2011 Professional Services
Professional services sites are all about selling the intangible. Presenting solutions. Proving expertise. To find out who does it best, we decided to evaluate three mega-players with $75 billion in revenues: Accenture.com, Deloitte.com, and the IBM Global Services site.
We stepped them through 432 types of content & features. Put them through their usability paces. Checked them from top to bottom – and turned them inside out. We scored, ranked, and rated every one. Then we put all of the results in this nifty report.
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Content that’s all about “you”. Websites that cultivate the “cult of personality”. Imagery that is more than a pretty face. Integrated social media.
If you are running a professional services Website, that’s the new world you are facing.
But here’s the question. Who is ready for this new marketing paradigm? Which sites are the most usable? Where do they have the perfect balance of content & features? With $45 billion in revenues between them — and huge investments in their Websites — how do the Accenture.com and the IBM Global Services sites stack up?
We set out to find the answers
To find out, we evaluated the 3 professional services sites on the 2011 siteIQ eBusiness Index. We’re talking sites that do real business on the Web. They serve 1.7 million visitors a day (that’s about 53 million visitors a month) — and drop over a million pages onto users’ desks every day.
Since opinions are good — but facts are better — we conducted these evaluations using our Professional Services Best Practices Benchmark which is packed full of the 432 types of content, features & capabilities** you need on a best-in-class professional services Website.
Of course, great Websites are much more than the sum of their parts. That’s why we rolled up our sleeves and conducted a second usability review based on 67 questions that measure how each professional services site achieves visitor goals & objectives.
Then we crunched the numbers — ranked & rated each site — created cool graphs to tell the story — added our unvarnished opinions — and rolled it all up into this neat report.
The Big Picture
2011 was the year when these sites worked really hard to stay in the same place. When the dust settled Accenture ended up as the biggest fish in a world of tiny ponds – but needs to keep a really big fish – IBM’s Global Services site – squarely in its rear view mirror.
Accenture.com retained its crown. Accenture.com has been a story about doing important things right this year. This team has been focused on improving the content, features, and usability that move visitors from the home page to the services they need — and then connect them to a salesperson.
This attention to detail netted Accenture.com first place – and with a few nudges in the right direction its services marketing could easily become a best practice.
IBM Global Services skated into second. First of all, it’s not our intention to dis the Global Services team’s efforts this year – but when you look at the numbers it’s pretty clear that its second place finish is really a testament to the success of IBM.com’s redesign. Case in point: all of this site’s increases were in the corporate marketing zones that belong to someone else.
Despite this, IBM.com’s Global Services site is the one to watch in 2012. If it adopts IBM.com’s emerging “cult of personality” strategy, all bets are off for most of its competitors.
Deloitte.com equals an anchor – for the third year in a row. 2011 didn’t bring good news for Deloitte.com. For yet another year, its complete lack of progress solidified it as the proverbial boat anchor on our roster. There are a few bright spots, to be sure — such as its unique home page design — but once you crack the surface, this site doesn’t even begin to present its parent as one of the largest ($29 billion; 182,000 employees) and most influential companies in the world.
**The Professional Services industry sites generally do not provide online support, training and education, ecommerce, online communities or product, industry and channel marketing. Therefore, in 2011 this segment only has 10 zone categories instead of the standard set of 18 evaluated for most other industry segments.
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If you don’t care what professional services sites are doing, you’ll probably find some of our other reports more useful. On the other hand, if want a clear view of these site’s strengths and weaknesses, and what matters and why, this report is a great place to start. Here’s who will benefit most from this report.
- Teams that build, compete with (or want to get the real scoop on) the 3 professional services sites we evaluated in this study.
- Digital & Web strategy directors & managers who are responsible for your company’s online strategy.
- User experience (UX) professionals who are burning the midnight oil to make your Website sticky – and a place your visitors love to love.
- Digital & Web marketing managers who want to create demand – harvest prospects – and laser focus your site on the B2B buying process.
- Competitive, usability, & visitor satisfaction analytics managers who need metrics to compare your site to competitors and report on its progress and challenges.
Here’s Why
Our clients tell us that they use our reports to:
- Cut through the competitive clutter and laser focus their teams (and executives) on the sites that deliver good & best practices in design, navigation, marketing (services, industry, channel, corporate, events), and recruiting – and are creating new standards and visitor expectations. (Here’s the whole list** in case we missed something.)
- Get a bird’s eye view of which sites are the most usable — and exactly where they excel.
- Identify which sites deliver the perfect combination of content, features, & capabilities — and where their teams need to revisit the playbook.
- Educate their executives, stakeholders & agency partners about the site’s capabilities and challenges & and gain consensus to develop a master improvement plan.
**The Professional Services industry sites generally do not provide online support, training and education, ecommerce, online communities or product, industry and channel marketing. Therefore, in 2011 this segment only has 10 zone categories instead of the standard set of 18 evaluated for most other industry segments.
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If you want the inside scoop on sites that create business on the Web — where they excel and how they do it — you’ve come to the right place. Here’s what’s in this 37-page report.
We start by giving you the big picture.
- The professional services sites that are real industry leaders – and must be on your competitive radar.
- Are the most usable.
- Deliver the content & features your visitors expect and need.
Think of it as a way to cut through the competitive clutter and laser focus your teams on the best and good practice Websites that really matter.
Then we move on to the details.
- We start by profiling each professional services site. Their usability strengths & challenges. What they do best – and where their teams need to go back to the drawing board.
- Show how each site ranks, rates, and compares across 10 Website categories**.
- Identify the sites that deliver good and best practices.
- Sum it all up with quick reviews that bring the rankings and ratings to life. Pinpoint what matters. Give you the ammunition you need to coach your stakeholders and make your case.
Think of it as a perfect way to drill down into every nook and cranny of these sites – and see who does it best.
This report features 50 graphs, charts, and tables — perfect to educate your stakeholders and make a business case with executives.
- Bar charts show how these sites rank, rate & compare.
- Competitive eMAPs pinpoint real leaders at a glance.
Want to know what’s in the report page-by-page? Check out the simple Table of Contents.
**The Professional Services industry sites generally do not provide online support, training and education, ecommerce, online communities or product, industry and channel marketing. Therefore, in 2011 this segment only has 10 zone categories instead of the standard set of 18 evaluated for most other industry segments.
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Facts are great – but graphs are better. That’s why all of our reports are packed with graphs you can use to make your case. Here are some interesting facts from this report.
But wait, there’s more!
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Some companies evaluate cars and toasters. We evaluate Websites.
Twice a year, we audit & evaluate the 23 Websites that represent the best-of-the-best on the IT Web. We put them through their usability paces. We score them based on over 1,200 types of content, features, & capabilities for eighteen Website zones & cross-site utilities.
Then we rank and rate them based on the results.
Leading Web teams use the siteIQ eBusiness Index rankings to:
- Accurately identify how their Websites compete on the Web.
- Check if their sites are gaining or losing ground to competitors and industry requirements.
- See where time & treasure are paying off.
- Watch the sites that are changing user expectations & behaviors – and are setting new standards on the IT Web.
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