to help customers improve their ROI and measure success.
<h2>Finely Tuned for Specific Industries</h2>
Act-On has conducted research to finely tune their offering specifically for the industries mentioned above.
From content that uses industry-specific terminology to communication workflows that follow industry norms and protocols, marketers can benefit by measuring individual results against their industry peers to better assess program effectiveness and improve overall performance.
Act-On Industry Solutions offers up:
<ul>
<li>Content – Industry-specific templates for emails, forms, and landing pages with multiple campaign examples that can be easily imported/exported across accounts.</li>
<li>Programs – Pre-built automated workflows to support multi-step nurture and engagement campaigns.</li>
<li>Benchmarks – Access to aggregated performance results for marketing activities in various industries.</li>
</ul>
The CMO of Act-On Software, Atri Chatterjee, pointed out how this new offering is about helping brands get effective marketing campaigns off the ground quickly:
<blockquote>
“We've expanded on our promise of simplicity without compromise by providing our customers with the ability to not only get up and running on the platform quickly, but also access pre-built templates and workflows to make their marketing more relevant and effective for their industry.”
</blockquote>
Act-On Industry Solutions will be available in December 2015 for the five industries listed above. Furthermore, Act-On plan to widen their coverage, with plans to expand the number of industries it supports as well as the content templates and program types it offers.
For more information on Act-On Industry Solutions, <a href="http://press.act-on.com/press-releases/act-on-software-launches-act-on-industry-solutions-to-make-marketing-automation--1231345" target="_blank">check out the official press release</a>.

Act-On Software Targets Specific Industries with Act-On Industry Solutions

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