Mark Smith's Analyst Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Winshuttle EnterWorks drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

We published the Ventana Research Value Index: Product Information Management, the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts. To assess functionality, one of the components of Capability, we applied the Ventana Research Value Index methodology and blueprint, which links the personas and processes for PIM to an organization’s requirements.

In all of our Value Indexes, we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal and vendor selection process for PIM software. We evaluated Winshuttle EnterWorks and 15 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability) and two related to the vendor (Vendor Validation and Total Cost of Ownership and Return on Investment). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our expertise and research.

Winshuttle, through its acquisition of EnterWorks in 2019, brings its PIM market efforts into a larger portfolio of offerings. It was categorized as a Vendor with Merit, ranking 16th overall in the Value Index. Winshuttle performed its best in Capability.

The EnterWorks product has addressed the basic PIM requirements of mastering and governance, including digital asset management. However, the product offering’s release cycles of improvement are not frequent enough to meet a highly competitive market segment. The result is less-than-optimal levels of performance in the assessment.

Consequently, there are many areas where Winshuttle could improve. Clarity in its architecture, performance and scalability; its depth in the types of integration across applications; processes and systems; and the usability of the offering for the personas that must interact with the application. It also fell short in Validation, needing more clarity on the commitment to PIM and the customer experience it provides to buyers throughout their work with the company.

This assessment was based on Winshuttle EnterWorks’ product information management applications available at end of April of 2021 — version 10.3, released in January of 2021. Since the Value Index was published, Precisely announced it is acquiring Winshuttle to advance its portfolio with the addition of Winshuttle’s master data management and process automation. The mention by Precisely of PIM was absent, leaving the future of the product line uncertain and organizations should ascertain the situation after the acquisition is complete and through the end of 2021.

The role of PIM for every organization is to ensure the most accurate and engaging product information that supports customer, enterprise and product lifecycle requirements. Providing effective product information is the foundation to providing an engaging digital experience that meets the needs of marketing, commerce and the digital shelf. Organizations should make PIM and product experiences a priority for continuous process improvement, and perform an assessment of existing process and technological approaches, adopt best practices and ensure the effectiveness of product information being utilized for revenue, operations and supply chain processes.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of product information management software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.

Regards,

Mark Smith