Research paper: DNN / DotNetNuke – a State of the CMS...

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A PowerDNN White Paper Publication 1 May 10, 2013 Research paper: DNN / DotNetNuke – a State of the CMS Report 2013 A report on the health of the DNN / DotNetNuke application and marketspace through community survey October, 2013

Transcript of Research paper: DNN / DotNetNuke – a State of the CMS...

A PowerDNN White Paper Publication

1 May 10, 2013

Research paper:

DNN / DotNetNuke – a State of the CMS Report 2013 A report on the health of the DNN / DotNetNuke application and

marketspace through community survey

October, 2013

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Contents

Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Why This Report, and Why Now? ............................................................................................................. 4

Open Source Report Availability ........................................................................................................... 4

Methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 5

Survey Platform ..................................................................................................................................... 5

The Data Set .................................................................................................................................................. 6

Data Statistics ........................................................................................................................................ 7

The Results .................................................................................................................................................... 7

Demographics – Who Answered the Survey?........................................................................................... 7

Q: How are you related to the use or production of DNN / DotNetNuke projects / websites? * ........ 7

Q: How are you involved in the decision to use a specific platform for a project? .............................. 8

Q: What is the average size of the projects you and / or your team work on? .................................... 8

Q: How many total projects do you and / or your team work on per year across all platforms? ........ 9

Marketplace Use of DNN / DotNetNuke ................................................................................................... 9

Q: How do you use DNN / DotNetNuke? .............................................................................................. 9

Q: As a percentage, how many of these (your) projects are on the DNN / DotNetNuke platform? .. 10

Marketplace Perception of DNN / DotNetNuke ..................................................................................... 10

Q: When you think of DNN / DotNetNuke, what marketplace “sweet spot” comes to mind first?... 10

Q: What is your favorite attribute or feature of DNN / DotNetNuke? ............................................... 11

Q: How important is DNN / DotNetNuke to you and / or your business? .......................................... 11

Q: What makes you or your organization sometimes chooses NOT to use or recommend DNN /

DotNetNuke? ...................................................................................................................................... 12

Competitive Platforms to DNN / DotNetNuke ........................................................................................ 13

Q: When you do not choose or recommend DNN / DotNetNuke, what is the most common choice

for your projects? ................................................................................................................................ 13

Q: How is your alternative platform best used? ................................................................................. 14

Q: When you think of this other platform, what “sweet spot” comes to mind first? ........................ 14

Q: What is your favorite attribute or feature of your alternative platform? ..................................... 15

Loyalty and Satisfaction .......................................................................................................................... 16

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Q: If you could choose only one platform to use or recommend every time for every project—and

the choice was yours to make without regard to price or other restrictions—what platform would

you choose? ........................................................................................................................................ 16

Q: What is the main reason that you selected your “desert island” platform above? ...................... 17

Q: How likely are you to recommend DNN / DotNetNuke to a friend, co-worker, development

buddy, or boss as a web platform? ..................................................................................................... 18

Q: What is the main reason (one) you gave that answer to the previous question? ......................... 18

Analysis ....................................................................................................................................................... 20

Loyalty and Satisfaction .......................................................................................................................... 20

The Score – DNN / DotNetNuke = 26.9 ............................................................................................... 20

Text Answer Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 21

The Most Satisfied Subgroup .............................................................................................................. 22

The Most Dissatisfied Subgroup ......................................................................................................... 22

The Relationship Between Blog Responses and WordPress – There isn’t one....................................... 22

The Great Subset Disconnect – Where did all the happy users go? ....................................................... 23

Subset Results: As a percentage, how many of these (your) projects are on the DNN / DotNetNuke

platform? ............................................................................................................................................ 23

Subset Results: How likely are you to recommend DNN / DotNetNuke to a friend, co-worker,

development buddy, or boss as a web platform? .............................................................................. 24

Subset Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 24

Subset Results: What makes you or your organization sometimes choose NOT to use or recommend

DNN / DotNetNuke? ........................................................................................................................... 24

Recommendations ...................................................................................................................................... 25

Address the Identity Crisis ...................................................................................................................... 25

Recommendation #1 ........................................................................................................................... 26

Recommendation #2 ........................................................................................................................... 26

Loyalty and Satisfaction – the Critical Path ............................................................................................. 26

Recommendation #3 ........................................................................................................................... 27

Representative Website Owner Response Justifications.................................................................... 27

Suggestions for Future Surveys of this Kind............................................................................................ 30

Confidentiality and Ownership ................................................................................................................... 30

Disclaimer.................................................................................................................................................... 30

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Overview Why This Report, and Why Now?

DNN / DotNetNuke has proceeded through a significant metamorphosis since its inception ten years

ago. This series of transformations continues. Some of these changes are the normal kinds of iterative

developments in features and functionality native to software product development as it matures and

the state of technology advances. Other changes are to markets served by the product, the business

structure of the company producing the product, and the dramatic transition from a full open-source

platform to a hybrid open-source/paid software model, and now, most recently, to an open-

source/paid-software/installed/service model.

Throughout all of this, each of us in the community have collected anecdotes and personal opinions

regarding the impacts of these changes. But “anecdotal evidence” is an oxymoron, focus groups are too

narrow, and forum and social media posts are either squelched by marketing and media teams or

enflamed by the virtual distances and anonymity of internet avatars and user names. In short, they are

not data.

So we set out to collect real data.

To the best of our knowledge, no survey of this kind has been attempted before—not just within the

DNN / DotNetNuke community, but in the broader market for Content Management Systems (CMS).

We think that this is reason enough to attempt it.

Further, we think that it will be valuable to discern not “what” has changed—that information is easily

obtained through a listing of release notes—but how the changes are impacting the community of

people who work with the product and own the sites themselves.

Since this appears to be something new, that very newness shapes this first survey and report. It is a

yardstick—telling us where we are now. Since DNN / DotNetNuke (and now EVOQ) has been very

recently rebranded, segregated, and further divided into additional niches, now seems the perfect time

to set the measurement so that future efforts can compare to something before the full impacts of

these recent major changes sink in.

Open Source Report Availability This report represents a significant effort for our team. This document and all of its contents remain

copyright PowerDNN and AppZone. However we think that the information and recommendations will

benefit the community as a whole and warrant comment and discussion. Permission is hereby granted

to cite, quote, distribute, and / or utilize the images and unaltered data contained herein, as elements or

in their entirety, internally or externally, if and only if proper attribution is given as follows:

“DNN / DotNetNuke State of the CMS Report 2013. Data and/or Images copyright and courtesy of

PowerDNN.com and AppZone.com, all rights reserved. Complete report available upon request.”

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Methodology We constructed a survey based upon classic user data

collection techniques. The survey was intentionally

limited in scope to increase participation and to provide

data that might produce actionable results. Significant

emphasis was given to the current scope of the

marketplace, the penetration of the product into the

community, and, most importantly, the satisfaction of

the community with the product as a whole.

Every product or service has holes and failings. This is

assumed to be axiomatic. So great effort was attempted

to avoid leading questions or to incite particular

responses or feelings toward any perceived asset or

debit. Rather, it was intentionally designed to be general

and broad, to measure the overall satisfaction with the

product, and to allow the community to offer any praise,

suggestion, or complaint voluntarily by avoiding “asking”

for the input, but giving an opportunity to do so at the

same time.

This is not an easy trick.

But we believe that the results show some successes. We tip our hat to Fredrick Reichheld of Harvard,

whose ground-breaking research on the concepts of customer loyalty and “good-profits vs. bad-profits”

guided our methodology.

Survey Platform Even though DNN / DotNetNuke has an available survey component, the act of using it might have

skewed the results as well. We therefore chose to use a perceived neutral survey platform—Google

Survey. The survey was delivered in neutral colors not affiliated with any major hosting or CMS platform

in standard san-serif fonts with limited styles.

In the Recommendations section of this report we suggest potential additions and changes for future

versions of this survey and report.

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The Data Set A survey was created and offered to the entire DNN /

DotNetNuke community. Respondents were promised

anonymity and our commitment to this remains.

However, respondents were given the option of

requesting the full report once it was completed.

PowerDNN currently hosts a large percentage of the

DNN / DotNetNuke sites in use today, but we

considered that polling only within our immediate

customer base might inject a bias into the results. As

such, we ensured a fairer sample distribution by the

following:

Industry partners with large community email distribution bases were contacted and asked to participate. These external partners combined to distribute >50k invitations to the survey in their normal newsletter/email campaigns.

Invitation posts were made in DNN / DotNetNuke user groups covering more than a dozen geographic regions in six languages. The survey was in English only, but the invitations and basic instructions were in native tongues.

Invitation posts were made in several industry forums, including those of several iNET Interactive properties (e.g., WebHostingTalk, WHIR).

We had collected a set of approximately 8k unique contact email addresses at Microsoft and ASP.NET user events and conferences. Email invitations were sent to these lists.

Social Media invitation posts (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) were broadcast out to the community in the normal fashion.

All of the above were allowed to run independently for two full weeks and accounted for ~52% of

responses in our sample set (M=309) prior to any internal outreach efforts.

Subsequent to that two-week period, we emailed an invitation to our internal list of customers.

PowerDNN hosts a significant percentage of the DNN / DotNetNuke sites live today (est. ~27%).

Approximately 5.4k of those customers have opted in to receiving emails from PowerDNN that are

unrelated to the function of their account. Email survey invitations were sent and the data was

collected from all sources for another two weeks.

The total set of emails had an average open rate of approximately 8%. Third-party posts ended up being

a smaller portion of the total number of valid results received, suggesting an “open to completion”

conversion rate of ~12.5% (~0.75% of the total).

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Data Statistics

Total number of valid survey responses received: M=595

Total survey questions: 20

Total number of potential data points: 11,900

Total number of actual data points: 11,778 (122 questions not answered) = 98.97%

Survey confidence level: 95%

Margin of error: +/- 4%

The Results The following is a complete set of raw, top-level answers and limited analysis. Results are grouped by

type and questions were designed for confirming responses throughout. As such, the results are not

listed in the same order as they appeared on the survey.

In addition, the results of certain questions have been combined since they were either confirming

questions or supplemental questions designed to go together. For example, responses identifying

competitive platforms have been combined with the results of self-definitions of “other” to yield one

homogenous result of value and to remove question bias.

Additional analysis and insights can be obtained through comparative data-mining within the raw data

set which may yield additional information going forward.

Demographics – Who Answered the Survey?

Q: How are you related to the use or production of DNN / DotNetNuke projects /

websites? *

TIP: We all wear lots of hats these day and do lots of different things, but pick the one

item that best describes what you do related to the use, function, or development of DNN

/ DotNetNuke sites of all kinds.

* Note: This was the only “required” question. Respondents had the option of skipping any or all other

questions. Given this, the data point response rate of 98.97% was very high.

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Q: How are you involved in the decision to use a specific platform for a project?

TIP: Some people choose a project, others have projects foisted upon them. What is

your part in the process to choose a development platform most of the time?

Q: What is the average size of the projects you and / or your team work on?

TIP: Whether you have one site or many, or work on / consult on one project or many,

please still answer this question with your best guess. Think about the size of the

project overall, from concept and design through production and implementation. Even

though the answers are denominated in US dollars, we understand that many of you are

overseas and that currencies fluctuate. For the sake of this survey, we are looking for

general ideas so treat US Dollars, Euros, UK Pounds, and AU Dollars as equal to make it

as easy as possible.

24.4%

23.4%

19.8%

13.2%

8.4%

5.6%5.2%

Less Than $2000

$2000 - $5000

$5000 - $10,000

$10,000 - $25,000

$25,000 - $50,000

$50,000 - $100,000

Over $100,000

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Q: How many total projects do you and / or your team work on per year across all

platforms?

TIP: This should include new sites and large refurbishments, but not simple site

maintenance. It should also include projects utilizing all platforms (not just DNN /

DotNetNuke).

Marketplace Use of DNN / DotNetNuke

Q: How do you use DNN / DotNetNuke?

TIP: How do you most often use the DNN / DotNetNuke platform now (as opposed to how

you might have used it in the past and discounting how you might use it in the future)?

Of special note is that there is a surprisingly strong bias to not use DNN / DotNetNuke as a blog

platform. Only one respondent (0.2%) indicated that this was a primary utilization of the product.

8.6%

20.7%

14.1%

18.3%

13.9%

18.7%

5.7%

1 project

2 to 3 projects

3 to 5 projects

6 to 10 projects

10 to 20 projects

More than 20 projects

Prefer not to answer

0.2% 6.2% 2.0%1.8%

72.6%

2.7%

14.5%

Blogs (sliver 0.2%)

Intranets

N/A (incl. no answer)

Other

Primary Pulbic Websites

Secondary Public Websites

Web Deveopment Platform

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Q: As a percentage, how many of these (your) projects are on the DNN / DotNetNuke

platform?

Of special note is that zero respondents (0.0%) indicated that DNN / DotNetNuke was utilized more than

90% of the time.

Marketplace Perception of DNN / DotNetNuke

Q: When you think of DNN / DotNetNuke, what marketplace “sweet spot” comes to mind

first?

TIP: When making the choice about what platform to use for a project, what kind of

projects are a “no-brainer” to use DNN / DotNetNuke (select the best answer)?

Once again, there is strong resistance to using / considering DNN / DotNetNuke as a blog platform. Only

one respondent (0.2%) considered blog as a “sweet spot” for the platform.

43.0%

7.1%7.4%

12.8%

26.7%

0.0% 3.0%

0 to 10%10 to 25%25 to 50%50 to 75%75 to 90%90 to 100% (zero respondents - 0.0%)No answer

0.2%6.4%

6.4%

18.5%

5.0%9.9%

1.3%4.7%

27.2%

19.3%

1.0% Blog

Company Intranet

e-Commerce

Enterprise Public Site

Media Delivery

Nothing in Particular

Other

Personal / Micro Business Site

Small Busienss / Brochure Site

Web Application Development Platform

No answer

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Q: What is your favorite attribute or feature of DNN / DotNetNuke?

TIP: Tell us very briefly about your favorite (one) thing. There is no wrong answer.

The following are representative composite samples from the data set, corrected for grammar and

redacted for personally identifiable information.

The most prevalent responses were with regard to Microsoft / .NET platform, module availability,

security / user roles, and personal experience / familiarity with the product.

Q: How important is DNN / DotNetNuke to you and / or your business?

TIP: This is a tough question, but give it a try. To the best of your ability, tell us

specifically how important the DNN / DotNetNuke platform is to your business right now

as a whole?

45.9%

19.2%

20.7%

7.4%

3.0% 2.0% 1.8%

Very Important

Important

Moderately Important

Not Very Important

Not Important

I Do No Know How to Answer

No Answer

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Q: What makes you or your organization sometimes chooses NOT to use or

recommend DNN / DotNetNuke?

TIP: In a short paragraph or a simple listing of words, tell us why you and / or your

company sometimes choose to NOT use DNN / DotNetNuke. If you cannot think of

anything or if specific reasons seem inapplicable to your experience, just say “nothing”

as your answer.

The following are representative composite samples from the data set, corrected for grammar and

redacted for personally identifiable information.

The most prevalent responses were with regard to price, client request / stipulation, doubts about

commitment to open source / community, complexity, and difficulty with localization strategies.

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Competitive Platforms to DNN / DotNetNuke

Q: When you do not choose or recommend DNN / DotNetNuke, what is the most

common choice for your projects?

TIP: We understand that people sometimes use or recommend other apps and platforms.

When you do, what is the next most common choice for you?

Note that 7.5% of respondents are displayed as “other.” This set of responses is comprised of platforms

or solutions that were listed less than three times each and therefore reside beneath the margin of error

for this report.

For the purposes of this report, “Custom Coded” means the writing of HTML, J-query, JavaScript, or

other hand coding onto any base framework (e.g., .NET, PHP).

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Q: How is your alternative platform best used?

TIP: How do you most often use or recommend the alternative platform be used now (as

opposed to how you might have used it in the past and discounting how you might use it

in the future)?

Q: When you think of this other platform, what “sweet spot” comes to mind first?

TIP: In your opinion, what uses spring to mind first when you think about this alternative

platform that you use or recommend?

4.5%

7.9%

34.6%

3.9%

30.8%

2.7%

8.1%7.6%

Blogs

Intranets

N/A

Other

Primary Public Websites

Secondary Public Websites

Web Development Platform

No answer

4.9%5.7%

6.2%

6.2%2.0%

32.3%

4.5%

4.9%

4.4%

12.6%

7.6%

8.7% Blog

Intranet

e-Commerce

Enterprise Public Site

Media Delivery

N/A

Nothing in Particular

Other

Personal / Micro Business Site

Small Business / Brochure Site

Web Application Development Platform

No answer

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Q: What is your favorite attribute or feature of your alternative platform?

TIP: Tell us very briefly about your favorite (one) thing. There is no wrong answer.

The following are representative composite samples from the data set, corrected for grammar and

redacted for personally identifiable information.

The most prevalent responses were with regard to ease / simplicity, viability as an eCommerce platform,

good / better community resources, less complexity / easier for site owners to use and maintain, and

better for SEO.

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Loyalty and Satisfaction

Q: If you could choose only one platform to use or recommend every time for every

project—and the choice was yours to make without regard to price or other

restrictions—what platform would you choose?

TIP: This is our version of the “desert island” question. If you were going to be trapped

on an island with a computer and only one possible platform to use without regard to

anything else, what would you choose?

Note that 17.5% of respondents are displayed as “other.” This set of responses is comprised of

platforms or solutions that were listed less than three times each and therefore reside beneath the

margin of error for this report.

1.0%

69.9%1.7%

1.0%

1.5% 7.4%

17.5% Adobe

DNN / DotNetNuke

Drupal

Joomla

SharePoint

WordPress

Other

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Q: What is the main reason that you selected your “desert island” platform above? The following are representative composite samples from the data set, corrected for grammar and

redacted for personally identifiable information.

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Q: How likely are you to recommend DNN / DotNetNuke to a friend, co-worker,

development buddy, or boss as a web platform?

TIP: On a scale of 0 through 10, where 0 means least likely, and 10 means definitely.

This question, coupled with the one following, are arguably the most important questions in the survey.

They evaluate the loyalty and satisfaction of the platform customers / users as a unified whole.

What does this mean and how is it important? The answers are in the Analysis section of this report.

Q: What is the main reason (one) you gave that answer to the previous question? The following are representative composite samples from the data set, corrected for grammar and

redacted for personally identifiable information. They are representative answers culled from the entire

set. A discussion of these appears in the Analysis section of this report.

Fans

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Detractors

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Analysis Loyalty and Satisfaction

Analysis best begins at the end of the survey data. There is a wealth of information and insights to be

mined from the data collected, but none is more important to the competitiveness, health, and

longevity of the DNN / DotNetNuke ecosystem than loyalty and satisfaction of its users with the

platform as a whole. We designed this survey to allow the respondents the opportunity to think about

the platform as a whole and how they utilize it.

There were two specific questions related to loyalty and satisfaction that were placed near the very end

of the survey. They followed the methodology laid out by Fredrick Reichheld—one of the leading

researchers and experts in the study of customer loyalty and satisfaction (Net Promoter Scoring – NPS).

The first question related to a user / customer’s willingness to recommend the product, providing a

standardized measurement point that can be reasonably compared across industries and segments. The

second question provides the user / customer with an opportunity to self-identify a point of causation,

and thus actionable intelligence.

The Score – DNN / DotNetNuke = 26.9 Industry NPS companies Satmetrix and Temkin Group have each conducted benchmarking surveys

across the technology landscape.1 Each conducted separate surveys. Although there was some

crossover in companies scored, most of the sample sets differed greatly. But the results were largely in

alignment.

Scoring Company Bottom Score Top Score Industry Average

Satmetrix ~2 54 24.0

Temkin Group 3 53 29.9

The benchmarking by both companies has merit toward the results of this report. The Satmetrix

benchmarks carved the technology sector into sub-sectors. The numbers reported above are for the

“Software and Apps” sub-sector—appropriate for evaluating against DNN / DotNetNuke. However,

their sample did not distinguish between Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer products,

treating them as a whole. The Temkin benchmarks focused on Business-to-Business technology

vendors—applicable to DNN / DotNetNuke—but gathered technology vendors as a whole across

hardware, software, and services.

That said, given the similarity of the final results across the two disparate sample sets, it is our judgment

that they are equally valid and applicable. Therefore, for comparison purposes we will compare DNN /

DotNetNuke against a blended average of the two final results = ~27.0. This places DNN / DotNetNuke

squarely average numerically with a score of 26.9.

1 The Temkin Group survey data was collected in 2012 and the Satmetrix surveys were completed in 2013. The surveys and data remain the property of their respective owners who are solely responsible for their accuracy. Additional information regarding these NPS specialty consulting companies and their methodologies can be found on their websites.

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Importantly, further analysis by Temkin suggests that any score below 28 but above 23 indicates the

likelihood that the company is losing small amounts of market share over time. This strongly suggests

that DNN / DotNetNuke is currently experiencing a slow decline in market share. But it also suggests

that even a small increase in satisfaction could potentially yield great rewards by taking a negative

market share result and transforming it into a positive one.

This idea will be explored further in detail in the Recommendations section of this report.

Text Answer Analysis Specific representative text responses can be found in The Results - Loyalty and Satisfaction section of

this report. However, the “one reason” responses were remarkable consistent.

Fans

The majority of Fan responses revolved around experience, comfort, and preference. Samples include:

“know it best”

“what I prefer”

“most experience with”

“been using it since version X”

In short, most of the responses from Fans regarding why they recommend the product is due to habit or

“stickiness.” This is a two-edged sword. “Stickiness” is seen as a positive attribute in businesses with a

continuing revenue model—it is a “good.” But stickiness does not generate new customers or general

enthusiasm—elements vital to increase market share and expansion.

Detractors

Detractor responses were a bit more diverse, but the majority fell into two definite categories.

Detractor responses are widely viewed as important, reliable, and actionable feedback to business

leaders. Samples included:

Technical

“Too Complicated”

“heavy / slow”

“buggy”

Lack of “reliable / good documentation”

Confidence / Faith in Leadership

No faith in “corporate decision-making”

No faith in “commitment to open source”

Undue emphasis or “priority on revenue”

Dislike of the “direction of DNN”

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The Most Satisfied Subgroup The authors expected that the Developers (Code) subgroup would prove to be the most satisfied

segment of the respondents. This was not the case. Developers have a Loyalty and Satisfaction score of

20.4—actually below the average for the product as a whole. Designers (Aesthetics) had the highest

score at 43.5, followed by Service Providers / Consultants (42.0), Project Managers (41.0), and C-level

Managers (40.0). Content Creators also scored reasonably well at 36.4.

The Most Dissatisfied Subgroup Technically, the lowest scoring subgroup with regard to Loyalty and Satisfaction was Host /

Infrastructure providers, however the number of respondents in that subgroup (9) yielded a score

deviation below the margin for error and, as such, should not be considered in the scope of this report.

The lowest scoring, statistically relevant subgroup was Website Owners with a significantly low score of

14.7. Interestingly, they also represented the second largest subgroup by number (N=116).

This unexpected result is likely the most significant result of the entire effort and will broadly shape

the recommendations the authors provide.

The Relationship Between Blog Responses and WordPress – There isn’t one Given the strong bias exemplified in the data to NOT use DNN / DotNetNuke as a blogging platform, that

the number one alternative platform for DNN / DotNetNuke in the sample was WordPress, and that

WordPress is recognized as a leader in the blogging market, it would be very easy assume that

WordPress is stealing the blog business from DNN DotNetNuke. Drawing that conclusion would be

erroneous.

Note that although 39.8% of the respondents selected WordPress as their alternative platform to DNN /

DotNetNuke, only 4.5% of the total respondents identified blogs as the primary usage of their

alternative platform.

In total, 117 respondents said that their alternative platform was WordPress. Of those in this subset,

only 20 (17.1%) identified blogs as the main purpose or use of that alternative. By far, the respondents

who selected WordPress as their alternative platform said that they used it for Primary Public websites

(80, 68.4%). The most popular reasons for their use of WordPress in this way were, in no particular

order, fast / speed, ease of use, friendly / simple UI, and low-cost development.

In short, WordPress is not "just" pulling blog opportunities. Its market penetration is deeper and likely

based upon the needs and relative skill level of the users / website owners.

Another result is the realization that the current community is simply not broadly participating in the

creation of blogs at this time. Whether this is the result of individuals simply creating blogs themselves

using a simple CMS, a unique attribute of the DNN / DotNetNuke community itself, or a broader trend in

the market is not answerable within the given data set.

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The Great Subset Disconnect – Where did all the happy users go? It is a very common attribute that cognitive opinions differ from behavior—in short, it is what people do

that counts. Social scientists address this in surveys by modifying them to push past knee-jerk answers

and other reactions. Modifications include the addition of complimentary and rephrased questions to

drill into real opinion.

Early in the survey (question 6), respondents were given the option of identifying an alternative

(competitive) platform that they used when not using DNN / DotNetNuke. One of the options a

respondent could select was:

“I use DNN / DotNetNuke >90% of the time so this is not really relevant to me”

This addition was important because it allowed us to create a subset of respondents to analyze why they

would give such an answer. A large subset of respondents chose this answer (M=288, 48.4%). Our

hypotheses were as follows:

Some of the respondents in this subset would be cheerleaders, meaning that they were saying nice things out of personal bias, but that their behavior might be different.

Some of the respondents in this subset would actually be dedicated users of the product—an important subset to discover and understand.

Some of the respondents in this subset might be influenced by the context of survey. Meaning, the fact that the survey was focused on DNN / DotNetNuke and was sponsored by the leading DNN / DotNetNuke / EVOQ infrastructure platform provider might influence (bias) their answers.

In order to investigate this, we drilled down into the data set comprised of just this subset and

compared the results of two confirming questions which occur later in the survey. The results

confirmed our hypotheses.

Subset Results: As a percentage, how many of these (your) projects are on the DNN /

DotNetNuke platform?

Answer Number % of Subset % of Total

0 to 10% 175 60.8% 29.4%

10% to 25% 5 1.7% 0.8%

25% to 50% 7 2.4% 1.2%

50% to 75% 12 4.2% 2.0%

75% to 90% 85 29.5% 14.3%

100% 0 0% 0.0%

No Answer 4 1.4% .07%

Remember that near the beginning of the survey ALL respondents in this subset said that they “… use

DNN / DotNetNuke >90% of the time ….” But when asked later in the survey about the percentage of

their projects that are on the DNN / DotNetNuke platform, more than 60% claimed to use the product

infrequently. Notably, less than 30% claimed a DNN / DotNetNuke utilization rate anywhere close to

their first response and no one (0) claimed to use it within the range that would confirm their initial

response.

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Subset Results: How likely are you to recommend DNN / DotNetNuke to a friend, co-

worker, development buddy, or boss as a web platform? That said, it appears that the subset does have significant loyalty to DNN / DotNetNuke. The Net

Satisfaction and Loyalty score for this subset is 55.2% and it is the highest of any other subset we have

so far identified in the data. Further, this Satisfaction and Loyalty score is relatively high, even when

compared to the overall market leader in Satisfaction and Loyalty (Adobe), and it is nearly double the

score of the community as a whole and high relative to the other players in the field.

Another attribute shared by the members of this subset was a strong reluctance to mention any

platform that may be perceived to be competing with DNN / DotNetNuke. Even when they stipulated

that relevant percentages of their projects were not developed on the DNN / DotNetNuke platform,

when asked what other platform they might use, many of the respondents in this subset did not answer

that question.

But what does this mean?

Subset Conclusion Given that the subset is generally satisfied with the product, the next important question is “why” are

the members of this subset not using the product more often? We suggest that the first answer (>90%)

was reflective of their preference, not reality, and that the second answer, expressed as a percentage, is

more likely representative of actual usage.

The data backs this up as well. We took this subset of DNN / DotNetNuke users and analyzed one more

important related question.

Subset Results: What makes you or your organization sometimes choose NOT to use

or recommend DNN / DotNetNuke?

Representative Subset Answers # of Similar

Site owner or client insists on or has a strong preference for something else or against DNN / DotNetNuke.

26

Lack of quality e-Commerce modules / DNN is not a good platform for e-Commerce.

9

Too complicated for customer / project at hand 12

Concerns about DNN Corp. commitment to platform / technology / licensing / community / support.

6

Technical issues or restrictions with DNN (e.g. slow, page load, faulty modules, bugs, info / documentation / platform support).

12

The above table reflects only the answers of the subset of loyal DNN / DotNetNuke users. The number

of similar responses across the entire sample was significantly higher.

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Although their behavior reflects less usage than their claims, this subset represents DNN / DotNetNuke’s

most loyal customer / user base. They are the cheerleaders. And the results express how and when this

loyal segment is not willing or able to use the platform. It should be considered that there are times

when any product is not ideally suited for a solution. For example, very few people utilize DNN /

DotNetNuke as a blog solution or recognizing that the platform has challenges as an eCommerce

solution. It might be a reasonable, though debatable, strategic decision to not focus on these areas in

favor of pursuing other market strengths.

However it appears self-evident that other reasons—especially those of website owner perception

and the uncertainty of the loyal user-base regarding commitment to the platform—are not likely a

part of any strategy.

Recommendations Many potential recommendations are inferable from the data detailed in this report. The authors have

distilled these down to what are, in their opinion, the most important for the future health of the

platform and the community. Further, recommendations not consistent with the actual data collected

have been intentionally avoided. Therefore this set of recommendations should not be considered as

comprehensive. Additional recommendations may become relevant as more information is gathered

and additional analysis is completed over time.

Address the Identity Crisis The data indicate that DNN / DotNetNuke is utilized more, far and away, for Primary Public Websites,

Secondary Public Websites, and for Company Intranets. The data further indicate that DNN /

DotNetNuke is not being utilized as a blogging platform and has developed a reputation for not being an

eCommerce solution or being a poor one at best. However DNN / DotNetNuke is presented through

communications and marketing efforts as being a good solution for both blogging and eCommerce.

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It is the opinion of the authors that little can be done to reverse the blogging perception trend. Further,

in all but the rarest of cases, it is likely that blogging projects are becoming less important to the existing

community. In the case of blog sites, significant development and marketing resources would have to

be brought to bear in pursuit of this market—a market that is generally lower margin.

Recommendation #1 It is the opinion of the authors that DNN / DotNetNuke should abandon the positioning of the product

as a blogging platform in its entirety and create integration opportunities with other entities that have

established reputations and business cases in the blog market.

It should be further considered that a strategic partnership and/or acquisition of an established blog

platform may be of interest, further positioning DNN / DotNetNuke as a business-side solution that can

be linked / integrated easily with the less profitable blog market niche.

Recommendation #2 Websites for eCommerce represent a significant share of the business website market, and one for

which client-customers are usually willing to pay. DNN / DotNetNuke’s reputation is under water in this

important niche at this time. Further, it is common that larger organizations desire an integrated

solution between eCommerce and their primary website presences. Thus, filling both needs can be a

threshold barrier for consideration.

The authors are aware that existing eCommerce DNN / DotNetNuke modules are being adapted and

created at this time, but such new products are still too new to be detected in the data set used in this

report.

That said, the authors consider it vital that DNN / DotNetNuke solve the eCommerce problem as soon as

possible, whether by significant internal development effort, fostering efforts within the community of

developers, the contracting of external development resources, or by the acquisition of a high-quality

and respected eCommerce development platform.

Barring this, DNN / DotNetNuke risks sacrificing the eCommerce website market permanently. It should

be considered, however questionable or problematic, that abandoning the eCommerce solution market

is a strategic option being made with some unknown intent.

Loyalty and Satisfaction – the Critical Path Simply stated, if the Loyalty and Satisfaction score of existing Website Owners (the lowest performing,

statistically-viable subset) were to be raised simply to industry averages the NET Loyalty and Satisfaction

score for the DNN / DotNetNuke platform would be elevated into the marginally growing market share

level—completely reversing the current negative trend.

Ideally, scores would be raised across the board to market leadership levels, greatly accelerating gains.

The data set yields insights that suggest just such a course of action. However it should be considered

that a problem designed too large rarely gets done well. A focus on website owners / users is

warranted.

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Recommendation #3 It should be considered that the growth of DNN / DotNetNuke will continue to be severely restricted or

proceed in decline unless the people owning and using the platform start recommending it more often.

It is the opinion of the authors that a dedicated focus on the satisfaction of existing and new site owners

is the lowest-hanging fruit and easiest to accomplish (very low scores are easier to raise than very high

ones).

Such a course would require the following:

Communications outreach to existing site owners addressing existing concerns as reflected in the data set

Renewed position marketing toward new potential users / site owners

Significant improvements in major version upgrade experiences

Dedication to an ongoing website-owner satisfaction program

Consistent measurement of Loyalty and Satisfaction scores over time and management commitment to known successful feedback improvement loops

Note that this recommendation, if implemented, would likely have a net positive impact on the ability of

existing Fans within the Great Disconnect subset previously discussed in the Analysis section. Improved

customer satisfaction scores would likely reduce barriers to using the DNN / DotNetNuke platform more

often within this existing, motivated development and user base.

Representative Website Owner Response Justifications In addition to the pointed suggestions already detailed above, the best place to look for insight is in the

response justifications offered by the respondents themselves. Select representative responses from

this important subset (excluding Fans) are provided in the table below, edited only for grammar and to

preserve anonymity.

NPS Rating Comment

0 Continually chasing down bugs.

0 Small to mid-sized solutions cost less and are easier to develop using LAMP vs. Microsoft technologies. Microsoft is almost as hard to work with as Oracle for a small to mid-sized web/mobile application.

0 DNN's days in the limelight are quickly fading. Other platforms provide greater benefits and options.

0 Too expensive (in every sense of the word).

0 There is not enough user-friendly information and guides for DNN to make it a viable system for the average business person to use to update and maintain a website.

2 I used to really like it, now not so much, but it is still a good platform at the moment. I worry about 3rd party development, it seems to have slowed.

2 The core with all the social stuff is way more complicated now, used to be simpler to use.

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2 It has been a problematic platform for us.

2 Looking a little dated.

3 Recent strategy and pricing changes raise concerns about the future viability of the platform.

4 Setup configuration challenges

4 Complicated and inflexible and not designed for the common person to use.

4 Because DNN Corp took something that was created by a community and turned it into a commercial product

5 Worried that DNN now EVOQ is no longer open source and it’s too expensive.

5 Again, I find the wysiwyg editor hard to use. But I recognize it might be a lot easier now.

5 Lack of knowledge and experience with the others and I don't have time to invest in this area.

5 I am still not certain that DNN can support enterprise level websites / applications.

5 It is very, very difficult to get technical support for my DNN website.

5 I know so little, I don't see myself in a position to recommend to others.

6 The community edition is being left behind.

6 Ease of creation of site

6 Most people I come across in my domain have less experience than me and to them DNN is rather daunting

6 Great for web application development but I'd recommend WordPress as a cheaper and simpler solution for most projects.

7 It is the only platform that I have experience with during development.

7 It's a good system with some shortcomings when it comes to revision changes.

7 Plus powerful - Minus Difficult to learn

7 DNN is complex. I tried installing DNN, IIS and SQL on a local machine, and it totally failed. I even purchased a $100 tutorial to do so, but the instructions did not match what I saw on the screen.

7 ASP.NET is brittle. One mistake in the web.config file and your Website is a pile of ###.

7 I would evaluate other platforms before making a decision. I would place particular emphasis on e-commerce options.

7 I would tell someone why I choose DNN, but I prefer the Microsoft environment and I don't know that I would recommend it over some of the others.

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7 I like DNN and would recommend using it in many cases; however, I can't say that I definitely would since a single tool never fits all scenarios.

7 If it's a Microsoft shop with SharePoint, what else is there to use?

7 If I was to manage it I might recommend it, but otherwise I would not want the hassle of getting asked how to do X, Y, and Z all the time.

7 For me, it comes down to the user community. I have had some difficulty figuring out how to do some things as there just aren't a ton of tutorials or blogs available. For example: Login IP Filters and showing expired announcements from the Announcements module to unauthenticated users.

7 I like the platform but it has a lot of baggage

8 I think it's a great platform. I hope that it will continue to evolve. I think that it has limitations as I've said above. I have made several efforts in the past few years to contribute to the project without being able to connect. When I look at Joomla with its 35 million downloads, I wonder why not DNN? I also think that there is a potentially huge market for non-programmers that is not being addressed.

8 I like DNN, but do not have experience with the other platforms

8 Upgrade issues.

8 Wide range of modules

8 Relatively easy to develop a fairly complex site.

8 Speed and reliability

8 Powerful features.

8 I've been using DNN since I Buy Spy. But lately, DNN is moving in a direction away from primary projects. I don't need social interactivity from DNN, I get that better on other platforms. I often need Windows integration and DNN is now sorely lagging in that area.

8 Depending on project, DNN is not always the best choice

8 When I need to integrate to Microsoft products, I would suggest SharePoint platform.

8 It's really the only viable Microsoft based CMS platform.

8 I tend to work specifically with writers. Not all content producers are technically competent. However, if a client wants a "full service" type of site (i.e. content / slides / video / deliverable content) - DNN and the time it takes to learn it is my recommendation.

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Suggestions for Future Surveys of this Kind

Since this was the first survey of its kind that the authors are aware of, it was considered that it could

serve as a yardstick for future research and reports. Therefore it was decided to limit the scope

considerably. The authors are generally pleased with the results and recommend that similar efforts be

conducted periodically to gauge progress over time.

That said, the authors recommend the following for future related efforts:

1. One survey template was used for all traffic sources. In the future, we suggest creating identical, separate survey forms identified by source (forum post, article, email, etc.) that will allow the collection of data and sorting it by source without compromising anonymity by requiring cookies or other identifiers.

2. The authors suggest the inclusion of one additional voluntary respondent identifier question for region or country to determine if there are national or cultural variances in responses.

3. Future versions of the survey might consider adding questions regarding DNN / DotNetNuke versioning to gauge relative satisfaction (etc.) and provide additional actionable intelligence.

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Disclaimer This document expresses the research, experience, opinions, and best efforts of the authors only. No

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