EPiServer Partner and Developer Stats 2014
My annual, unofficial look at the movers and shakers in the EPiServer World community over the last year.
See also:
EPiServer Partner and Developer Community Stats 2013
Yearly update
Third year in a row, that officially makes this a tradition, right?
Posting a little later than usual this time around, but that just means there are more juicy stats to include.
2013-2014 has been an exciting year with a lot of movement both in the Partner and Developer segments. Several people changing employers, several titles being awarded (some also being revoked), and lots of new certifications taken.
As usual I've compiled lists of the "biggest partners" and the top contributing developers.This year I've also included a bit of info about the new Global Partner level, the new Commerce certification, meetup groups and EMVP updates.
Oh, and there's a rant at the end.
Disclaimer: This post and the stats collected/presented are not endorsed by EPiServer. They are, however, collected by me from official and publicly available sources like episerver.com, world.episerver.com, twitter, meetup.com etc. EPiServer does not guarantee that the ECD counts are accurate at any given time due to registration delays, expired ECDs, manual errors etc. You are welcome to call me out on any errors (or perceived bias) in the comments section!
With the formalities out of the way, let's dive right in.
EPiServer World: 5th anniversary and 20,000 members
In March 2013, World turned 5 years old.
As a fitting anniversary present, EPiServer World reached 20,000 members on June 24th 2013:
Apparently Patrick Lahuis was the guy to cross the magic milestone.
It's great to see the EPiServer community keeps expanding in an ever-steady pace and gaining more traction world-wide. There's no doubt the release of EPiServer 7.x and the focus on Commerce was a serious catalyst for this.
This is especially apparent in the World forums and blogs, where activity is higher than ever - both in terms of the sheer volume of posts, but also in the variety of developers contributing actively to the discussions.
New Global Partner Level
In late 2013, EPiServer introduced the new Global Partner level to accommodate partners who have a broader geographical reach than most.
Partners who are represented in at least 3 regions qualify for this level of partnership. Currently, Valtech, Nansen and Possible are the only holders. This new designation is reflected in my Partner stats (below).
New EPiServer 7 CMS Certification Program
In September 2013, a select group of developers (myself included) were invited to take the pilot version of the new EPiServer 7 CMS certification.
After a successful pilot period, the official certification program was made available to everybody.
Of course, the race is now on amongst partners to recertify as many devs as possible on the new program.
(Neither the official EPiServer Partners list nor my own Partner stats (below) differentiate between certifications on EPiServer 6 and EPiServer 7, the count indicates valid ECDs of any version).
New EPiServer 7 Commerce Certification Program
Until now, a certification program for Commerce hasn't existed.
In March 2014, another select group of developers participated in the EPiServer 7 Commerce certification pilot program, becoming the world's first to be certified in Commerce development, configuration and management.
Again, the race is now on to... well, you know the rest.
Commerce certifications are not yet reflected on the EPiServer Partners overview nor on EPiServer World user profiles (though they probably will be soon).
New EPiServer Meetup Groups in Australia and the Netherlands
For several years, there have been active EPiServer meetup groups holding semi-regular events in Sweden, Norway and the UK.
These meetup groups provide valuable inspiration, facetime and collaboration opportunities between developers and end-users.
Very nice to see new meetup groups popping up in Australia and the Netherlands during 2013!
EMVP Updates
Until recently, EPiServer have been quite restrictive with the number of new EMVP additions; 1-2 per year at the most.
In 2014 however, an avalanche of 8 new EMVPs were added.
These should be familiar names in the community, having contributed throughout the year(s) in the blogosphere, forums and on various seminars/meetups.
EPiServer have announced that they are revamping the EMVP program, in terms of more consistent, transparent criteria for nomination, and a more centralized evaluation process.
Top 10 Partners Worldwide (by ECD Count)
I've talked about why ECD count is a poor metric, but hey, we need to sort this list somehow, right? The ECD count is compiled from all the geographic branches of the Partner companies, and are based on the official numbers.
| # Company | ECDs | Country | EMVPs | Devs in top 30 |
| 1. KnowIt | 54 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2. Making Waves | 46 | Norway (46) | 1 | 1 |
| 3. Sogeti | 41 | Sweden (34) Denmark (7) |
0 | 1 |
| 4. Creuna | 35 | Norway (20) Sweden (13) Finland (2) |
0 | 0 |
| 5. Valtech (Global Partner) |
32 | Sweden (29) Denmark (3) |
2 | 3 |
| 6. Nansen (Global Partner) |
31 | Sweden (17) USA (10) UK (4) |
1 | 0 |
| 7. CGI (formerly Logica) | 27 | Sweden (17) Norway (5) Finland (5) |
1 | 0 |
| 8. Epinova | 26 | Norway (26) | 1 | 3 |
| 9. NetRelations | 23 | Sweden (21) USA (2) |
3 | 3 |
| 10. Ottoboni | 22 | Sweden (22) | 0 | 0 |
| Included due to EMVP status: | ||||
| Mogul | 19 | Sweden (13) Serbia (6) |
1 | 1 |
| Geta | 9 | Norway | 2 | 3 |
| Itera Consulting | 7 | Norway | 1 | 2 |
| Possible (Global Partner) |
7 | Poland (5) UK (2) |
1 | 1 |
| eFocus | 4 | Netherlands | 1 | 0 |
| Ted & Gustaf AB | 3 | Sweden | 1 | 1 |
| Blend Interactive | 2 | USA | 1 | 1 |
| Disco Works | 1 | Sweden | 1 | 1 |
| Fredrik Haglund (independent) | 1 | Sweden | 1 | 1 |
| Joel Abrahamsson (independent) | 1 | Sweden | 1 | 1 |
| Marie Curie Cancer Care | 1 | United Kingdom | 1 | 1 |
| Petra | 1 | Sweden | 1 | 1 |
Trivia:
- If the official numbers are indeed correct, then KnowIt (54) have now overtaken Making Waves (46) as the Partner with the most ECDs in the world!
Top 30 EPiServer World Contributors
These are the EPiServer World Top 30 Contributors at the moment.
(Current EPiServer employees excluded - alumni included).
| Name | Company | EPW status |
| 1. Frederik Vig (EMVP) | Geta | Oracle (3055 pts) |
| 2. Ted Nyberg (EMVP) | Ted & Gustaf | Esteemed Citizen (2800 pts) |
| 3. Joel Abrahamsson (EMVP) | Independent | Esteemed Citizen (2306 pts) |
| 4. Anders Hattestad (EMVP) | Itera Consulting | Esteemed Citizen (2168 pts) |
| 5. Johan Petersson (EMVP) | NetRelations | Esteemed Citizen (2130 pts) |
| 6. Valdis Iljuconoks (EMVP) | Geta | Esteemed Citizen (1771 pts) |
| 7. Per Nergård (EMVP) | KnowIt | Esteemed Citizen (1731 pts) |
| 8. Arild Henrichsen (EMVP) | Epinova | Esteemed Citizen (1728 pts) |
| 9. Paul Smith |
Active Solution |
Esteemed Citizen (1605 pts) |
| 10. Mari Jørgensen | Geta | Esteemed Citizen (1549 pts) |
| 11. David Knipe (EMVP) | Possible | Esteemed Citizen (1512 pts) |
| 12. Erik Nordin Wahlberg (EMVP) | Disco Works | Contributing Citizen (1452 pts) |
| 13. Johan Kronberg (EMVP) |
NetRelations |
Contributing Citizen (1391 pts) |
| 14. Fredrik Haglund (EMVP) | Independent | Contributing Citizen (1327 pts) |
| 15. Alf Nilsson (EMVP) | NetRelations | Contributing Citizen (1314 pts) |
| 16. Lars Øyvind Bodahl | Epinova | Contributing Citizen (1171 pts) |
| 17. Eric Pettersson | Itera Consulting | Contributing Citizen (1127 pts) |
| 18. Stefan Forsberg (EMVP) |
Valtech |
Contributing Citizen (1124 pts) |
| 19. Petter Klang | Sogeti | Contributing Citizen (1080 pts) |
|
20. Niklas Melinder |
Valtech | Contributing Citizen (1049 pts) |
| 21. Marija Jemuovic (EMVP) | Mogul | Contributing Citizen (926 pts) |
| 22. Tore Gjerdrum | Epinova | Contributing Citizen (919 pts) |
| 23. Per Hemmingson | Independent | Participating Citizen (902 pts) |
| 24. Mathias Kunto (EMVP) | Valtech | Participating Citizen (895 pts) |
| 25. Mark Everard (EMVP) | Marie Curie Cancer Care | Participating Citizen (892 pts) |
| 26. Alexander Haneng (EMVP) | Making Waves | Participating Citizen (883 pts) |
| 27. Joshua Folkerts | Blend Interactive | Participating Citizen (858 pts) |
| 28. Khurram Khan | Welcom Software | Participating Citizen (831 pts) |
| 29. Lee Crowe | CompareTheMarket | Participating Citizen (816 pts) |
| 30. Daniel Berg (EMVP) | Petra | Participating Citizen (778 pts) |
| Included due to EMVP status: | ||
| Chris Sharp (EMVP) | Nansen | Contributing Citizen (759 pts) |
| Anders G. Nordby (EMVP) | CGI | Participating Citizen (659 pts) |
| Jeroen Stemerdink (EMVP) | eFocus | Participating Citizen (627 pts) |
Trivia:
- 3 EMVPs changed employers during the last year:
Alf Nilsson (formerly Avantime/Independent) joined NetRelations.
Daniel Berg (formerly Sogeti) joined Pyramid Communication.
Anders G. Nordby (formerly Making Waves) joined CGI. - NetRelations currently have the most EMVPs in the world, having rocketed from 0 EMVPs to 3 EMVPs.
(The only other Partner to have had that many EMVPs was Possible (formerly Fortune Cookie), who are now down to 1 EMVP after Lee Crowe and Mark Everard left the company). - Out of the Top 30 Contributors, only 4 devs have the new Commerce certification:
Johan Petersson (NetRelations), Mari Jørgensen (Geta), Fredrik Haglund (independent) and Khurram Khan (Welcom Software). - 4 Partner companies each have 3 devs in the Top 30: Valtech, Epinova, NetRelations and Geta (who also impressively have all their devs in the Top 10).
The Challenge of Keeping a Community Vibrant
I usually go off on some kind of rant during these posts, so here's this year's version:
EMVP status is of course a great personal achievement, but it's also a valuable marketing differentiator for the respective Partner companies.
Predictably, you can already now see trends where people are strategically increasing their activity on World, towards (hopefully) getting nominated for (or retaining) EMVP status next year.
That's a win-win situation for the community, really - it ensures that eager devs will be racing to answer every forum post they can, fighting for every scrap of points - while simultaneously relieving EPiServer of some support load.
Meanwhile, existing EMVPs will be re-evaluated more closely, and may have their status revoked if required activity levels are not maintained. There's no drama associated with this - after all it's only natural for developers who were once very active, to eventually move on to projects or roles that prevent them from maintaining their community focus.
When it comes to "veterans" losing or keeping their EMVP status, there's a delicate balance to find. Veterans usually bring a massive amount of experience, influence and "rock star" presence which the community needs, and once in a while they awake from their slumber and produce some magical stuff that truly justifies their status. However if they leave EPiServer development entirely, there's no point retaining their status.
It's a healthy sign for a community to ensure the torch is passed regularly, to let people with fire in their belly get their deserved acclaim, and prevent the community from turning stale.
Statistically, there are some trends emerging:
- Category A are people who started out in the Mid-High region, were awarded an EMVP, and have maintained a steady Mid-High level since.
- Category B are people who started out in the Low-Mid region, then accelerated, were awarded an EMVP, and maintained a steady Mid-High level since.
Categories A and B are the driving forces and true assets in a community. You want as many as possible of these, and to retain them for as long as possible.
- Category C are people who started out in the Low-Mid region, then increased their activity sharply, but reverted to Low-Mid level once EMVP status was awarded.
- Category D are people who started out strong in the Mid-High region and got their EMVP, but over time saw their activity drop to Low-Mid levels.
Categories C and D play important but different roles. "Shooting stars" in category C challenge the established ranks and breathe new life into the community, if only for a short timespan. Strategic activity towards a specific short-term goal (e.g. EMVP or World ranking) often leads to ending up in this category. Veterans represent experience and influence, but may fall gradually into category D over time as their careers evolve.
- Category E are people who never leave the Low activity region.
Category E are the majority of the community base. They may post the odd forum or blog post, but generally don't have the desire (or time/experience/whatever) to contribute in the Mid-High region. These are the consumers of the community, without whom there wouldn't be a need for a community in the first place.
The challenge for EPiServer in the coming years will be figuring out how to get more contributions from the 22,000 strong community base - to prevent the community going stale, and to avoid running out of EMVP candidates.
// END OF RANT