The annual siteIQ eBusiness rankings just hit the airwaves. This year’s report is a whopper. 95 pages, 108 graphs – and our usual politically incorrect take on what it all means.

Here’s how some of the 2011 rankings shake out.

Overall Performance.  IBM.com and Cisco.com share the winner’s podium.

2011 was the year that IBM.com transformed itself from a large, aging duckling into a swan to be reckoned with (at least above the water line). There’s been many a late night for the IBM.com team—and the “wow” factor inherent in its new design has gone a long way toward keeping it in the top slot this year.

It’s been many a moon since Cisco.com had its overnight makeover—but this team’s intrepid iterative design strategy keeps this site fresh and innovative season after season. Cisco.com has building a better mousetrap down to a science—and that’s why it bumped IBM.com over and shares the #1 spotlight this year.

Usability & Effectiveness | The best hold their own

It’s no surprise that the overall winners—IBM.com and Cisco.com—also aced the usability & effectiveness tests. Both teams have been busy performing some pretty substantial site facelifts over the past year—and their high wire acts paid some nice dividends.

CA.com, IBM Software Group and Symantec.com complete the top five usability roster. CA.com held its own (third place), IBM Software jumped into fourth (from 6^th), and Symantec.com — last year’s usability darling — slipped from third to fifth.

Symantec.com’s fall from grace sounds like bad news for the team, but it’s actually a bit of high praise. After all, most of the Symantec.com site hasn’t really changed much over the past 36 months. That’s a virtual lifetime in Internet years. Staying in the top five is a testament to all of the hard work that went into this site’s base design and architecture. But times are changing—and it will be interesting to see if Symantec.com can keep up.

Content, features & capabilities | The same dance continues and Dell finally gets its bragging rights.

Mirror, mirror on the wall. Which is the biggest Website of all? Once the mist in the mirror clears, you’ll be looking at HP.com. In fact, this year, HP.com succeeded in getting the top spot all to itself by bumping off its long-standing 80 pound rival gorilla IBM.com. If you squint real hard in the mirror, you’ll see Cisco.com quietly making the donuts in third place.

While IBM, HP, and Cisco executed their complex kabuki dances, Dell.com was busy thumping some other sites down the Index. This year, it took the top spot in the online support category after watching HP and IBM toss the winner’s baton back and forth. We’ve always challenged Dell.com’s self-proclaimed assertion that its support was the biggest & best in the business. Now it’s (partially) true.

Subscribers can pick it up in the Library right now. If you’re not a subscriber you can pick up a copy from the site here.

Subscribers Login Here. Non-subscribers can learn more about The Library here.

Overall: Accenture.com
Usability & Effectiveness: Accenture.com
Content, Features & Capabilities: Accenture.com

Last week, we took a close look at how classic professional services Websites fare when they are put under the siteIQ microscope–and made some pretty substantial changes in the ways these Websites are measured on the siteIQ benchmarks. The net result is a much slimmer benchmark that hones in on the unique ways these companies do business on the Web.

Since there’s no time like the present to see the impact of these changes, we put the three professional services Websites on the siteIQ eBusiness Index through this new evaluation model. Then we published the results in a new report.

So how did things change?

A lot.

First and foremost, Accenture.com moved from second to first place courtesy of very strong navigational, search, and services marketing scores. Services marketing now rates a Good Practice. As important, Accenture.com’s overall usability beats all comers.

IBM Global Services’ Website ended up in a reasonably close second place. It matches Accenture.com’s services marketing Good Practice, but took it on the chin in the navigation and search categories. Just goes to show you that paying attention to those pesky architecture and cross-site utilities can make a huge difference.

And how did Deloitte.com fare in a rising tide that floated all boats? Ho hum. It still ranks third and gained one star–but missed the Good Practice dock by a mile. This site’s best showing is in (yikes!) online recruiting. On the other hand, every services and corporate marketing category ranks third.

And what about the rest of 2012? We’re betting that IBM Global Services’ slow motion revamp will start to pay dividends by the end of this year. That means that Accenture.com shouldn’t rest on its laurels–and should pay close attention to the cult of personality strategy IBM.com is rolling out.

More scoring details, plus new rankings and ratings, are available in our new Professional Services Report. If you already own a copy of our earlier report, a new copy is on the way to your desktop. Library subscribers can pick up their copy here (you’ll need those pesky log in credentials). If you aren’t a subscriber you can learn more about The Library here.

Overall: Symantec.com
Usability & Effectiveness: Symantec.com
Content, Features & Capabilities: Microsoft.com

Each business software site’s redesign over the past year has caused content and features to shrink on a huge scale. But did these diets help the sites’ usability scores? At least one Website should think so.  Here’s the rundown from first place to last:

1. Any Web team that focuses on site usability should put Symantec.com at the top of its watch list. This site’s usability ranking not only debuted at number 2 on the siteIQ Enterprise Software Index, but held its number 1 position in usability while stealing first place in overall performance from Microsoft.com in the siteIQ Business Software Index. Not bad for a year’s work.
2. Microsoft.com’s site reductions during its rolling redesign took a toll on its performance this year. It is still the ten-ton gorilla in the business software segment, but its third place usability ranking is pure monkey business.
3. Adobe.com’s story is similar to Microsoft.com’s. It is the smallest of the business software sites reviewed—and it got smaller over the course of the year. But unlike Microsoft.com, Adobe.com brings in relatively admirable usability scores. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to reach any of the brass rings in 2011.

There’s plenty more rankings & ratings – and our take on the evaluation results – in our new Business Software Report.  Subscribers can pick up a copy in the Library. If you aren’t a subscriber you can learn more here…..

Subscribers Login Here.
Non-subscribers can learn more about The Library here.

Overall: Oracle.com
Usability & Effectiveness: IBM Software Group
Content, Features & Capabilities: Oracle.com

With two companies performing complete site overhauls–and one nudging its site into place over the past year—rankings were bound to change in 2011. So which sites were the major movers and shakers over the past 12 months? Which ones are the sites to watch through 2012? Here’s the rundown from first place to last:

1. This year Oracle.com retained its title as the content “big foot” on the siteIQ eBusiness Index (1)—and this footprint worked to deliver it the first place ranking. On the other hand, a broader look at the enterprise software industry shows that Oracle.com doesn’t have any room to rest on its laurels. Now it has CA.com gunning to be an enterprise software Goliath and IBM Software is upping the usability bar. To compete in the future, Oracle.com needs to up its game.
2. Incremental change was the name of the game at CA.com. That’s not to say there were any major splashes or “ta da’s”. Just a series of re-launches and endless tweaking that ended up creating a noticeable transformation. On the other hand, one look at CA.com’s scores and rankings shows that change isn’t always a good thing. CA.com lost its #1 usability ranking (dropped to third)—and is the only site that registered a net decrease in its usability & effectiveness score.
3. IBM Software’s latest site redesign is part of IBM.com’s Centennial revamp that is trying to change all of the rules. Here, The IBM Software team’s hard work—and CA.com’s tumble—delivered it the first place usability & effectiveness ranking and the only Good Practice rating in the group. The site’s renovation also delivered more content & features—but the real story is the site’s impressive string of 13 “Good Practice” usability ratings. The fact that its online communities are now visible on the site didn’t hurt either.
4. We didn’t add Symantec.com to the enterprise software mix this year because it’s selling large, complex software solutions. We added it because the enterprise systems “big wigs” are continuing to move down market with SMB and SaaS solutions that rely on the kinds of marketing and eCommerce capabilities that have long been a Symantec.com forte. So how did Symantec.com fare when compared to its mega software brethren? On the one hand, there’s no doubt that Symantec’s content & features are the size of a newt (relatively speaking). On the other hand, Symantec.com proves that small can be mighty. It usability & effectiveness debuted at second place—which proves that it knows how to capitalize on every single asset.
5. In April the German giant SAP.com unveiled a ginormous make-over that is still a work in progress. But if early scores are any indication, this new site is likely to give other sites a run for their money. Within a month of launch, this partial implementation was already moving the site’s content and usability & effectiveness scoring needles in the right direction. It ranks fifth to be sure—but its strong showing tells us that SAP.com will be a serious competitor within the next 12 months.
6. SAS.com’s scores paint a picture of a site that is running hard to stay in place. Here, substantial corporate marketing-class additions and improved communities visibility delivered the largest increase in overall content, features & capabilities scores—but burning the content midnight oil didn’t move its usability & effectiveness scores one whit. It ends up in 6th place (that’s dead last) with a 50.96% score and two stars (below average).

There’s plenty more rankings & ratings – and our take on the evaluation results – in our new Enterprise Software Report.

(1) Note: Oracle.com’s hardware product areas (a.k.a. Sun Microsystems hardware & systems) were not reviewed for this industry segment.

Subscribers Login Here.
Non-subscribers can learn more about The Library here.

Overall: IBM.com
Usability: IBM.com
Content, Features & Capabilities: HP.com

But the siteIQ eBusiness Index is always about more than just rankings, ratings, and numbers. So what’s the story about what happened over the past 12 months? Here’s the rundown from first place to last:

1. IBM.com lost sole ownership of its first place position–and with that some bragging rights. Although they added another “Best Practice” rating under their belt, they lost three “Good Practice” ratings due to HP.com’s massive site footprint—which only got larger over the past year. Nevertheless, IBM.com still holds its own—albeit by a margin that is half of what it used to be.
2. Believe it or not, HP.com has a lot to crow about. It garnered a first place ranking for Content, Features & Capabilities, making it the most robust enterprise systems site on the siteIQ Index. It also added another “Best Practice” rating in eCommerce, bringing its total up from two to three. However these accolades can’t hide a dismal ranking in site usability, which just happens to be what really counts this year. Just goes to show, just because your site is big doesn’t mean its usable.
3. Not surprisingly, Dell.com spent the last 12 months focused on core marketing and selling requirements: product marketing, online communities, call to action, and eCommerce. This has always been its tactical modus operandi. Overall improvements in corporate marketing areas are also evident—the most notable being a massive increase in its investor relations.
4. Oracle.com added site content and features across every area of the site—except support. Meanwhile usability scores stayed flat. However, the scoring trend shows that Oracle.com tends to do a more with less. In general, areas that had fewer content additions showed stronger usability scores than zones that went through major overhauls.
5. EMC.com’s story of the past year is largely one of treading water. With the exception of its tanking online support scores, all other areas received minor investments in content and features that resulted in minor upticks in its usability scores. Corporate and product marketing areas got the most attention. Corporate blogs made the biggest splash—from being a no-show in 2010 to a score of almost 60% in 2011.
6. In the past 12 months Intel.com introduced the barest glimmer of an eCommerce facility and corporate blogs area. These two additions alone are responsible for virtually all of Intel.com’s scoring increases over the past year. Most other categories registered less than 1% change in content or usability scoring. (1)

To get all the gritty details–star ratings, competitive rankings, and detailed scoring–by category, by Website, and overall–click here to buy the report.

(1) At the time of this post, Intel.com introduced a new Website that had not been launched before the siteIQ eBusiness Index Enterprise Systems evaluations. siteIQ Best Practice Case Studies detailing the Intel.com redesign launch will be available in the Best Practice Case Study Library.

Subscribers Login Here.
Non-subscribers can learn more about The Library here.

Most companies need to rethink their online price & lead generation strategies. Ignoring the sales force is the first step.

I can’t quite figure out why so many companies avoid putting prices on their Website. Actually, I do know. The company’s sales force wants to embargo product prices to force Web visitors to fill out that pesky contact form or engage in an online sales chat. This, they say, allows them to sell the product’s value and benefits, and work around the product’s price.

This is a big mistake. Here’s three reasons why.

Price pre-qualifies if the visitor is a real prospect (need and ability to buy) or simply a window shopper.

Lowers the costs of sales by sifting out the wannabees from the winners, which focuses the sales force on real prospects who have the budget to buy.

And here’s the third (and all important) reason. Creating an avalanche of unqualified leads requires salespeople to cherry pick through them trying to deduce which ones fit their requirements—and which they are going to ignore. This, in turn, leads to a cacophony of complaints from the sales force that the Website isn’t generating enough quality leads. What they conveniently forget, of course, is that they brought themselves to the pity party.

For those who can’t or won’t publish prices (or have complex products that require a lot of additional bells and whistles) here’s an alternative approach that works. Use the “starting at” pricing gambit. You’ll find that this simple change will instantly filter out the wheat from the chaff – and allow more qualified buyers to plop right into your prospect pipeline.

Ok, I need to come clean. Until recently, I haven’t really gotten my head around the whole “social media for business” thing.

It’s not that I don’t understand what Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube and the rest of the social media gang do. I get it.  It’s just that social media has always seemed to be more of a time consuming distraction than a tool that gives businesses any kind of inside edge.

The light dawned when I was writing our new report about how companies can build Websites optimized around the B2B buying process. In case you don’t know, that’s the 17 step process your biggest customers go through to make a buying decision.

As it turns out, social media plays a huge role in this process – but not where you might think. If you think about the process in three major chunks – make the “long list” – make the “short list” – and make it through the vetting process – social media plays its most important role in part one — making the “long list”.  If you don’t make the cut here, participating in the “short list” and the vetting processes won’t be a problem.

So what roles do social media play in this part of the process? Let me count the ways.

• Social media will give you visibility with buyers who are blissfully unaware of your company and its products.
• Lets them tune in to what current customers and the market are saying so they can add you to (or strike you from) the list — and
• Perhaps as important, social media is the way buyers can monitor your company throughout the decision process. If things go wrong on the social Web, you’re likely to end up on the “short list” cutting room floor.

In other words, social media is all about creating visibility and managing market perceptions when it really counts.

Here’s a short podcast about the complex B2B buying process – and the roles social media – and your Website – play in this process. Think of it as a Cliff’s Notes battle plan to woo and win those big deals.

[powerpress]

The French have a wonderful phrase “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”. It’s an elegant way to say that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

That’s certainly the case when you consider the complex B2B buying process. Since our last update in 2006, this process remains the same. It’s still dictated by task forces and committees who must wade through 17 steps to get to the finish line. Participants are still purchase influencers, rather than the decision makers companies crave. Websites still influence only 5 steps in the buying process.

But that doesn’t mean that everything remains the same.

What has changed are the tools in a Website’s arsenal. How social media, communities, and Web 2.0 tools and behaviors have changed how content is delivered, shared, and used by task forces who make the final recommendation.

But here’s the big “aha”. New media and tools are rifles, not shotguns. Each plays a different role at different points in the B2B buying process. Here’s brief playbook to consider.

• An active presence on social networks, mentions in heavily trafficked “expert” blogs, high ‘news’ visibility on popular search engines, and traction on the growing number of news aggregation sites are the tools companies need to move out of the shadows and make it onto the “long list.”
• Making the “short list” requires an additional set of tools that educate buyers, including video data sheets and customer testimonials, short podcasts and on demand Webinars, and a variety of company-operated communities.
• Once a company makes it into the finalist circle, the big guns come out. Interactive demonstrations and product tours (usually video). Live Webinars that allow task force members to pose questions. Try and buy options and short-term SAS subscriptions. Sales chat and other call to action behaviors that encourage task force members to engage with the company’s sales force.

If you look at Websites today, it’s pretty clear that most companies fall into one of two buckets. Those that are ignoring these innovations because they can’t figure out how to use them — and companies that are throwing them out willy nilly under the assumption that something is sure to stick.

I vote for the few and the brave in the third bucket. Those that understand the real power of these cool new tools, have mapped them to the B2B buying process — and end up getting the deal.

Related Research: How They Buy. Creating B2B Websites that outsell the competition and reduce the cost of sales. (Report excerpts & podcast.)

After the players are identified, the next step is an exhaustive drill down into what each visitor does, and the types of content a well-dressed Website needs to serve them. All of this heavy lifting usually results in a complex schematic of activities and values that act as a guidepost to keep the team on point.

Funny thing, though. This work never seems to show up on Websites.

My guess is that it is easier to profile and document personas than turn their needs into actionable content or click streams. That makes persona development a great internal discipline to laser focus teams and stakeholders on core objectives, but not much of a bonanza from the outside in.

Or is it?

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new report about how Web teams can map their Websites to the complex B2B buying process. That’s the process your biggest customers use to select and buy products. Here, the goal of your Website is to corral task forces and committees, give them the information and tools they need to gain consensus, collapse the decision process from 30+ to 18 weeks, and lower your cost of sales.

As it turns out, personas can play a huge role in mastering this process on a Website. Instead of limiting your view to the persona’s tasks, content preferences, or organizational affiliation, consider each persona’s role in the buying process. You’ll be amazed at the lessons you can learn.

Sales chat is heading toward the tipping point. Next up: real time hand offs to partners.

Sales chat has ceased to be an innovation that delivers a competitive advantage — and is well on its way to a tipping point that requires companies to pay attention.

Case in point; 35% of the companies we track now offer interactive sales chat on their sites. One of them is booking over $100 million in sales using this technique.

Unfortunately, even these companies are missing the obvious. Pop up sales chat offers are usually presented long before the visitor is ready to engage. When the buyer is ready, these features are usually missing in action.  That relegates them to an expensive game of buyer “whack a mole.”

There’s an easy solution to this problem. Put a “chat with us” link in your call to action module.

Few of the sites we evaluate have made this connection. Among those that have, Cisco.com delivers several best practices and moments of brilliance. One is the fact that its eye-catching chat module and pop up offer use the same design. The other is that its SMB zone hands off pre-qualified buyers in real time to a Cisco partner who can continue the dialog in a private collaboration space on the Cisco.com site.

If you don’t have online sales chat on your dance card, it’s time to start planning.  While you are it, be like Cisco. Think out of the box.