EPiServer 7 Adoption by Partners

A few years back I blogged about which EPiServer version the partners were using for their own company websites. There were some interesting findings. 

Now that EPiServer 7 has been out quite a while, it's time to revisit those stats. I'm focusing on the markets with the largest and most active partners, i.e. Sweden, Norway, UK and USA.

Disclaimer: My method for determining EPiServer version is not 100% accurate - if the site doesn't respond at /util/login.aspx or the source reveals no clues, the site is labeled "unknown". Some sites hide the edit interface from web facing servers or use alternate login URLs, which is hard to detect. Corrections are welcome.
 

See also:
Which EPiServer versions are the partners running?
EPiServer Partner and Developer Stats 2014

Sweden

Premium partners: 22 total

• EPiServer 7: 3 (13,5%)
  CloudNine, NearU, Sublime
• EPiServer 6: 9 (41%)
  Evry, KnowIt, Mogul, Nansen, NetRelations, Ninetech, Ottoboni, Softronic, Meridium
• EPiServer 5: 1 (4,5%)
  Sogeti
• Other: 9 (41%)
  Avensia (unknown), Capgemini (Drupal), CGI (Drupal), Ciber (Mura CMS), Circuit (unknown), Consid (unknown), Creuna (unknown), Sigma (Wordpress), Valtech (Drupal)

Solution partners: 25 total

• EPiServer 7: 8 (32%)
  Advania, BNearIT,  CyberCom, Exor, Headlight, Precio, Starmind, Ted+Gustaf
• EPiServer 6: 9 (36%)
  Active Solution, Connecta Group, Dear Friends, Funka Nu, Furillo, HiQ, DigitasLBI, Metamatrix, Visma
• Other: 8 (32%)
  Avantime (Wordpress), CapeSand (Curvanade CMS), Dynamic Dog (unknown), Intellecta (unknown), Kodexe (unkown), KW Digital (Wordpress), Star Republic (unknown), Vinter (Wordpress)

Norway 

Premium partners: 11 total

• EPiServer 7: 5 (45,5%)
  Bouvet, Epinova, Geta, Itera, Prokom
• EPiServer 6: 4 (36,5%)
  Bekk, Evry, Knowit, Making Waves
• Other: 2 (18%)
  CGI (Drupal), Creuna (unknown)

Solution partners: 6 total 

• EPiServer 7: 3 (50%)
  Deepmind, Inmeta, Peanuts
• EPiServer 6: 2 (33,5%)
  Computas, Doorway
• Other: 1 (16,5%)
  Emagine (Plenum)

United Kingdom

Premium partners: 11 total

• EPiServer 7: 0 (0%)
• EPiServer 6: 3 (27%)
  DigitasLBi, Netcel, Ultimedia 
• Other: 8 (73%)
  Amaze (Ektron), CDS Digital (Wordpress), eibDigital (Wordpress), Maginus (Wordpress), Possible (unknown), Sigma (unknown), TwentySix Digital (unknown), Zone/Auros (Wordpress)

Solution partners: 19 total 

• EPiServer 7: 1 (5%)
  Emperor
• EPiServer 6: 1 (5%)
  Nansen
• EPiServer 5: 1 (5%)
  IS Solutions
• Other: 16 (85%)
  Business & Decision (unknown), Engaged (Wordpress), Envoy (unknown), Fresstyle Interactive (Wordpress), MBA (unknown), Merchant (unknown), Nucleus (unknown), Piksel (Wordpress), Rapp (Wordpress), Redweb (unknown), Rufus Leonard (Wordpress), Syzygy (unknown), Valtech (Drupal), Redfish/WMPS (unknown), Web Technology Group (Wordpress), Yucca (unknown) 

United States

Premium partners: 19 total

• EPiServer 7: 2 (10,5%)
  Adage Technologies, Blend Interactive
• EPiServer 6: 4 (21%)
  DigitasLBi, Nansen, NetRelations, Simple Truth
• Other: 13 (68,5%)
  AgencyQ (unknown), AlphaZeta (Seamless CMS), First Line Software (Wordpress), Guidance (Drupal), Orckestra (unknown), Oshyn (unknown), Possible (unknown), Space150 (unknown), Valtech (Drupal), Verndale (unknown), VML (Drupal), Web2Print Experts (Wordpress), WSOL (Ektron)

(I did not research Solution Partners for USA.)

Findings

• EPiServer 7 adoption ranked by percentage:
  Norwegian Solution partners (50%)
  Norwegian Premium partners (45,5%)
  Swedish Solution partners (32%)
  Swedish Premium partners (13,5%)
  US Premium partners (10,5%)
  UK Solution partners (5%)
  UK Premium partners (0%)
• None of the 11 UK Premium partners are running EPiServer 7.
• Out of the Top 10 biggest EPiServer partners in the world, only 1 partner is running EPiServer 7 (hey, that's us!)
• Out of the Top 10 biggest partners, 70% are running some version of EPiServer.
• One of the Top 3 biggest EPiServer partners is running a reeeally old version of EPiServer CMS. 

Some notes on EPiServer 7 adoption

There are several valid reasons why an EPiServer partner hasn't yet adopted EPiServer 7 for their own company website. 

Anyone can upgrade for the sake of upgrading - but building a site that really utilizes the power of EPiServer 7 requires careful planning, design and execution.

If you're already booked to the hilt with client projects, it's hard to free resources for internal projects.

Some partners may have complex sites with lots of custom system integrations that aren't (yet) EPiServer 7 compatible. Or inversely, they may have such a simple site that it's quicker and cheaper to build it in a totally different CMS.

Some EPiServer partners also work with other CMS vendors, and might already have chosen a different flavor for their company site - in which case it's hard to justify converting to EPiServer 7 just for the sake of it.

The state of a partner's company website - although considered an important showcase opportunity - does not necessarily reflect the current competence or capacity level of the partner.

So take these stats for what they are - an overview of the current landscape. We might still be seeing a rush of partners launching company sites on EPiServer 7.5 throughout the year.