A Lay of the Land: A Guide to the Four Types of Optimization Solutions

Choosing an optimization solution is not always a simple task. First, you must determine your organization and team’s unique needs. But then, you have to contend with navigating a complex market filled with lots of promises and varying support and implementation structures. We’ve recently released an ebook, “Choosing an Optimization Platform in 2021,” to help guide you through the process of choosing a provider from start to finish. In this blog, I’m going to outline the four main groups of optimization and personalization solutions, including multi-solution providers, digital experience platform providers, internal tools, and optimization solution suite providers.

Multi-Solution Providers

Multi-solution providers are large software companies that may historically focus in one area but have acquired or added many other functions including optimization to an expansive portfolio. The benefit of these providers is vendor consolidation. If you already have an enterprise agreement and use many other solutions from one of these providers, their acquisition of an optimization solution may come as good news. The downside of these providers is that optimization may not be their highest priority, meaning your optimization solution may be more of an add-in or afterthought, rather than a purpose-built, well supported solution.

Digital Experience Platform Providers

Digital experience platform providers offer a Saas-based online commerce or digital experience framework, of which optimization and personalization may be a part. These providers typically focus on ecommerce capabilities, and then acquire or add optimization and personalization tools to their portfolio. The benefit of these tools is again vendor consolidation. The downside is that in many cases, the benefits of optimization and personalization can only be realized if you use the larger platform. This poses two challenges: Scenario 1) You have a commerce platform in which you’re heavily invested but its optimization and personalization functionality is lacking and they won’t permit you to integrate an alternate solution. Scenario 2) You have an optimization solution your team has used for years, then it gets acquired by a Digital Experience Platform Provider that over time pressures if not technically mandates you to move to their entire commerce platform in order to continue using the one piece you really value.

Internal Tools

Internal tools are those that you build versus buy. The benefit is complete control over the optimization solution you build, including roadmap, performance, function, and availability. The downside is complete blame for any shortcomings in those same areas. For most organizations, despite the benefits of an internal tool, they rarely realize their ROI. Plus, they typically depend on custom integrations for any add or change to the overall tech stack.

Optimization Solution Suite Providers

Optimization solution suite providers are companies that focus mainly on user experience, personalization, and site optimization. SiteSpect is an optimization solution suite provider. The benefit of these solutions is deep R&D and consulting focus on user experience and conversion growth, and an ability for their customers to significantly impact that roadmap. The downside is that while these tools typically offer vendor consolidation within user experience and optimization technologies, their focus on optimization means that by nature, they won’t offer solutions far outside that realm. Of course, a good tool should integrate seamlessly across your stack.

For more details about the four main types of optimization platforms, as well as a comprehensive guide to choosing the right solution for you, check out our new ebook “Choosing an Optimization Platform in 2021.”

To learn more about SiteSpect, visit our website.