AEM and Sitecore : Two Finest CMS Software in the Market

Farzana Afrin Tisha
Brain Station 23
Published in
6 min readSep 17, 2017

Content management system is widely used because of scalable benefits for any business organization. For improving daily content management, online branding, extending default capabilities, providing customer services and optimizing mobile solutions a proper CMS tool is extremely important which will automatically tailor presentations and content on different devices.

A CMS tool helps a business 10 times better than a business which doesn’t use a CMS tool. It helps a business to-

  1. Increase efficiency
  2. Increase the search engine ranking
  3. Have a firm grip over the control of the content
  4. Helps visitors in their information search and index the new content automatically
  5. Increase cost effective cross-selling and up-selling.

Therefore, by providing these major benefits CMS tools are now being used by most of the successful and leading enterprises, even by many mid-sized and small businesses being on top of their respective industries

There are various CMS software and platforms out there that have a difference in both user satisfaction and budget. For this blog, I will be discussing the two of the top CMS platforms used by the Multi-National Companies (MNCs) worldwide.

Adobe Experience Manager:

The very first one to be in the list of CMS ranking is Adobe Experience Manager prevailing the market since 2012. AEM makes it easier to manage the marketing content and assets for consistent maintenance across all channels and delivers personalized and relevant digital experiences of a lifetime for the customers which not only helps to build brand loyalty but also drives demand. AEM’s features cover website and app creation, rich digital asset management, user-generated content management. Along with that provides marketing campaign content management across all digital marketing channels. It also includes mobile, newsletters, microsites, landing pages, and websites features. This software lets you create personalized and targeted user experiences, storing and re-purposing digital marketing assets for any multichannel campaign. Using Experience Manager anyone can design and implement targeted, localized marketing campaigns, further enhanced by real-time analytics and marketing optimization.

The benefits that AEM provides are-

  1. Prebuilding integrations with the Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and Adobe Campaign solutions.
  2. Creating visually rich media, with zoom and pan, 360-degree spin, color swatches, and mixed media viewers, in real time AEM helps to create Responsive and interactive media.
  3. Monitoring social activity and managing user-generated content with full moderation and permission-based controls.
  4. Creating rich media for the unlimited variations of any original asset, editing size, format, resolution, crop, or effect on demand for dynamic imaging.
  5. Creating targeted and localized marketing images and banners using templates.
  6. Creating, managing, and delivering interactive videos. Optimizing it for all screens and devices using a single URL
  7. Tracking learner progress for certification; creating learning paths with branching scenarios; and storing, categorizing, and publishing content for mandatory or optional consumption

The Key Features that AEM has-

  • Web site creation tool
  • Marketing campaign management
  • Content update tool
  • Mobile content management
  • Commerce Management
  • Managed services
  • Multi-Site Management
  • Dynamic media asset management
  • Video content
  • Personalized media
  • Advanced search and metadata management
  • Creative project and workflow management
  • Community groups
  • Social media integration
  • User-generated content
  • Mobile, offline user access
  • Personalized interfaces & dynamic content recommendations
  • Analytics across community and content
  • Formal and informal learning management
  • Create apps and forms

So here are some specifications of AEM:

Intended Users: Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business

Devices Supported: Web-based

Supported Countries: Canada, Europe, United States

Supported Languages: English

Support Options: Knowledge Base, Online Support, Phone Support, Video Tutorials

Categories: Website & eCommerce Software -> Content Management System (CMS) Software

IT Management Software -> Testing Software

Marketing Software -> Landing Page Software

Adobe said during one of their recent partner summit that the average CQ deal is $450,000 in license with the total implementation cost of over $2m USD. Adobe’s focus is squarely on the largest companies who value their entire Marketing Cloud, with experience Manager (CQ), analytics, targeting, social.

Sitecore:

The next best is Sitecore in the ranking right after Adobe Experience Manager. Sitecore has been providing web content management and multichannel marketing automation since 2001 and has been providing solutions for customers from small business to enterprise levels. Sitecore’s solution combines content management with customer experience management, allowing individuals to control customer experiences throughout the websites, mobile sites and apps. Sitecore enables to analyze the customer engagement with the published contents, social media activities, user profiles providing customized experience in understanding each of their reactions.

The benefits that Sitecore provides are-

  1. Gaining detailed insights of individual customer engagement (with the Sitecore Experience Profile)
  2. Gaining user insights with detailed engagement and marketing reports
  3. Managing content throughout one’s site (with the Sitecore CMS)
  4. Finding what works best with the A/B testing feature
  5. Delivering content on most devices

The Key Features that Sitecore has-

  • Sitecore Experience Profile
  • Web experience management
  • Mobile experience management
  • Content and product management
  • Cross-channel data analysis
  • Digital asset management
  • App experience management
  • Social experience
  • Commerce experience
  • Email experience
  • Analysis and insights
  • A/B testing
  • Marketing automation
  • Behavioural targeting
  • Rules-based targeting
  • Predictive marketing
  • Marketing reports
  • Customer segmentation
  • Goal tracking
  • Real-time personalization

So here are some specifications of Sitecore:

Intended Users: Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Small Business

Devices Supported: iPhone-iPad, Web-based

Supported Countries: Asia, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Germany, Japan, Middle-East and Africa, United Kingdom, United States

Supported Languages: Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian

Support Options: Knowledge Base, Online Support, Phone Support

Categories: Website & eCommerce Software -> Content Management System (CMS) Software

Customer Management Software -> Customer Experience Software

Sitecore provides automated and flexible customer experience management software at a very reasonable price than Adobe Experience Manager. Sitecore’s licensing fee starts at $40,000 and is another $8,000 for each additional year. The implementation cost starts at $65,000, and support and other licensing fees cost around $10,000 ongoing each year.

Brain Station 23 has been working with CMS since 2008. We have experienced the goodness of the features of both AEM and Sitecore platforms while developing two of our projects. To ensure every device compatible complete digital market solution Brain Station 23 chose to use AEM for British Telecom since 2008 till the date. Learn more about the project from our services. To leverage Sitecore’s reusable functionality of site components, we used the framework while developing a solution for customized user experience for one of our Dutch clients for every interaction with their system. Ask for the case studies for knowing the details of the projects.

Having hands dirty on both the CMS platforms, our developers claims each of them the winner of today’s best CMS race. Let us know which CMS do you find best-suited your business or next big project.

Originally published at http://www.brainstation-23.com

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Farzana Afrin Tisha
Brain Station 23

IT Business Developer, Digital Marketeer, Traveller, Reader, karateka.@http://bit.ly/2DtTLA0