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The Hero’s Journey to Composable: A Conversation with Uniform’s Mark Demeny

matt-garrepy

What to know:<ul><li>TinyMCE has introduced AI capabilities to its rich text editor</li><li>Powered by OpenAI, the new feature is available and easy to activate</li><li>The solution provides pre-written prompts to help users create content</li><li>CMS platforms that use TinyMCE can offer AI in their editors and plugins</li></ul><hr /> You might not know it, but many CMS platforms have been “tinyfied.”I don’t mean “minified,” as in made smaller – or “gentrified,” though some apps out there could use a bit of that.No, “tinyfied” is how <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiny.cloud/">TinyMCE</a> refers to content management systems that utilize its rich text editor. It’s a fun moniker for a tool that’s essential to every CMS, enabling users to create formatted content using simple WYSIWYGs.The role of the text editor in a CMS can’t be overstated. In addition to adding raw content, they can be used to create lists, tables, and other elements. The functionality of an editor can also be extended via plugins and customizations based on a platform’s needs.Many CMSes have adopted TinyMCE as their default editor, while others have implemented it into various modules and plugins. Which platforms, you ask? According to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiny.cloud/docs-3x/extras/TinyMCE3x@Software_using_TinyMCE/#:~:text=Many%20CMSs%20have%20been%20'tinyfied,it%20in%20a%20module%2Fplugin.&amp;text=ARNIA%20CMS%20.,is%20part%20of%20the%20CMS.">company’s documentation</a>, the list includes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/">Alfresco</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/dotcms-adds-additional-static-publishing-features-and-new-four-eyes-workflow-approval-in-latest-version-release-dotcms-4-3/">dotCMS</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/umbraco-cms-acquired-by-software-investor-monterro-interview-with-ceo-kim-sneum-madsen/">Umbraco</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/">WordPress</a>, and other notable brands (like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-shopify-invests-in-sanity-dotcms-updates-content-authoring-experience-wp-engine-acquires-plugins-and-more/">Shopify</a>) – all relying on TinyMCE to shape content editing.Now, TinyMCE is introducing <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">OpenAI’s</a> powerful GPT models to its text editor. The new solution comes with pre-written prompts and writing tools and provides a familiar, intuitive UI that works within existing designs and structures.I recently spoke with TinyMCE’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredrikdanielsson/">Fredrik Danielsson</a>, Principal Product Manager, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisebentley/">Elise Bentley</a>, VP of Marketing, about the company’s new AI Assistant. They shared how the novel features will benefit users while helping CMS platforms accelerate their AI roadmap.<h2>Adding AI to an API-first portfolio of solutions</h2>Over the last few months, I’ve spoken to numerous CMSes about their emerging AI strategies.As I’ve noted in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/a-closer-look-at-contentstacks-ai-features-with-christine-masters-senior-product-manager/">previous articles</a>, some have charged full speed ahead, adding <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-ai-pioneers-native-ai-in-headless-cms-interview-with-vojtech-boril/">native solutions</a> to their workflows. Others are waiting it out, trying to divine the hope from the hype.While not a CMS itself, TinyMCE is a key part of the content ecosystem. Despite being a new entrant to the AI game, its AI Assistant fits squarely with the company’s ambitious API-first strategy and its goal of powering CMS users with more advanced functionality.“TinyMCE has focused on the content creation space for almost 20 years,” said Elise. “When you think about CMS users, it’s actually the rich text editor that they’re connecting with. We’re creating a seamless experience by bringing AI into a workflow they already know.”According to Elise, there are currently over 350 million downloads of TinyMCE a year – and that includes a very broad spectrum of CMS, DAM, workflow collaboration, email tools, and more. While all of these applications co-exist in the DX stack, Elise noted that understanding the CMS user was fundamental to building the right kind of AI strategy.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/tinymce-editor-1024x663.png" alt="TinyMCE rich text editor" />“Content creators are ultimately using [TinyMCE], so what are the top things they’re creating? For a CMS, it was blogs and website copy – so whatever we delivered, we needed to make sure it worked great for those use cases.”TinyMCE’s impressive footprint has certainly bolstered its market position. In March of this year, the company was purchased by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiny.cloud/blog/tiugo-portfolio-with-tinymce/">Tiugo Technologies</a>, a PSG portfolio company offering a family of innovative, API-first developer platforms – which includes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tiugo-technologies-enhances-its-portfolio-of-developer-platforms-with-buttercms/">ButterCMS</a>.While many technologies in a wide range of industries have rushed to market with AI solutions, some have been met with delays or even less-than-stellar outcomes. I asked Elise how Tiny has focused on quality while ensuring timely delivery to the market.“We have a big emphasis on quality here, and we don’t release things to market unless we believe they are market-ready,” she affirmed. “AI Assistant has gone through robust QA processes, and it’s stable. We have a lot of users signed up, and we’re actively gathering feedback.”<h2>Making AI more useful with ready-made prompts</h2>Along with his mantle of product manager, Fredrik has also been the internal AI champion for TinyMCE’s new functionality. I asked him what fueled his interest – and why it mattered.“We think this is a really important innovation in rich text editing,” he said. “It’s opened up so many opportunities in human-computer interaction and how we can use this technology for all sorts of things. It’s similar to when the iPhone came out, and we suddenly had the internet and computers in our pockets. AI is almost a must, and we have to be doing this.”It’s true that AI has captured the zeitgeist of the moment, spurring CMS platforms to introduce AI features at a breakneck pace. But the hype cycle can be tenuous, and user experience can sometimes be a victim in the race to innovate.<hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">"It’s not just about connecting with AI – it's about unlocking the power of AI and helping you to learn how to use it for content creation purposes, so you’re not on your own."</h4><hr />Tiny aimed to avoid that trap by putting the user first. As Elise explained, the company had been exploring AI for over a year, and the decision to act only surfaced when customers started asking how to add it to their applications. Thoughtful research helped reveal where the TinyMCE’s capabilities could align with the promise of AI.“When we went out to explore AI, we did the demand studies,” she punctuated. “What people are actually struggling with is how to interact with AI. That’s where our solution is much more advanced. We provide the pre-written prompts and the assistance. It’s not just about connecting with AI – it's about unlocking the power of AI and helping you to learn how to use it for content creation purposes, so you’re not on your own.”Fredrik further codified this, describing TinyMCE’s ready-made prompts as a sort of “discovery feature” that helps inspire end users by giving them a starting point while providing convenient actions such as rewriting, fixing grammar, and creating alternative variants.<h2>Adding AI where content creators need it</h2>For CMS platforms using TinyMCE, the clear benefit is the easy, frictionless addition of AI to the text editing experience.Designed as a core part of the content creation workflow – as opposed to a bolt-on component – the solution’s UI works out of the box without adding any extra AI development burdens. What’s more, it can be up and running in a couple of hours with just a few steps.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/tinymce-steps-1-1024x217.jpg" alt="TinyMCE AI Assistant steps " />As Fredrik outlined, the AI Assistant is an extension of TinyMCE, so you simply activate it within the plugin and connect to OpenAI via your <a target="_blank" href="https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys">OpenAI API key</a>. The AI Assistant provides a configurable, intuitive interface for OpenAI prompts, while your API key sends and receives prompts and responses from OpenAI.When you’re ready for production, you can set up a server-side proxy for secure communication with OpenAI. And presto… you’re off to the races.“The fantastic thing about TinyMCE and how we operate is that we provide APIs and actually allow you to customize the prompts if you want to put in the engineering effort,” said Elise. “You can customize it around your own use case.”While other CMS platforms are home-growing their capabilities, TinyMCE is effectively shortcutting the complexity and laser-targeting AI at precisely the right places. Along with the essentials for improving grammar and writing, users can target the AI Assistant to summarize, explain, or simplify language with an easy-to-use picker. There's also the ability to generate content from custom prompts and insert it instantly into your post.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/tinymce-screenshots-1024x540.jpg" alt="TinyMCE product screenshots" />“We’re providing the UI and prompt engineering so you can quickly get started, instead of spending months trying to figure out how to do it yourself,” said Fredrik, summing up one of the core benefits. “With OpenAI and TinyMCE, it’s the speed.”<h2>What does TinyMCE's AI Assistant cost?</h2>When it comes to new features, the million-dollar question is always the price.According to Elise, the AI Assistant is an additional $29 per month – which is nominal, considering the advanced resources the company is dedicating to the technology. I asked how users are responding to this price point and the value position. “Everyone that has signed up is accepting of the cost, and it’s appealing for both startups and enterprises,” she said. “Part of our research was to examine price and how we sustain engineering on such a revolutionary new feature set.”Because TinyMCE’s AI Assistant requires you to create and connect your own OpenAI API key, platforms are also responsible for <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/pricing">any direct costs from OpenAI</a> associated with its usage.<h2>Wrestling with security, data privacy and copyright issues</h2>One of the biggest challenges with tapping large language models like ChatGPT is data privacy. And rightly so: since its introduction, OpenAI has spurred multiple security concerns, including a <a target="_blank" href="https://securityintelligence.com/articles/chatgpt-confirms-data-breach/">data breach</a> that exposed active user data to would-be hackers.OpenAI has made great strides in firming up its protection. Additionally, CMS platforms that have introduced GPT connectors have gone to great lengths to wall off enterprise data from the GPT learning pipelines, so a company’s data doesn’t become part of the LLM’s general training lakes.I asked Fredrik and Elise how TinyMCE was handling the data privacy concerns with its new AI, and how questions around content copyright might impact their strategy.“This is a huge, huge question,” Fredrik said. “We’re talking about privacy and copyright on the internet. We deal with a lot of enterprises, so naturally, we get that question. In the vast majority of use cases, it’s about building trust with vendors [and letting them know] we take care of your data.”Elise expanded on this, adding that TinyMCE is actively monitoring and looking at ways to create more secure and private solutions with ChatGPT.<h2>Expanding the horizon of AI for platforms and users</h2>In the quest to provide meaningful AI to more content creators, TinyMCE has certainly introduced a unique offering at the text editing layer – and done so in a familiar and accessible manner.I asked Fredrik where he sees the greatest opportunity for TinyMCE’s AI to transform the content experience.“This is completely new for us, and it’s fun,” he mused. “We’re innovating and exploring and starting fresh. As with all these things, there are no conventions right now. But it should be simple, intuitive, and designed for everyone – not just power users. I want everyone to be able to harness the power of our AI.”While the new AI features are already GA, TinyMCE is just getting started. According to Elise, they plan to support more than just ChatGPT in the future and continue a healthy pace of innovation based on customer needs.“As more people come on board, we want the feedback loops to make an even better, more robust product,” she said. “But right now, we’re very happy about this new feature.”Being happy about your product? There’s nothing tiny about that.You can experience that happiness yourself by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiny.cloud/tinymce/features/ai-integration/">adding the new AI Assistant</a> to your existing TinyMCE account with an exclusive 14-day free trial.

TinyMCE Brings Advanced AI to CMS Text Editing: Interview with Fredrik Danielsson & Elise Bentley

The financial services domain is experiencing a remarkable transformation, prompted by disruptive newcomers and the rise of Open Finance. These modern players, predominantly digital-only banking entities, are not merely passively accepting the tide of digital transition, but are actively molding it, setting a groundwork for an increasingly open, inclusive, and technologically oriented financial environment.
What distinguishes these modifications is their core emphasis on "access." Technological breakthroughs in the fintech sector, in conjunction with Open Finance principles, are slowly but surely unraveling the intricacies of the financial sphere, making it more approachable, safe, and user-friendly for all. This tilt towards a tech-centric strategy is notably accentuated in the North American region, where the demand for digital experiences from consumers is heightened.
Adding another layer to these developments are environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters, along with the "Great Resignation." As customers demonstrate increasing interest in ESG, providers of financial services are forced to adapt by formulating distinctive fund solutions that address these issues. Concurrently, though it appears to be ending, the "Great Resignation" has amplified the necessity for financial establishments to refine their digital capabilities and organizational cultures in order to attract and retain premier professionals.
Within this dynamic environment, traditional profit-driven structures are being substituted by a customer-centric methodology. Modern-day providers of financial services are discovering that by prioritizing customer value, financial gains follow naturally. To maintain their competitive edge, these institutions are incessantly harmonizing the digitalization of their offerings with the pressing need to enhance security, accessibility, and customization.
<h2>Personalization and Adding a Human Touch</h2>
According to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/banking-matters/consumer-trends-in-digital-payments">McKinsey’s 2022 Digital Payments Consumer Survey,</a> nine out of 10 Americans now use some form of digital payments. Additionally, the percentage of respondents who use two or more forms of digital payments has increased from 51% in 2021 to 62% in 2022. This growing segment of consumers using digital payments and increasing competition in the digital payment industry means companies need to work hard to appeal to customers and gain their business.
Although digitization is clearly transforming the industry, it is important to note that many still prefer human interaction when making high-value financial decisions. By incorporating human interaction into digital experiences through methods such as omnichannel content delivery and conversational AI, organizations can make interactions more engaging and personalized to consumers.
Technologies such as data analytics, mobile development, artificial intelligence, and APIs can be used by financial institutions to deliver value to customers while still maintaining a human touch. Conversational AI tools like chatbots let financial institutions offer 24/7 support. Chatbots can handle routine inquiries and transactions and hand off more complex queries to virtual assistants. Meanwhile, the vast amounts of customer data available regarding behavior and preferences can be used to offer tailored recommendations and promotions.
To tie it all together, financial institutions should offer a consistent and seamless experience across channels that incorporates the right mix of digital interaction and human touch. Companies establish familiarity with their customers and build trust when online content is consistent, easily delivered across all digital assets and applications, and managed all in one place.
<h2>Delivering Great Content through CMS</h2>
Ultimately, what makes a great digital financial experience possible is timely and relevant digital content. The most important thing to customers is that they are kept informed of their financial situation. Institutions can connect with their customers by providing content that updates, educates, and motivates them.
Delivering such tailored content requires customer insights, data intelligence, and content management processes to be streamlined through reliable, future-proofed technology. At the center of all this is a Content Management System (CMS), which is a platform used to manage digital content and deliver personalized experiences. Financial services providers can build and manage their digital channels, such as websites and mobile apps, in a centralized manner using a CMS.
In addition to simplifying content creation and management, a CMS can also ensure consistency across digital channels. Details like specific offerings, rates, and locations change frequently. A CMS can be used to publish changes across multiple sites more quickly and efficiently.
A CMS also enables integration with other systems, such as marketing automation platforms and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Integration creates the opportunity to offer personalized experiences based on the account portfolios and branch locations of customers.
Lastly, a CMS enables digital channels to be optimized for different devices and methods of consumption. Using a CMS, financial service providers can develop responsive websites and mobile applications for different devices and screen sizes, which is essential for customers to access financial services anywhere, anytime, and on any device.
<h2>Maximizing your CMS</h2>
As the financial services industry continues to change rapidly and more consumers adopt digital payment systems, IT and marketing needs to prioritize humanizing digital experiences. Customer preference for digital interaction puts the onus on businesses to find new and innovative ways to incorporate human elements into digital experiences. Conversational AI and omnichannel experiences all help businesses connect with customers without putting strain on human team members. With a connected digital experience platform, financial services providers can deliver personalized experiences through managed digital content.
To maximize the value of a CMS, IT leaders should investigate the built-in security, auditing, and compliance capabilities of each platform. Other key factors are advanced workflow automation capabilities and support for secure data transfer. A CMS platform that accounts for all of this will make sure IT leaders can deliver engaging digital experiences in a more efficient and valuable way.
<hr />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/jay-sanderson/">Jay Sanderson</a> is Senior Product Marketing Manager, Digital Experience, at Progress and a CMS Critic contributor.

The Benefits of Personalization and CMS to Improve Digital Financial Experiences

jay-sanderson

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/shock-and-awe-adobe-to-acquire-ui-design-platform-figma-for-20-billion/">Adobe</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Acquia</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-integrates-b2b-commerce-cloud-and-content-cloud-combines-headless-commerce-with-cms/">Optimizely</a> are Leaders in the latest <a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/the-forrester-wave-tm-content-management-systems-q3-2023/RES178520" target="_blank">Forrester Wave: Content Management Systems, Q3 2023</a> – a quarterly report published by one of the most prestigious and respected analyst firms in the technology industry.
The report, published today, provides a glimpse of where CMS platforms are positioned. Forrester ranks companies on a visual graph across several concentric strata: Challengers, Contenders, Strong Performers, and Leaders. A CMS platform’s position is then determined based on criteria reflecting its offering strength, strategy, and market presence.
<h2>Leading the CMS category </h2>
According to a <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230822212172/en/Acquia-Named-a-Leader-in-Content-Management-Systems-Report-by-Independent-Research-Firm" target="_blank">press release from Acquia </a>– one of the three platforms in the Leader category – the Q3 Forrester Wave report evaluated 10 CMS providers based on 26 criteria, focusing on the aforementioned criteria.
The report cited that “Acquia performs the strongest in low-code/no-code, translations for global content deliveries, and back-end extensibility – all supported by strong practitioner and developer programs.” The company earned the highest possible scores in the architecture (extensibility and configuration), practitioner and developer communities, partner ecosystem, and global delivery strategy criteria.
Optimizely, another Leader, also <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/optimizely-named-a-leader-in-content-management-systems-by-industry-research-firm-301908245.html" target="_blank">issued a press release</a> about its position. The Forrester report stated that the platform "performs very well in personalization, A/B testing, and translation and localizations."
Additionally, the report indicated Optimizely's CMS "excels at depth of content and audience analytics off the shelf (no additional licensing) and a strong ability to scale content delivery through its partnership with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-offers-microsoft-azure-becomes-only-multi-cloud-saas-cms-qa-with-cto-nishant-patel/">Microsoft Azure</a> and its cloud-native architecture."
<h2>Contentstack drives strong performance</h2>
While the Leader category remains the domain of large enterprise DXPs, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a> CMS players are gaining ground. Case in point: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-57-5-million-in-series-b-round-qa-with-ceo-neha-sampat/">Contentstack</a>.
Buoyed by its <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness/">MACH</a> (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless) focus and composable approach – along with best-in-class, turnkey, no-code integrations – the company is leading the Strong Performer category in the Forrester Wave report.
According to an article on the <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/report/forrester-wave-report-2023?utm_medium=email-newsletter&amp;utm_source=marketo&amp;utm_campaign=2023-23-08-august-monthly-newsletter&amp;mkt_tok=NDg5LVdOSS0zODMAAAGNwg2flcZin6FEq-r-0_FcJUMeWdg_wzl49C_gzpN1gvxH7TnAnUakU4Mp4aFsa52WTa2dI1bZs97lBpqwBgmvq3Ivq1I0p0AUV9BkNOClolY" target="_blank">Contentstack website</a>, the report stated that “Contentstack performs well in several categories but shines in its ease of back-end extensibility through turnkey integrations, coupled with global deployments.”
Along with its MACH posture, the report also noted that “as a founding member of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance,</a> it excels in innovation, global delivery, and a straightforward pricing model.”
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, another headless platform, also scored as a Strong Performer in the report.
<h2>A broad CMS field from headless to open source</h2>
While a presumed crop of DXPs dominated the top of the mountain, headless players and managed open source platforms like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-wordpress-acquires-parse-ly-siteimprove-releases-upgraded-accessibility-product-twilio-segment-releases-2021-cdp-report-and-more/">WordPress VIP</a> provided some variance in the landscape.
As the downstream vendors look to contend and challenge the market, it’s clear that composable is becoming a more important part of the mix – and helping to propel those CMSes to the front of the line.

Adobe, Acquia, Optimizely Top Latest Forrester Wave for Content Management Systems

cms-critic-staff

In a recent interview, I invoked the original Star Wars film as a thematic backdrop. It seemed an apropos analogy for exploring the galactic frontier of composable – and, hopefully, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-heros-journey-to-composable-a-conversation-with-uniforms-mark-demeny/">made for a fun read</a>.Now, at great risk of crossing my sci-fi streams, I’m going to channel Star Trek.I know, I know. What is he thinking? These are distinct mythologies, each with a fiercely devoted fan base. But rest assured, my goal isn’t to stir up debate over <a target="_blank" href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/star-wars-vs-star-trek-which-one-is-better/">which is better</a> – I’ll leave that to you. Think of me as Switzerland… if it was a planet in the Dagobah system.So why am I doing this?Because every time I read the words “content federation,” I can’t help but think of Star Trek’s unmistakable “United Federation of Planets.” Key to the franchise canon, this futuristic authority has unified species and cultures across the expanse, enabling a utopian coexistence built on collaborative exploration and the betterment of humanity.In so many ways, this mirrors the mission of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/graphcms-rebrands-to-hygraph-launches-new-federated-content-platform/">Hygraph</a> – a headless CMS designed for the purpose and promise of content federation. Its captain, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/michael-lukaszczyk/">Michael Lukaszczyk</a>, is seeking out ways to chart this frontier by uniting content data from different sources with one universal API.It’s not science fiction. Much like Star Trek’s Federation, Hygraph is pioneering a new quadrant of headless space as the first “Federated Content Platform,” ushering in a new reality for content management. It’s a strange new world where a headless platform is both frontend and backend agnostic, and data can be joined across multiple sources using a single <a target="_blank" href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL</a> query.With so much change and commoditization in the headless category, I connected with Michael to learn more about the benefits of Content Federation, why he’s betting the future on it, and how it's powering the warp drive behind Hygraph’s market acceleration.<h2>A digital experience explorer</h2>For some DX professionals, the path to a platform is often incongruous. But for Michael, it seemed his destiny was always in the stars.Joining me from his home base in Germany, about an hour north of Frankfurt, he chronicled his origin story. At age 11, he was already adopting the mantle of a digital wunderkind, building websites for friends and family. He pursued this passion at the university level, studying abroad in Spain and Sweden.After completing his master’s degree, he began his career at a company called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canto.com/">Canto</a>, a digital asset management (DAM) vendor. While challenging, it wasn’t entirely his cup of early grey tea.“I was in professional services, but I didn’t enjoy it,” he confessed unabashedly. “I was building integrations, but I always wanted to work on the core product and in distribution.”It was at Canto in 2015 that Michael met <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-winter-403059118/">Daniel Winter</a>. The two would become thick as thieves – much like Kirk and Spock – sharing a common sentiment on architecting and delivering software. By early 2016, the pair had already built a prototype for their own DAM solution.“But then, on a Friday night,” Michael recalled vividly, as if only yesterday, “I was scrolling through my Twitter feed before going to sleep, and I stumbled onto a post called <a target="_blank" href="https://css-tricks.com/what-is-a-headless-cms/">‘What is a Headless CMS’</a> by Chris Coyier from CSS Tricks. I didn’t know what a headless CMS was. No one did [in those days]. But as I read the post, I was impressed.”As Michael shared, the durability and sustainability of the headless CMS product model is what really appealed to him. “Whatever comes next in terms of digital channels, wherever you want to distribute your content to – AR, VR – you’re already set. Headless lets you build a sustainable content strategy.”After sharing the article with Daniel, they took a risk and pivoted from DAM to headless CMS, with one unique etch: the introduction of <a target="_blank" href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL,</a> a new query language for APIs. They had already been experimenting with it in their DAM prototype and knew its potential for improving the developer experience. The rest, as they say, is history.“The next day, we started to build the first GraphQL native CMS out there,” he said. “[We introduced] the product in early 2017, got some angel funding, and grew to a company of 90 people across the globe, from San Francisco to Manila.”What followed can only be described as a meteoric rise. After an initial raise of $13 million, the company closed on a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hygraph-secures-30-million-in-series-b-funding/">Series B of $30 million</a> in March of this year. They christened the vessel “GraphCMS,” but later rebranded to “Hygraph” to avoid any confusion or biases around page-building capabilities or publishing workflows. It also sounds cool and futuristic – exactly where the company wants to be. <h2>The voyage from headless CMS to federated content platform</h2>Over the last few years, Michael and his team have been chasing the answer to a very simple question: what will the next generation of CMS actually look like?As you might guess, that question isn’t so simple to answer. The evolution of CMS has been a long one – and with the explosion of the device ecosystem, things changed significantly. Demands shifted from a single web channel to multiple channels. This paradigm gave rise to the headless CMS, rendering the CMS frontend agnostic and turning it into a one-to-many relationship of content sources and destinations.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/hygraph-diagram-1024x432.png" alt="Hygraph diagram of content federation evolution" />“What we launched last year – what we call the federated content platform – is turning the promise of the headless CMS around,” he said. “Now, it’s not just frontend agnostic, but also backend agnostic, meaning you can source the content and data that lives in your backend stack on the other side of the API.”Bottom line: Hygraph has transformed the headless CMS from one-to-many to many-to-many across content sources and destinations. Developers and product builders can turn all backend systems into one universal API, allowing users on the frontend to work in any way with their data.This plays directly into the concept of federation. As Michael pointed out, the term originated in the GraphQL community, with the basic idea of merging multiple APIs together in a sort of “Super API” (powered by dilithium crystals?)“It was a very easy progression to being a GraphQL headless CMS to adding federation capabilities to the mix,” he added. “We were already so strong on GraphQL that it just made sense.”I asked Michael what else was driving this change, aside from the obvious. That brought us back to the core question about the next generation of CMS, and a key word: composable.<hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">We’re adapting to a new reality where content and data aren’t residing in one source anymore... content federation is content management for a new reality.</h4><hr />“We’re adapting to a new reality where content and data aren’t residing in one source anymore,” he professed. “The typical stack now is modular. With composability, the monolith is going away, and companies are establishing more modular architectures in their tech stack and picking the best tool for the job.”While building so-called “best-of-breed” stacks sounds great, composable has its share of side effects. As Michael reinforced, things aren’t integrated as tightly, and this can cause huge problems and delays. Enterprises are left tending to these integrations, and man… it’s hard.“Before content federation, the biggest challenge we saw was building middleware,” he said. “It’s really expensive and painful to develop. You have to design, maintain, authorize, secure, make fast, wire up with CDNs. Each time there’s a new component or system coming in or new business requirement, you have to adapt the code base. It’s an innovation bottleneck.”This is where Hygraph fires its photon torpedoes to eliminate that bottleneck, allowing you to configure all your systems downstream and easily tap all content sources and destinations with a single API. It solves the customization and integration challenges that hold back innovation or slow time to market.As Michael punctuated, “Content federation is content management for a new reality.” And it certainly feels like a Star Trek-level next generation of headless CMS.<h2>Charting the composable frontier</h2>Hygraph is a member of the <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/members">MACH Alliance</a>, a not-for-profit organization focused on open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems – and the defacto voice of the composable movement. As I shared in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">previous posts</a>, I had the opportunity to judge entries in the MACH Two Impact Awards this past June.During our conversation, I shared with Michael how inspiring and intimidating some of the project examples were. The system integrators behind these transformations were creative and ambitious. In some cases, the resulting stacks felt a bit like Frankenstein’s monster coming to life – miraculous, but potentially scary. Could content federation help change this?“I actually think Frankenstein is a good term for it,” he replied. “What led us to content federation is that we would see the integration requirements and what kinds of Frankensteins [our customers] would build. One reason why it’s hard to maintain is that very often, the people who can build these Frankensteins can be strong characters – very experienced enterprise architects. There’s a human factor, and there can be a lot of arguing about how things are built.”The human factor. Of course. One of the biggest risks to the success of a modular, composable architecture is the mindset – which, by its very nature, is about people and processes. Larger organizations have the resources to support both, but I wondered if Hygraph might be looking downstream as it removes many of the challenges from going composable.“We want to make complex architectures feasible, not just possible,” he said. “Even for the mid-market. A lot of vendors in the MACH space address [that segment], so there has to be some way to get those technologies together more easily.”<h2>A warp engine for content-rich applications</h2>In the expanding universe of digital experiences, content is fueling opportunity – hence the continued explosion of CMS, DXP, and other technologies in the ecosystem. Some estimates put the market potential at over <a target="_blank" href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/04/11/1802414/0/en/Global-Content-Management-Software-Market-Will-Reach-USD-123-500-Million-By-2026-Zion-Market-Research.html">$123 billion by 2026</a>, with a CAGR of 17 percent.At the same time, the headless CMS market is approaching a Neutral Zone of commoditization, with composable forcing greater downward pressure on price and parity. Most platforms provide similar functionality, and some are feeling the pinch to add new features that challenge their MACH posture as pure-play composable solutions.I asked Michael what gives Hygraph an edge in this battle.“A lot of CMS vendors focus on websites and marketing personas. But we’ve built powerful capabilities that have attracted different kinds of use cases to our platform, the kind that we were surprised to see a CMS being used for and not a database.”Michael referred to these as content-rich applications, where the content itself is the main asset of the product being sold. Like Netflix for streaming movies or Peloton for workout classes, content creators only need tools to maintain those experiences. In these cases, it’s not marketers using Hygraph, but domain experts that don’t require page builders or WYSIWYGs.On the channel side, Hygraph is partnering with SIs and collaborating with other MACH vendors to build deeper API-based integrations. While much of this attention is focused on enterprise, there’s some solid mid-market in the mix, where it’s easier to find early adopters of their technology. Regardless, organizations stand to gain significant benefits from content federation.“It can help consolidate the legacy stack within an organization,” he explained. “You integrate all the services under the hood, and you get a fresh façade, like a renovation for all the APIs you have. All of a sudden, a company can attract better developers because they can work with modern tools. If you want top talent, you have to keep iterating.”Content-rich applications are one dimension. Enterprises are also wrestling with multiple CMSes under on roof. “We’ve seen enterprises have as many CMSes as teams or divisions, and they need to stay there for a couple of years. Content federation is enabling this to work, making it easy to consolidate and build new digital experiences.”<h2>Phasers locked on growth</h2>As Michael noted, the biggest challenge to growth in composable is that no one knows how to Google the problem they have. It’s a bit like being trapped on an alien planet with no universal translator.“Headless CMS is mature, and people are aware, but we are so early with composability and building the tooling that a lot of education still needs to happen,” he proclaimed. “I’m happy the MACH Alliance is around, as it’s a joint effort to educate and position to other vendors. It’s the category creation process that needs to be innovated.”For Michael, the role of the MACH Alliance can’t be understated. I recall <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/">Kelly Goetsch</a>, one of its co-founders, saying that if the Alliance does its job, it might become less necessary in the future. That said, the rise of new certifications brings greater certainty and confidence to technology buyers.Michael said he wouldn’t be surprised if the MACH Alliance became a marketplace to bundle those services under one umbrella. Driving that belief is the challenge of procurement.“With monolithic vendors, you have all the tools with one vendor, one renewal process, one customer success manager. In a composable stack, you have ten solutions you have to deal with ten times a year. At some point, market consolidation may happen – and the MACH Alliance might be in the best spot to do this.”There are a lot of challenging headwinds, to be sure. Composable is growing, perhaps more in Europe right now, but I asked Michael how his approach to growth as a leader is setting Hygraph up for success.“It’s challenging economically, but we’re still growing at a good pace,” he said confidently. “We’ve built four strong pillars of growth: product-led strategy, a good sales team and quotient, the right ecosystem partners, and a commitment to customer success – so our customers buy again. It’s important to go the extra mile to make sure they implement successfully. Otherwise, after three or four months, it’s a safe churn.”<h2>Scotty, beam me up…</h2>Whether you’re a Star Trek fan or not (and really, who isn't?), you can’t argue its impact on pop culture. Content federation might be on a similar trajectory within the CMS industry as it evolves the composable landscape.  As Michael reflected on our conversation, he returned to that tipping point of opportunity and the importance of having a solid vision and a good story to pitch. “Innovation and differentiation are so important. If we hadn’t pivoted to GraphCMS, we wouldn’t be here. Everyone told me not to go fundraise for a Series B, but the whole process took 90 days to being at the notary and signing the round. A differentiated, unique story is incredibly important in that aspect.”I asked what’s ahead for Hygraph as 2023 warps toward a new year. I also inquired about AI, as peer platforms continue to add functionality to their toolsets.“We’re very focused on federation and larger releases, but what we see with a lot of vendors is that they’re wrapping ChatGPT around a UI plugin and giving you ChatGPT tools in their CMS. Is there a real value add? In reality, you can say you’re a CMS with AI capabilities, but you’re just copying and pasting from ChatGPT with better integration.”Michael suggested there are stronger use cases for AI in content management. For example, in the future, companies may be able to define schema and allow AI to build out the rest of an application – reducing the fail rate for software projects. There are clearly boundless opportunities for automation that still put users in control.As Hygraph continues to explore the DX galaxy under Michael's leadership, it’s clear that content federation is the prime directive. It’s the kind of innovation that could very well shape the next generation of content management and drive significant growth.I’m betting it will live long and prosper.

Content Management for a New Reality: A Conversation with Hygraph CEO Michael Lukaszczyk

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<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/">Acquia</a> – the digital experience platform built with open source <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a> at its core – continues to innovate around its award-winning digital asset management (DAM) capabilities.
Yesterday, it announced new enhancements have been added to its <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-dam">Acquia DAM</a> (formerly <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/">Widen</a>), empowering marketing and creative leaders to find and collaborate on digital assets faster.
The new capabilities – which revolve around search, sharing, and analytics – are slated to help marketing and creative teams maximize the value of their content investments across brands, regions, campaigns, and personas, even as budgets are squeezed. 
“Marketing and creative teams turn to DAM systems to rein in content chaos and gain insight into how their content performs, particularly across global brand portfolios,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Jennifer Griffin Smith</a>, Chief Market Officer at Acquia. “The new Acquia DAM updates empower teams to create, find, and share assets faster, giving them better control over revenue-generating digital marketing campaigns and the ability to ensure better brand consistency.” 
<h2>Giving marketers and creatives more DAM power </h2>
As Acquia outlined in its press release, marketing and creative teams are responsible for building and maintaining increasingly larger and more complex catalogs of digital assets. They need to be able to find assets quickly so they can get campaigns and products to market faster, understand which content performs best so they can use it again (or create more content like it), and drive brand consistency.
The new updates to Acquia DAM help customers rise to these challenges with:
<ul>
<li>Enhanced search experience: A redesigned search experience presents teams with more relevant results and filtering capabilities, enabling them to find the assets they need faster so they can launch campaigns and products faster. Redesigned cards on the search page display file naming conventions, making asset identification simpler and clearer.</li>
<li>More options for sharing assets: Teams can now share results for common searches to support better cross-team collaboration, so colleagues can see asset options in real time, regardless of their location. Users can copy and paste a link to search results, which includes search terms, sort, pagination, and filters applied. Also, new asset share links give the recipient the choice to pick the size and format they need.</li>
<li>Keyword and tag improvements: Teams can leverage tags for improved keyword search, making assets simpler to find. Entry of keywords now uses a familiar tag UI, with clickable tags on each asset, directing users to a search results page with all assets sharing the same tag. Admins retain editing control over these tags. This feature can help teams more efficiently manage very large collections of content assets.</li>
<li>Increased analytical insights: Acquia DAM analytics enhancements give teams faster access to asset usage and performance insights via an improved backend data pipeline. New asset insight charts provide more options to filter and group asset data. Asset insights now has API endpoints to connect with other marketing data in a data warehouse or business intelligence tool. This directly supports marketers who want to understand how content is being used and how well it’s performing so they can focus on the best-performing assets.</li>
</ul>
<h2>A modular, composable platform</h2>
Acquia DAM is available standalone or within Acquia DXP, and supports composable strategies through integrations with other Acquia and third-party marketing products. It is foundational to the industry’s only open digital experience platform, which brings together content and data to create world-class customer experiences. 
You can learn more about <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-dam">Acquia DAM,</a> view the new <a href="https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-dam-search">Acquia DAM search experience</a>, and explore how customers are using Acquia DAM – including <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/crayola">Crayola</a>, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/livewire">LiveWire</a>, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/novavax">Novavax</a>, and <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/san-francisco-international-airport">San Francisco International Airport</a> 
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that leverage their content and data assets to engage customers personally and at scale, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">https://acquia.com</a>.

Acquia DAM Bolsters Search, Share, and Analytics Capabilities

Is web design dead?
Countless articles, videos, and subreddits have pondered this question over the last few years, and for good reason. With the growth of canned templates, off-the-shelf themes, and pre-packaged options, web design can feel less… designed.
Despite this state of sameness, the web is still the central communications platform. At last check, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/website-statistics/#:~:text=There%20are%20about%201.13%20billion,are%20actively%20used%20and%20updated." target="_blank">71% of businesses</a> have a website, and there are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/website-statistics/#:~:text=There%20are%20about%201.13%20billion,are%20actively%20used%20and%20updated." target="_blank">1.13 billion sites</a> swarming the Internet. How can a brand stand out?
The answer is simple: they invest in beautiful, high-quality, custom digital experiences, the kinds that inspire visitors to engage, convert, and buy. And while a stunning UX can turn heads, the best sites put content first and utilize modern tech in profound ways.  
<a href="https://www.kentico.com/" target="_blank">Kentico</a>, a leading composable hybrid headless digital experience platform (DXP), has long been a champion of custom website design, highlighting the spirit of innovation through its exclusive “Site of Year” competition. The annual contest recognizes the most ambitious sites built with Kentico – and the 2022 winners were, in a word, breathtaking.
“The [Site of the Year] winners are clients and partners who succeed in delivering exceptional user experiences,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-xperience-pinter/" target="_blank">Dominik Pinter</a>, Kentico CEO. “Their websites or apps show excellence in creativity, innovation, content modeling, and the use of technology. The creators of the websites are experts in innovative thinking – creative people with a strong vision.”
According to Pinter, the winners and finalists went beyond attractive content and interactive features, leveraging Kentico’s full potential to improve productivity for marketers while providing a solution to future-proof their growth.  
While 2022 is in the rearview, many of the sites produced on Kentico continue to shine. We wanted to take a fresh look at the winners, dive deep into a few standouts, and share how these projects continue to challenge the status quo.
<h2>Celebrating innovation across industries</h2>
The “Site of the Year” competition solicits entries from any global partner or customer that built a website or app using <a href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/blog/kentico-xperience-13-is-here" target="_blank">Kentico Xperience 13</a> or the new <a href="https://www.kentico.com/platforms/xperience-by-kentico" target="_blank">Xperience by Kentico</a> – and launched it in 2022.
The competition covered ten industry categories: Entertainment and Hospitality, B2B, Commerce, Consumer Goods, Education and Careers, Healthcare, Financial Services, Government and Municipal, Industrial Manufacturing, and NGO and Associations.
Submissions were evaluated by a hand-picked committee of experts, who judged each entry on a range of criteria. All winners were then entered into a Community Choice competition, which was open to public voting.
While each category showcased its top pick, Kentico also included other finalists – which, in all cases, offered exceptional experiences. You can peruse every project in more detail by downloading this <a href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/resources/soty-2022-ebook" target="_blank">dynamite ebook</a>.
It was a tough call with so many great use cases, but these three really exemplify the quality and innovation in this year’s crop.
<h2>Pro Football Hall of Fame</h2>
As the Entertainment and Hospitality Industry winner and Community Choice Award recipient, the <a href="https://www.profootballhof.com/" target="_blank">Pro Football Hall of Fame</a> scores on every play.
Like a wide receiver scrambling downfield, this website is blazing fast. The mobile experience is elegant, app-like, and features intuitive navigation. From a visual perspective, the whole experience unfolds with gorgeous, energetic photography, reflecting the dynamic history and culture of American football.
For an organization that’s been around for over 100 years, making a bold digital statement reflects modern relevance. <a href="https://www.americaneagle.com/" target="_blank">Americaneagle.com</a> – the agency behind the site – did its homework to ensure a seamless, cohesive brand experience that celebrates the past while looking ahead. 
What we really love about the Pro Football Hall of Fame site are the interactive details. Visitors can search its rich database of athletes based on a series of filters, and each player’s page features a slick design that combines career performance stats with powerful imagery.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-sites-pro-football-hof-1024x655.jpg" alt="Kentico Site of the Year 2022 example of the Pro Football Hall of Fame with both desktop and mobile views" />In addition to an online store featuring an array of merchandise, fans can score tickets to the museum experience and plan their trip to the storied venue in Canton, Ohio. These enhancements have increased online transactions and foot traffic, making it a site that blends the past and the future – and one that earns its place in the digital experience hall of fame.  
<h2>Potten &amp; Pannen</h2>
For Czech-based <a href="https://www.pottenpannen.cz/" target="_blank">Potten &amp; Pannen</a>, the ingredients for a successful digital strategy called for more than the typical accoutrements. As an importer, distributor, and retailer of kitchen equipment, it needed a website that reflected its reputation for luxury and sophistication while scaling to meet the demands of online retail.
Everything about the new Potten &amp; Pannen site exudes elegance, from the wide-format hero images to the light and airy template. The product photos are bright and beautiful, and the text and graphics bring a distinctly European sensibility to the general gestalt. Superb.
One thing that really stands out from a UX perspective is the mobile experience. Elements are well-placed within the frame and highly clickable – and the use of white space helps the overall legibility on longer-form product pages, where images and details can get lengthy. The result: a more pleasing shopping experience and more conversions at the right points.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-sites-potten-pannen-1024x655.jpg" alt="Kentico Site of the Year 2022 example of Potten and Pannen with both desktop and mobile views" />The secret ingredient for Potten &amp; Pannen is baked behind the scenes, where the Cloud adds pizzaz. The company launched four e-Commerce websites to meet growing demand, and an auto-scaling strategy allows for dynamic resource allocation during peak periods.
<a href="https://www.bluesoft.cz/en/" target="_blank">Bluesoft</a>, the Kentico partner that brought the project to life, didn’t stop with scalability. The solution also tapped the power of artificial intelligence by leveraging Kentico’s integration with <a href="https://www.recombee.com/" target="_blank">Recombee</a> – an AI-powered recommender. This allowed the brand to serve more relevant recommendations for products.
With such rich innovation from frontend to backend, Potten &amp; Pannen brought real sizzle to the commerce category – and a great menu addition to the “Site of the Year.”
<h2>Suffolk Credit Union</h2>
Rounding out our picks in the financial services category is <a href="https://www.suffolkcu.org/" target="_blank">Suffolk Credit Union</a>, built by <a href="https://www.zaginteractive.com/" target="_blank">Zag Interactive</a>. It’s hard to ignore the innate challenges that any fintech application faces around security and trust, so we were immediately drawn to the use case.
What struck us about this project was the uniquely inviting design. The thoughtful approach to journey mapping in key customer areas like auto loans and mortgages makes the experience easy to navigate while supporting users at every step.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-sites-suffolk-credit-union-1024x589.jpg" alt="Kentico Site of the Year 2022 example of Suffolk Credit Union with both desktop and mobile views" />The large, legible text and high-contrast color scheme help this site stand out, but the visual choices also reflect a commitment to accessibility. Using brand elements from the logo icon (we especially like the “hello” emblem in the footer) makes the experience more cohesive.
This site “feels” impressive on all screens, but the magic doesn’t end there. Zag also focused on delivering trusted security to support Suffolk’s online banking – one of its most vital services. Along with improved SEO and other integrations, technology helped enhance the experience.
Many financial websites rely on predictable stock images and tired templates to build their digital brand. But Suffolk has bucked the trend with an inspired design you can bank on.
<h2>Good design is never a commodity</h2>
After reviewing the 2022 “Site of the Year” winners, it’s abundantly clear that unique, high-quality web design continues to thrive. To bring custom ideas to life, web agencies and brands leverage Kentico’s complete range of DXP capabilities – from its customizable CMS to its breadth of marketing capabilities and integrations.
Boasting a network of <a href="https://www.kentico.com/partners/find-a-partner" target="_blank">1,000 digital agencies</a> globally, Kentico’s partners are a critical factor in the success of these projects. Their expertise delivers beautiful UX with secure and scalable performance while utilizing Kentico’s industry-leading features. Partners also receive technical support, training, and certifications that help ensure quality implementations.
As an annual event, we can anticipate the 2023 call for entries before the end of this year. And if the use cases are anything like 2022, we’re preparing to be blown away.

Kentico ‘Site of the Year’ Competition Proves Custom Web Design is Alive – and Thriving

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<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a> – a leading composable content platform for digital-first businesses – recently announced that its <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=844066638&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.sap.com%2Fdcp%2Fen%2Fproduct%2Fdisplay-0000061320_live_v1&amp;a=Contentful+Composable+Content+Platform" target="_blank">Contentful Composable Content Platform</a> for SAP Commerce Cloud is now an <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sap-drops-8-billion-to-buy-qualtrics/">SAP</a> Endorsed App. 
With Contentful’s Composable Content Platform, SAP customers can easily transition to a modern composable content approach without having to re-platform. Marketing and content teams can also make changes in minutes rather than days, leading to faster commerce experiences that increase conversions and profit. 
SAP Endorsed Apps are a category of solutions from SAP's partner ecosystem that help customers become best-run, intelligent enterprises. Endorsed apps are meant to deliver value with desired outcomes.
In its press release, the company stated that the app is now available online on the <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=829085887&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.sap.com%2F&amp;a=SAP" target="_blank">SAP</a><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=756995666&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.sap.com%2F&amp;a=%C2%A0Store" target="_blank"> Store</a>.
<h2>Composing the perfect partnership</h2>
Contentful's app endorsement builds on the Contentful/SAP partnership, which was <a href="https://martech.org/sap-moves-to-a-composable-commerce-offering/" target="_blank">announced in March</a> of this year. Contentful was selected as the content management partner for <a href="https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_COMMERCE_COMPOSABLE_STOREFRONT" target="_blank">SAP’s Composable Commerce Cloud</a>, allowing customers to build commerce experiences that best suit their individual needs easily.
"We are thrilled to bring the power of a modern, composable content platform to businesses that use SAP Commerce Cloud through our SAP Endorsed App," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sloan-213515/" target="_blank">Steve Sloan</a>, CEO of Contentful. "This is a natural next step in Contentful's partnership with SAP, and we look forward to empowering customers to create lightning-fast commerce experiences on any channel to help increase sales and maximize their investment in SAP Commerce Cloud."
<h2>Joining a premium portfolio of SAP Endorsed Apps </h2>
SAP Endorsed Apps are premium certified by SAP with added security, in-depth testing, and measurements against benchmark results. With Contentstack, customers can now maximize their SAP Commerce investments by building a rich, integrated set of customer experiences without a costly re-platform, driving incremental revenue, and building customer loyalty through consistent, personalized content across the entire marketing and transaction experience.
"Ecosystem innovations are essential to SAP's vision and delivery of the intelligent enterprise for SAP customers," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrylwgray/" target="_blank">Darryl Gray</a>, Global Vice President, Software Partner Solution Monetization &amp; Success at SAP. "We applaud Contentful on achieving SAP-endorsed app status for its composable content solution for SAP Commerce Cloud. Partners like Contentful are positioned to help us deliver a cloud-first strategy with integrated innovations, proven to provide value while solving key business challenges."
The Contentful Composable Content Platform is available for digital discovery and purchase on SAP Store – the digital marketplace for solutions from SAP and its partners. SAP Store provides customers with real-time access to more than 2,000 innovative solutions from SAP and partner solutions that complement and extend their SAP applications, enabling digital transformation of their business.
For more information about Contentful's partnership with SAP, visit <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=4167297217&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.contentful.com%2Fpartners%2Ftechnology%2Fsap%2F&amp;a=www.contentful.com%2Fpartners%2Ftechnology%2Fsap%2F" target="_blank">www.contentful.com/partners/technology/sap/</a>.
<h2>About Contentful</h2>
The Contentful Composable Content Platform brings the building blocks of content together to create once and reuse for any digital experience. The API-first platform integrates easily with data sources and new functionality as digital experiences and technology evolve. With built-in orchestration, a robust app ecosystem, and app framework to easily extend the platform, Contentful frees teams across the business to work together to connect, create, and extend content more efficiently. Contentful helps companies unlock the power of digital content so they can build faster and deliver at scale, making their content a strategic business asset. Nearly 30% of the Fortune 500 and thousands of companies worldwide rely on Contentful to help them bring their best ideas to life.

Contentful Composable Content Platform for SAP Commerce Cloud Now an SAP Endorsed App

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This week, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Acquia</a> announced that its open digital experience platform, Acquia DXP, has been positioned by <a href="https://aragonresearch.com/" target="_blank">Aragon Research</a>, Inc. as a Leader in The Aragon Research Globe™ for Content Experience Platforms (CXP), 2023.
Aragon Research analysts evaluated 17 providers of content experience platforms. These platforms enable enterprises to shift web experiences to intelligent, dynamic journeys that can be delivered on any device and to personalize them with tools such as <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-chatbots-to-contentops-how-ai-is-coming-to-your-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/">generative AI</a> and chat.
Providers were ranked based on strategy, performance, and reach. 
“We believe being positioned as a Leader in The Aragon Research Globe for Content Experience Platform, 2023 highlights the strength of our capabilities in areas such as AI, low-code development, and support for experiences across all digital channels,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Jennifer Griffin Smith</a>, Chief Market Officer at Acquia. “By endeavoring to provide the industry’s most open DXP, we enable marketers to leverage all of their content and customer data to create high-impact experiences — faster, more cost-effectively, and while maintaining brand consistency.” 
To access the full report, <a href="https://aragonresearch.com/globe-for-content-experience-platforms-2023/" target="_blank">click here</a>.
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that leverage their content and data assets to engage customers personally and at scale, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">https://acquia.com</a>.
<h2>About Aragon Research</h2>
Aragon Research is an independent research and advisory firm that provides business and IT executives with the actionable insights they need to navigate technology's ever-evolving impact on business. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, CA, Aragon Research works with executives at every major level of the business and across industries to give them the tools they need to make more informed technology and strategy decisions. Aragon delivers high-impact advisory, research, and consulting services, and has a proven team of veteran analysts. For more information, visit <a href="https://aragonresearch.com/" target="_blank">www.aragonresearch.com</a>.
Aragon Research does not endorse vendors, or their products or services that are referenced in its research publications, and does not advise users to select those vendors that are rated the highest. Aragon Research publications consist of the opinions of Aragon Research and Advisory Services organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Aragon Research provides its research publications and the information contained in them "AS IS," without warranty of any kind.
“The Aragon Research Globe™ for Content Experience Platforms, 2023” by Jim Lundy, July 2023. © 2023 Aragon Research, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Acquia Positioned as a Leader in The Aragon Research Globe for Content Experience Platforms (CXP), 2023

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In recent years, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/">headless commerce</a> – or the separation of the frontend and backend of an application – has emerged to offer e-commerce sites greater freedom of expression and the ability to enrich the customer experience. In spite of these advantages, maintaining a headless architecture comes with several challenges, including the need for additional resources to keep content and features updated and the risks of decreased site speed and increased security vulnerabilities. And, of course, there are additional costs for building infrastructure and testing.So you need to ask: is going headless the right move for your organization? The alternative (supposedly) is to stick with the more traditional, all-in-one, "monolithic" platform approach. One key benefit of doing so is the built-in frontend that makes it easy for non-technical users to launch an online storefront quickly.However, monolithic systems can lock an e-commerce company into one vendor’s pre-existing development environment and limit its developers to the most common use cases. In sum, the monolithic approach tends to work better for new businesses that wish to get a website launched quickly. But, our experience is that it’s not long before these businesses begin to feel restricted by their platform’s templates and tools. <h2>Are You Really Ready?</h2>Making the decision to jump to a headless architecture can be scary. Migrating an entire frontend is hard, and more often than not you’ll also choose to migrate the backend, and it will most likely take longer than planned. Moreover, e-commerce organizations get absolutely none of the headless benefits until the migration is completed.Under this scenario, the existing site is kept on life support for the months or years the development team is focused on building the new headless frontend. And even if a development team hits all its key project dates and goes live, it’s still hard. There may still be many capabilities and features that can’t be included in that initial launch, which leaves the newly created frontend in catch-up mode.<h2>You Can Go Halfway</h2>The good news is that going headless does not have to be all or nothing. It’s possible to achieve many of the benefits of going headless without taking the full plunge.  Here’s how:<ul><li>Don’t take on more than you can handle. Especially in the current market, where every second counts and organizations likely have fewer engineers than they did last year, expecting a resource-strapped development team to rebuild an entire frontend is unrealistic, and would likely take too much time and upfront investment.</li><li>Implement a supplemental strategy where, instead of replacing a monolithic frontend in one big project, the organization chooses one critical headless capability at a time to add to the frontend. For instance, instead of replacing the whole site, e-commerce marketers could replace an element in product pages that isn't helping shoppers convert to buyers. This cumulative approach focuses the team on achieving meaningful short-term milestones. In this way, an e-commerce organization can continuously add new capabilities and progressively evolve from a monolithic system until the entire backend is segmented into microservices or different best-of-breed vendors. This approach also means that business value will be delivered throughout the migration.</li><li>Consider dedicated frontend composition platforms that implement additive strategies while allowing all business users - including developers, marketers, and designers - to help bring new functionality to the site. This can help overstretched development teams avoid becoming a bottleneck so the broader organization can deliver new experiences to the existing site more quickly. Reducing handoffs and eliminating the build step enables quicker content creation, which allows for more experimentation and, ultimately, a faster path to optimization and revenue-driving conversion improvements.</li></ul><h2>Open the Doors to Experimentation</h2>Let’s look at a common scenario. If an organization’s team does a quick analysis of its product pages and evaluates where the most underutilized real estate is on those pages, they will be able to translate that deficit into an opportunity and make that real estate more effective. For example, on many product pages, there are large swaths of whitespace and then a related product carousel tucked down at the bottom of the page where customers rarely venture. In this case, moving those related products up on the page is a good way to drive up average order value.In addition, the organization can choose to take it a step further and turn that related products carousel into a "build a bundle" offer where shoppers can attach three additional items to purchase all at once - with just one click. Ultimately, the organization can quickly and easily test anything - including the page layout and adaptive experience options, without needing weeks of lead time for planning and development. It's all about picking one’s opportunities and providing the desired experience built with the technology that gets you the shortest time to value and responsibly balances business success.The decision to go headless (or not) certainly does not need to be an all-or-nothing event. It’s possible to go halfway or to dip your toes in just a little bit. Don’t try to do everything at once; instead, focus on doing a little at a time, and take advantage of new design tools that unleash frontend creativity and agility while transitioning to your ideal e-commerce stack at a gradual pace.<hr /><a href="/critics/ryan-breen">Ryan Breen</a> is Chief Technology Officer at Zmags and a CMS Critic contributor.

Dipping Your Toes into the Headless Waters - Why Jumping Into the Deep End May Not Be the Best Bet

ryan-breen

Getting to the top level is what <a href="http://www.hygraph.com/" target="_blank">Hygraph</a> does best. 
Today, the next-generation headless CMS announced a major update to its enterprise-grade federated content platform by introducing <a href="https://hygraph.com/blog/introducing-top-level-remote-fields" target="_blank">top-level remote fields.</a>
The new capability is a significant part of Hygraph’s overall <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/why-content-federation-represents-the-next-evolution-of-the-cms/">federated content vision</a> to power a many-to-many relationship between content sources and devices as organizations look to create new digital services and business models at scale.
“Top-level remote fields empower enterprises to unify distributed content from across multiple systems, to deliver to any destination and without duplication,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/michael-lukaszczyk/">Michael Lukaszczyk</a>, CEO and Co-Founder, Hygraph. “For example, in the context of e-commerce, organizations can now fetch data from their commerce, digital asset management, and CRM systems from Hygraph’s content API in one single query. This promises to be a real game changer.”
<h2>Evolving the headless CMS landscape</h2>
Hygraph’s federated content platform allows organizations to innovate faster and at lower cost, replacing tedious custom software development associated with many of today’s headless Content Management Systems (CMS).
With the recent proliferation of composable architectures, federated content enables enterprises to seamlessly develop and run content-rich features. Top-level remote fields further enable the advantages by streamlining and modernizing content connections. Rather than making multiple API calls to different systems, top-level federation capabilities allow users to fetch all content and data from a single Hygraph GraphQL endpoint.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/top-level-remote-fields-press-release-image-1024x576.png" alt="Diagram of Hygraph top-level remote fields capability" />
Consider an e-commerce use case where you might want to fetch product data from your commerce system (e.g., <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-shopify-invests-in-sanity-dotcms-updates-content-authoring-experience-wp-engine-acquires-plugins-and-more/">Shopify</a>), digital assets from your DAM (e.g., <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-acquia-gets-feature-boosts-cloudinary-and-contentful-partner-big-acquisition-updates-and-more/">Cloudinary</a>), and rich content stored in Hygraph. You can now fetch all this data from Hygraph's content API in one query.
The key benefits of the new top-level remote fields capability include:
<ul>
<li>Simplified tech stack: All frontend applications query data from one universal Hygraph API.</li>
<li>Ease of management: All backend APIs are managed in one place.</li>
<li>Simplified authentication and authorization: One API simplifies the authentication and authorizing front-end applications.</li>
<li>Quicker application integration: Low-code tools eliminate the need to write and maintain middleware code to stitch multiple systems together.</li>
<li>Improved content integrity: Eliminate duplicates and ensure that changes are consistently reflected across all front-end applications using the data.</li>
<li>Enhanced performance: Querying content from a single API and Hygraph’s advanced caching capabilities allow for high-performance content distribution.</li>
</ul>
“Organizations are currently unable to unlock full value from their content, as custom software and integration challenges slow the creation of new digital services at scale," added Lukaszczyk. "Top-level remote fields capabilities represent a powerful next step for enterprises to dramatically streamline and modernize content connections and drive the next generation of customer experiences."
For more information on top-level remote fields, visit <a href="https://hygraph.com/blog/introducing-top-level-remote-fields" target="_blank">Hygraph's website.</a>
<h2>About Hygraph</h2>
Hygraph (formerly GraphCMS) is the enterprise-grade federated content platform that enables content and engineering teams to rapidly build and deliver tomorrow’s connected digital experiences at scale. As the next generation of CMS, Hygraph powers a many-to-many relationship between different content sources and devices. Hygraph’s modern API approach allows organizations to innovate faster and at lower cost, whether building content-rich applications or managing large product catalogs or internal knowledge management systems. Hygraph is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and works with 400+ customers globally, including Dr. Oetker, Shure, Samsung, and Philips.

Hygraph Introduces Major Update to Federated Content Platform with Top-Level Remote Fields

It's "wheels up" this week for <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/?utm_source=prnewswire&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=2021_07_bigcommerce_press_release">Contentstack</a><a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/">,</a> a composable Digital Experience Platform (DXP) provider.
The company just announced that it has been selected by European airline group <a href="https://www.airfranceklm.com/en" target="_blank">Air France-KLM</a> to support its new digital transformation initiative: a composable solution that aims to provide seamless and curated omnichannel experiences to its customers worldwide.
According to the press release, Air France-KLM sought a composable DXP that could be integrated with its existing technology stack – specifically with a new CMS.
Contentstack was selected for its expertise in composable architecture and its easy-to-use interface. Along with its headless CMS, the platform offers a range of capabilities, all of which align with the composable principles of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH</a> (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless).
“For enterprises like Air France-KLM, speed and agility are critical to efficiently managing content processes as well as customer demand,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramonweterings/" target="_blank">Ramon Weterings</a>, VP Sales EMEA at Contentstack. “By harvesting the power of composable, headless technology, Air France-KLM is now better equipped to adapt to change without having to compromise on quality. In partnership with Contentstack, they’re able to continue delivering superior digital experiences while benefiting from rapid, agile, and reliable internal workflows. Our goal is to help our partners set up for success and we’re excited to be working with Air France-KLM on their composable adoption.”
The partnership will enable Air France-KLM to benefit from a more agile journey while working with Contentstack to improve and update its technology capabilities.     
<h2>Taking flight with composable </h2>
Contentstack will be part of a composable digital strategy that empowers Air France-KLM to create seamless and personalized customer journeys, with streamlined publishing processes for e-commerce developers, content creators, and SEO specialists.
Contentstack’s extensive API library will also allow applications to be easily integrated into the Air France-KLM technology ecosystem while offering the agility required to support growth channels and adapt to changing customer needs.
“Whether it’s onboard our aircraft or on our digital touchpoints, we aim to offer unique experiences to our customers," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorousset/" target="_blank">Hugo Rousset</a>, VP Digital Products &amp; Services at Air France-KLM. "We needed a solution that allows us to get ahead of customer needs, providing them a personalized user journey. Migrating to Contentstack contributes to delivering more consistent content across all our touchpoints and all markets. At the same time, it enables us to integrate our existing tech stack and adapt quickly to the changing landscape.”
Contentstack is being implemented to integrate with Air France-KLM’s consumer websites, powering the next generation of digital experiences, with additional websites to follow later this year.
<h2>About Contentstack</h2>
<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/?utm_source=prnewswire&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=2019_06_19_contentstack_comes_to_europe">Contentstack</a> – the leading composable digital experience platform (DXP) provider – empowers marketers and developers to deliver digital experiences at the speed of their imagination. Companies such as ASICS, Chase, Express, Holiday Inn, Icelandair, Mattel, McDonald's, Mitsubishi, Riot Games, and Shell trust Contentstack to power their most critical content experiences with uncompromising scale and dependability. Famous for its Care without Compromise™, Contentstack has achieved the industry's highest customer satisfaction rating. Contentstack is also a founding member of the MACH Alliance, setting the industry agenda for open and composable technology that is Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. Learn more at <a href="http://www.contentstack.com">http://www.contentstack.com</a>.

Contentstack Selected by Air France-KLM to Support Composable Digital Experience Transformation

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Europe's <a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act" target="_blank">Cyber Resilience Act</a> (CRA) has been a lightning rod of hope and controversy for some time. The proposal, which would regulate cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, is meant to bolster rules for hardware and software and help enhance security in a world of evolving threats.
The CRA legislation targets a broad array of categories, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, computers, smartphones, and applications – and institutes a range of new requirements for manufacturers to improve their product security. 
At the same time, the CRA has been viewed by some as a <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/eus-proposed-cyber-resilience-act-raises-concerns-open-source-and-cybersecurity" target="_blank">threat to open source software</a>, which has enabled innovation and fueled the growth of the modern internet. Open source projects like <a href="https://kernel.org/" target="_blank">Linux</a> and <a href="https://www.apache.org/" target="_blank">Apache</a> are used freely and integrated into a bevy of products, where they power digital services for billions of users across the globe. 
Given these concerns, representatives from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-do-industry-experts-expect-for-the-drupal-10-launch-heres-what-they-told-us/">Drupal</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/joomla-cms-turns-16-celebrates-with-long-awaited-release-of-version-4-0/">Joomla</a>, <a href="https://typo3.org/" target="_blank">TYPO3</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/">WordPress</a> communities have banded together to address EU legislators amid the ongoing CRA amendments process. This week, the consortium penned an open letter highlighting the possible impacts of the CRA on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software" target="_blank">Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)</a> Content Management Systems (CMS).
Combined, these four CMSes power more than half of all websites around the world and play a critical role in driving a competitive European economy and enabling cross-border collaboration.
<h2>What are the concerns for open source CMS under the CRA?</h2>
One of the core issues with the CRA deals with proposed liabilities for commercial activity that results in security vulnerabilities. This would impact open source developers who solicit support or donations, making them responsible for damages due to a security issue even if they didn't produce the product itself. Such costs could put an unfair burden on smaller shops and individual developers that can't afford the operational and administrative costs to meet these requirements. 
There's also chatter about the risks involved with a proposed 24-hour reporting mandate for disclosing actively exploited vulnerabilities – which may, ironically, result in more threats from heightened visibility and inadequate remediations. 
It goes without saying that open source content management systems have profoundly impacted the evolution of digital experiences. WordPress – the most popular in the field – powers roughly 810 million websites globally, representing <a href="https://kinsta.com/wordpress-market-share/" target="_blank">43% of the overall category</a>. CRA could irrevocably change how open source CMS platforms are used in Europe, sending a ripple effect across the software industry with myriad consequences.  
<h2>Open source matters in the CMS market</h2>
To be fair, the CRA isn't being demonized by this consortium of open source projects. As advocates for enhanced security in European hardware and software, <a href="https://www.opensourcematters.org/" target="_blank">Open Source Matters</a> (a non-profit supporting Joomla) and the FOSS CMS communities behind this letter commend the legislative goals of the CRA. However, there are concerns regarding the potential negative impact of the proposed regulations on FOSS development and innovation within the EU.
"Individuals, SMEs, and institutions will be hampered either by enormous administrative burdens or a chilling effect on their activities (and a potential rush towards the American Tech Giants) for fear of risking penalties under the CRA. [...]", the letter states. "As mentioned by many other commenters...large and enterprise-class businesses may be the only ones able to profitably sustain the administrative burden of CRA compliance, quelling EU innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic livelihoods."
The letter proposes solutions to ensure continued success and alignment with the EU's goals. This includes clarifying the CRA’s exemption for FOSS and supporting users’ rights and freedoms. The letter also emphasizes the alignment of FOSS with EU core values – including human dignity, freedom, democracy, and equality.
<h2>Meeting with stakeholders to voice concerns </h2>
The proposed CRA regulation joins a platform of digital governance that the EU is spearheading. This includes the <a href="https://www.hrpo.pitt.edu/european-union-eu-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr#:~:text=The%20General%20Data%20Protection%20Regulation,of%20individuals%20in%20the%20EEA." target="_blank">General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)</a>, which was adopted in 2016 to provide a strong data privacy framework for European citizens.
GDPR was fully enacted in 2018, and has vigilantly handed down fines to entities small and large. The CRA is following a similar track, giving the EU's cybersecurity agency real teeth to enforce policies as part of its new charter. 
Open Source Matters and the <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/tag/inter-cms-working-group" target="_blank">Inter-CMS Working Group</a> (ICWG) have invited EU Commission members and other stakeholders to participate in a seminar in Brussels early this fall, fostering a collaborative dialogue to address the concerns raised. The seminar presents a cooperative motion from the coalition of open source communities, with the hope that friendly dialogue and collaboration might yield changes to the proposed legislation. 
The letter was signed by:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-dionysopoulos/" target="_blank">Crystal Dionysopoulos</a> – President, <a href="https://opensourcematters.org/" target="_blank">Open Source Matters, Inc</a>. (Joomla)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephahaden/" target="_blank">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a> – Executive Director, <a href="https://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">WordPress Project</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierdobberkau/" target="_blank">Olivier Dobberkau</a> – President, <a href="https://typo3.org/project/association/" target="_blank">TYPO3 Association</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/timdoylempa/" target="_blank">Tim Doyle</a> – CEO, <a href="https://www.drupal.org/association" target="_blank">Drupal Association</a></li>
</ul>
As events unfold, more information about the debate and the proposed seminar will be shared.
To read or download the full open letter, visit <a href="https://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5891-open-letter-foss-cms-cyber-resilience-act.html">https://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5891-open-letter-foss-cms-cyber-resilience-act.html</a>
<h2>About Open Source Matters</h2>
Open Source Matters (OSM) is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes the Joomla! open-source project. Its mission is to empower and unite a global community of Joomla users and contributors to cultivate and sustain an innovative and reliable content management system. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.opensourcematters.org/">www.opensourcematters.org</a>.
<h2>About Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress</h2>
Drupal, Joomla,  TYPO3, and WordPress are leading open-source Content Management Systems (CMS) that have significantly impacted the digital landscape. Each platform boasts its unique approach to web content management, catering to diverse user needs. Despite their different approaches to building websites, they share common values, emphasizing collaboration, accessibility, and community-driven development. Together, their collective strength fosters innovation and empowers website creators worldwide.

Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress Address EU with Concerns over Cyber Resilience Act

Highlights:
<ul>
<li>Christine Masters is driving product management for Contentstack's AI roadmap</li>
<li>The company's new AI Assistant offers generative content capabilities powered by ChatGPT</li>
<li>Contentstack’s AI approach is helping to mitigate concerns like data privacy</li>
<li>The combination of AI Assistant and Automation Hub delivers unique advantages</li>
</ul>
<hr />
 
Artificial Intelligence has long been a popular trope in the sci-fi genre. Most of us could rattle off a string of films about machines gone amuck, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ex Machina.
The stories are almost always identical: Humans create AI. The world marvels at its promise. People check out. AI becomes self-aware and decides humans need to be exterminated. Epic battles ensue.
And it’s all downhill from there.
While advancements in real-world AI have been profound, they’re a far cry from the popcorn pop-culture dystopias we see in the movies. Sure, there’s trepidation, but no threat of total machine domination (we hope). And AI models like <a href="https://openai.com/chatgpt" target="_blank">ChatGPT</a> – which has captured the moment's zeitgeist – are already proving their value in multiple use cases. 
Generally speaking, the AI features being added to CMS platforms show promise, not peril. At the same time, they’re fraught with challenges – and if there’s one Schwarzenegger-level threat suffering from a bit of time dilation, it might be the customer experience. Compounded by pressure to seize the opportunity and a need to remain in competitive lockstep, many AI features have been rushed to market at hyperbolic speed.
But what makes them different? And are they really delivering value? That depends a lot on how a user creates content in a CMS.
When I was in Europe last month, I met with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehasampat/" target="_blank">Neha Sampat</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/conoregan/" target="_blank">Conor Egan</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/susancbeermann/" target="_blank">Susan Beerman</a> – the leadership team at Contentstack. One of the discussion topics was Contentstack's new AI Assistant, which I had previewed and found quite compelling. I wanted to dive deeper, so they sent me to the source: Senior Product Manager <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/masters/" target="_blank">Christine Masters</a>.
Christine’s bailiwick is Emerging Products, where she’s working on the front line of innovation. Her months-long mission to launch Contentstack’s new AI features has yielded dynamite results, and she gave me a guided tour. We also talked about the big challenges the market is wrestling with, and how Contentstack's approach to generative AI – from content to code – is supercharging their composable DXP.
<h2>Mastering product management</h2>
Christine joined me on Zoom from her home in Iowa – an easterly track from her California roots, but a more temperate 80 degrees on an otherwise sweltering summer day.
“I remember 119 degrees,” she reminisced. It’s worth noting that the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/californias-death-valley-sizzles-near-record-temperatures-as-brutal-heat-wave-continues#:~:text=The%20hottest%20temperature%20ever%20recorded,as%20keeper%20of%20world%20records." target="_blank">record in Death Valley</a> is 134, which makes 80 sound downright cool.
And cool is precisely the right word for Christine. She's easygoing, confident, and genuinely passionate about her work. From an experience perspective, she's a fluent industry stalwart that’s seen the evolution of content into the digital realm, starting in print at a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana – where she used tools like QuarkXPress.
After operational roles in media, she managed CMS platforms at BLOX Digital, focusing on digital transformation for media applications in cloud and SaaS. She later became a senior director of core platforms, where she conducted focus groups to help build better CMS experiences.
Coming from a more traditional monolithic CMS background, Christine brings an unmatched perspective to her work in Emerging Products, specifically with Contentstack’s new AI features. The company <a href="https://demandgenreport.com/features/news-briefs/contentstack-adds-openai-chatgpt-integration-to-its-platform" target="_blank">announced</a> its ChatGPT integration in late March, relatively early in the hype cycle.
The new AI initiative was ambitious, enabling in-line user extensions that assist in creating brand-specific content in seconds. The stated capabilities were simple but powerful: editors would be able to quickly publish summaries, outlines, metadata descriptions, keyword-optimized blogs, and more – all by using prompts. But that was just the beginning.
In April, Contentstack <a href="https://community.contentstack.com/podcast-media-and-more-81/introducing-contentstack-live-383" target="_blank">hosted a webinar</a> introducing its ChatGPT connector and the future of AI-driven composability. The messaging established that the company sees AI and automation technologies touching virtually all facets of the digital experience stack – transforming content creation, code development, and asset creation.
Quite a charter, and one that will keep Christine busy for some time to come.
<h2>Understanding customer concerns with AI </h2>
Death by PowerPoint is a common fatality in the tech world, but Christine offered a single yet poignant slide before diving into the demo – one that crystallized the key challenges most companies face when considering AI. This educational entry point has become common for her.
“We’ve had a ton of interest, but a lot of concerns as well,” she said. “Many companies are asking, what should we be doing with AI? I’ve been on maybe 30 or 40 calls not just consulting, but talking and listening to their concerns. Some people are much more AI-friendly, and some are very nervous. There’s kind of this fear that when we let ChatGPT in, it’s going to suck up all our data to learn things and use it elsewhere, even with my competition.”
It’s a real concern – and one I’ve heard repeatedly from platforms and users. Will my company’s proprietary content become fodder for the training model? Or will <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/23/chatgpt" target="_blank">another bug</a> allow my competitors to see my chat sessions?  
I asked Christine how Contentstack is assuaging these fears. She quickly pointed out that their new service taps the ChatGPT API, but none of the data is being trained by the broader model. Additionally, only prompt data is stored for troubleshooting purposes and cleared out after 30 days. All of these tactics meet <a href="https://gdpr.eu/" target="_blank">GDPR compliance</a>, providing greater assurance around data privacy.
<hr />
<h4>"You need to make sure you have humans at the right step, particularly if it’s content created from scratch."</h4>
<hr />
That said, OpenAI has become a powerhouse tech company with more than 100 million users, making it a prime target for hacking. Last month, <a href="https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-stolen-accounts-passwords-dark-web" target="_blank">Group-IB reported</a> that thousands of ChatGPT login credentials were leaked to the Dark Web, forcing Google and other companies to warn employees not to add sensitive information to the large language model. Contentstack addresses some of these risks with a combination of optimization and policy.
Accuracy is another blocker, and ChatGPT’s well-documented <a href="https://www.securityweek.com/chatgpt-hallucinations-can-be-exploited-to-distribute-malicious-code-packages/#:~:text=The%20issue%20is%20related%20to,information%20that%20may%20look%20plausible." target="_blank">hallucinations</a> have caused significant challenges to trust. “Sometimes it sounds very convincing, but it’s a total lie,” Christine added. “You need to make sure you have humans at the right step, particularly if it’s content created from scratch.”
Given this, Christine focuses on the use cases where ChatGPT excels, such as creating short summaries from longer-form content or extracting keywords. “We’ve been doing things like this for years now, so it’s become table stakes,” she said, noting that AWS has been making AI scalable for quite some time with products like <a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/managedservices/latest/userguide/rekognition.html" target="_blank">Amazon Rekognition</a>.  
But what is novel are the prompts being used to simplify and execute – and how Contentstack is harnessing its automation capabilities to streamline AI at exactly the right places in the content creation experience.
“That’s where we’re coming from with these products,” she punctuated.
<h2>Conjuring content with AI Assistant </h2>
Contentstack’s ChatGPT integration has two main products it intersects with: AI Assistant and Automation Hub. The combination of the two provides a unique ecosystem of capabilities that enriches the generative creation of content and the automation and streamlining of its entire AI workflow.  
As Christine pointed out, an important distinction with the AI Assistant is its nature as an app in Contentstack’s composable ecosystem. I knew other platforms had instrumented their AI with a more coupled architecture, so I asked her to elaborate on the advantages.
“One really great thing about our CMS is the extensibility,” she explained. “You can build your own apps and modules to extend the capabilities through a marketplace approach. With monolithic CMS platforms, you might keep adding features – but after ten years, it gets bloated and filled with toggles. By extending CMS through apps, you can keep it agile and lean.”
With the AI Assistant being an app, Christine began her demo in the most logical place: the installation process. This is critical, as users can choose to connect ChatGPT using their own API keys, or use Contentstack – which is free. In either case, the whole piece is painless.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/contentstack-screen-installation-1024x727.jpg" alt="Contentstack screen showing the installation process" />
Inside the tool, there are lots of pre-configured features that allow you to build prompts for almost anything. You can add a pre-defined set of icons that conform with your brand standards or build custom prompts aligned with your organization’s content style. (Sidenote: <a href="https://learnprompting.org/" target="_blank">prompt engineering courses</a> have now emerged to help assist users with this new skill. Go figure.)
In Contentstack’s AI, the prompts can get very granular. For example, a customer can enter explicit instructions like when to use associated trademarks or which competitor should never be mentioned. 
From a UI perspective, the AI Assistant “lives” where the content writer creates new entries, enhancing the experience without disrupting the editorial flow. The whole experience is lightweight and elegant, and reflects thoughtful analysis of where the elements should co-exist. Users can interface with the tool via custom actions already configured for spelling and grammar, then add functions to write summaries, extract keywords, and even provide translations. 
As Christine pointed out, writers and editors aren’t typically creating content from scratch with AI. In most cases, they use it to augment their writing in different ways.
“As a quick example, let’s say I want to write a blog post about something,” she said. “You can use our pre-built Idea Generator to create ideas and use custom prompts to be in the tone and voice of your brand. Most of the time, writers want ideas and outlines, so they have more control.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/contentstack-screen-ai-ideas-1-1024x747.jpg" alt="Contentstack screen showing the AI idea prompt." />
From a success standpoint, Christine offered some experience-based advice about prompting, explaining how the assistant can produce better and more accurate results when properly fed. This includes prompt curation around overused terms that might seem cliché or incompatible with a brand’s voice.
“You might tell ChatGPT to ‘make it more exciting’ and it returns words and phrases like ‘trailblazing’ or ‘revolutionary.’ Everything can start to sound the same. ‘In the realm of digital experiences’ is another example that you see out there. These would be my guidelines for what not to use.”
Looking at the prompt capabilities, I asked if there was a plan to make the customizations more repeatable and sharable. Christine said that’s on the roadmap – along with other features.
“We really want to make sure that we’re providing something very useful for our customers they can actually use.”
<h2>Adding some magic with Automation Hub</h2>
The 1-2 punch of Contentstack’s AI offering is the unique combo of AI Assistant and <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/automation-hub/?creative=650999267431&amp;keyword=contentstack%20automation%20hub&amp;matchtype=p&amp;network=g&amp;device=c&amp;campaign=19810684522&amp;adgroup=146523337843&amp;placement=&amp;utm_campaign=fy24-glob-dg-automation-hub-us-ca&amp;utm_medium=paid-search&amp;utm_source=google&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwwvilBhCFARIsADvYi7L-bNoQPTRPXR4ba5lah7uPBz6xovMlmKayTKrMh-G4nO9xaoVQ8XUaAuRDEALw_wcB" target="_blank">Automation Hub</a>.
If you’re unfamiliar with the service, it’s an existing feature of the Contentstack DXP that delivers an easy, no-code solution for streamlining business processes. It starts with a trigger or action and allows you to define a specific workflow using a graphical interface – which is incredibly lithe and intuitive. The tool is designed to help simplify the complexity of integrations and automate routine tasks. 
“Now [with Automation Hub], you can build up a series of automated steps with the ChatGPT connector, which brings in an automatic prompt trainer,” Christine described. “It’s a webhook with a trigger – like publishing a new article – and you build steps afterward that are API calls or snippets of code performing functionality.”
According to Christine, Automation Hub is ideal for applications like translations, where ChatGPT can be automatically tapped to return languages based on specific fields and requirements. ChatGPT does a decent job with translations, and there’s already broad market trust with third-party tools like <a href="https://www.weglot.com/" target="_blank">Weglot</a> that leverage AI.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/contentstack-screen-translation-1024x749.jpg" alt="Contentstack screen showing translation with ChatGPT and Slack connector." />
In just a few minutes, she demonstrated how simple it is to activate the "ChatGPT for Translation" automation in the UI and configure both the connector and the associated actions. Once the translation was completed, we even added a step with Slack, automatically letting team members know the task was completed. Pretty slick. 
“Summaries, keywords, translations – if you do something a hundred times over and you never have to change it, this can take the place of people. But you always want a human in the loop knowing what’s going on.”
In an upcoming version, Christine mentioned that users will be able to add in multiple prompts, but also specific function calls via API or http connections. For example, ChatGPT could be harnessed to tap a stock or sports score database at 9 AM and send an email to a list of recipients in a pre-defined format.
“Text enhancement is really the starting point,” she said. “I can’t wait to get this into the hands of more users. I don’t think we’ve even started to think about the cool ideas they’ll be able to implement.”
<h2>What’s ahead for Contentstack and AI</h2>
We’ve been on the ChatGPT “hype train” for well over six months now. I asked Christine how the landscape is unfolding, particularly with similar offerings from other platforms. She agreed that competitors are driving AI in a commoditized direction, but that Contentstack’s app architecture – and its focus on streamlining and automating processes – is unique.  
So what’s driving that value quotient for customers in these early days?
“We’re seeing a lot of use with things like extracting keywords, tapping language translations,” she motioned, “but there are also cost savings when you consider replacing other tools for things like SEO optimization. And if you’re using our Contentstack API keys, it’s even free.”
Free is good, but will it last? Christine did suggest that large organizations will likely opt to use their own ChatGPT keys – and if more translation is required, costs may increase with the scaling token requirements. But it's clear that Contentstack sees its AI features as a value-add, and having a free entry point is a smart move to build adoption. 
Based on the demo, there’s ample room to streamline the clicks required within Contentstack's AI experience. This is where Automation Hub really sings, delivering both efficiency and control to users. As she noted, it’s the “boring” integrations – the undifferentiated heavy lifting – that Contentstack is endeavoring to supplant. By doing so, users can focus on building high-value, high-utility apps and experiences. You know... the cool stuff. 
“Whatever you trust AI to do, we can automate that,” she declared.  
<h2>Get started with AI Assistant</h2>
If you want to join Contentstack’s AI Assistant program, sign up by <a href="https://explore.contentstack.com/ai-assistant?utm_medium=internal_docs" target="_blank">filling out this form</a>. After agreeing to a few terms, you’ll receive a link to install the app – which, as mentioned, is currently free.
Christine said we can expect more announcements in the coming months. You can also check out Contentstack’s recent <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/docs/changelog/#ai-assistant-june-release-highlights" target="_blank">June release highlights</a> for current details.  
All challenges aside, the introduction of AI in CMS platforms has tremendous potential to improve productivity for content editors and developers. I’ve always contended that AI should stand for augmented intelligence, because it’s really about enhancing our creativity and productivity – not replacing it.
“Humans are great at the interesting things,” Christine observed.
Exactly. Like writing sci-fi scripts... about AI.

A Closer Look at Contentstack's AI Features with Christine Masters, Senior Product Manager

We live in a content economy. There <a href="https://linktr.ee/creator-report/static/Linktree-CreatorReport-2022-02f3aa05a27be6fecb3537b13d5ec9de.pdf" target="_blank">are an estimated</a> 200 million creators on the internet, and upwards of four billion social media users. If organizations want to tap into this burgeoning economy – set <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/02/08/2380564/0/en/Global-Digital-Content-Creation-Market-Growth-at-CAGR-of-9-5-by-2022-2027-Research-Report-by-Absolute-Reports.html" target="_blank">to be worth</a> over $24bn in the next four years – they must expand their capabilities beyond serving customers basic text and images.
Consumers want connected digital experiences that draw from multiple content sources. However, many organizations risk being held back by their current CMS, as customization and integration challenges slow the creation of new or complex digital services at scale.
The result? Innovation happens at the pace that back-end architects and developers want, not the speed the business demands. If organizations are to unlock full value from content, an alternative approach is needed. Enter – content federation.
<h2>The evolution of the CMS</h2>
The CMS as we know it has evolved before. Two decades ago, things were much simpler. Organizations wanted merely to post text and images to a single website. Providers like <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-manager-evolves-franklin-launches-next-gen-composability-feature/">AEM</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wp-engine-releases-worlds-first-study-of-the-wordpress-economy-cites-awe-inspiring-numbers/">WordPress</a> emerged to provide CMS platforms to meet this demand. They continue to have a huge market share today.
An explosion in the volume and variety of devices and content raised new questions about how businesses could deliver this content to channels beyond the browser. It was no longer a case of managing a one-to-one relationship between CMS admin portal and website, but rather a one-to-many relationship between CMS and smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, voice assistants, and more.
What emerged was the headless CMS: enabling platform-independent content distribution via APIs. It’s a model that has stood the test of time. And it continues to be a highly popular approach as organizations embrace composable architectures that enable developers to be more agile in creating new applications and services from reusable components.
From a CMS perspective, many organizations have needed to build and manage custom software to connect multiple content sources to their headless CMS. These could be anything from legacy CMSs, SaaS tools, and e-commerce components like <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/website/digital-asset-management" target="_blank">Digital Asset Management Systems </a>(DAMs), to Product Inventory Management Systems (PIMs) and public/private APIs that link third-party data sources. As demand for connected experiences grows, IT teams must build and maintain more of these custom middleware connections, risking amassing technical debt in the process.
Ultimately, custom building everything is an innovation bottleneck. It’s not only expensive but time-consuming and really difficult to do well.
<h2>Unlocking the power of composability</h2>
Having transitioned from a one-to-one to a one-to-many approach, organizations now need technology to support a many-to-many architecture without adding cost and complexity. They not only need to serve content to multiple devices but also to serve content that lives within their software stack.
This is where federated content platforms offer an opportunity to evolve the market once more, just as it changed when headless CMS disrupted the space 10 years ago. The premise is simple: organizations can federate multiple content sources into a single universal API so developers that build connected digital services only have to develop with one API to serve content from very diversified back-end systems. This also removes the need to centralize dynamically changing data into a content hub and eliminates the risk of inconsistent and outdated data, as the federated API acts as the single source of truth. From a development perspective, this approach also accelerates innovation by enabling product teams to compose services significantly faster than existing methods.
<h2>The future’s federated</h2>
In a content-first world, the question for today’s businesses is whether they want to persist with the status quo, characterized by excessive innovation bottlenecks, costs, and mounting technical debt. Or, by combining composability with a federated content approach, organizations can choose to future-proof their CMS investments and significantly reduce their integration costs.
Content federation is the next major leap forward in CMS development. The improved integration of content and data will enable the creation of new digital services and business models in the content economy, so organizations can ill afford to stand still.
<hr />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/michael-lukaszczyk/">Michael Lukaszczyk</a> is CEO and Co-Founder of <a href="http://www.hygraph.com">Hygraph</a> and a CMS Critic contributor.

Why Content Federation Represents the Next Evolution of the CMS

michael-lukaszczyk

This week, <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fkontent.ai%2F&amp;esheet=52780079&amp;newsitemid=20220713005621&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Kontent.ai&amp;index=1&amp;md5=c56e95cdd90647703ac78689ada036c6">Kontent.ai</a> – a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> – announced the expansion of its Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program, which recognizes the contributions of industry experts who have worked to support the Kontent.ai community.
The expansion features two new categories: Strategy MVP and Ambassador MVP. These join Kontent.ai's existing Technical MVP program, which has successfully operated for several years and elevated technical personas and developers in the company's community.
Along with the expansion, Kontent.ai announced seven new MVPs joining the new Strategy &amp; Ambassador programs. According to the company, these individuals will play a crucial role in shaping the future of Kontent.ai's platform and help drive innovation in the field. 
<h2>Strategy MVPs</h2>
The Strategy MVP category recognizes and celebrates valuable members of the Kontent.ai community who demonstrate a strong understanding of modern digital strategies. These individuals highlight how Kontent.ai can deliver successful outcomes for brands in an evolving technological landscape by sharing their technical knowledge and consultative expertise with the market. The new MVPs include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgriffith/" target="_blank">Adam Griffith</a> (Luminary - Australia)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshaysura/" target="_blank">Akshay Sura</a>* (Konabos - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmckeiver/" target="_blank">Brian McKeiver</a>* (Bizstream - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/katywhitedept/" target="_blank">Katy White</a> (DEPT® - United Kingdom)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaasjanmeijer/" target="_blank">Klaas-Jan Meijer</a> (ACTUM Digital - Netherlands)</li>
</ul>
*Transitioned from the Technical MVP Program
<h2>Ambassador MVPs</h2>
In addition, the newly formed Ambassador MVP category recognizes Kontent.ai customers that are considered experts in the deployment, management, and orchestration of Kontent.ai’s headless CMS. This category focuses on how the platform delivers superior content management experiences in a highly-competitive digital landscape. Ambassador MVPs are champions of Kontent.ai and advocate for what brands can achieve in their own complex digital and content management journeys. The new MVPs include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-lamothe-87b78686/" target="_blank">Marc Lamothe</a> (American Bath Group - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiremebecause/" target="_blank">D’Arcy Heath</a> (UNUM - United Kingdom)</li>
</ul>
It's worth noting that Akshay Sura and Marc Lamothe were part of the team that received a 2023 MACH Impact Award for the American Bath Group project – a composable solution that featured the Kontent.ai headless CMS. The project featured the migration of 10 websites with over 50,000 products in only 8 months.
The award was announced in June during the MACH Alliance's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two event</a> in Amsterdam. 
<h2>About Kontent.ai</h2>
Kontent.ai is a leading modular content platform that enables marketers and developers to plan, create, and deliver content at scale. Business teams collaborate daily in the intuitive authoring experience designed for governed content production and management, real-time reviewing and approvals, and modular content reuse. In parallel, developers leverage the total flexibility of the headless solution, best-of-breed technologies, and composable AI to deliver digital experiences via API to any channel. With hubs in New York, London, Amsterdam, Brno, and Sydney, Kontent.ai helps companies like Zurich Insurance, Algolia, Vogue, AC Milan, and Oxford University unlock the full potential of their content and connect with customers worldwide.

Kontent.ai Expands its MVP Program with Two New Categories

In any industry, buzzwords abound! 
In the Digital Experience (DX) landscape, it is no different – and you will hear a handful of terms that seemingly set the standard for the ecosystem.
However, you might not know what they all mean and how they are different from one another. That could pose a major problem, particularly as a technology, marketing, and/or business leader in the enterprise who is expected to be at one with the trends and best practices while leading their organization to digital glory.
I recently sat down for an hour during a<a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/tDAVv1VwHgU?feature=share"> DX Café interview with Andrew Kumar,</a> VP of Customer Solutions at <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-adds-new-visual-editing-and-integration-features-to-enhance-dxcp/">Uniform</a>, and we talked about four of the oft-heard concepts around the DX industry “watercooler.”
Uniform is an interesting company to start with as a frame of reference for much of this headless and composable DXP and product industry. As Kumar noted in the discussion, Uniform is “a rapidly evolving product set, but it is very much this visual workspace for digital teams.” 
One of our first orders of business was to define four specific terms within DX architecture: Monolithic, Headless, MACH, and Composable.
<h2>Monolithic: "All your software embedded into one application"</h2>
Kumar discussed the transition from monolithic systems to more modular, composable systems in enterprise technology. Traditionally, monolithic systems encapsulated all software functions in one application, which led to challenges due to the complexity of enterprises. Companies often had to adapt their processes to the monolithic system or spend significant resources to adapt them to their business.
Kumar suggests that enterprises' complexities arise due to their constant need to meet customer demands, leading to diverse offerings. When enterprises attempt to fit monolithic systems into their complex business operations, they often encounter difficulties.
In response to these challenges, monolithic platforms decompose into modular structures to support these complex business needs.
“I am starting to shy away from the term monolithic,” said Kumar. “And I'm shying away from that because the historical monolithic platforms are decomposing themselves.”
However, Kumar mentions that businesses often underestimate their complexity until they have analyzed their operations. Only when the complexities are fully understood can technology be molded around the business rather than vice versa.
He uses the term "all in one" rather than monolithic, as the platforms are becoming more modular and adaptable to fit the needs of the business. However, these all-in-one systems often do not integrate well with external modules, akin to battery packs that only fit one brand of tools.
While all-in-one solutions can be beneficial due to their convenience, speed to market, and easier vendor management, they often do not excel in any particular area, only offering adequate solutions for various functions. This can be a drawback for businesses requiring a specific solution or the best feature. Despite these shortcomings, it can prove valuable if the out-of-the-box solution fits an enterprise's needs.
Kumar concludes that the move away from monolithic systems is largely based on the level of complexity and customization that a business requires. The more complex and custom a business needs, the more likely a monolithic system is to be an impediment.
<h2>Headless: "Kind of a hot keyword"</h2>
Kumar talked about the concept of "<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a>" systems, which are becoming popular in the tech industry. Headless systems offer more flexibility than traditional "all-in-one" systems, as they separate the content from how it's presented to the customer. This decoupling allows for easier content distribution across various channels.
In an all-in-one system, content creation and presentation are intertwined. For instance, a Content Management System (CMS) creates webpages and websites. However, presenting the same content on a mobile app or other platforms like email channels, digital displays, or VR headsets requires significant effort to untether the content from its original presentation.
“An all-in-one CMS builds webpages and websites,” said Kumar. “(but) then if you try to build a mobile app with the all-in-one, you have to untether. You have to undergo a lot of effort to create flexibility. If you try to put that content into an email channel, or a digital display or a VR, like an Apple VR headset, it's a lot of work. It's feasible, but it's a lot of work.”
Conversely, headless systems don't know or dictate where the content will end up. The content is consumed through an API and can appear on a website, an app, or other platforms. This gives tremendous flexibility and allows reusing content across various touchpoints and channels.
The challenge with headless systems is that they do not inherently provide a way to preview how the content will appear in different consuming applications. Over the past six to seven years, Kumar has been developing tools to enable such previews.
The appropriateness of headless systems depends on the industry and the nature of customer interactions. Headless systems make sense in industries like telecom, where most customer interactions are through mobile devices or chatbots. Some organizations start by using headless for a single website before expanding to multiple websites, thereby beginning to take advantage of the system's flexibility. However, it's a different paradigm with a lean, out-of-the-box solution.
<h2>MACH: "Very high bar for standards of quality"</h2>
Kumar noted that the MACH in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a> stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless. The MACH Alliance sets high standards for vendors in the tech industry, and not every vendor meets these standards. 
Like Kumar's company Uniform, those who receive approval can assure prospective buyers that their platform has been audited and meets specific technical standards. This approval can help support both the buyers' previous and future investments.
Kumar acknowledges criticism that the MACH Alliance is not inclusive but argues that maintaining high standards is necessary to push the industry forward. The high bar for entry ensures that the MACH Alliance seal retains its value and is not awarded to companies that do not meet its stringent criteria. Therefore, he views the exclusivity of the Alliance as a potential strength rather than a weakness, ensuring that only vendors that meet the highest standards are admitted.
<h2>Composable: "The way it's being defined is learning the lessons from the previous three terms"</h2>
Kumar lastly broke down the concept of "composable" systems, stating that this is the latest term in the tech industry. He sees it as a natural evolution from monolithic to all-in-one to headless systems and now to composable systems.
Traditional monolithic systems are now decomposing into composable systems. They're breaking down into smaller, more manageable modules that can be reconfigured per business needs.
“Headless tools are generally composable by default,” asserted Kumar. “Because they're unique, like ring-fenced capabilities that can be plugged and played as necessary.”
The MACH Alliance's standards, Kumar explains, push the needle on what it means to be truly composable. Having APIs on top of any software does not make it headless or composable. He highlights the importance of having clean, well-defined microservices to manage the platform's infrastructure. He also emphasizes the necessity of being "API first," where APIs get published concurrently with features.
Moreover, he addresses the importance of the Cloud in the MACH model. While one might have a headless system hosted locally, it would not meet the requirements of being self-serve, auto-updating, and cloud-native. In a cloud environment, the vendor takes care of security patches, reducing the maintenance burden on users.
Finally, he highlights the value of being composable for complex business enterprises. Adapting technology to business needs is vital in a rapidly changing business environment. While "composable" hasn't gained much search volume or intent yet, he anticipates it may become the next hot keyword in the industry.
Education is paramount in the ever-shifting DX industry. We hope you have gained a better understanding of some of the key principles that are frequently raised in conversations. 
<hr />
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/matthew-mcqueeny/">Matt McQueeny</a> is part of the leadership team at <a href="https://konabos.com/" target="_blank">Konabos</a> and a CMS Critic contributor.

Exploring DX Architecture

mattmcqueeny

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness/">The MACH Alliance</a> continues its unabated upward trajectory in 2023.
The not-for-profit group, which advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems, has <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/stripe-joins-mach-alliance-bringing-organization-to-nearly-90-members/">added multiple technologies and system integrators</a> to its ranks since the beginning of the year. This includes some noteworthy brands like Stripe and Paypal. 
Now, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility/">Agility</a> – an API-first <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> – has joined the prestigious industry organization.
This week, the company announced that it is now a certified member of the MACH Alliance, highlighting its commitment to utilizing modern, modular, and scalable software architectures to provide innovative digital experiences to its clients. 
"We are thrilled to be a part of the MACH Alliance community," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvoigt/" target="_blank">Jon Voigt</a>, CEO of Agility. "At Agility, we’ve always had the belief that customers should use best-of-breed solutions and bring them together to create the best experience for their teams and their customers. Joining the MACH Alliance just shows external verification that we’ve always been on the right track." 
<h2>Building the composable future on the principles of MACH</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a community of technology companies and enablers dedicated to promoting the adoption of MACH architecture principles for building flexible, interoperable, and future-proof digital ecosystems. MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) represents the foundational principles that Agility was designed on from its conception – making it an ideal fit for membership.
"By leveraging MACH architecture principles at Agility, we empower our customers and partners to build and deliver personalized, omnichannel digital experiences that drive engagement and loyalty," said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility/">Joel Varty</a>, CTO of Agility. "I look forward to collaborating with other members of the MACH Alliance to drive innovation and advance the adoption of modern architectural standards." 
As a composable platform, Agility CMS allows clients to easily manage and distribute content across multiple channels and seamlessly integrate with other services. Additionally, its API-first approach enables clients to create content once and then distribute it anywhere, seamlessly integrating it with their existing technology stack.
From an infrastructure perspective, Agility is cloud-native, running on the latest technology and making it easy for clients to scale their solutions as their business grows.
Finally, Agility's headless approach – a key component in MACH architectures – allows clients to easily separate content from the presentation layer, giving them the freedom to deliver customized experiences across a variety of channels. 
<h2>Gaining agility in a rapidly-changing marketplace </h2>
Agility's membership in the MACH Alliance will give the company access to a network of leading technology companies, enabling it to stay at the forefront of technology innovation and continue delivering outstanding digital experiences to its clients. 
"At Agility, we always strive to provide the best possible digital experiences for our clients," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jina-zohori/" target="_blank">Jina Zohori</a>, Head of Customer Experience at Agility. "By joining the MACH Alliance community and leveraging modern, modular, and scalable software architectures, we will continue to innovate and provide our clients with exceptional digital experiences that engage and delight their customers. Our membership in the MACH Alliance will also provide us with access to a network of leading technology companies, enabling us to stay at the forefront of technology innovation and deliver even more value to our clients." 
Agility's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/agility-unveils-refreshed-design-system-in-ui-delivering-enhanced-user-experience-and-accessibility/">recent announcement</a> of a new UI also reinforces its commitment to delivering a best-in-class customer experience. The upgrade reflected 18 months of research and innovation that improves the overall usability of the headless platform, along with new features and modernizations. 
<h2>About Agility</h2>
Agility is an API-first Headless CMS that enables organizations to build and deliver personalized digital experiences across multiple channels. With a Headless Architecture and White Glove service, Agility empowers its clients to easily manage and distribute content while seamlessly integrating with their existing technology stack. For more information, visit<a href="https://agilitycms.com/"> https://agilitycms.com/</a>

Agility Joins MACH Alliance, Bringing its Headless CMS to the Industry-Leading Composable Ecosystem

Content continues to be a crucial marketing strategy for any organization. In fact, <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/content-marketing-statistics/475206/#close">over 70% of B2B and B2C marketers</a> utilize content marketing as part of their overall marketing goals. Couple this with the fact that content marketing has been found to generate three times as many leads as traditional marketing, and you can see why taking a strategic approach is so vital.
Central to a company’s content marketing strategy is its ability to manage its own website content in an efficient and effective manner. A reliable and flexible content management system (CMS) allows you to create, scale, and enhance any piece of content.
Here’s what you need to know about content management systems and how to choose the right type of CMS.
<h2>What is a CMS?</h2>
A CMS is software that gives you the ability to create, manage and publish content for your website. Traditional CMS platforms, like WordPress, are considered monolithic, meaning everything is packaged together, with the front-end design and layout directly tied to the back-end code and database.
Another type of CMS solution is known as a headless CMS. Designed as a back-end only CMS, content is accessible for display on any device using an API. The result is a content-first approach to your CMS platform.
<h2>Differences Between WordPress and Headless CMS</h2>
Traditional CMS options like WordPress are built to display content through a single application, primarily a website. A <a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/what-is-headless-cms/">headless CMS</a>, on the other hand, is designed for content displays across a number of presentations, not just your website.
The differences between monolithic and headless CMS ultimately affect the content creation, operations, management, consistency, integration, and front-end execution of your content.
<h4>Content Creation</h4>
When it comes to creation and structuring of content in WordPress, information is managed through posts and pages. Posts are added to an existing blog and displayed with the newest at the top. Content is tagged into categories as a method of classification. These pages are considered static with the goal of providing information about one particular subject.
In a headless CMS environment, content and structuring are done through a web-based interface. The interface is accessible by content editors and authorized users who can create, edit, organize, and tag specific content. Content is generally stored in a database and available through API, so it can be displayed appropriately on any device.
Some headless CMS platforms, also have the<a href="https://buttercms.com/kb/category/content-modeling-basics/"> option of content modeling</a>, which allows for custom fields and creation of dynamic content and personalization.
<h4>Content Operations</h4>
Once the content is created and structured, it needs to be organized and produced to meet the needs of the target audience – also known as content operations.
In a monolithic environment, content management and organization involve scheduling, automatic notifications when new content is published, and configuring user permissions. Often, this occurs through third-party plugins, which can increase compatibility issues, security vulnerabilities, and more.
In a headless CMS, web-based interfaces can be accessed by any user on any device. WYSIWYG editor options, custom page types, workflow creation, and localization all provide a flexible and dynamic solution to content creation for a wide variety of audiences.
<h4>Content Management</h4>
Content management can be<a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/enterprise-content-management-challenges/"> your ultimate competitive edge</a>, increasing lead generation and conversion. This only happens, however, when you strategically plan your publication calendar.
In WordPress, content management includes SEO optimization tools (typically plugins) as well as automated publishing and scheduling processes.
In a headless CMS, content management is more agile because of the dynamic experience. Based on what device the content is viewed on, a headless CMS can allow for different structures and presentation styles.
<h4>Content Consistency</h4>
In WordPress, content consistency happens through a variety of templates and themes. The standardized look of your website is coupled with specific templates for individual pages and sections. While plug-ins, custom post types, and other items can help aid consistency, there are also several challenges.
Many legacy CMS platforms give users very specific features and functionalities, making it difficult to personalize the experience. In addition, any amount of edits can be time-consuming and difficult to scale.
In a headless CMS environment, content consistency is guided by a set of clear standards for structure, writing, language, tone, and formatting. For instance, a headless CMS could provide custom content types, fields, and typeforms, all centrally located and accessible through APIs.
<h4>Integrations</h4>
Because content does not exist in solely written words, it is important for content teams to pay attention to how content types integrate with one another. In WordPress, this typically happens through third-party plug-ins and themes.
In a headless CMS, things like Rest API, webhooks, CDNs and microservices all handle integration and functionality based on the needs of a particular application. APIs can retrieve and utilize content in the CMS regardless of technology stack or programming language to create a unique, functional user experience.
<h4>Front-end Execution</h4>
In WordPress, front-end rendering is done through code and WordPress templates. Through a system of templates and template tags, you can control the execution of the pages, their structure and layout. In a headless CMS, front-end rendering happens through a separate application that takes the content and places it in an API, resulting in the rendering the user sees.
<h2>The Use of Headless WordPress</h2>
WordPress does have a headless option. However, technically, it’s decoupled, rather than truly headless. That’s because the head is still attached to the backend. In other words, when you use Headless WordPress, you still have to deal, at least partially, with the UI when installing things like main plugins and performing the setup. 
Drawbacks to a decoupled WordPress environment include increased maintenance, need for heightened development experience, plugin dependency, and potential increased cost to get what other truly headless CMS options give you right out of the gate. 
Headless WordPress has several options that could <a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/headless-wordpress-how-to-use-their-blog-data-in-your-app/">benefit</a> organizations who are looking to test a headless approach. However, there are important limitations to consider as you look to align your CMS with long term strategies. 
<h2>How to Decide Which CMS is For You </h2>
There are a number of options to consider when it comes to the use of content for social, web, advertising, internal and more. That’s why it’s important to start at the beginning and develop your digital strategy. Honing your digital strategy will allow you to define your target audiences, set clear goals, audit existing resources, and create a proactive content approach. By understanding what you’re hoping to achieve, you’ll know what the best programs and tools are.
It’s also important to think about where you’re at now and where you’re hoping to go. While a certain product might meet your current needs, looking to the future will help you choose platforms that will grow with you and your company’s content goals.
The best future-proof technology tools will allow you to:
<ul>
<li>Increase productivity and efficiency</li>
<li>Improve the user experience</li>
<li>Allow you to scale</li>
<li>Give you advanced analytics to drive decisions</li>
<li>Enhance search engine optimization</li>
</ul>
Ultimately, understanding your present and future state will help determine the CMS that’s right for you. It’s an exercise that’s worth the time and effort as your website and its content is crucial to success in today’s digital climate. 
 
<hr />
Jake Lumetta is CEO and Founder of ButterCMS, and a CMS Critic contributor.

Marketing 101: Managing Website Content on WordPress vs. Headless

jake-lumetta

One of the biggest challenges with adopting <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-technology" target="_blank">MACH</a> (Microservices, API-First, Cloud-Native SaaS, Headless) is understanding what you’re in for. After all, going composable and embracing MACH patterns and architectures is not for the faint of heart.
So if you’re seriously considering MACH, is your company prepared for what’s ahead? What resources will you require? And what does success look like?
To help answer some of these foundational questions, the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-expands-advisory-board-launches-new-mach-book-resource/">MACH Alliance</a> – a not-for-profit group that advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems – has developed a new <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-maturity-assessment" target="_blank">MACH Maturity Assessment Tool</a>. This five-minute "quiz" focuses on high-level business considerations instead of just the technical landscape, giving you a quick snapshot of your organization’s MACH readiness.
The online self-assessment provides a step-by-step Q&amp;A that scores your overall readiness to make the MACH shift. The questions focus on six key pillars: Strategy and Transformation, Organization and Governance, Process and Metrics, People and Culture, Technology and Architecture, and Business Intelligence.
I previously chatted with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Casper Rasmussen</a>, President of the MACH Alliance, to ask why this assessment tool is so important.
“What we set as an objective for 2023 is to help buyers make the right decisions,” he said. “We want to clarify the role of MACH and whom it’s for – and this tool plays a vital role in doing that. It allows an organization to gauge its readiness to adopt MACH, but it’s not a technology evaluation. This is a 360-degree view of the actual organizational aspects.”
It’s worth noting that MACH Alliance member Deloitte Digital led the development of this tool, along with a group of Alliance member volunteers and SI reps. The consortium included professionals from commercetools, Capgemini, Apply Digital, Orium, Vuestorefront, Big Commerce, Scaleflex, Vercel, talon.one, Cloudinary, Intive, Bold Commerce, Epam, and Valtech.
<h2>The six dimensions of a MACH-ready business</h2>
The Maturity Assessment questions align with what Casper described as six dimensions of a MACH-ready business – the same dimensions the Alliance has been consistently focused on.
But, as he points out, there’s always a journey element to MACH. Part of that transition is evaluating readiness, but it’s also identifying the gaps to help improve it.
“We’re not expecting companies to be perfect,” he clarified. “Not only do we score based on the answers that brands provide us, but we help them figure out, rectify, and actually improve across the dimensions that might be troublesome or problematic for them. This helps them navigate the journey they are about to embark on.”
The MACH Alliance also released a <a href="https://machalliance.org/thought-leadership/mach-maturity-assessment-whitepaper">white paper</a> covering the six pillars, which pair up to each self-assessment stage. Here’s a brief summary of each dimension:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/mach-maturity-diagram-pillars-1024x757.png" alt="MACH Maturity Assessment Diagram" />
<ul>
<li>Strategy and Transformation: As an organization considers a MACH transformation, clearly understanding its business objectives is essential. This initial step of the assessment highlights where a MACH approach may be applicable based on an organization’s current view of transformation across domains and as a whole.</li>
<li>Organization and Governance: This assessment step focuses on the decision-making process and how organizations support rapid change cycles and integrate with multiple external suppliers. MACH may require a business to adapt its operating model or delegate governance around an agreed-upon set of principles. These practices are foundational to supporting an effective MACH transition.</li>
<li>Process and Metrics: As noted in the white paper, any approach to MACH will have “knock-on” effects to process and metrics to support a distributed system of smaller components. Organizations may need to adopt an Agile project management framework, new reporting to span multiple business domains, and business processes for procuring, provisioning, and onboarding external systems.</li>
<li>People and Culture: Having the right distribution of people and frictionless communication between teams is key to a successful MACH transition. These questions focus on an organization’s culture and dynamics, where empowering greater autonomy, collaboration, and personal ownership of decisions can drive success – along with the development of new digital skills.</li>
<li>Technology and Architecture: While the assessment focuses more on business considerations, technology is a cornerstone of MACH and plays a big role in the transition. These questions focus on the shift from large, multi-function systems to more granular components, assessing whether an organization’s engineers and architects are prepared for microservices, APIs, cloud-based systems, and decoupled services.</li>
<li>Business Intelligence: The final stage of the assessment is concerned with optics and KPIs. To achieve and maintain MACH, organizations require tools for analysis and visualization that enable data-driven decisions at technical, operational, and business levels. Also, business intelligence best practices encompass the role of advanced analytics, AI and machine learning, and near-real-time data transparency.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Taking the MACH Maturity Assessment</h2>
Like any objective knowledge-seeker, I took the MACH Maturity Assessment myself.
As billed, I spent just a few minutes from start to finish and found the experience clear, frictionless, and kind of fun. Each question was multiple choice (A/B/C), peppered with intuitive options that use words like “firepower” and “big bang.” This makes the flow easy and highly accessible to business users.
A few questions did meander into techspeak (CI/CD processes, APIs, etc.). As a cloud guy, I easily understood the concepts, but you can pause the assessment and even back up if there are any specific details you need to hunt down. Once completed, you can enter your email address and have the assessment sent to you (not a requirement, BTW).
The final report generates a slick performance chart that maps your maturity as Weak, Immature, Moderate, or Mature. I included mine below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/mach-maturity-performance-chart-1024x1018.png" alt="MACH Maturity Assessment diagam" />
I pulled a “Moderate” based on some of my answers, and was given a set of suggestions for improving my performance in the areas that required the most attention. For example, I was stronger in People and Culture but weaker in Business Intelligence – so the tool suggested I invest in improving my ability to track metrics across applications and experiences.
Again, this is a high-level snapshot, so not enough detail to prescribe specific solutions. But certainly enough to plan next steps.
Reviewing my results reminded me of how Casper framed success in our discussion. “The more we can emphasize the potential areas that will end up being problematic and really improve, the better,” he said. “Because it means brands are walking into it eyes wide open.”
<h2>MACHinating the journey ahead</h2>
If you’re considering a transition to MACH – and want an eye-opening experience – I would wholeheartedly recommend the MACH Maturity Assessment. It takes just a few minutes, but it’s a great place to start your journey.
You can access the tool online at <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-maturity-assessment">https://machalliance.org/mach-maturity-assessment</a>

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