Articles - Page 100

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

As someone with a natural deficiency in design, I can testify to the necessity of pre-built themes.
WordPress has thousands of pre-made themes readily available just for people like me. And the best part is, the vast majority of WordPress themes on offer can turn a dull web page into one with great web traffic potential.
To save you time and effort though, I've picked out nine themes that cater to; business, news, and even personal blogging purposes. All you have to do is pick your favorite.
<h2>News</h2>
<h4>Colormag – Themegrill</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/colormag.png" alt="colormag" />
Colormag is a theme on WordPress made popular by it’s great forum support.
It’s ideal for anyone trying to display multiple news topics on any variety of topics. It’s simplicity and elegance in design are merely bonus.
Check out more at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/colormag/">https://wordpress.org/themes/colormag/</a>
<h4>Hueman – Nikeo</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/hueman.png" alt="hueman" />
If you’re looking for a fantastic theme with great accent colors and even better functionality then this theme by Nikeo is the way to go.
Hueman comes with two scrolling side bars that makes displaying multiple breaking stories a breeze and the front page along with limitless links and headings gives great direction to any visitors of your site.
Check out more at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/hueman/">https://wordpress.org/themes/hueman/</a>
<h4>Afford – MudThemes</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/afford-1.png" alt="afford (1)" />
Just because news headlines have to be attention grabbing, that doesn’t necessarily mean your web page does too. With this simple theme you can allow your headlines to do the talking for you.
This theme goes especially well for those looking to display news related to business and politics
Check more out at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/afford/">https://wordpress.org/themes/afford/</a>
<h2>Business &amp; Entrepreneurial</h2>
<h4>Blackoot Lite – Iceable Themes</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blackoot-1.png" alt="blackoot (1)" />
If you really want your web page to stand out from the crop then you have to do something different. This web page really drew my eye with its darker colors and very formal layout.
It would make a great candidate for anyone looking to sell a product or to project a serious demeanor.
Check more out at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/blackoot-lite/">https://wordpress.org/themes/blackoot-lite/</a>
<h4>Matrix – Webhunt Infotech</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/matrix.png" alt="matrix" />
WebHunt Infotech has really provided a quality theme here. ‘Matrix’, no not the movie, is a terrific theme for those looking for a minimalistic feel with maximum customization.
It gives a great front page to display any number of products on. With a compelling front page and as many links as you could possibly need to provide additional detail, this theme is well in the running to becoming my favorite.
Check more out at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/matrix/">https://wordpress.org/themes/matrix/</a>
<h4>Build Lite – SKTThemes</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/build-lite.png" alt="build lite" />
This theme does a great job at filling the niche for industrial or construction businesses. It’s flexible and customizable and nothing says ‘we can build it’ quite like a soaring skyscraper.
With plenty of interactive links and space to display text this theme can allow even an amateur to hammer (he-he word puns) together a solid web page.
Check more out at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/build-lite/">https://wordpress.org/themes/build-lite/</a>
<h3>Personal &amp; Blogging Themes</h3>
<h4>Story- Alex27</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/story.png" alt="story" />
Story, is a theme by a traveling blogger. So naturally, a blogger would know what other blogger want right?
Story gives a well structured way to share with anyone who visits just exactly what you’ve been getting into lately. Play a round of disc golf today? Why not post the picture on the front page!
(P.S. I’m always looking for more disc golf buddies)
Check more out at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/story/">https://wordpress.org/themes/story/</a>
<h4>Freak – Rohit Tripathi</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/freak.png" alt="freak" />
Freak is the sort of theme I would recommend for travelling or even deep seated topics such as philosophy or emotional quotes.
The layout of the page along with the tone it sets really stimulates an open thought process. A myriad of customization options makes this choice a no brainer for bloggers anywhere.
Check more out at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/freak/">https://wordpress.org/themes/freak/</a>
<h4>Pro Blogg – DessignThemes</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/problogg.png" alt="problogg" />
ProBlogg does an excellent job with this multi-blog theme. It’s open layout allows any blogger a variety of places to write about their various interests.
It includes a bar to social media widgets at the top right and it offers plenty of space for multiple photos on the front page. Hope you like photography!
Check more out at: <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/pro-blogg/">https://wordpress.org/themes/pro-blogg/</a>
<h2>Spice Up Your Site</h2>
A new theme can spice up a website to really set the tone and direction you want visitors to go upon arriving.
Don’t forget to tell us what other themes you’d like talked about and post a comment below about any themes worth mentioning below.

9 Great WordPress Themes for Blogging, Business & News Sites

mike-johnston

Affiliate programs have changed the way marketing is functioning these days. Starting with Amazon back in the 1990s, affiliate programs have turned into effective tools to earn money online. If you have enough motivation to earn money, then you can also get your piece of the pie.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/motocms-affiliate-program-page-1.jpg" />
The trick part is, however, to choose the merchant site wisely. Today we will try to demonstrate why it makes sense to join <a href="https://www.motocms.com/affiliate-program/" target="_blank">MotoCMS Affiliate Program</a>. In this article, you will learn about who this program is for, what you actually need to do to join MotoCMS as an affiliate, how you get paid and much more.
<h2>No Knack for Web Development is Required</h2>
If you are considering joining an affiliate program, then the most important question for you is whether you fit in. With MotoCMS, the answer is always “Yes”. In practice, it means that any person can join the MotoCMS Affiliate Program. You are free to become a MotoCMS affiliate if:
<ol>
<li>You need an additional income source that is reliable and trustworthy. Having a status of a MotoCMS affiliate partner, you automatically get access to all the necessary resources to start earning decent money from day one.</li>
<li>Your level of expertise in the web development varies from 0 to 100%. You may know next to nothing about content management systems or website templates and still become a successful MotoCMS affiliate.</li>
</ol>
As you see, to become a MotoCMS affiliate, you do not need a solid startup capital. Nor are you required to possess any web-related skills or educational background in the IT industry. In fact, there is only one prerequisite that is necessary for joining the MotoCMS Affiliate Program. This is your wish to earn money. Quite simple.
<h2>Do Business with Pre-Built Online Shop</h2>
You are probably wondering how the whole process of joining the MotoCMS Affiliate Program looks like. The answer is that you simply register as a MotoCMS affiliate partner. To sign up as a MotoCMS affiliate, you will need to provide your name, email address, your website’s URL etc. Basically, signing up for the MotoCMS Affiliate Program means that you have already done your part of the job.
MotoCMS takes care of the rest. Our team will provide you with all necessary promotional materials, so you can spend minimum efforts on your campaign advertising. If you want to raise more money, our professional support team will optionally install the free Pre-Built Online Shop on your website.
Once it is there, we will fill the shop with the collection of the templates with a &lt;a href=”https://www.motocms.com/”&gt;webste builder&lt;/a&gt; from MotoCMS. The definite advantage of the Pre-Built Online Shop is that you can sell all the MotoCMS products under your own name. As you can see, the whole process is quite simple and does not require much time or effort on your part.
<h2>Increase Sales with Updating Promo Materials</h2>
Let’s assume that you have already decided to become a part of the MotoCMS affiliate community. What happens next? Getting started, you need to start your own advertising campaign to motivate your visitors’ interest in MotoCMS. This is where ready-to-use advertizing tools from MotoCMS come in handy. These tools include:
<h5>Text Links</h5>
The easiest way to start for promoting MotoCMS on your website is using a text link. All you need to activate the link as an affiliate partner is to add ?aff=username after the URL of a product. Once a prospective visitor buys a template from MotoCMS after clicking on the text link, you earn your money.
<h5>Banners</h5>
One more idea to stir your customers interest is to apply eye-catching banners, developed by MotoCMS web designers. For instance, banners can boost your sales considerably on the front page of your website.
<h5>Landing Pages</h5>
Another way to increase your sales as a MotoCMS partner is to launch a landing page. There are 12 ready-made landing page designs you can choose from. You can also create a multipurpose landing page to demonstrate the full scope of products from MotoCMS.
<h2>Increase Your Commission Rate</h2>
Of course, the whole point of joining the MotoCMS affiliate program is to get additional income. But how much can you get? As a MotoCMS affiliate, you can earn from 30 to 50% commissions from every successful bargain. The more you sell, the higher the commission level becomes. Earn even more with 365 cookies that MotoCMS offers. Get your commission even 364 days after a client uses your affiliate link!
Do not forget that you are always free to sell the website templates from MotoCMS as your own products under your own brand. So, basically, you can decide yourself what pricing policy is more appropriate for your services.
<h2>Use The Convenient Way to Get Paid Fast</h2>
MotoCMS offers its affiliate partners a few well-known payments methods. You are free to choose between Skrill, PayPal, Payoneer, WebMoney, and others. And most importantly – whatever payment method you opt for, you will get your commission right on time.
<h2>Get 24/7 Professional Assistance</h2>
The last but not the least advantage of the affiliate program from MotoCMS is the direct tech support we offer. The thing is that our consultants support the clients of each our affiliate program participant.
Another good piece of news is that a client can choose the way to contact our support team. Depending on the urgency of the situation, s/he is offered two communication channels. Any client is able to request a callback and leave a message in the live chat. With MotoCMS, you can be sure that all questions of your clients are answered promptly by the professionals.
Now when you know pretty much everything about the MotoCMS Affiliate Program, there is little room for doubts. So, spread the word about MotoCMS via your website and get an additional reliable income source!

Make Your First Dollar with MotoCMS Affiliate Program

This year, we had a large list of content management systems fighting to be in the nominees for Best Open Source CMS and considering how successful this category was last year, it's no surprise we've got a solid list of contenders for the award in 2013.
Last year, <a href="/products/concrete5/">Concrete5 </a>took home the People's Choice award but this year, we've got a whole new list of nominees to choose from. Remember, YOU chose this list of nominees and YOU chose who won with your votes. We're just happy that each year, we've got some fresh faces in these nominations.
As a refresher, here's the list of nominees for this year's People's Choice Award for Best Open Source CMS:
<ol>
<li><a href="/products/modx/"> MODX </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/dnn-platform/"> DNN Platform </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/liferay/"> Liferay </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/processwire/"> Processwire </a></li>
<li><a href="/cms-critic-awards/"> e107 </a></li>
</ol>
And the winner of the 2013 People's Choice Award for Best Open Source CMS won by a huge margin thanks to your votes. The winner is…
<img style="max-width:150px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-open-source-cms150x0.png" />
MODX!
MODX is an incredible CMS that offers an abundance of features for those looking for quality software for free. MODX Revolution starts as a completely blank slate. Start from scratch, or use the Package Manager to download and install Add-ons, Core Extensions, Templates, or even Content Pack Distributions.
Congratulations to the MODX development team and to all those CMS that were nominated this year.
Learn more about <a href="/products/modx/">MODX </a>or visit them <a href="http://www.modx.com">on the web</a>.
Don't forget, we have the Critic's Choice portion underway now, where a panel of judges select the winner of the Critics Choice awards so check back to see who gets picked as the cream of the crop by the Critics.

2013 People's Choice Winner for Best Open Source CMS

You may have noticed that things look a little different around here.I'm pleased to announce that CMS Critic has completed its migration from ProcessWire to WordPress, the world-renowned platform that CMS Critic originally launched with back in 2008.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/vgufaw4n.png" alt="VgUfaW4N" /><h2>What's New?</h2>Well, everything really.Our homepage is now far easier to navigate. A slider and the categories below make it simple for you to find new and interesting content without having to dig too deeply into the website.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-21.png" alt="sshot-21" />Also, our growing <a href="/products/">CMS Directory</a> looks fancier than ever, and it has been joined by a few new friends:<ul><li>CRM Directory</li><li>Ecommerce Directory</li><li>Marketing System Directory</li><li>Analytics Directory</li><li>Hosting Directory</li><li>Themes Directory</li></ul>And with those new directories, come new product hubs – and they're better than ever before.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-17.png" alt="sshot-17" />From a product hub, you can quickly view; a product's site rating and average user rating, an overview of the product, the product's latest review, and the latest news from CMS Critic, and the vendor's very own blog.The overview section gives you a synopsis of the product, along with; the business sizes we think suit it best, featured videos, screenshots, and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16.png" alt="sshot-16" /> We even provide relevant content to help get new users started, like recommended hosting solutions for open source products.And perhaps most interestingly, you can go straight to any product hub and rate it out of ten stars, making an impact on the “Average User Rating” displayed in all hub headers. Furthermore, you can submit your very own reviews of products by clicking “Write a Review”.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-18.png" alt="sshot-18" />As you can see, our new directories cover all the essentials of business software. You won't ever need to look elsewhere to plan the next digital move for your brand.But wait, there's more.<h2>A Better Experience For Our Readers</h2>This new design brings about numerous benefits for our readers.First of all, you can now sign up to CMS Critic using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a whole bunch of other social platforms by clicking “Register” at the top of the page.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-22.png" alt="sshot-22" />After signing up, you can “Follow” product hubs from within any directory.Once you follow a hub, like the WordPress hub for example, you'll be notified (within the confines of your account here at CMS Critic) of any new WordPress-related articles that we publish.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-23.png" alt="sshot-23" />We also have a new and improved commenting system, powered by Spot.im.Each visitor is given a unique username to partake in conversations below articles, even if that visitor is not logged in.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-24.png" alt="sshot-24" />Plus, there's a newsfeed that you can access from the bottom right corner of the page, which highlights conversations from around the website.<h2>A Stronger Presence for Vendors</h2>Vendors will also benefit from this new-look CMS Critic.The product hubs that make up all of our directories are now far better equipped than ever before. They're ripe for content publication, lead generation and building customer-vendor relationships.Over the new few days, we will be notifying vendors personally about the new opportunities that our product hubs have to offer.<h2>More (Relevant) Topics</h2>After my appointment as Editor back in 2015, Mike and I got to steering CMS Critic towards covering more topics, but we were adamant that we would not stray into industries that don't complement web content management.Why? Because the world of CMS has been meshing with other industries for years now.Content management systems, CRMs, marketing automation systems, and analytics platforms have all become essential tools for the toolbox of every ambitious brand.To put it simply, a CMS isn't enough to propel your business online anymore.And that's why our new directories are accompanied by new industry hubs, where we will cover the new topics alongside our usual CMS news and editorials.These new industry hubs are:<ul><li>CRM Hub</li><li>Ecommerce Hub</li><li>Marketing Hub</li><li>Analytics Hub</li><li>Hosting Hub</li><li>Themes Hub</li></ul>So, we're talking about improvements for visitors, more opportunities for vendors, and broader industry coverage. I don't know about you, but I'm liking this all-new CMS Critic already!Found an issue? Want to work with us? <a href="/contact/">Get in touch</a>.

Extreme Makeover: CMS Critic Edition

There's no doubt that there are plenty of excellent email marketing platforms out there but one of the most common issues I've come across when using them is deliverability of emails. As such, I've been on the lookout for a solid platform that gave me a good drag and drop builder alongside the power of Amazon's email servers. I believe I've found that with MailGet so allow me to show you how it works in this MailGet Review.
For the longest time, I've used a standalone email marketing software called Sendy (see my <a href="/sendy-review-cheap-inexpensive-email-marketing-for-the-masses/" target="_blank">Sendy review</a>), that has worked reasonably well for me up until recently. Lately, I've been on the lookout for something with more automation (such as automatic unsubscribe, bounce handling, etc). However, I'm also very much committed to using Amazon SES for my email delivery as I feel it is more reliable than other architectures. I recently stumbled across MailGet and I believe I've found that solution.
<h2>Getting Things Configured</h2>
With Amazon SES services, my emails always get through properly and now, thanks to MailGet, I can use both an intuitive email marketing platform alongside Amazon for the best of both worlds.
Here's a quick video showing the basics of how MailGet works:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tybd0QNL4aU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Connecting Amazon is incredibly simple and the MailGet folks have full, detailed instructions with screenshots to help you get it done quickly and easily. I found it super simple to configure.
You aren't just stuck with Amazon though. If you prefer, you can use other third party providers such as Gmail, Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailjet, Mandrill and others.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-3855x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
Furthermore, MailGet also offers MailGet Bolt which is the same service but with their own built-in SMTP saving you from using a third party SMTP server entirely!
Need Bounce and Spam Handling? This one is a lifesaver. MailGet provides you with full instructions including the URL's to use to configure automatic bounce and spam handling for any of the supported SMTP providers. This one for me, is huge.
Add on Google Analytics integration, <a href="https://zapier.com/" target="_blank">Zapier</a> integration (super useful) and even Wufoo (although frankly I'd probably just use <a href="https://www.formget.com/">FormGet</a>, since it's made by the MailGet folks) and you have a very well put together email marketing platform.
<h2>List Cleaning Tools Too!</h2>
Ok, how many of you DON'T have subscriber lists that have spam subscribers or rogue emails in your list that are no longer valid. Raise your hands.
I don't see any hands. That's what I thought.
MailGet includes some super useful list cleaning tools that I absolutely love. MailGet uses several methods to clean your lists:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-4.png" alt="mailget review" />It's as easy as clicking a button and letting MailGet go to work. Tell me you don't love this.
<h2>Designing your Emails</h2>
Aside from the configuration being easy to use, the next most important aspect is the email design end of things.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-_11087x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
From your MailGet dashboard, click on Create Email. You now have several options.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-51147x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
For those of you who like to do things the easy way, click on Drag and Drop Email Builder. For those who like to do things the geek way, click on Custom Code Editor and for those of you who just want to type something basic, click on Basic Text Editor. The Email Templates option shows numerous examples but frankly, I didn't find it super helpful as there's no easy way to apply it to your email other than through copy/paste. For me, the drag and drop builder was better.
The Drag and Drop Email Builder works like a charm and is super simple to use.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-6859x0-is.png" alt="mailget review" />
Once you've finished your email, simply click next and you will be given the opportunity to select which list you want to send to, whether you want to schedule it or send it all in one shot and that's it!
Back on your dashboard, you'll see a handy little widget showing your email and giving you a quick view on how it's performing.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mailget_review_-7.png" alt="mailget review" />
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
That's all there is to it. It's a simple, easy-to-use email marketing platform that works like a charm. MailGet has excellent help and the tutorials will get you through any issues that might arise quickly and easily. Most importantly, however, is their support.
Should you ever come across any issues.. the MailGet folks are close by to help. Simply click on the live chat box in the bottom right and you'll get a rep almost instantly. I was actually surprised how quickly I was connected to someone and during my test, they solved the problem quickly. Well done guys!
Overall, I'm content with it and using MailGet now for all of our email handling for CMS Critic. It's that good. I recommend trying it yourself, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
<a href="https://www.formget.com/mailget-app/">Try MailGet Now.</a>

MailGet Review - Beautifully Easy Email Marketing with Amazon SES

<a href="http://www.webs.com/" target="_blank">Webs</a>, a widely popular website builder, has announced the launch of “Local Search” – a new online local listings tool for small businesses.
Part of a suite of marketing products including Pagemodo and ContactME, Webs is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder designed for small businesses.
This newly introduced local listings tool enables businesses to quickly get listed in more than 100 local listings sites and major search engines, exposing it to prospective customers. The listings include the top local search directories such as Google, Bing, AOL, Yahoo, Yelp, YP.com and more.
<h2>Mass Local Listings Made Simple</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/local_listings_blog_header700x0.png" alt="Webs Local Search" />
Local Search works for small businesses with and without physical presence. All users need to do is produce basic company details, taking less than five minutes to get submitted to more than 100 online directories. Once submitted, businesses can easily monitor and update their listings using their own online dashboard.
Local Search also includes a free check on whether a business is already included in top local directories. In addition to small business owners, marketing agencies can use Local Search to improve their clients’ local search results (local SEO).
Scott Bowen, Webs' General Manager, made these comments about the new release:
<blockquote>“We’ve found that most of our customers build a website to attract new customers to their business and provide a platform to sell their products online. If a company’s website or online profile isn’t easily found on local listings sites and search engines, customers will never know about that company and its offerings. Local Search isn’t just for businesses with a physical presence – it’s a tool any business looking to grow its sales can benefit from.”</blockquote>
To find out more about Webs' Local Search feature, <a href="http://www.webs.com/blog/2014/10/21/introducing-webs-local-search-get-business-listed-today/" target="_blank">check out their official blog announcement</a>.
Plus, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/webs/" target="_blank">Webs via our CMS Directory.</a>

Webs Launches Local Listings Tool

CMS Summit 26

Find out at Open Source CMS 26, October 20-21 in Utrecht, Netherlands

What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

#ffffff

<a href="http://www.wix.com/" target="_blank">Wix</a>, one of the world's most popular website builders, has launched a campaign called <a href="http://createthestars.com/" target="_blank"> CREATE</a>, which aims to light up the sky of New York City for one starry night.
Wix – the <a href="/the-winner-of-the-2014-peoples-choice-cms-award-for-best-website-builder/" target="_blank">winner of the 2014 CMS Award for Best Website Builder</a> – has invited people from around the world to create and dedicate their own stars using unique Wix.com design tools. After creating a star, users can dedicate it to someone special before dragging and dropping it into a virtual sky, contributing to the creation of a collective star-field.
This star-field can be seen by anybody attending the CREATE event on November 1st 2014 at New York’s Madison Square Park. There, attendees will have thee unique experience of creating stars and shooting them up into the New York City night sky.
<h2>Celebrating Web Design Freedom</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/29708-1.jpg" alt="CREATE wix" />
The CREATE campaign launches as part of Wix's collaboration with agency of record Silver + Partners, and ties directly into the company's mission to enable anyone to easily create a professional online presence, exactly the way they want.
Selected to be among the website building elite over at Website Builders Critic, Wix powers millions of websites for individuals and small businesses across the world. CREATE is just one of many great Wix ideas.
Avishai Abrahami, the Wix Co-Founder and CEO, made these comments regarding the project:
<blockquote>“Simplifying the web creation process is what Wix is all about. We give our users an advanced, code-free platform, and we're constantly blown away by how incredibly creative they get when there are no tech or design barriers to limit them.
The CREATE campaign celebrates this freedom. Wix.com lets you create anything online, and now, by simply dragging and dropping elements, you can even put stars in the sky.”</blockquote>
The Wix powered CREATE customization tools allow you to choose from a wide range of start shapes, sizes and colours. A caption of 140 characters can then be added before completion.
To create and dedicate your star, head over to the <a href="http://createthestars.com/" target="_blank"> CREATE website</a>.
Also, be sure to check out more of <a href="/products/wix/" target="_blank">Wix via our CMS Directory</a>.

CREATE Powered by Wix Set to Light up NYC

ImpressPages have now launched the latest version of their user-friendly CMS in the form of <a href="http://www.impresspages.org/" target="_blank"> ImpressPages CMS 3.6 </a> , which boasts a Theme Marketplace with a twist. 
 The creation of ImpressPages CMS by <a href="http://www.aproweb.eu/" target="_blank"> Apro Media </a>  – a web design firm, came in response to the difficulties faced by many of their customers, who were having trouble learning the ropes of other popular content management systems on the market. So, the team at Apro Media decided to build ImpressPages, in a bid to make life easier for their customers, and the wider web community in general. 
 The main addition made to ImpressPages via the latest update, has been the introduction of the Theme Marketplace, which is a lot more than your average theme or template store.
<h2>The Theme Marketplace</h2>
ImpressPages CMS' <a href="http://market.impresspages.org/" target="_blank">Theme Marketplace</a> houses a range of beautifully designed themes, all of which work seamlessly with the content management system. You can currently find a mixture of six free themes, alongside four premium themes, selling at $49 each.
Users of ImpressPages don't even need to visit the marketplace, as the theme repository can be browsed through without needing to leave the admin panel. Similarly, each theme can be previewed in the same way, before purchase. There is also a one-click install feature, which naturally ties in with the ImpressPages ethos of user friendliness.
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1700x0.png" alt="ImpressPages CMS 3.6" /> You can go a step further by customizing pre-designed themes too, by adjusting colours, fonts, layouts, and other parameters, all within the admin panel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/3.png" alt="ImpressPages CMS 3.6" />
However, ImpressPages have also given their Theme Marketplace an interesting spin. Developers using ImpressPages can quickly and easily begin building, publishing and selling their themes to other ImpressPages users through the Theme Marketplace.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/21.png" alt="ImpressPages CMS 3.6" /> Developers can choose to charge for their themes, or create completely free ones for the benefit of the community. ImpressPages merchants can also choose to contribute between 10% to 50% of his fee to the growth of ImpressPages.
<h2>Still Keeping It Simple</h2>
With version 3.6, ImpressPages CMS have remained true to their rule of simplicity, by streamlining their platform even further.
For example, LESS CSS support has been integrated – making it easier to understand and modify CSS, along with default widget styles which are now fully responsive and are also available in plain CSS and configurable LESS formats.
To find out more about these additional features bundled with ImpressPages CMS 3.6, as well as to get an insight into the future of the platform, you can read through ImpressPages' <a href="http://www.impresspages.org/blog/impresspages-cms-3-6-and-theme-marketplace-in-a-nutshell/" target="_blank">official release notes</a>.

ImpressPages CMS 3.6 Released Along With Theme Marketplace

<a href="http://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank"> PrestaShop</a> took a big step forward when version 1.6 was released earlier this year.
They gave the PrestaShop back and front end a serious face lift and introduced some brilliant features to help merchants sell. It made the platform almost unrecognizable – but in a good way.
In fact, one could argue that PrestaShop 1.6 is the platform's most important release to date.
Yet, PrestaShop haven't been resting on their laurels. Quite recently, a brand new PrestaShop project has come to light. One which could make genuinely powerful eCommerce features more accessible than ever before.
<h2>PrestaShop Cloud</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7700x0.png" alt="PrestaShop OnDemand" />
First announced via the PrestaShop blog, PrestaShop’s Cloud – which is currently in beta – is a cloud-hosted version of PrestaShop, offered to the general public for precisely nothing.
Yes, you read that correctly.
PrestaShop is on the brink of serving up a completely free cloud-hosted version of itself. Now, free cloud-hosting for any product is something to be excited about, but to be offered free cloud-hosting for a product as powerful as PrestaShop? It’s unheard of.
So, since it’s such an impressive step forward for PrestaShop (once again), I’ve decided to give you a peek at what PrestaShop Cloud platform is like.
<h2>A Home of Its Own</h2>
Right now, you can <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">sign up for the beta via the PrestaShop website</a>. However, since PrestaShop’s Cloud version and self-hosted PrestaShop will be offered as two separate eCommerce solutions, It’s only right that PrestaShop’s Cloud has its own home. And it does.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.png" alt="PrestaShop OnDemand" />
Those who have signed up and been accepted to participate in the beta will have been greeted by the brand new PrestaShop Cloud website. A sleek, modern and inviting digital door mat.
It’s a pleasant way for any merchant to start his or her eCommerce journey, with the easy signup form on the homepage, along with features and functions boasted about around the site in a way which is easy to understand.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2700x0.png" alt="PrestaShop OnDemand" />
As it stands, the PrestaShop’s Cloud website will eventually function alongside the current PrestaShop website.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3700x0.png" />
In other words, PrestaShop will soon come in two distinct flavours, enabling the platform to tap into a new market – a market of merchants who want their online stores ready-made, well-done and served up on a big, free cloud.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
To get started with PrestaShop’s Cloud version, new users only need to provide their names, emails and store name. This is followed by a short store configuration process, where you select your store URL, where you are based, and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5.png" alt="PrestaShop OnDemand" />
After that signing up, you’ll be presented with a new admin dashboard unique to PrestaShop Cloud.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6700x0.png" alt="PrestaShop OnDemand" />
Using this dashboard – which acts as a buffer zone between you and the traditional PrestaShop back office dashboard – you can configure account settings, create a new store, add a new domain to an existing store, create FTP users, and so forth.
Other than that, PrestaShop Cloud platform is identical to self-hosted PrestaShop. The only difference is the speedy store creation and a further Cloud admin panel with a few, manageable settings.
It’s lightweight, and that’s a good thing.
<h2>A Free Cloud (That Won’t Rain On Parades)</h2>
PrestaShop’s beta cloud platform looks promising. I didn’t come across any faults or bugs, and because it mimics exactly what “original PrestaShop” has to offer, it would seem that – as far as functionality goes – PrestaShop’s beta cloud shouldn’t run into any problems.
The only issue I can foresee is the cloud-hosting itself. It is free after all, so one can be forgiven for assuming that speed and uptime might be compromised.
However, <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/blog/en/prestashop-beta-program-questions-answers/" target="_blank">PrestaShop have already set aside some time</a> to address this very question assumption:
<blockquote> How can we make our cloud solution totally free? 
The same way PrestaShop is completely free, through our trusted partnerships with industry leaders and the thousands of Addons extra features. These partnerships and Addons give you access to an arsenal of tools aimed at making your online store successful. It also allows PrestaShop to always remain free forever.
 The hosting is free… but is it efficient? 
We know that site speed and performance is key to maintaining a successful online store. That’s why we’ve teamed up with a powerhouse in quality hosting, OVH. You’re in good hands, OVH has over 700,000 customers worldwide, and their servers are equipped with the latest Intel processors and high performance SSD hard drives to ensure your store will be quick to take orders and make sales.</blockquote>
In short, PrestaShop are confident that the Cloud platform will run smoothly, despite being completely free. Time will tell, of course, but if PrestaShop can pull this off, it will be one of the most impressive moves the eCommerce industry has seen in some time.
To sign up for the free PrestaShop Cloud beta, <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/en/beta" target="_blank">click here</a>.
Plus, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/prestashop/" target="_blank">PrestaShop via our CMS Directory</a>, and my full <a href="/prestashop-review/" target="_blank">PrestaShop Review</a>.

Hands-On with PrestaShop’s new Beta Cloud Platform

The XOOPS Project is proud to present XOOPS 2.5.4.
<a href="http://xoops.org">XOOPS</a> is one of the most successful Open Source CMS solutions, constantly winning top places in various competitions, and receiving various awards.
In addition to updating its internal libraries to their latest versions: phpMailer (5.1), TinyMCE (3.4.6), jQuery (1.6.4), and jQueryUI (1.8.16), the major focus of this release is on converting all Core modules (PM, Profile, Protector) to a new ModuleAdmin GUI, so all of them have a consistent “look &amp; feel”.

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/xoops_gui_2_5_01-450x368.jpg" /> <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mg842_moheaderlogo_corp_fa_scfpg9.png" /> The new Module GUI will be the official GUI for all modules supported by XOOPS, and will drive:
<ul>
<li>Increased productivity</li>
<li>Decreased training and support costs</li>
<li>Reduced development time and costs</li>
<li>Reduced maintenance costs</li>
<li>Increased customer satisfaction</li>
</ul>
As next, the XOOPS Project will be working on a “Basic Module Pack”, which will contain the most popular XOOPS module in one user-friendly package, all with the new Module GUI.
XOOPS has not only a very loyal base, as the number of downloads suggests, but is also highly respected in the industry. In 2008 it was a finalist in SourceForge Community Awards and in the 2008 and 2009 CMS Awards by Packt Publishing. It also won the prestigious 2008 China Open Source Software Contest Award, the 2009 Grand Prize in OSS Challenge in Korea, and the 2010 “Best Technology Award” from Northeast Asia OSS Forum.
The main features of XOOPS are full modularization where modules can be installed/uninstalled/activated/deactivated with a mouse click, its versatile Group Permissions System, and a theme-based skinnable interface, where both webmasters and users can change the look of the entire website with just a click of a mouse. There are over thousand of themes and modules available for free download. With the most popular modules like News, Discussion Forums, Photo Galleries, Calendars, Jobs and Classifieds, Polls, and Video presentations, it's very easy for anyone to set up a “Community Website”. And since XOOPS is Open Source, the users can also contribute back to the development.
In the current economic downturn, Open Source software has become increasingly attractive to users and companies, as it helps them to save a lot of money. XOOPS is definitely one of these Open Source projects that can provide major financial savings.
System requirements
<ul>
<li>Any PHP version &gt;= 5.2</li>
<li>MySQL server 5.0+ is strongly recommended</li>
<li>Web server: Any server supporting the required PHP version (Apache highly recommended)</li>
</ul>

XOOPS Project releases XOOPS 2.5.4

<a href="http://kentico.com" target="_blank">Kentico</a> recently released version 4 of their ASP .NET CMS which comes with three different example sites to choose from: eCommerce, Personal and Community. We will be evaluating Kentico using their virtual lab which, if you'd like to try their product yourself, is accessible at<a href="http://www.kentico.com/Demo/VirtualLab.aspx"> http://www.kentico.com/Demo/VirtualLab.aspx</a>
Kentico is an advanced system that offers extreme usability and point and click editing, but can they hold up in a market where so many other systems exist? Let's find out.
Version 4.0 cites such improvements as the integration of Social Networking and other improvements which you can read about <a href="/kentico-cms-4-0-brings-social-networking-features/" target="_blank">here</a> or at the following locations:
<a href="http://devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Petr-Palas/February-2009/Kentico-CMS-4-0-Released.aspx" target="_blank">http://devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Petr-Palas/February-2009/Kentico-CMS-4-0-Released.aspx</a>
<a href="http://www.kentico.com/Company/News/Kentico-CMS-4-0-Brings-Social-Networking-Features.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.kentico.com/Company/News/Kentico-CMS-4-0-Brings-Social-Networking-Features.aspx</a>
<a href="http://www.kentico.com/getdoc/e6b7c83a-c06c-4bc1-b818-3e96b7ce9a1f/Version_history.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.kentico.com/Download/Version_history.aspx</a>
Today, we are going to examine this system and see what features it brings to the table.
Now, First off.. this is the Personal site template/theme:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-personal.png" alt="kentico-personal" />
Nice isn't it? Pretty good considering this is a sample of what it can look like.
Here is the Corporate starter site:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-corporate.png" alt="kentico-corporate" />
These are all very beautiful themes so far. Two more to go. eCommerce:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-ecommerce.png" alt="kentico-ecommerce" />
We can't say this enough times.. for starter templates, these are better than some professionaly designed ones we've seen. Finally, here's the one we've been waiting for…
The Community starter site:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-community.png" alt="kentico-community" />
For the purposes of this review, we're going to test it out using the above Community starter site. It seems fitting since the latest 
release focused largely on social and community enhancements.
When you first log in to the Community starter site, you'll notice some new menus appear in place of the Sign in box:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-5.png" alt="kentico-5" />
Let's explore these a bit. Click on My profile takes us to a pretty good looking profile page with options to view our blogs, leave us a 
message, see what groups we're a member of, etc.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-6.png" alt="kentico-6" />
Clicking on the Edit my profile link lets us modify our avatar from a pretty decent selection. It also lets us upload our own if we choose to do so:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-7.png" alt="kentico-7" />
There are groups and blogs as well.. which look very nice:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-8.png" alt="kentico-8" />
The abilities that Kentico has for developing a really nice social networking site go above and beyond what we've seen in similar 
products. They've done an amazing job of integrating an attractive interface, ease of use and group membership functionality into one simple platform.
There are so many changes in this release that we can't even begin to cover all of them and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Let's examine the administrative interfaces next.
Kentico has two different Admin panels so to speak. One, which is called CMS Desk allows multiple options such as the ability to 
interactively design the site and the other is called CMS Site Manager, which we'll get to in a moment.
First the CMS Desk:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-9.png" alt="kentico-9" />
From here you are able to edit, preview and manage your site content from an easy to use and nicely laid out interface. By switching to design mode, you can edit and modify any of the elements on any of the pages with ease:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-10.png" alt="kentico-10" />
There are 3 other sections of the CMS Desk. You can switch the My Desk which allows you to manage your content, approve content that has entered the workflow process, etc. There is also the Tools section which allows you to managed Media, Create forms and much, much more:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-11.png" alt="kentico-11" />
The Administration menu allows you to managed users, review your banned IP addresses , etc.
Ok. We're impressed. Let's see what their other control panel looks like shall we?
Switching to Site Manager you are immediately presented with all running sites in a simple list with quick management buttons:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-12.png" alt="kentico-12" />
Then there is the Administration Tab, which provides you with the following management menus:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-13.png" alt="kentico-13" />
Followed by the Settings Tab:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-14.png" alt="kentico-14" />
Just when you thought it couldn't get better… they added the option to allow you to manage payments with Paypal and Authorize.net.
It gets better. Are you ready for this? Check out the Development tab:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-15.png" alt="kentico-15" />
We think that's enough screenshots to get across the point.
In summary:
Wow. Kentico has done an outstanding job on this release. We're fairly comfortable saying that we don't think there's anything we can 
think of that they missed. In fact, in our opinion, they've gone above and beyond. If you are looking for a CMS for any need, Kentico 
definitely fits the bill. This is an amazing product at an amazing price.
You can find out more on the pricing at their website here: <a href="http://www.kentico.com/Buy.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.kentico.com/Buy.aspx</a>
This was a great product to play with and has the potential of creating some incredible sites, we can only hope that someone takes 
advantage of it and puts it to use creating the next big thing on the web.
Ratings wise, it's uncomparable. There literally is nothing on the market that comes close to touching this software as far as Social 
Networking integration goes that we've tested to date. (If you know of something, definitely let us know.)
With the options it presents, we're very very excited to see what they could possibly improve in their next release.
The only thing that prevents Kentico from getting a 10 is that the help system built into the admin pages is lacking and needs to 
be improved upon.
Our final score:
<h2>9/10</h2>

Kentico, the CMS for the .Net Generation

A few weeks ago, over 2 billion WhatsApp users had a rude awakening.
The popular instant messaging service – which was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/10/06/facebook-closes-19-billion-whatsapp-deal/?sh=29c286f55c66">acquired by Facebook</a> in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion – pushed out a change to its privacy terms.
If you read the message on the app’s home screen, it doesn’t say much:
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/02/whatsapp-privacy-policy-572x1024.png" alt="Screenshot of WhatsApp privacy policy" />
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"></figure>
But dig a little deeper and you’ll find a daunting 4000-word <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy/?lang=en">privacy policy</a> that essentially gives WhatsApp the right to share user data with Facebook and Facebook-owned platforms like Instagram. This includes phone numbers, IP addresses, and other personal identifiers outlined within the terms.
The update was initially scheduled to go into effect on February 8th, after which users must agree to the new terms – or be cut off from the app. After receiving a preponderance of media coverage and consumer pushback, WhatsApp decided to delay the cutoff to May 15th.
"We’re now moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms," said WhatsApp on a <a href="https://blog.whatsapp.com/giving-more-time-for-our-recent-update">blog post</a>. "No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8th. We're also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp. We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15th."
To suggest that these changes are controversial would be an understatement. And yet, this is par for the course for Facebook, which has struggled to win back trust after its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook">widely publicized scandal with Cambridge Analytica</a>. Despite a tarnished reputation, it continues to be the largest social media platform in the world with over 2.5 billion monthly users. Still, the awareness around Facebook’s mishandling of personal data has drawn the ire and scorn of many users.
<h3>From WhatsApp to… where?</h3>
When news spread about WhatsApp and their proposed policy changes, users started jumping ship in droves.
While the social messaging market is relatively mature, only a handful of platforms have elevated their brand awareness to the level of WhatsApp. More importantly, just a few have touted their emphasis on securing personal data while remaining open and accessible.
One popular destination for the WhatsApp exodus was <a href="https://telegram.org/">Telegram</a> – a cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app with a focus on security and speed. Their CEO reported <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/telegram-chief-reports-25-million-new-users-in-three-days-938314.html">25 million new users in three days</a>, which was a groundswell of activations for the company. It's worth noting that Telegram has refused to hand over encryption keys in several countries to protect user data, demonstrating their commitment to data privacy.
While Telegram and other niche platforms like Discord and Tox were beneficiaries, the real gold rush came after tech mogul <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-bytes/another-signal-gains-after-elon-musks-tweet/articleshow/80234425.cms?from=mdr">Elon Musk tweeted only two words</a>:
“Use Signal.”
By the end of the day, <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/708916/what-is-signal-and-why-is-everyone-using-it/">Signal</a> – a free privacy-focused messaging and voice app – experienced a massive surge of more than 42 million new users.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/02/elon-musk-use-signal-tweet.jpg" alt="Screenshot of Elon Musk's Tweet about Signal" />
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"></figure>
<h3>A strong Signal for messaging</h3>
Once a lesser-known contender in the messaging market, Signal became the hottest app on the planet – and the preferred alternative to WhatsApp.
First tweeted about in 2015 by Edward Snowden, Signal is a secure platform with rich features like one-to-one messaging, groups, stickers, photos, file transfers, voice calls, and even video calls. Millions of people use Signal every day to instantaneously send and receive high-fidelity messages for a wide variety of personal and business needs – and as stated, it’s free.
Like WhatsApp, communications on Signal are end-to-end encrypted – meaning only the people in a direct conversation can see the content of their messages. Like Telegram, Signal is so committed to securing user messages that some countries have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#:~:text=As%20of%20October%202017%2C%20Signal's,Signal%20was%20blocked%20in%20Iran.">banned it</a>.
<h3>Tapping Twilio for phone numbers</h3>
While Signal offers an alternative to the WhatsApp privacy conundrum, users can further secure their transactions on any messaging platform with some simple strategies.
Like WhatsApp, registering for Signal requires a phone number. But it doesn’t have to be your own phone number – it simply needs to be an active number for receiving a verification code via text message during the account registration process.
<a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a>, a cloud-based communications platform, allows you to receive phone calls and SMS messages using their dynamic <a href="https://www.twilio.com/phone-numbers">phone number service</a>. In fact, Twilio powers the new-user verifications for Signal and manages new-user authentication and password resets for WhatsApp – making it an incredibly useful solution for messaging apps and services.
You can purchase a <a href="https://www.twilio.com/phone-numbers">phone number</a> from Twilio to use for Signal for as little as $1/month by creating a Twilio account <a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio">here</a>.
<h3>What’s next for WhatsApp?</h3>
While Facebook still rules the social kingdom, it has clearly plateaued – and continues to bleed existing users. WhatsApp may struggle to find its footing in a fragmented landscape of multi-channel messaging options, especially as remote platforms like <a href="https://www.voxer.com/">Voxer</a> blur the lines between personal and business communications.
Still, it’s too early to tell, and Facebook has billions of dollars – and billions of users – to support more innovation. In a post-Zuckerberg regime, it may very well adapt and evolve, and bring WhatsApp along for the ride.
Twilio has been on a roll lately with multiple <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">acquisitions</a>. While it may see lower user activity on WhatsApp, the spike in Signal downloads might offset that lost usage revenue. Regardless, they appear to have positioned themselves as an indispensable part of the social messaging landscape and the foundation for digital communications in 2021 and beyond.
<h3>About Signal</h3>
Privacy is possible. Signal Messenger makes it easy. At <a href="https://signal.org/">Signal</a>, the goal is to develop open-source privacy technology that protects privacy rights, promotes free expression, and enables secure global communication. Signal believes that private messaging should be simple and ubiquitous, combining state-of-the-art security and end-to-end encryption with the features that users expect in a modern messaging application. Millions of people use Signal every day to speak freely, and a growing list of organizations have integrated the open-source Signal Protocol into messaging platforms that support billions of users.
<h3>About Twilio</h3>
<a href="https://www.twilio.com/">Twilio</a> is a cloud communication company that powers the future of business communications, enabling phones, VoIP, and messaging to be embedded into web, desktop, and mobile software. They take care of the messy telecom hardware and expose a globally available cloud API that developers can interact with to build intelligent &amp; complex communications systems. As your app’s usage scales up or down, Twilio automatically scales with you. You only pay for what you use - no contracts, no shenanigans.

Signal Gains 42 Million Users Fleeing WhatsApp, Facebook Over Privacy Policy

cms-critic-staff

Image of the Signal app interface on a mobile phone

We recently had an opportunity to interview Steve Allen, CEO of iDatix to get his thoughts on the state of the company, the industry and the challenges they have faced. For those unaware, iDatix produces a document management system called iSynergy. You can visit their <a href="http://www.idatix.com/document-management-software/">website</a> to learn more.
Please tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/typo3-seven-zero_2c533ba706_pexo4i.png" alt="Steve Allen, CEO of iDatix" />
I have always been a technology driven person with a passion for the creative and aesthetic, and my career has taken me all over the world designing products from robotic systems and emergency vessel location to hand-print character recognition.  My experiences as an engineer have often focused on leveraging technology to literally replace mundane human labor and the user interfaces to make the technology work.  The benefits of this work have been significant for me.  From lifesaving, in the case of a system I designed for the marine radio market, to life liberating as in eliminating the mundane data entry of hand-printed forms.
My creative side has focused on how to make things simple, elegant and intuitive.  I never wanted to create something complex.  I have always seemed to find the “easy” solution and been able to deliver solutions quickly by using previous innovations to build new ones.
In my endeavors, I have not been the politically popular individual in selling the benefits of the technology I have helped to develop and market. I am often accused of eliminating jobs, but I have found more often than not that we actually create many more jobs as a result.  I can look back and see many companies that once empowered with this revolutionary technology, have experienced explosive growth; growing from 30 employees to over 300 or from 150 to 600.
In my transition from an Engineer to a Sales Executive and then a CEO, I have had to reinvent myself from the core and keep myself in a continual state of learning.  I have failed many times and wish I could undo many mistakes, mostly with people and not understanding good leadership and management, but with many books, CEO groups and hard lessons learned, I can say I am getting better.  Today, I am most proud of the children I have raised (seven), the relationship with my wife and the people at our company iDatix. iDatix has been listed as “Best Places to Work in Tampa Bay” for five consecutive years and it is a joy to have such an engaged group of people working toward a common vision to “Simplify the Workplace”.
Who is iDatix and what product / services do you offer?
iDatix has been a technology focused business with a mission to “Simplify the Workplace” for the past 11 years.  We have been very successful at transforming the operations of over 500 companies worldwide and have built a wonderful product base that we truly believe are different and critical for the operations of most businesses.  It is now our new mission to let the world know who we are and how we can make their business better.In laymen’s terms, we help a company go as paperless as possible and then move the work from desktop to desktop or department to department or company to vendor, customers and partners to get work done.  It’s delivering everything to the right person at the right time so they can take action on it, review it and make decisions according to defined business rules, policies and procedures.
Our core product, iSynergy, is a suite of business automation tools that empower an organization to innovate their company’s operations, processes and management.  We provide a solution for merging people, processes and technology into a unified platform for operational effectiveness.  We do this by automating and driving the process of taking action on information and content by employees, partners, vendors and management when and where it is needed.  We eliminate manual operations and processes and replace them with a unified web-enabled solution to make companies more productive and profitable.
You can think of our technology as Document Management, Content Management, E-Forms, Workflow and Business Process Management all rolled into one solution to eliminate the Gaps in any businesses operations.
What separates your product from the large number of contenders in the market?
Our focus on simplicity, ease of use, integration capabilities and business process design tools clearly separate us from the rest of the competition.  iSynergy is a platform solution that provides powerful functionality within a completely web-based architecture.  There is no easier way to design and deploy a complete solution faster than with iSynergy.Because each of the solution modules were specifically designed to operate seamlessly in as an integrated solution it can be maintained and expanded by process owners without the need of IT services.  This enables companies to leverage their investments and compound the returns in our technology.
Progression, our workflow and business process automation tool stands apart of the industry in its capabilities and ease of use.  Simply draw a picture of your business process, define your business rules with point and click ease and then click on implement.  iSynergy’s Progression does the rest, creating a complete web-based solution that automates employee and other manual interactions, tasks, database exchanges, automated notifications, escalations, and real-time reporting with management dashboards and controls.
All of this results in shorter deployment times, reduced costs, reduced risks and a faster payback.
What do you feel has been the biggest challenge of 2010/2011 for your company?
We have always delivered great technical results and success to our clients, but our transition to a more sales and marketing focused company from a technology driven company has been our biggest challenge over 2010/2011.  As the “propeller head” leading our company as CEO, sales and marketing have been difficult to manage, to create a culture and produce repeatable results.  Even with these challenges we have managed to grow, but not at the level our team and products could support.A colleague of mine in a CEO group, after hearing me complain about our sales struggles, told me I had a marketing problem, not a sales problem.  It took over a year for me to really understand how to apply his advice, but we have finally gotten a marketing team that is producing a steady lead-flow that is resulting in more and bigger opportunities.
We will be continuing to nurture a marketing and sales culture here at iDatix through 2012 and beyond to hit the growth curve we have set our vision on.
Currently the market is in the process of recovering from a rather aggressive recession, how did you weather the storm?
Prior to the recession, iDatix was one of the fastest growing companies in Tampa Bay.  We were adding a significant number of employees, preparing for the growth we were experiencing.  When the recession hit, everyone stopped signing the deals in front of them.  Our pipeline timeframes kept growing and deals kept delaying.  In the end, we had to pull back a little and our revenues were flat in 2009 until 2010.  Once everyone saw that things weren’t getting better quickly and that they must also correct for the current economic environment, the deals started to flow again.  Companies realized that they had to do more with less and this actually helped fuel the growth of iDatix once again.In 2010 iDatix grew at nearly 40% and we expect the same growth to continue and even compound over the next few years.
In the realm of document management, what do you feel is the next big thing coming down the pipeline and why?
Document Management has provided great benefits to organizations over the past 20 years.  From the simple archival systems to the new full content management solutions, the challenges facing us in everyday business get more voluminous, complex and require more work to complete.  We have reached the point where document management is critical to business success and you are really crippled in your operations, competitiveness and ability to meet the demands of today’s clients for customer support without it.Moving into the future, we are more connected than ever before and the demands on our time have been increased by mobile technologies.  Businesses no longer have the borders of the office walls or office hours.  Our personal lives have been invaded by mobile technology and business has found its way into our personal lives to a level that can be viewed as pervasive.  But, if we turn that around and look at it as empowering, we can see documents and business tasks being delivered on the mobile platform in new and effective ways to free us from the traditional workplace. By using workflow and business automation together with document and content management we can deliver neatly bundled packages of work to the most qualified and capable individuals anytime anywhere in the world.  We can monitor the productivity, bottlenecks and reassign work instantly with the touch of a phone screen.  Work can be directed, measured and performed at our convenience!
What type of CMS integrations does iDatix offer?iDatix provides a complete set of integration tools at the user level, system level and programmer’s API level.  iSynergy can be integrated in to federated systems or as a component to portal solutions such as SharePoint or other systems.
Do you offer any ERP or CRM integrations?
iSyenrgy has been fully integrated into most ERP, CRM and other key line of business solutions including accounting, medical, manufacturing, banking and others.  Our off-the-shelf integration technology iLink and Data Exchange accelerates the integration process by not requiring any form of programming.  It easily allows end-users to define integration points for document management, content capture or workflow via a simple to use point and click tool that allows you to add buttons to 3rd party applications.
What has been the biggest achievement you or the document management industry have seen this year?
The speed with which companies are delivering mobile and SaaS solutions has been remarkable in 2011.  I think iDatix has the advantage, as our products have been browser and web based since our inception in 2000 and this is especially true of our workflow tools.
Do you have any predictions for 2012?
I believe in 2012 the industry will continue to see growth and consolidation as others try to create “total” business process automation solutions that fill the gaps between employees, processes, systems and management.  To do this you have to manage the documents, content, forms, data, process flow, business rules and management activities.
There are still so many companies running without this technology that need it, or companies that need a technology refresh.
Thank you for your time Mr. Allen, do you have any closing remarks?
It would be great if 2012 were the year that the industry came together to form a new acronym that clearly defined clearly why this technology is so critical for business success.
Here is my stab at it:
Document Oriented Essential Solution Integrated Total Functionality Automated by Systems and Technology
DoesItFast!
Well done sir. Thank you for your time.

Interview with Steve Allen, CEO of iDatix

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