Around 300 partners descended on Malmo to enjoy two and a half days of sessions tailored to both business and technical audiences. In addition to presentations from the EPiServer leadership, there were also presentations on wider trends from independent analysts, and case studies from organisations that have implemented EPiServer.
There were many highlights during the course of the event, but the theme that underpinned the majority of the presentations was the increasingly cohesive product strategy the company is executing. Articulated by VP of Product Rikard Ljungman, the company has spent the last few years executing the vision Rikard has long held for the EPiServer product set, embodied by the concept of the “4C’s”: Content, Commerce, Community and Communication.
EPiServer maintain that this position differentiates them amongst the other web players, virtually all of whom can only deliver a subset of the end-to-end vision that EPiServer believes is necessary to create compelling and competitive web solutions. While EPiServer is most known for its core content management offering, EPiServer CMS, it also has a myriad of other offerings that help organisations to engage on the web – to use the web to interact with customers and partners in new ways. In addition to these “enabling” products, the company is also fleshing out other aspects of their portfolio to allow better measurement of how their web efforts are performing. With ROI being a focus of the technology industry, measurement and justification needs to be a key consideration.
EPiServer Commerce Release
A significant milestone at the event was the release and immediate availability of EPiServer Commerce, delivering the fourth foundation of the 4Cs vision outlined above. Designed for both B2B and B2C scenarios – whose requirements differ significantly – this framework allows organisations to develop online commerce capabilities that facilitate both B2B and B2C transactions.
Whether it’s online cataloguing, handling different prices and product configurations, through to processing payments, this platform appears sufficiently flexible and extensible to allow organisations to take advantage of the web as a vehicle for commerce. While I still recall the same arguments being made in the early part of the decade, the time is now right for organisations to embrace the efficiencies and opportunities online commerce has to offer.
For EPiServer, the release of Commerce closes the loop – now customers can not only be attracted to a website and be engaged through content and an online community, they can complete a transaction and therefore monetise their overall online effort.
Partner of the Year
Finally, in recognition of the Intergen team who work hard in the EPiServer space, the second to last night of the event was earmarked for the EPiServer Partner Awards, where Intergen was awarded the 2010 EPiServer Partner of the Year for Australia and New Zealand.
Intergen has had a long history with EPiServer, and as an organisation it was gratifying to see the efforts of so many people on this side of the world being recognised and applauded by peers on the other side. We look forward to continuing the momentum over the next 12 months – and beyond.
