Independent Consulting Study Reveals That Content Supply Chain Challenges Obstruct Customer Continuity

Study Highlights Impact on Companies’ Top Business Objectives and Provides Key Recommendations to Follow

SDL, a global leader in content creation, translation, management and delivery, announces the results of a Forrester Consulting study, highlighting that only a third of companies (30%) believe their customer’s journey is completely continuous, and the critical role of content in delivering continuous digital experiences.

According to the November 2018 study, ‘Today’s Content Supply Chains Prevent Continuous Customer Journeys,’ commissioned by SDL, companies are struggling to handle the growing volume and velocity of content. They also rely too heavily on a collection of Web Content Management Systems, network drives, human translation, and document management systems, to build their customer experiences. This, alongside internal silos, introduces fragmented experiences for customers looking to engage with a brand. In fact, 80% of firms believe that current content supply chain challenges impede their ability to deliver on top business objectives.

To deliver on top business objectives and serve empowered customers, the study reveals that companies must adopt processes and tools that ensure content is delivered in a continuous journey, and avoid disjointed hand-offs that result from organizational silos.

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Content decision makers need a comprehensive and holistic content management strategy that atomizes and automates the content supply chain and ensures product, marketing, sales, and support information are up-to-date, consistent, and personalized for the customer’s need in the moment.

Product information is highlighted as a key enabler for success. Companies agree that improving access to product information would have the single greatest positive impact on customer journey continuity, while three-quarters (77%) confirm that keeping product information relevant and up-to-date is critical.

“Customers today are more empowered than ever. They use a wide variety of content, including in-depth product information such as manuals, user guides and technical content, to educate themselves throughout their buying journey. Any inconsistency or hurdle in that journey puts their willingness to buy at risk,” said Peggy Chen, Chief Marketing Officer, SDL. “We’re addressing these issues head on with our SDL Tridion DX solution, giving global businesses a way to build a solid content supply chain and blend marketing, sales and in-depth product content into a relevant, continuous digital experience.”

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More than half of firms expect improved brand consistency, and customer and partner experience if they’re able to centralize, automate and optimize their content supply chain. A Global Content Operating Model (GCOM) addresses these challenges, providing a comprehensive strategic framework for managing content by unifying platforms, processes and people.

“Brands today have a huge opportunity to engage with millions of customers, but they’re spending too much time fixing content problems – rather than developing strategies and experiences that deliver business growth,” said Andrew Bredenkamp, Founder and CEO, Acrolinx. “A GCOM can help streamline the whole process – from content creation, management and translation all the way to delivery – and rapidly deliver tangible ROI.”

For the study, more than 200 interviews were conducted with business leaders (managers through to CEOs) responsible for setting the strategy for their company’s content supply chain at firms with greater than $1B in revenue. These included manufacturing, technology, pharmaceutical, consumer product goods, electronics, financial services, and automotive organizations in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, and France.