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The Forrester Wave™: Document Output For Customer Communications Management, Q1 2014by Craig Le Clair, January 8, 2014

For: Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Key TaKeaways

DOCCM Products Reach For Broader Communication GoalsDOCCM products help enterprises make printed output a second or third option after digital. DOCCM helps make their language more consistent and compliant with company policy, and makes output from core systems a part of the customer experience.

Mainstream DOCCM Refocus Toward Customer experience PlatformsMainstream DOCCM providers like Oracle Skywire Software, Thunderhead.com, and Adobe have repositioned their products to focus on broader customer experience communication markets.

GMC, HP, eMC, OpenText, and Isis Papyrus Lead The PackForrester included 11 vendors in the assessment -- Aia Software, Cincom Systems, Elixir Technologies, EMC, FIS, GMC Software Technology, HP, Isis Papyrus Software, OpenText Software, Pitney Bowes, and Quark Software. We found clear Leaders in addressing new market needs.

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For EntErprisE ArchitEcturE proFEssionAls

wHy ReaD THIs RePORT

Customer communications management is a frequent topic of inquiries by Forrester clients who are looking for direction on how to update their technology for new business demands and usage patterns — such as the need for unified and consistent content across multiple communication challenges. To assist them, Forrester evaluated 11 document output for customer communications management (DOCCM) vendors across 26 criteria, finding strong differences in document design and composition, business empowerment, use cases, implementation, workflow, and reporting. During the next few years, DOCCM platforms will continue to bring better customer experiences, become easier to use, evolve toward broader communication needs, and more tightly integrate with other business applications.

table of contents

why Document Output For Customer Communications Matters

Products strive To Meet Broader Communications Goals

DOCCM Providers worth watching

DOCCM Vendors Represent a Mix Of strength and Focus

DOCCM evaluation Overview

DOCCM suites Greatly Improved scale and Interactive Capabilities

Vendor Profiles

supplemental Material

notes & resources

Forrester conducted vendor evaluations in the fall of 2013 and interviewed 11 vendors and dozens of user companies, including Aia software, cincom systems, Elixir technologies, EMc, Fis, GMc software technology, hp, isis papyrus software, opentext software, pitney Bowes, and Quark software.

related research Documents

Developing the Value side of the DoccM Business caseseptember 4, 2013

the Forrester Wave™: E-signatures, Q2 2013April 29, 2013

the Forrester Wave™: Document output For customer communications Management, Q3 2011september 14, 2011

The Forrester wave™: Document Output For Customer Communications Management, Q1 2014Vendors target interactive use cases And corporate solutionsby craig le clairwith Alex cullen and Julian Keenan

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the Forrester Wave™: Document output For customer communications Management, Q1 2014 2

© 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited January 8, 2014

wHy DOCuMenT OuTPuT FOR CusTOMeR COMMunICaTIOns MaTTeRs

Business process professionals, looking to help line-of-business (LOB) owners improve the customer experience, now realize the potential of document output for customer communications management (DOCCM). But business process professionals have trouble telling DOCCM suppliers apart. All claim to be easy to use, enterprise-capable, to have great business-side control, be multichannel ready, and support all use cases well. Since our 2011 Forrester Wave™ evaluation, the market for this technology has changed to align with broader customer experience goals with interactive statements, better mobile support, and more flexibility for the iWorker.1

Forrester defines DOCCM as:

Software used to compose, format, personalize, and distribute content to support physical and electronic customer communications and improve the customer experience.

DOCCM software supports content types such as letterhead, invoices, correspondence, marketing materials, policies, statements, and welcome kits. Dividing document output needs into structured, interactive, and on-demand processes can help business process pros get a better handle on their diverse application needs (see Figure 1).2

■ Structured output runs in batches, often in large volumes. Structured output is scheduled, consistently formatted, and sent as part of a service relationship (much like phone bills and brokerage statements); it also includes batch digital or offset print runs. For these apps, high-volume batch capabilities with print stream controls are critical. There will be a small number of infrequently changing templates and the emphasis is on merging variable data from transaction systems.

■ Interactive output marries custom content or data with preset structure. Unlike the structured area, interactive output requires the human touch, matching smaller amounts of variable data — often entered by internal staff — with potentially thousands of forms or templates. Business-side control of templates and document structures and document fragments is a strongly desired feature as well as multichannel output. Examples include customer correspondence and negotiated documents like group insurance policies or derivative and margin contracts.

■ On-demand output is triggered by multichannel requests. Events from the Web, fax, phone, email, transactional systems, or enterprise applications drive on-demand output, and on-demand events may also be initiated by a human being via a keystroke, as in call center correspondence.




Figure 1 DOCCM Categories And Applications

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.107241

STR

UCTURED

ON DEMAND

INTERACTIVE

Retirement/bene�tbooks

Negotiateddocuments (margin,derivative contracts)

Welcome kits

Businesscorrespondence

Online statementgeneration

Telephone bills

Offset and digitalprint runs for

marketing materials

Financialstatements

Online quotes

Interactive statementsMobile ID cards

Web-to-printAccount notices

Order con�rmations

Point-of-servicecustomer documents

Technical authoring

Financial printing

Travel itineraries

On-demandcorrespondence

Groupinsurance policies

Mobile print

E-publishing

MFP

out

puteDelivery

Social media

Product catalog

PRODuCTs sTRIVe TO MeeT BROaDeR COMMunICaTIOns GOaLs

DOCCM, as a software market, does not get a lot of attention. Thirty years ago, DOCCM developed to support the print channel — to help enterprises drive high-speed transaction printing. It is still strongly associated with the print channel, but, ironically, it is now helping enterprises move away from printing by including emerging mobile, analytics, or customer experience technology.

There are small innovations that continue to give DOCCM life and, more importantly, continue to encourage enterprise investment. Here are a few important directions for DOCCM:

■ Addressing broader customer experience goals. Enterprises want print to become a secondary channel. They want to clean up their language, make it consistent, compliant, and make output from core systems add to the customer experience. Mainstream DOCCM providers have turned this corner. IT and document automation concerns of reliability, scale, and control are still there but increasingly vendors approach this market from the customer experience perspective.




■ Increasing focus on interactive statements and communications that engage. Enterprises are seeing opportunity to provide better customer experiences by adding interactive features to traditional communications. They want to create interactive statements, documents, emails, or web pages that have links, support drill downs, data summary and charting, and embedded animated objects. This approach motivates customers to engage with the content, accomplish simple tasks, and encourages paper suppression. Our evaluation rewarded DOCCM providers that have specific editing features to help with interactivity.

■ Stronger support for the iWorker. Customer correspondence — which equates to relatively short textual documents — remains a top target for many of the providers. The 2013 evaluation emphasized requirements for this the fast growing “interactive” DOCCM segment that provides rapid return on investment.3 Return on investment (ROI) is improved when a worker can retrieve a document, enter data, or make selections that alter and personalize the output. Driven by this need and market opportunity, providers improved user interaction with documents significantly.

■ Responsive design and broader mobile capability. DOCCM vendors, just like enterprises, are in different phases of making the mobile mind shift.4 For most, CCM content created on a table or smart device, with a full set of creation capabilities, has not evolved. Most support HTML5 and some support “responsive design” capability, e.g., inheriting the best features available on a device such as the ability to move from horizontal to landscape. But today, not many production customers are using tablets and/or smartphones to create content, receive CCM output, or make changes to a CCM system. And no DOCCM vendor is currently publishing to social media outlets.

Products Balance Complexity, Flexibility, and scope

Some products are more packaged and focused than others and present a tradeoff between packaging and flexibility. HP, Isis Papyrus, and Pitney Bowes Software offer very strong flexibility — but are also more complex and harder to implement. Aia Software and Cincom Systems, for example, are better packaged but have a more limited scope of applications. Overall we found:

■ Stronger and more configurable iWorker features. Interactive content can benefit from a tailored and web-based front end that prompts the author and pulls in the correct form, product information, marketing message, or compliance language based on the author’s responses. Top scores were awarded for a complete web-based interactive UI tailored for interactive use cases, quality control workflow tailored for correspondence use cases, full field validation, suspension of interview without loss, and ease of development and inclusion of carbon copies and attachments, full preview of document at all times in the process.

■ Business-side control that doesn’t quite get there. Most 2014 products have modest and sometimes confusing separation between IT-oriented consoles and those used by the business user. Most allow configuration or exposure of features based on an enterprise’s needs. However, we did not find a single extremely easy-to-use business-side GUI with the ability to create




variables, write rules, and create new interactive experiences. Improved web-based business editors; WYSIWYG editing, wizard, or guidance for next steps; and validation of completed steps were improved. Over time, we expect line-of-business (LOB) staff members to take on more design and update responsibility — but today it’s still IT’s game.

■ Greatly improved templates management with scalable controls. Companies can use thousands of templates for negotiated documents such as contracts and insurance policies, account notices and correspondence, marketing collateral, and proposals. Enterprises must update, version, and track templates and individual fragments — a painful process. Today, different departments in many enterprises manage templates and fragments, store them in different environments, and use an average of six separate point solutions to manage them.5 Interactive DOCCM products reviewed in this evaluation will make template management easier. All solutions, for example, support form fragments that can be assembled into document templates.6

Technical environments — still a Hodgepodge

Reviewed products have an IT (programmer-oriented) console that allows data models, integration points, and document workflow to be developed. There is a design area for statement and template layout, which is targeted for more technical staff (nonprogrammers) but more specialized in document output requirements. A third environment focused on the iWorker interface to support internal worker interaction with a document. Providers have merged different capabilities that have a mix of thin and thick clients with no solution as unified or as intuitive as we would like. We did find in several solutions:

■ Data import functionality that reduces complexity. The customer providers had a variety of options available to import data and content into the design and composition system. We looked for the ability of formats to be ingested directly into a CCM system without conversion outside the CCM environment. The ability to aggregate multiple data and content sources simultaneously without pre-processing is also a plus.

■ Advanced multichannel output features. We rewarded providers that address multichannel needs with advanced features, architectures that allow dynamic generation of content and clean separation between templates and the channel, and a clear multichannel strategy. For electronic channels, we looked for a single editor used to create visually rich emails, SMS, RSS, and web pages. We provided higher scores for HTML5 output produced natively that does not require users to write their own transformations and styles. We also wanted the same design environment for interactive content (e.g., correspondence) as for structured (e.g., statements).

DOCCM PROVIDeRs wORTH waTCHInG

Vendors included in the DOCCM Forrester Wave have the ability to meet a broad set of use cases that drive from the output of core systems, like insurance policy and administration




systems. A number of vendors are not included in the evaluation due to approaches to customer communications that have a narrower focus, such as customer service or broader goals for more general communications.

Mainstream DOCCM Refocus Toward Customer experience Platforms

Mainstream DOCCM providers like Oracle Skywire Software, Thunderhead.com, and Adobe have repositioned to focus on broader customer experience communication issues as opposed to more focused DOCCM requirements. Nevertheless, they offer significant experience and value for many DOCCM applications. These include:

■ Adobe surrounds DOCCM with rich digital experience components. Adobe’s DOCCM consists of two products in LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 4: correspondence management (for interactive use cases) and the output modules for higher volume batch and on-demand use cases. Value is accelerated when combined with EchoSign E-signature capability, interactive PDF for statements, or other components from the Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform.

■ Thunderhead shifts to relationship management. Thunderhead.com has evolved its on-premises technology to a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based customer engagement platform that manages communications, conversations, and collaboration with customers. Personalized, contextually relevant content is delivered at each interaction in a customer’s journey. The focus moves to building relationships through proactively managing the customer journey. The platform (named ONE) is designed to integrate into partner cloud ecosystems. ONE Correspond for Salesforce is an example of an app that enables users to create sales and service documentation and multichannel communications directly from within SFDC.

■ Oracle — for insurance but with broad DOCCM potential. Oracle continues to strengthen interactive DOCCM platforms. Oracle Documaker Enterprise has enhanced web capabilities that include preconfigured workflow with roles-based approvals and pre-built industry content. Oracle Application Development Framework, Oracle BPEL Process Manager for workflow, Oracle WebCenter for content management, and Oracle Fusion Middleware can all be used to enhance control over document automation processes.

■ DOCCM specialists provide solutions for specific use cases or environments. Top Down Systems’ Client Letter, for example, has deeper support for complex and high volume correspondence solutions than the horizontal DOCCM apps covered in this Forrester Wave. Xpertdoc has an easy to deploy and use DOCCM solution built around the Microsoft environment with an MS Word plug-in for midrange interactive use cases. And the price point may surprise you. Cedar Document Technologies provides SaaS managed services for DOCCM that focus on eDelivery, reduced operational costs, and embedded workflow for interactive statements and documents. Newgen has strong integration with ECM and BPM with a strong focus in financial




services and may be half the price of competing solutions. Sefas Innovation, acquired by the French postal service, has significant presence in Europe, with accounts such as France Telecom and the French social security system. And AirSpring, a 2012 DOCCM startup, creates and personalizes mobile, web, and print applications that deploy automatically on any device.

DOCCM VenDORs RePResenT a MIX OF sTRenGTH anD FOCus

The DOCCM product landscape includes enterprise-level solutions that can potentially support all three DOCCM segments and offer full “corporate solutions” while others that provide strong support for one or two of the three segments. Forrester included 11 vendors in the assessment: Aia Software, Cincom Systems, Elixir Technologies, EMC, FIS, GMC Software Technology, HP, Isis Papyrus Software, OpenText Software, Pitney Bowes, and Quark Software (see Figure 2).

For inclusion in this evaluation, the enterprise DOCCM software solution must:

■ Support all three document output segments. Interactive, on-demand, and structured segments each have unique requirements. To be included in this research, providers needed to have released products for all three categories.

■ Have innovative solutions or significant market share. We considered vendors on dimensions of revenue, employees, and the size of their networks in terms of customers, partners, and installed base. Furthermore, we included providers that were innovators in developing new approaches to meeting DOCCM needs.

■ Generate strong customer interest. Through Forrester inquiries, consulting, media requests, and ongoing conversations with players in the market, we developed an understanding of demand for the vendors and solutions included in this evaluation.

DOCCM eVaLuaTIOn OVeRVIew

To assess the state of the document output for customer communications market and see how the vendors stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top DOCCM vendors. After examining past research, user-need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 26 criteria, which we grouped into three high-level buckets:

■ Current offering. Forrester reviewed functionality across structured, interactive, and on-demand segments for authoring, post composition, output management support, production and content management, integration, and application development environment.




■ Strategy. We reviewed the vendors’ planned enhancements across the output segments, as well as partnership approaches, corporate strategy, target markets, and costs.

■ Market presence. We looked at installed base, revenue growth, services, number of employees, and technology partners. We estimated numbers where vendors would not disclose actual figures.

DOCCM suITes GReaTLy IMPROVeD sCaLe anD InTeRaCTIVe CaPaBILITIes

During the next five years, DOCCM platforms will evolve toward broader communication needs and more tightly integrate with smart process apps built with advanced authoring, workflow, business rules, analytics, and integration with enterprise marketing platforms. Enterprises that maintain point solutions without adopting enterprise solutions will struggle to meet emerging customer experience expectations. Our evaluation uncovered a market in which (see Figure 3):

■ GMC, EMC, HP, OpenText, and Isis Papyrus lead the pack. GMC, EMC, HP; 2011 Leaders shuffled their positions a bit, but overall they maintained their positions in 2014 — once again confirming the full commitment by their corporate senior executives to DOCCM. All scores hit within a few decimal points of each other, but under the covers they are quite different. HP, EMC, and ISIS extended from structured use case support to enhance interactive capabilities while GMC developed from the creative and marketing DOCCM support to broader DOCCM use cases. StreamServe is benefiting from the OpenText move toward customer experience and smart process apps, with core business in utilities and with ERP integration in particular SAP. Isis continues with a broad vision for DOCCM supporting ECM, CRM, analytics, event processing, and BPM, and views CCM as a component of a broader dynamic case management market.

■ Pitney, Aia, FIS, Cincom, and Elixir achieve Strong Performer status. Aia has improved capabilities in a number of areas and now has the strongest overall leverage of SharePoint particularly with Microsoft Dynamics integration. And Elixir has taken a bold SaaS direction and may pave the way for others to follow. Pitney continues to cultivate a strong installed base surrounding DOCCM with the most complete data management and analytics support. Cincom and FIS bring renewed energy and innovation to the market with depth in specific use cases.

■ Quark offers unique alternatives as a Contender. Quark has extended its desktop tools to a range of e-publishing use cases. They do not focus on typical letter and statement generation but rather on high-value documents (revenue generating, regulatory, or branded content such as research reports, product data sheets, mutual fund fact) with advanced online experiences.

We encourage readers to use this evaluation of the DOCCM market as a starting point only; they should view detailed product evaluations and adapt the criteria weightings to fit their individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool. Because many clients have made existing investments in part of DOCCM, and the noted differences in different segments of




the DOCCM market, Forrester blended criteria across three use case segments: 1) structured output; 2) interactive output; and 3) on-demand output. As a result, enterprises should use the custom Forrester Wave features of our model to emphasize the use case area of interest — where the goal may not be complete enterprise coverage.

Figure 2 Evaluated Vendors: Vendor Information And Selection Criteria

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Inclusion criteria

Vendor must support interactive, on-demand, and structured document output segments.

Vendor must have an innovative solution for DOCCM.

Vendor must have generated strong interest from Forrester clients through inquiry.

Vendor Product evaluatedProduct version

evaluatedVersionrelease date

Quark Software • Quark Enterprise Suite• App Studio• Quark Brand Manager

• 9.5• N/A• N/A

• Q3 2012• Q3 2012• Q1 2012

Pitney Bowes EngageOne Communication Suite N/A Q4 2013

OpenText OpenText StreamServe 5.6.1 Q3 2013

Isis Papyrus Papyrus Platform 7.1 2012

• HP Exstream• HP Relate

HP 8.6 Q3 2013

GMC GMC Inspire 9.0.41.0 Q4 2013

FIS CSF Designer Suite 13.5 Q4 2013

EMC EMC Document Sciences xPression Q2 20134.5

Elixir Elixir Tango 2.1 Q3 2013

Cincom Systems Cincom Eloquence Q3 20132.6.03

Aia Software ITP Enterprise 4.2 Q1 2012




Figure 3 Forrester Wave™: Document Output For Customer Communications Management, Q1 ‘14


Go online to download

the Forrester Wave tool

for more detailed

product evaluations,

feature comparisons,

and customizable

rankings.

RiskyBets Contenders Leaders

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Currentoffering

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Aia Software

Isis Papyrus

Pitney BowesElixir

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Cincom Systems

FIS EMC

GMC

HP

Market presence




Figure 3 Forrester Wave™: Document Output For Customer Communications Management, Q1‘14 (Cont.)


CURRENT OFFERING Document input, design, and composition Business empowerment and template management Breadth of use case and application support Work�ow, implementation, and reporting

STRATEGY Product strategy

MARKET PRESENCE Installed base

Aia

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3.073.00

3.50

1.66

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3.66

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3.753.50

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3.50

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2.752.50

GM

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4.024.00

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4.754.50

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3.034.00

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3.34

2.40

5.005.00

2.752.50

Op

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3.323.00

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4.00

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3.503.00

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Qua

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2.223.00

2.50

0.66

2.80

2.342.34

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All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).

VenDOR PROFILes

While the Forrester Wave graphic may seem to indicate little differentiation among the leading vendors, in reality that is not the case. The offerings are quite diverse, each one with its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses. For example, traditional structured output providers have proven support for high-volume batch production and have a strong foothold to meet the largest enterprise demands for structured applications — e.g., utilities, telecom, and brokerage statements — that require complex pre- and post-processing. Others have deeper capabilities for interactive apps that are also batch processed, lack intelligent print streams, and may require the same volume and complexity.7

well-Balanced Leaders Drive The Market

The Leaders are particularly well-balanced across use all case areas, have strong market presence, and excellent strategies to meet emerging DOCCM needs. The Leaders are:

■ GMC extends capabilities from its marketing beachhead. GMC began business life turbocharging high-speed printers manufactured by Scitec and Oce. But the first commercial




success was composition and workflow to support four-color direct mail printing for exploding loyalty programs. The new owner, Neopost, is adding R&D and distribution bulk to GMC and Forrester now believes its CCM business is growing faster than overall market. Direct enterprise business is now the driver of new revenue relieving dependence on the declining print server provider market. Marketing campaigns still dominate GMC’s overall customer base but it is now being short-listed for mainstream DOCCM interactive requirements, particularly insurance. GMC’s strong creative dynamic statement applications with a natively developed statement editor are a plus.

■ EMC Document Sciences leads with a strong overall platform. EMC Document Sciences xPression is well positioned for a complete DOCCM enterprise platform, with an open architecture based on Java and web services. The product is improved from last review with the addition of a web-based interactive designer, available from within the EMC Case Management (EMC Documentum xCP) environment. Flexibility is allowed as 70% of design functions can be provided with the thin client with the traditional thick client available for complex applications. Innovation has been an EMC focus. Its current release has a visual template “impact assessment” tool that shows the effect of a “fragment” change across all affected documents. A browser-based interactive capability for iWorker document manipulation was also new to the reviewed version. The xPression platform will continue to emphasize third-party tools like Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word for interactive DOCCM functions that require more sophisticated design elements or ease of use for business users.

■ HP Exstream brings great overall balance with SFDC innovation. HP Exstream continues to be a leader with top numbers across needed capabilities, as well as continued strength for high-volume applications and a growing customer installed base. HP provides extensive flexibility and capabilities for high-volume batch applications that require bulletproof control. We like the movement of this software unit to the autonomy group and a bit away from the hardware product lines. Multichannel support improved from handling email as a post process to applying channel-specific properties during design time. HP continues to innovate as well with a SFDC app called HP Relate. This allows document design and editing from within SFDC, which is then processed in a cloud-based Exstream CCM engine. Demonstrations showed a rich HTML experience that can be locked down by administrators for control and compliance. Use of SFDC’s shared object model makes it essentially a public document design capability. While only recently launched, the application shows promise.

■ Isis Papyrus — an adaptive platform with exacting results. Isis is a leader with a well-balanced product. The sweet spot for Isis is where there is language complexity and where exact rendering of content is essential. This explains why international banks are its biggest customers — where an incorrect currency translation may cost staff their jobs. Isis Papyrus also supports capture, ECM, CRM, analytics, event processing, and can offer CCM as a component of these applications. As such, the Papyrus System is a full application life-cycle platform and framework. Traditionally,




Isis has offered great flexibility but without implementation ease; it has been moving to “Framework” solutions to reduce implementation with more “out of the box” tools today than in our 2011 research. CCM customers can still leverage Isis provided primitives — to “expose” different aspects of the product. Rules are “natural language” with a simple “scripting language.” A consolidated and common data model across CRM, ECM, DCM, and CCM in a core repository is provided as a starting point.

■ OpenText StreamServe — ramped up integration. OpenText bought StreamServe to solidify its SAP ECM partnership, yet it has found even greener pastures as part of a Customer Experience Management Suite of products. OpenText now targets the CMO who desires more meaningful conversations with customers. Since the 2011 Forrester Wave, it has integrated CCM with EIM pillars ECM, BPM, CEM, IX and media management and even Easylink for outbound fax. The reviewed version has full integration with content server — allowing stronger workflow. Still with a thick client for heavy design, its R&D focus will be on enhancements to the J2EE application server architecture to better integrate with other OpenText products, multitenancy server support, and a more contemporary web development framework. Energy, utility, and supply chain segments will remain the core strength, but it expects a growing presence in financial services.

strong Performers Offer extensive Capabilities with a Bit More Focus

Strong Performers excel in more focused areas such as integration with SharePoint, interactive use case, or integration with packaged applications. These are:

■ Pitney Bowes offers a comprehensive, strongly unified solution. Pitney Bowes’ DOCCM offering excels due to output management software that improves printer efficiency and unique data sets for improving address quality, as well as for improving marketing campaigns through “location intelligence.” The next major release of the EngageOne Communication Suite is the Collaboration Edition with a new web portal (Viewpoint) to participate in CCM with a modern browser on a variety of supported devices, a new multidesign repository with Google — like text and metadata search, and a new “interactive” app for enhanced iWorker usability. The communications suite will further unify rich Pitney components: Spectrum for data transformation, data quality software, analytics (Portrait), and output features into a comprehensive CCM offering.

■ Aia Software — rapid deployment with great value. Aia Software launched in the Netherlands in 1988 and got a foothold in the local Benelux and wider European markets; it continues to extend its global reach through partnerships and regional networks. Aia’s Intelligent Text Processing (ITP) Document Platform integrates with SAP, but the vendor has focused its road map on tapping CRM systems to improve multichannel content and personalized communications. A particular strength is the ability to extract and synchronizes metadata with




the corporate CRM system to establish the customer communication profile. References cited the strong overall support, cost-effectiveness, and responsiveness of Aia. The product has good version control, combined browser, and thick client iWorker support. Mobile is a strong point with support of HTML5 and 60% of core CCM functions (minus administration) available from a mobile device. In the Forrester field of providers, Aia has the strongest overall leverage of SharePoint and the Microsoft Dynamics packaged app environment.

■ Elixir’s Tango targets emerging SaaS DOCCM applications. Elixir started over 20 years ago in the DOCCM space with a PC-based product for Xerox to merge data with forms. There are still thousands of Elixir form apps in production and it has implemented transition support for these clients. But today’s focus is driven by its cloud architecture that enables cloud delivery and SaaS business models. Early successes have aligned Elixir’s Tango platform for member services in the health insurance vertical with recent deployments at one of the largest health payer organizations in the US. Applications include ID cards, health statements/EOBs, and commercial and CMS-regulated benefit contracts. Elixir’s strategy is to expand the platform to integrate department silos in the enterprise to deliver customer communication across multiple channels. The technology will enable a user to build the front- and back-end end business processes that support distributed teams via mobile technology to engage with the consumer and deliver interactive communications.

■ FIS builds on installed base and banking expertise. FIS acquired Metevante and provides a strong solution in the structured output segment due to its print-stream manipulation and data input capabilities.8 The CSF Designer suite has more than 200 licensed customers, many in banking and utilities. Forrester reviewed the Designer Intuition Interactive product, a web-based front end built on Microsoft Silverlight, a strong solution for correspondence management, loan origination, and quotes and proposals. FIS’ biggest strength comes from its integration of CCM to the entire life cycle of payment processing use cases (19 of the top 20 US banks own a CSF license) including, print and mail services, color production, check image manipulation, eDelivery, and EBPP. Future enhancements are focused on mobile presentation, mobile payment, and multichannel content for tablet banking, enhancement of the SaaS offering, and further penetration in insurance markets.

■ Cincom Systems hones in on front-office interactive output. Originating in the database and manufacturing world, Cincom offered the market’s first interactive web front end. Today, Cincom targets the front office and customer relationships for all output types, including insurance, state government, financial services, and even travel (Carnival Cruise Lines). The majority of Cincom Eloquence customers produce interactive communications such as claims, letters, and explanations of benefits — a Cincom strength. Eloquence’s document design interface uses Microsoft Word, including WordML (Microsoft’s published, open XML schema) and other open standards, J2EE, JBoss, and Tomcat. It is a highly intuitive product — helped by a third-party human factors think tank.




Contenders Offer Price and services alternatives

Contenders may be a good fit for enterprises looking to solve specific DOCCM problems. Our only contender is:

■ QuarkXPress for dynamic publishing. Building on its desktop publishing success, Quark provides an XML and DITA-based solution for highly formatted publications such as equity research reports for financial services. These are high-value documents (revenue generating, regulatory, or branded content such as product data sheets, mutual fund fact, internal documentation of processes [standard operating procedures ]) where if you don’t get it right can have a financial impact, e.g., automating SOP for flight crews. Integration with charting, investment tools, embedded video, and social media and real-time conversion to the iPad or Reader distinguish the product. For example, embedded autotags in published content take a customer back to a company website to extend the customer experience across channels.

suPPLeMenTaL MaTeRIaL

Online Resource

The online versions of Figure 3 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tools that provide detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings.

Data sources used In This Forrester wave

Forrester used a combination of data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each solution:

■ Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where necessary to gather details of vendor qualifications.

■ Product demos. We asked vendors to conduct demonstrations of their product’s functionality. We used findings from these product demos to validate details of each vendor’s product capabilities.

■ Customer reference calls. To validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also conducted reference calls with several of each vendor’s current customers.

The Forrester wave Methodology

We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated in this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we then narrow our final list. We choose these vendors based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation.




After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria, we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of questionnaires, demos, and discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies.

We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave document — and then score the vendors based on a clearly defined scale. These default weightings are intended only as a starting point, and we encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool. The final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and vendor strategies evolve.

enDnOTes1 For more information, see the September 14, 2011, “The Forrester Wave™: Document Output For Customer

Communications Management, Q3 2011” report.

2 For years, DOCCM has been pegged as a back-office operation that produces customer statements and bills. Now, customer experience demands will thrust DOCCM into a major software category supporting the growing and diverse content that enterprises must assemble and deliver to customers. See the October 24, 2007, “Give DOM Its Due” report.

3 By evaluating the ROI of correspondence management, organizations can prove a return within a year by optimizing content production, consolidating vendors and systems, and reducing paper usage. This helps enterprises realize that investing in DOCCM makes sense despite poor economic conditions. See the September 4, 2013, “Developing The Value Side Of The DOCCM Business Case” report.

4 For more information, see the February 13, 2012, “Mobile Is The New Face Of Engagement” report.

5 A Forrester survey of 25 enterprises found that the average number of DOCCM solutions per company was more than six. See the October 24, 2007, “Give DOM Its Due” report.

6 Fragments or component parts of templates are useful when updating large numbers of form templates. An enterprise, for example, might update a logo used on hundreds of forms, or a financial services firm may need to comply with a new regulation that affects a section on hundreds of different forms. Form fragments or components should be stored in a content repository. When a fragment or component is updated, the templates that reference it are automatically updated as well.

7 Forrester differentiates Leaders in the structured segment by their native ability to support specialized print applications like telecom, utilities, and brokerage statements that have the most stringent requirements for formatting and output. Some of the interactive and newer market entrants have made a strategic decision to pursue less specialized structured applications and may handle those applications well, even though rated lower than leaders in that segment.

8 Metevante created the Custom Statement Formatter (CSF-MVS), which was once the preeminent mainframe DOCCM solution and remains widely deployed today.







Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) is a global research and advisory firm serving professionals in 13 key roles across three distinct client segments. Our clients face progressively complex business and technology decisions every day. To help them understand, strategize, and act upon opportunities brought by change, Forrester provides proprietary research, consumer and business data, custom consulting, events and online communities, and peer-to-peer executive programs. We guide leaders in business technology, marketing and strategy, and the technology industry through independent fact-based insight, ensuring their business success today and tomorrow. 107241

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