This week, Gartner published the 2018 Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management (MQ WCM) and, I have to say, everyone at Sitecore is thrilled to continue our run in the Leader’s quadrant for the ninth consecutive year. To us, sustaining that position for nearly a decade is a testament to our continued innovation and the value that our customers see from our technology, all of which is due to the dedication, hard work, and focus of the entire team at Sitecore. That’s why I’m even more proud that Sitecore is positioned highest for Ability to Execute for the fourth consecutive year.

When I look at all that has transpired at Sitecore in the past year, I’m awed by how much work has been accomplished to ensure Sitecore continues to provide the most effective platform for delivering transformative digital experiences. The WCM landscape continues to evolve—in particular, it is growing in strategic importance with the heads of marketing and the C-suite—and we moved forward with drive and determination to better address the needs of the marketer.

In particular, here are my top five reasons why Sitecore continues to sit “up and to the right” (in other words, be a Leader) in the Gartner MQ WCM:

1. Personalization that converts customer insight into action: WCM is now mission critical for the continuity of engagement across the customer journey. But knowing a customer at the individual level is the spark at the center of experiences that surprises and delights. That’s why Sitecore® Experience Platform™ (XP) includes all the tools to make it easy to test, optimize, and deliver the one-to-one experience customers want in the channel they prefer, whether you want to personalize the experience based on rules, historical behavior, where your customers are in their journey with your brand, or dynamically adapt content in real time.

2. Connecting the entire business to one platform: WCM occupies a more strategic role in a digital business and companies that connect all of their customer intelligence systems with one intelligent platform will reap the benefits of agility, scale, and a complete view of the customer. That’s precisely the value of Sitecore xConnect, which dramatically simplifies the process to connect and analyze any source of customer information—whether from a CRM, ERP, or point-of-sale system, Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, and more. Sitecore xConnect’s API framework can also be used in reverse, allowing digital experience data collected through Sitecore XP to be used by other systems.

3. Flexibility and efficiency that shortens time to value: Where and how you deploy can have a major impact on the speed and ease with which you can develop and deliver experiences, and Sitecore has made substantial investments in both cloud and headless capabilities that shorten time to value. For example, Sitecore today provides multiple cloud options that offer customers the greatest flexibility and choice, including the ability to deploy IaaS on AWS, Google, or Azure; PaaS on Azure; and hybrid—all with the ability to leverage Sitecore Managed Cloud services. Similarly, Sitecore now offers one of the industry’s most comprehensive set of capabilities for headless deployments, from the Sitecore Services Client API to Sitecore Experience Accelerator with JSON rendering and Sitecore JavaScript Services (currently in tech preview), which allows JavaScript developers to work natively in their environment of choice (e.g., React, Angular).

4. Accelerating digital marketing with machine learning: With Sitecore XP 9 we announced Sitecore Cortex, our platform for machine learning. Built upon the foundation of xConnect and xDB, Sitecore Cortex provides a scalable service for processing data in the Sitecore Experience Database to offer capabilities like surfacing highest value audience segments or optimizing user paths through your site. In the near future, Sitecore Cortex will deliver capabilities like automated personalization and intelligent segmentation for improved marketing performance.

5. Extending our value through partnerships aligned to our customers’ priorities: From implementation to go live to adding functionality, Sitecore has established—and continues to build—relationships with services and technology partners that ensure our customers’ success. We’ve long been known for having one of the market’s strongest partner communities, and we’ve only extended that position through strategic partnerships with software providers like Salesforce and Stackla, as well as alliances with digital agencies and consulting firms such as WPP.

It all adds up to an even greater ability to deliver a superior customer experience. And we will never rest in our quest to continuously improve.

Of course, my top five doesn't necessarily mirror Gartner’s perspectives about the market, so check out the full 2018 report here August 1: 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management.

Ryan Donovan is EVP of product management at Sitecore. Find him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter: @ryan_donovan