The Online Community Platform and Services Satisfaction research project was initiated in January of 2009 and published in March. The research project was conducted by the Online Community Research Network, and was created to provide insight about customer attitudes towards online community platform and service vendors, particularly around satisfaction. Further, we wanted to explore the unmet needs in the online community platform and services market.
We received approximately 208 completed surveys. Participants represent many sectors and markets include: large software companies, large community and social media destination sites, niche community sites, manufacturers, government and
non-profits.
Two items worth noting about the research protocol:
- Platforms with less than 5 respondents were not reported on in depth, and
- Online Community Vendors were not allowed to respond to the survey instrument, as the project was intended to study customer attitudes and issues.
Most Important Attributes for Purchase
From Question 9: Which of the following community platform vendor and system attributes are the most important to you when making a purchase decision about your community platform?
Most important vendor and system attributes ranked in descending order.
A majority (48%) of respondents consider scalability and feature set equally as important. Customization almost as important at 46%. It was interesting to note that pricing was less important that scalability, feature sets and the ability to customize. It was also interesting to see that respondents reported the that the technology of the platform was a lower priority attribute. SaaS functionality was least important at 5%.
Evaluatiton Criteria
We asked respondents to rate their primary community platform (and if applicable, supporting vednor) based on the following criteria:
- Overall quality / reliability
- Meets overall expectations
- Vendor delivered on deadline
- Post-purchase support by vendor
- Ability to Customize
- User experience / usability
- Ability to scale to meet demand
- Ongoing technical operations
- Ease of community management
- Metrics & reporting
- Members like platform
High Level Results
Platforms with five or more respondents are featured with full details of the customer experience of implementing and using the platform. A high level summary of findings include:
- Drupal (17 Respondents) – Scored high in the “Ability to Customize” category.
- iCohere (7 Respondents) – Received solid ratings across the board.
- Jive Clearspace (8 Respondents) – Received good ratings, with a lower marks in the reporting area.
- Jive Forums (11 Respondents) – Reviews were mixed, especially around support. This is likely due to vendor no longer supporting or upgrading this product.
- Joomla (6 Respondents) – Most Joomla attributes were rated fair or better
- Leverage Software (5 Respondents) – Leverage scored well on delivery and scalability.
- Lithium (6 Respondents) – Received solid ratings across the board, with no poor or unacceptable ratings.
- Ning (5 Respondents) – Received solid ratings, with low marks regarding metrics.
- Telligent (10 Respondents) – Received mostly solid ratings, with 2 respondents giving unacceptable marks regarding user affinity.
- Web Crossing (6 Respondents) – Received positive feedback on many attributes, with deadlines, support and metrics being weak areas.
A sample of Quality and Reliability scores from key platforms and vendors includes:
Drupal: Overall Quality & Reliability
Total responses presented in ascending order.
Jive Clearpsace: Overall Quality & Reliability
Total responses presented in ascending order.
Leverage Software: Overall Quality & Reliability
Total responses presented in ascending order.
Lithium: Overall Quality & Reliability
Total responses presented in ascending order.
Community Server by Telligent: Overall Quality & Reliability
Total responses presented in ascending order.
We also collected detailed data on custom platforms developed “in house”.
Additional Findings in the Report
The full 68 page “Online Communities: Platform and Services Satisfaction Report” includes in depth information on:
- Write in comments on vendors and community platforms
- Products and services that community teams are using in conjunction with their community platform
- Length of time communities have existed
- Online community budgets, broken out by company size
- Desired online community products and services that are currently unavailable
- Advice on online community platform and vendor selection and management
Access to the Full Report
For members of the Online Community Research Network, the report is included as a benefit of your annual subscription. If you are interested in joining the OCRN, or learning more about the Network’s activities, please go here.
The Online Community Platform and Services Satisfaction report is also available for purchase for $349.
