Archive for Website Rankings

Oracle.com: New game, new rules, new problems

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (6)
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Oracle.com + Sun.com = less than the sum of their parts

Oracle.com has been the big Kahuna in the enterprise software industry for the past couple of years when it finally slipped past IBM’s Software Group site, which has been stuck in idle since early 2008. Then it decided to change the rules of its own game.

In 2009 Oracle bought Sun Microsystems in a quest to graduate into the business of selling hardware, software & services to the enterprise business set. Along with its red, white and black cap and gown, Oracle now gets to compete with the likes of IBM, HP and Dell. The question is, of course, how well does the combined Oracle.com & Sun.com sites perform against competitors that have been marketing & selling complex products online for well over a decade?

The answer is: not very well.

Read More→

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Categories : POV (point of view), Website Rankings
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The Envelope, Please! The best of the best

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Thursday, July 8th, 2010

In case you missed my last posts, this is the time when we announce our eBusiness Index rankings. Here’s a bird’s eye view of the Websites that set the standards in the IT industry.

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

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Website Rankings: Hits, misses & a little bit more

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (2)
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

There are plenty of hits and misses on this year’s roster. My favorites are . . .

In my last post, I shared some info about the top five Websites on the siteIQ eBusiness Index. Here’s my interesting surprises and “oops” list:

Symantec.com’s usability ranks second, and the site misses a “Good Practice” rating by a hair.

Juniper.net and Oracle.com complete the usability top five. Of the two, Juniper.net is most likely to move up a slot and knock CA.com off its perch.

Intel.com aced the online recruiting category and is the only four star (the best) in this category. (OK, so most recruiting zones are a big snooze – but we have to give Intel.com chops for its four star performance).

Services marketing continues to be Nortel.com’s claim to fame; HP.com and IBM.com are still second tier contenders.

Juniper.net hits the high note in the communities category – but Cisco.com and Intel.com also operate four star (the best) communities. (This is another way of saying that the new guys are zipping past community pioneers).

If call to action is your bag, look no further than Cisco.com. It is the only call to action “Best Practice” site on the eBusiness Index.

Newegg.com’s e-commerce capabilities puts it with the big boys: Dell.com & HP.com. Newegg ranks third with four stars (the best) and a “Good Practice” nod.

A couple of new entrants on the 2010 eBusiness Index roster did better than expected.

  • Brocade.com and EMC.com rank 7th and 8th on the usability chart – and finish in the middle of the pack when all of the scores are tallied up (EMC.com ranks 12th; Brocade ranks 14th).
  • Among the sites that debuted on the Index in 2010, Deloitte.com and SAS.com turned out to be boat anchors. Deloitte finished dead last – and SAS.com debuted in 17th place (out of 23 Websites).

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

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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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CA.com & Oracle.com: Two peas in a different pod

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Our new Website rankings are rolling out. Here’s what happened when we changed the rules of the game

I just put the finishing touches on our new eBusiness Index report that profiles how CA.com, IBM Software Group, Oracle.com, SAP.com, and SAS.com fared (and compared) during our recent evaluations.

This was a particularly important evaluation since it’s based on our new benchmark that tracks and measures a ton of new requirements, including online communities and the Web 2.0 and social media behaviors that are now industry requirements. To get a gauge on the impact of these revolutions, our 2010 benchmark almost doubled in size — from 726 criteria in 2009 to 1,177 requirements this year.

As always, there’s lots of gems in the numbers.

For starters, IBM’s Software Group zone (www.ibm.com/software) – the perennial competitive leader over the past few years – slipped to third place based on these stiffer requirements. It faces plenty of challenges this year, including getting its search up to industry muster, fixing product marketing and ecommerce usability, and making its services and industry marketing zones more complete & effective.

Although Oracle.com ended up in first place on a technical basis, it’s really in a tie with CA.com. The numbers break down like this: Oracle.com has more ‘stuff’, but CA.com is more usable. Read More→

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Categories : Web 2.0, Website Rankings
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Websites are built to sell. Products. Services. Opinions. Access. Most companies use their Website to inform & engage. But smart companies see them in a totally different light. For these organizations, their Website is the most invaluable salesperson on their team. The question is: What roll does your Website play in your selling process?

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