EditLive! hits the right note with leading CMS developer Percussion Software
Independent software vendor
Employees: 150
Headquarters: Woburn, MA
Founded: 1994
Key customers: Autotrader.com, Computer Associates, Kohl’s, The Bank of England
and the US Department of State
Challenge
Percussion Software, a developer of Web Content Management Systems for large global companies and public sector organizations, relied on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for its editor. But the editor had limited functionality, was unreliable, and did not provide the support Percussion required.
Solution
EditLive!, a leading Web authoring tool that provides stability, rich functionality, outstanding support, and a pricing model that fits their needs.
Quote
“The support we’ve gotten from Ephox is unparalleled. By far and away, this
is one of the best vendor relationships we’ve had.”
- Jon Rodin, Senior Vice President, Products and Services, Percussion Software
No president or mega rock star, but rather the ordinary individual was named TIME magazine’s person of the year this year. Why? Because collectively ordinary individuals are producing, documenting, and consuming the most relevant and powerful information today, using Web-based, user-generated content management systems to do it.
Today’s corporations and organizations are profiting from the phenomenon. They are turning to companies like Percussion Software to install their own Web Content Management Systems (CMS), to capture and disseminate the huge wealth of knowledge available in their employees and stakeholders.
With their focus on creating enterprise Web Content Management Systems, Percussion relies on independent providers of best-of-breed products for various elements of their technology, such as search functions or Web authoring software. But of late Percussion had been experiencing some challenges with their editor application.
With over 2,500 customers around the world, including Autotrader.com, Computer Associates, Kohl’s, The Bank of England and the US Department of State, these were hurdles Percussion needed to overcome quickly.
Previous editor missing the beat
Percussion had relied on another vendor’s rich text editor (also known as a WYSIWYG editor) to provide editing tools to their ultimate end-users. While it did the job, the editor was causing them pain as the company grew. “This vendor’s application was buggy, slow, and had a poor load time,” says Jon Rodin, Senior Vice President, Products and Services of Percussion. “And, we were spending a lot of money on royalties.”
Further, Percussion was not getting the support they required, which impacted the time it took to respond to their customers. “The promised Java control was also never delivered, so the vendor’s application had no Mac or Mozilla support,” Jon says.
When you’re talking about a user-generated content system, an editor that frustrates the end-user can have major implications. A CMS is only as good as the people who contribute to it, and if any part of your technology alienates them, then you’ve compromised your CMS as a whole. If users have to learn a new application, deal with lengthy load-times, work around inadequate functionality, or confront bugs, you can be sure they’ll walk away.
Percussion chooses EditLive! after lengthy evaluation process
Percussion wanted a more comprehensive solution for editing, and so launched a six-month evaluation process to select one. They performed close comparisons of several Java-based editors, including Ephox’s EditLive! application.
“The end-user doesn’t recognize the difference between us and the third-party provider,” Jon says. “If they become frustrated with the editor, then they’ve become frustrated with us.”
Percussion selected EditLive! as the editor of choice, providing the reliability, stability, and functionality they required. “EditLive’s pricing, performance, and functionality were the best fit for our requirements,” Jon confirms. “And we received excellent customer feedback during our field trials.”
On the technical side, EditLive! outplayed its competitors in a number of ways. The evaluation team at Percussion was really impressed by EditLive!’s rich API library. They liked that custom buttons migrated easily and that XSLT re-mapping worked particularly well. Further, EditLive! was the only application that could support multiple instances. “The competing applications did not address this well, while EditLive!’s performance was very reliable for multiple instances,” says Jon.
XHTML compliance, support for a UK dictionary, and role-based customization were also notable differences. EditLive! permits administrators to set up multiple customizations for individual users, groups, or sites so that the authoring environment can be tailored to their particular needs.
Most importantly, JavaScript controls in competitor applications did not meet Percussion’s high standard for technical requirements. “As this is a very visible feature in the CMS, it is really important to us,” says Jon.
Customer feedback music to their ears
Percussion’s relationship with Ephox began officially in November 2005, when they shipped their Rhythmyx Web Content Management System (version 5.7) integrated with EditLive! for the first time. The relationship continues today with the latest release of Rhythmyx, version 6.1.
Percussion is happy to report fewer support calls related to the editor since they released Rhythmyx with EditLive!. “We’re pleased about the increased customer satisfaction with the user interface. There has been a noticeable difference in support calls regarding the editor,” Jon says. “The application is definitely more robust.”
One of Percussion’s customers, Zenith National Insurance, was especially enthusiastic when they received the new release with the EditLive! editor. Their mostly non-technical users are enjoying the richer functionality and faster download time.
“We have Rhythmyx users in every department throughout the company, and 90% of them are non-technical,” explains Joseph Zaouk, Analyst, Intranet and Internet Applications at
Zenith National Insurance. “I get a lot of feedback saying the added features in the EditLive! authoring environment saves them time and improves their accuracy.”
EditLive! helps increase productivity
The end-users of the Rhythmyx system appreciate EditLive!’s Word-like environment, and its ability to easily manipulate formatting such as bulleted and numbered lists. “Users enjoy the added features above and beyond the old rich text editor – mostly the extra formatting features,” Joseph continues. “One example is the Find/Replace feature, which was previously unavailable.”
Best of all, EditLive! is helping make employees at Zenith National Insurance more productive. “Before EditLive!, users were confined to viewing smaller portions of the page. Thanks to EditLive!’s larger view, as well as other new features, overall productivity now is significantly higher,” Joseph concludes.
Ultimately, Percussion is pleased with their decision to partner with EditLive! and the performance they’ve seen thus far. “Customers are thrilled, and the developers are very happy with the product,” Jon enthuses. With that kind of beat, it sounds like the two software providers will be making beautiful music together for some time to come.