Archive for ibm software group

2011 Online Support Rankings | Why the biggest aren’t always the best

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Monday, October 17th, 2011

So much for conventional wisdom.

For the most part, I’d rather have a root canal than use most support Websites.

Search for information and you end up with a list of a bazillion documents with truncated descriptions that read like Sanskrit.

Want to take a different path? Try ferreting your product out of a laundry list of every product the company ever made.

Or try the “follow our logical links” scenario—where you end up drilling to China.

At the end of all of this wonderfulness is the real insult. Support content that either requires an engineering degree to understand—or a wad of general purpose instructions that dance around the problem and miss the issue by a country mile. Read More→

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Categories : POV (point of view), Support
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Oracle.com & HP.com marketing content | It’s all about me

By Kenna Dian · Comments (1)
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Why Oracle.com and HP.com have a tough road ahead in the age of visitor-focused content

Oracle.com ContentI don’t talk about Oracle.com much. In fact, I speak about them so little that one would be lead to believe that I hold a grudge against them. Sure, they unceremoniously erased one of the best enterprise systems sites from the Internet–Sun.com. But, I won’t hold that against them. No, I don’t write about them much for one reason:

My Mother taught me if you don’t have something nice to say about someone, don’t say anything at all.

There’s a litany of issues I have with Oracle.com ranging from design to innovation (or rather a lack thereof). But today, my rant is about Oracle.com’s content. Read More→

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Categories : Design, Marketing, POV (point of view), Social Media & Social Networks, Strategy
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IBM Software Group | Not keeping up with the Joneses

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (2)
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

A circa 2008 site that missed the memos on Web 2.0, 3.0 and social media

I was surprised at the IBM Software Group zone’s performance in our latest siteIQ evaluations. Once upon a time, this site ranked first among all enterprise software comers by virtue of its huge portfolio of content & features, and competitive usability scores.

Fade out two years later and the story is much different. This site dropped to third among the 5 enterprise software sites we study and stands in 11th place on the siteIQ eBusiness Index. (You can download a free IBM Software Group scoring summary here).

Today, CA.com and Oracle.com are the sites to watch. Between the two, I vote for CA.com. Read More→

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Categories : Social Media & Social Networks, Usability, Web 2.0, Website Rankings
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Drum Roll, Please! IBM.com & Cisco.com head the eBusiness Index

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Monday, July 5th, 2010

In 2010 we changed the rules of the game . . and interesting things happened

We’ve been evaluating and tracking leading IT Websites for about 15 years. Along the way, our best practices benchmarks have been updated every year to identify and track emerging Website requirements.

Once upon a time our benchmarks weighed in at about 700 criteria. Then Web 2.0, Web 3.0, communities, and social media sparked a Website revolution.

Click on the graph to view full size

This revolution triggered a wholesale audit of the siteIQ Benchmarks in January 2010 – resulting in a new siteIQ Benchmark that weighs in at a whopping 1,232 criteria. In simple terms, that’s 1,232 types of content, features & capabilities that need to be on your “got it” checklist – or on your 2010 drawing board.

Needless to say, when you change the rules of the game, interesting things happen.

  • IBM.com is the biggest Website – but Cisco.com’s stellar usability scores puts it on par with this mega monster.
  • HP.com ranks third overall. Its content, features & capabilities are roughly on par with IBM.com – but this site is much harder to use (ranks 9th out of 23 Websites).
  • Dell.com plays in the second string, along with CA.com. Dell.com provides more types of content, features & capabilities – but CA.com is far more usable. Case in point, Dell.com’s usability ranks 11th while CA.com’s usability ranks 3rd.

Related research: The eBusiness Index Report.  If you are a siteIQ client or subscriber, click here.

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Categories : Website Rankings
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Why IBM Software, SAS, EMC, Intel, Brocade & Deloitte made the cut

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Monday, February 1st, 2010

This week we started our Q1 evaluations of 23 Websites, plus additional sites selected by our clients for comparison.

We’ve mixed up the siteIQ eBusiness Index for 2010. In some cases the decision was based on eliminating Websites that haven’t improved over the past year and don’t provide any good or best practices worth tracking. In other cases, sites have fallen off our list because they don’t exist anymore. That would be EDS.com which was integrated into HP.com — and Sun.com which went off the airwaves last week.

In both cases, these sites are a loss to anyone who cares about good and great practices. Don’t bother to follow them to their new homes. Their presence inside of their new parent’s sites is nothing to write home about.

Here’s some more about the new sites added to our roster – and why we’re singing “auld lang syne” to others. (If you are a siteIQ client you can read more about what we expect from these and other leading sites in 2010 in our new executive brief in the siteIntelligence Research Center). Read More→

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Categories : Branding, Communities, Design, eSelling, POV (point of view), Strategy, Web 2.0
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Why Oracle.com has its hands full

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (2)
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

OK, it’s official. Oracle will acquire Sun Microsystems by the end of the summer. Although I have to give Oracle kudos for a brilliant strategic acquisition (and tweaking IBM’s nose for good measure), flipping the Sun.com site into the Oracle paradigm won’t be as easy as its other acquisitions.

I’ve watched Oracle for about 30 years as an industry analyst — which means I’ve had a front row seat for all of Oracle’s growth, and most of its acquisitions.

When acquisitions are the issue, the script has always been pretty much the same. Oracle announces its intent to purchase an IT industry firm, engages in various firefights with a bevy of aggrieved CEOs and shareholders, occasionally spends some quality time with the SEC, finally closes the deal — and then takes the acquired company’s Website off the airwaves about two nanoseconds after the ink on the deal dries.

Generally, the first iteration of this process is a bit ham handed. Forget preserving the acquired company’s Web prowess & knowledge, brand, share of mind, or easing customers into a new parent organization. The acquired company’s URL is instantly directed to a landing page deep inside Oracle.com that announces the acquisition, positions the company’s products within Oracle’s strategic roster, points visitors to support, and  Read More→

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Categories : Design, Marketing, POV (point of view), Strategy
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