Articles - Page 102

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

matt-garrepy

This year has been an incredibly successful one for the CMS Awards and as our third consecutive year, we've had more nominations and voters than ever before!Competition this year was very tight between contenders LightCMS, Surreal CMS and Acquia Cloud but in the end, there can be only one winner.It is with great pleasure that I announce the 2014 People's Choice CMS Award for Best Cloud CMS For SMB (Small to Midsize Business) goes to:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/lightcms-1.jpg" alt="Best Cloud CMS for SMB" />LightCMS fought hard this year and it was incredibly close between them and runner up, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.surrealcms.com/">Surreal CMS </a>but in the end, LightCMS prevailed.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-hosted-cloud-cms.png" alt="Best Cloud CMS for SMB" />Congratulations to everyone at LightCMS (and mother company, Netsuite) on their win!If you aren't familiar with LightCMS and would like to learn more, read our in-depth  LightCMS review on our new site, Website Builders Critic where you can find LightCMS Tutorials and more.Share this using <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/bestcloudcms">http://bit.ly/bestcloudcms</a>

The Winner of the 2014 People's Choice CMS Award for Best Cloud CMS for SMB

mike-johnston

Wix, the world-famous website builder, has unveiled some new features for its editor that help you bring images into focus, stretch galleries, and more.The cloud-based website builder powers over 80 Million websites, and had offices across the globe. Thus, any update that Wix rolls out is certain to impact the way millions of people control their websites.Here's a video explaining the key points of this update.<h2>Crop, Zoom, Filter</h2>The new Wix Crop Tool enables you to enhance your photos by re-sizing, focusing or magnifying any image that you drag-and-drop into place. It's done in typical Wix-fashion, with no large windows popping up or new tabs to switch to.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/crop-image541x0-is.png" />Furthermore, you can then modify your photos by applying filters, a little like sprucing up an Instagram photo before publishing it. Wix offers up 18 different filters, one of which is “3D”.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/filter-image592x0-is.png" />As for galleries, Wix now lets you “stretch” them. In other words, you can make them cover the entire width of the screen, instead of stayed boxed into the boundaries of your theme.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/strech582x0-is.png" /><h2>New Contact Forms, Feedback Requests &amp; More</h2>To go along with the Editor update, Wix has brought in a few new contact form templates, and gave users with languages that read from right-to-left a helping hand by enabling them to toggle the order of text on their site menu.Also, the “Get Feedback” feature has returned to Wix, making it easier for you to send your website as a preview to friend and family for feedback, before anything goes live. A small, but handy re-addition.All in all, I think it's fair to call this a solid update from Wix. Little additions to the Editor feature set like this will only please existing users, especially since they're getting new functionality without their Editor getting any more complex.To find out more about this update, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wix.com/blog/2016/03/new-advanced-editor-features/">check out the Wix blog</a>.And as always, be sure to check out the <a href="/products/wix">Wix hub on our CMS Directory</a>.

New Wix Editor Features Help to Make Images The Focus

As the name aptly implies, <a href="/products/bigcommerce" target="_blank">Bigcommerce</a> has had a big role to play in the eCommerce industry over the last few years, and it's just undergone a massive rebranding process that pushed it to new, highly professional heights.
Bigcommerce covers all the bases by offering an inclusive range of price plans, as well as a 15-day free trial. Their user base consists of small businesses, enterprise-grade companies, and everything in between.
According to a Bigcommerce statement, their new brand, “reﬂects our long-term commitment to powering growth, removing complexity and supporting businesses around the world.”
<h2>Bigcommerce's Big Makeover</h2>
Bigcommerce now sports a new (and very slick) logo, which sends out a far more executive vibe than its predecessor. Their website has undergone a total makeover too, with new fonts, colors, shapes, and messaging.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15857x0-is.png" />
Here's what Bigcommerce had to say on the matter:
<blockquote>“This new brand helps better convey our story, and the story of our merchants. Just as with the businesses that rely on our platform, design plays a vital role in how customers interact with and experience our brand.
The changes to our website and control panel were informed directly by our customers and partners, and are designed to make interacting with and discovering information easier and more efficient. This is represented in our new logo — an ode to the “growth chart” used in boardrooms and offices around the world to quantify progress.
At its core, our logo is a dramatically simple composition of elements that convey our brand’s promise to help merchants grow “up and to the right”.”</blockquote>
Although this “update” is primarily aesthetic, I feel it's a big milestone in Bigcommerce's history. And I think it will shape the way it approaches its future, too. As far as I can see, this rebranding event seems to be an attempt to push Bigcommerce in the direction of higher-end clients.
The previous branding was welcoming and happy-go-lucky. But now, Bigcommerce looks like it means serious business.
It may not directly impact user experience, but I'm sure it will help attract more large and enterprise-scale companies (which Bigcommerce seems to be chasing more ardently than ever) towards the platform.
More details can be found on the <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/bigcommerce-rebrand/" target="_blank">Bigcommerce blog</a>.
Additionally, you can explore more of <a href="/products/bigcommerce/" target="_blank">Bigcommerce via our CMS Directory</a>.

Bigcommerce Undergoes Rebranding, And Now They Mean Serious Business

Movable Type have announced the arrival of a new, cloud-based hosted &amp; managed version of their powerhouse publishing and blogging software.
The CMS giants came into being in 2001, and have grown into a widely popular social publishing platform, supporting thousands of organizations, some of which make up the world's Fortune 100 companies.
<a href="http://www.movabletype.com/" target="_blank"> Movable Type </a>  now provides its users with bespoke cloud computing and managed hosting solutions which allow their customers to deploy their sites to the cloud with just a single click. All this, has been as a result of Movable Types partnership with <a href="http://www.arckcloud.com/" target="_blank"> ArckCloud </a> .
<h2>Teaming Up With ArckCloud</h2>
To make the cloud-based hosting possible, Movable Type have teamed up with ArckCloud. The founder and director of ArckCloud, had this to say about the partnership:
<blockquote>
“Having been long-time users of Movable Type, we couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with the company. Everybody in America loves a comeback, and we want to be part of that and help make Movable Type easier to use and better than ever.”
</blockquote>
ArckCloud aims to aid Movable Type's customers by getting their publications and blogs on a stable, secure cloud server, whilst offering OS/application updates, patches, support for critical application issues, infrastructure consulting, performance reporting and automagic application scaling, in line with the growth of each specific website.
<h2>Up In The Clouds</h2>
When it came to making the decision regarding cloud-based hosting and management services, general manager of Movable Type North America, Robert Minton, gave the following statement:
<blockquote>
“Our research, ranging in scope from enterprise customers down to the small business owner and individual blogger, indicated we needed to introduce a simpler, streamlined version of Movable Type in the marketplace. We engaged customers, listened to their feedback and now offer a solution that makes it easy to get up and running on Movable Type in a cost-effective manner for the growing business.”
</blockquote>
Naturally, the one-click cloud server setup resulting from Movable Type's union with ArckCloud, allows organizations and individuals to focus more of their time, energy and money on other parts of their publication.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1700x0.png" alt="Moveable Type" />
Movable Type Pro – which will also be available in the Amazon Market place this fall, has been designed from the ground up for bloggers, design and development firms, and small to medium-sized businesses. What's more is, Movable Type Pro and has all of the usual Movable Type features, plus extra social networking options, custom fields and new professional templates.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.png" alt="Moveable Type" />
To showcase all of these new enhancements, Movable Type will host the Movable Type Idea Exchange, in conjunction with the 2013 Pivot Conference at Social Week in New York City, on October 15th and 16th, 2013. 
During the event, developers, bloggers and company representatives alike will have the opportunity to interact and engage with the latest version of the Movable Type platform.
If you're interested in attending the Movable Type Idea Exchange conference in New York City, you can find all the relevant details, along with information on how to register for attendance, <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/7757704503" target="_blank"> right here </a> .

Hosted & Managed Version of Movable Type Announced

This week was full of surprises from some big DXP players. A couple of days ago, Sitecore <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-embarks-on-1-2b-investment-plan-to-accelerate-growth/">announced</a> that it received $1.2 billion in capital investment to accelerate growth. Now, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> dropped another bomb by announcing <a href="https://www.acquia.com/why-acquia/acquia-digital-commerce">Acquia Digital Commerce</a>, which brings together Lucidworks' advanced AI-Driven personalization and recommendations with commercetools' headless commerce. Using Acquia Digital Commerce with Acquia Open Digital Experience Platform (DXP), marketers can drive real-time, personalized, shoppable experiences at every customer touchpoint.
After <a href="https://www.acquia.com/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-announces-majority-investment-vista-equity-partners">receiving a significant investment from Vista Equity Partners</a> last year, Acquia had recently <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-launches-new-open-digital-experience-platform/">launched its Acquia Open Digital Experience Platform</a> in July. With its new DXP, Acquia further leveraged the power of open-source Drupal CMS capabilities. The Acquia Open DXP comprises both the Acquia Marketing Cloud and Acquia Drupal Cloud and integrates their acquired technologies – including AgilOne, Mautic, and Cohesion – with their existing core. This integration aimed to bring marketers and developers together with an easy-to-use platform.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/acquia-dxp.png" alt="Image of diagrams of Acquia Drupal Cloud and Acquia Marketing Cloud" />
Now, together with partners <a href="https://commercetools.com/">commercetools</a> and <a href="http://lucidworks.com/">Lucidworks</a>, Acquia has built Acquia Digital Commerce, creating yet another successful integration. While Acquia Open Digital Platform brought marketers and developers together, Acquia Digital Commerce seeks to make the commerce experience more personalized and user-friendly.
According to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-great-consumer-shift-ten-charts-that-show-how-us-shopping-behavior-is-changing">McKinsey</a>, over 75% of U.S. consumers have changed shopping behavior and switched to new brands during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have shifted to digital channels permanently. Using Acquia CDP's customer data profiles and advanced segmentation, retailers can gain a deeper understanding of new and existing customers – and serve up personalized, shoppable, content-driven commerce experiences with Acquia Digital Commerce. These experiences, combined with intelligent promotions, increase conversions and improve customer lifetime value (LTV).
"As retailers adjust to a hybrid of in-person and online commerce shopping behaviors, solutions like Acquia Digital Commerce become even more valuable," said Kevin Cochrane, SVP of product marketing at Acquia. "By understanding customer segments and serving the right content and products at the right time on the right channel, retailers can reach customers with personal experiences that drive revenue.”
<h3>Acquia Digital Commerce</h3>
Acquia Digital Commerce is a solution that enables marketers to unify data, content, commerce, and digital merchandising into a single data layer to deliver a seamless omnichannel experience across the customer lifecycle.
Teams can maximize their commerce investments by integrating this headless, cloud-native shopping platform with Acquia Open DXP. commercetools provides an omnichannel shopping platform, and the Lucidworks AI-powered product discovery solution delivers personally relevant products and content to customers.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/acquia-lucidworks-commercetools.jpg" alt="Image of Acquia features" />
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"></figure>
One of the most valuable features Lucidworks brings to the Acquia DX Alliance is its advanced machine learning capabilities. <a href="https://lucidworks.com/cxc/">Lucidworks CXC</a> utilizes one of the broadest combinations of machine learning techniques in the industry, including NLP, Named Entity Recognition, Deep Learning Sentiment Analysis, self-learning, and relevancy tuning. This allows them to deliver extremely relevant results to users and ensure the system continuously improves based on usage.
According to a <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/01/a-study-of-46000-shoppers-shows-that-omnichannel-retailing-works">study</a> of 46,000 shoppers, 73% of consumers use multiple channels during their shopping journey. To provide a successful omnichannel experience for customers, brands need an API-first headless CMS. commercetools' headless commerce platform and API-first framework will give brands flexibility and scalability.
"By leveraging the market-leading solutions offered by commercetools, Acquia, and Lucidworks, retailers can quickly and effectively engage with end-consumers by composing relevant shopping experiences to meet customers on their own terms," said Kelly Goetsch, chief product officer at commercetools. "It's more important than ever to be able to pivot quickly, and our joint solution offers exactly that."
"Omnichannel personalization remains a top priority for brands; however, most companies lack the ability to optimize digital experiences in real-time, leading to missed revenue or loss of potential new customers," said Peter Curran, general manager of digital commerce at Lucidworks. "We're excited to be part of this best-of-breed solution to provide merchandisers and marketers with a single-layer view of all the information they need to make more informed decisions that serve their unique customer base. The value of Lucidworks advanced machine learning capabilities is compounded by Acquia Open DXP and commercetools Commerce Engine, ensuring that customers are maximizing their investments in the digital experience.”
<h3>Creating a community with Acquia DX Alliance</h3>
Along with Acquia Digital Commerce's launch, Acquia also unveiled the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-dx-alliance-elevating-customer-value-through-open-technology-partnerships">Acquia DX Alliance</a>, the company's open technology partner community, to drive collaboration through an ecosystem of leading technology vendors providing choice and jointly delivering interoperable solutions that extend Acquia Open DXP. Building a robust technology partner community enables Acquia and its partners to best support rapidly evolving customer needs.
<h3>About Acquia</h3>
<a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> is an open Digital Experience Platform designed to give enterprise companies the ability to build, operate, and optimize websites, apps, and other digital experiences. Acquia produces better business outcomes for CX leaders by enabling organizations to build, host, analyze and communicate with their customers at scale through websites and digital applications.
<h3>About commercetools</h3>
commercetools is the world's leading platform for next-generation B2C and B2B commerce. To break the market out of being restrained by legacy suites, commercetools invented a headless, API-first, multi-tenant SaaS commerce platform that is cloud-native and uses flexible microservices. Using modern development building blocks in a true cloud platform provided by commercetools, customers can deliver the best commerce experiences across every touchpoint on a large scale. commercetools has offices across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific, with headquarters in Germany. Since its founding in 2006, commercetools software has been implemented by Fortune 500 companies across industries, from retail to manufacturing and from telecommunications to fashion. More information at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2812013-1&amp;h=3676190503&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcommercetools.com%2F&amp;a=commercetools.com">commercetools.com</a>.
<h3>About Lucidworks</h3>
Lucidworks offers the Connected Experience Cloud (CXC) that captures user signals from every action and applies them to omnichannel digital experiences everywhere. CXC combines the power of search and machine learning to personalize experiences that meet employees' and customers' unique intent. The world’s largest brands, including Lenovo, Morgan Stanley, Red Hat, Reddit, and Cisco Systems rely on Lucidworks’ suite of products to power product discovery, customer service, and knowledge management applications that delight customers and empower employees. Learn more at <a href="http://lucidworks.com/">Lucidworks.com</a>.

Acquia Digital Commerce Unifies Data, Content, Commerce, and Digital Merchandising

paris-tuzun

Users of the <a href="https://www.wazala.com/" target="_blank">Wazala!</a> ecommerce platform have been treated this week to some major updates coming in the form of Wazala! 2.0.
Those unfamiliar with the online store builder should know that Wazala! is a uniquely straight-forward platform which can help you to <a href="/build-an-online-store-using-wazala/" target="_blank">overlay a store on top of existing websites and pages in minutes </a> .
Now, with the launch of Wazala! 2.0, users will be getting a number of enhancements and additions which will impact design, marketing and general usability.
<h2>A New Look</h2>
As well as a brand new slick user interface, you can now enjoy Wazala!'s new store designer dashboard which allows you to pick a ready-to-use theme – all of which are free, or even build an entire online store from scratch.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" />
If you're opting for one of Wazala's free themes, you can add your own finishing touches via the Wazala Designer page, where colours, fonts, headers, footers and more can all be customized.
These enhanced design options mean that your store can now be tweaked to match your existing website, making the shopping process even more seamless and free flowing for your customers.
<h2>A Deeper Infrastructure</h2>
To go with Wazala!'s shiny new looks and design features, Wazala! 2.0 also brings about some behind the scenes updates to help with marketing and general store analysis.
For example, the new sales &amp; stats dashboard lets you easily view sales, average order totals, average number of products per order, and so forth. The dashboard can also calculate conversions by a specific date or time period.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-31.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" />
Wazala! 2.0 also introduces a more detailed approach to search engine optimization. Without you having to lift a finger, your Wazala! store will come fully optimized “out of the box”, in line with the highest SEO standards.
Every page, product or item you add to your store, will be automatically accompanied by keyword-rich URL’s, meta titles, descriptions and keywords. Naturally, these can all be tweaked at a later stage if necessary.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" />
Also, Wazala! have implemented three new payment gateways; Stripe, PayMill and PayPal Advanced. These new options come in to accompany existing Wazala! payment methods including PayPal and Google Checkout.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2700x0.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" /> 
On top of all these great additions Wazala! announced that digital product selling is now available to all users, whilst social media sharing options have also been improved. To get a better understanding of these Wazala! 2.0 features, and the other enhancements mentioned above, check out the <a href="https://www.wazala.com/" target="_blank">official Wazala! 2.0 release notes</a>.
Additionally, you can find out more about <a href="/products/wazala/" target="_blank">Wazala! via our CMS directory</a>.

Wazala! 2.0 Launched

This year, we had a huge amount of competition for Best Free CMS and lots of communities were vying to get their favorites to the top.
The list of free content management systems is a huge one and with the number of products in the market, the list to filter during the nominations stage was very lengthy but it came down to 5 very impressive CMS platforms.
Let's review who was nominated for this year's People's Choice award for Best Free CMS.
Here are the nominees for those who were unaware:
<ol>
<li><a href="/products/processwire/">Processwire</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/tiki-wiki-cms-groupware/">Tiki</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/concrete5/">Concrete5</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/wordpress/">WordPress</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/umbraco/">Umbraco</a></li>
</ol>
And the winner is…
WordPress!
<img style="max-width:150px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-free-cms150x0.png" />
As you can see, this year, WordPress was nominated and as such, it didn't take long for the community to rally behind it. We all know how huge the WordPress community is and once they chose to back their platform of choice, it was pretty clear that WordPress would end up the winner of the 2013 People's Choice Award for Best Free CMS.
Congratulations to the WordPress development team and to all those CMS that were nominated this year.
<a href="/products/wordpress/">Learn more about WordPress</a> or visit them <a href="https://wordpress.org/">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 Free CMS

<a href="http://www.websitebox.com/" target="_blank">WebsiteBox</a>, a Toronto-based startup that provides real estate professionals with a professional website for a one-time fee of $99, has announced a print-marketing tool called Prints App. 
Focusing on providing a powerful online presence for real estate agents, WebsiteBox serves up a hundreds of responsive templates, customization options, and options between different types of real estate websites. 
Prints App is WebsiteBox's way of giving realtors the ability to print real-estate marketing materials quickly and easily. Here's an introductory video:
http://vimeo.com/108529744
<h2>Branding Made Easy  </h2>
WebsiteBox CEO Peyman Aleagha sees Prints App as a way for Realtors to stramline their branding and marketing efforts:
<blockquote>
“Real estate agents rely on print marketing for branding, to connect with former clients, and to attract new client. While much of the real estate world is moving online, a creative and consistent print marketing campaign is still essential to increasing a Realtor’s visibility within the community.  What’s more, quick, clean messages on brochures, flyers, and other literature can ultimately drive traffic to a real estate website.
Prints App provides Realtors with a straightforward and inexpensive way to share news, tell a success story, or invite buyers to a new listing – all from one simple platform.”
</blockquote>
The best part of Prints App, is that it automatically integrates with existing WebsiteBox websites, enabling it to pull information from listings for use in print materials.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logowebsitebox_light_background700x0.jpg" alt="WebsiteBox" />
Agents can use the app to create vibrant business cards, newsletters, flyers, postcards, letterheads, property sheets, and other materials in three simple steps:
<ol>
<li>Agents select the type of print piece and layout they want to create. The prints wizard helps users customize the piece with intuitive drag-and-drop editing tools.</li>
<li>Next, the app automatically loads data from the multiple listing service. No manual data entry is needed.</li>
<li>In the final step, the app turns the marketing collateral into a high-resolution PDF file that agents can print immediately. Or, for jobs that require expertise, users can email the file to <a href="http://www.printchomp.com/" target="_blank">PrintChomp</a>, a WebsiteBox partner that will help users choose a local printer who’ll complete the job for the required budget, quality and deadline.</li>
</ol>
The Prints App is avaialble via the <a href="http://www.websitebox.com/realtors/apps-extras.php" target="_blank">WebsiteBox Apps &amp; Extras market</a>, for $99.
To find out more about WebsiteBox, <a href="http://www.websitebox.com" target="_blank">check out their website</a>.

WebsiteBox Unveils Print-Marketing Tool for Realtors

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

#ffffff

Silk, is a platform used by over 16,000 people to share their collections, opinions and data related to pretty much anything, ranging from their favourite coffee places to the latest statistics for their beloved sports teams. 
 Essentially, <a href="http://www.silk.co/" target="_blank"> Silk </a> allows you to quickly and easily organize data within a very clean, simple design,which helps focus on the content your Silk site is trying to present. Silk excels with the visualization of information by providing options for the use of crisply designed graphs and charts. 
 Now, <a href="http://www.marketwired.com/About-Us" target="_blank"> Market Wired </a>  – the company behind Silk, have announced the release of a new Silk service, build from the ground up for enterprising companies and organizations.
<h2>Silk For Teams</h2>
Within <a href="http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/silk-launches-silk-teams-announces-new-investment-from-leading-venture-capital-firm-1838363.htm" target="_blank"> Market Wired's official release notes </a> , the cloud-based publishing providers said the following regarding their new venture:
<blockquote>
With the new Silk for Teams, Silk allows companies or organizations to build private, secure Silk sites backed by a rapid-response support tier for paid subscription customers. Proven use cases for Silk include project management, customer relationship management, historical data capture and analysis, human resources intranets, competitive analysis, and lightweight graphics generation for reports and websites.
</blockquote>
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-11700x0.png" alt="Silk For Teams" />
People who work together on different projects within one body or company need to share and update information in a way which is quick, easy and easy to share. Silk For Teams makes this happen, by allowing organizations to privately share in-house knowledge and data throughout their staff or user base via a Silk-based website.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-10700x0.png" alt="Silk For Teams" />
Using Silk For Teams, internal knowledge bases can be formed which help organizations detail project tasks, analyse online engagement, combine Word &amp; Excel documents, and much more.
<h2>New Enterprise Assosciates Investment</h2>
As well as revealing the all new Silk For Teams service, the Silk project was given one more boost, thanks to a hefty $1.6 million investment made by New Enterprise Associates. Market Wired's official release notes had the following to say:
<blockquote>
The extended financing round brings total funding to date of $3.7 million, and includes investments from NEA as well as Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom’s venture fund Atomico. Silk’s founding team previously launched Xopus, which was acquired in 2010 by publicly-traded SDL, the global customer experience management company. Xopus offered a solution for enterprises looking to make use of structured and complex content. 
</blockquote>
Additionally, Silk rounded off their newly improved, further funded platform by offering the service – along with thousands of Silk sites, on a new, shorter www.silk.co domain.
To find out more about Silk, Silk For Teams, and to also create your very own Silk website, <a href="http://www.silk.co" target="_blank"> visit their official website </a> .

Silk Launches Silk For Teams & Announces $1.6M Investment

If you're planning to build a website with the intention to share or showcase digital media, then selecting a CMS with a solid digital asset management (DAM) system is absolutely vital.
This applies to both individuals looking to extend their personal web presence, as well as enterprising organizations seeking a professional website solution.
Being able to manage, modify and present documents, images and other digital assets in a fashion which befits your company or persona will ultimately decide how much of an impact your content has on the end user. Not to mention the ease-of-use administrators will enjoy with a powerful DAM system in place.
<a href="http://www.jahia.com/" target="_blank">Jahia xCM</a> is a capable content management system with a feature extensive digital asset management system built in, which will sound like a highly lucrative combination for almost any serious website builder looking for a suitable platform for their site – or sites.
<h2>The Essentials of Digital Asset Management</h2>
A digital asset management system essentially helps to store, manage, modify and present digital files such as PDF documents, images, videos and so forth. They work extremely well in enterprise environments, where workflows need to be streamlined.
Being able to manage digital assets on a large or professional scale within most website building CMS, can often prove difficult, if not unfulfilling. This is largely because, as most content management systems attempt to focus on aesthetic design options and flexible content publishing features, digital asset management often takes a back seat. They do exist of course, but usually in very basic forms, with limited customization features.
So, for organizations seeking to manage, publish and present a vast array of digital assets across numerous web initiatives, using just any CMS can cause issues. Ideally for such organizations, a balance would be struck between flexible content publication, and powerful digital asset management.
As it so happens, that ideal solution may just exist within Jahia xCM's competent CMS.
<h2>Striking the Balance with Jahia xCM</h2>
Jahia xCM does a pretty impressive job when it comes to the balancing act between quality content publishing, easy website creation and highly detailed digital asset management.
Due to the extensive and customizable features offered by Jahia xCM's embedded DAM features, it would not be unfair to compare the platform to a dedicated digital asset management system.
For example, media assets can be given pre-defined and user-defined rules and metadata, subjected to workflows, reviews and of course be easily published. In fact, Jahia xCM goes a step further with publishing and presenting digital assets, by providing drag-and-drop functionality to insert assets into pages, as well as configurable modules to create new rules, such as document thumbnails.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2.png" alt="Jahia xCM" /> 
Additionally, there is enhanced control over images and how they are to be displayed within your Jahia xCM website. Images themselves can be cropped, resized and rotated, whilst thumbnails are automatically generated in relation to user-configurable rules.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1.png" alt="Jahia xCM" /> 
Jahia xCM's digital asset management system further impresses by allowing you to automatically convert documents to PDFs, auto-publish assets, and make use of tagging. Documents and files can also be uploaded to the server en masse, or within .zip files, which can then be uncompressed on the server itself.
On top of all these features, Jahia xCM also offers widgets which allow for digital assets to be displayed on your website in a number of ways, including sliders, galleries, fancy boxes, and so on.
Additionally, not only does Jahia xCM silently index all documents and digital assets, but it also silently manages the links integrity, if an asset is moved or renamed.
Many of Jahia xCM's DAM features mentioned above are demonstrated by this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn2loxb5LKg&amp;feature=share&amp;list=PLCi1wJLT02ziX4o-JQB2Ga7B7w6Q0k-4_">introductory video on document rules</a>, all of which would prove handy for both enterprise automated needs, and for the needs of an individual editor or publisher.
So, if you're looking for a solid combination between content and asset management, look no further than <a href="http://www.jahia.com/home" target="_blank">Jahia xCM</a>.
For more information, you can also find <a href="/products/jahia/">Jahia xCM on our CMS Directory</a>.
NB: In addition to properly blending Content and Digital Asset Management with Jahia xCM, Jahia also provides a rich collaboration and sharing tool for Digital Assets dedicated to Marketing teams in a perfectly integrated package, called <a href="http://www.jahia.com/business/jahia-wise-key-benefits" target="_blank">Jahia Wise</a> – But I'll get to that in another article, so stay put!

A Look at Jahia xCM's Brilliant Blend of Content & Digital Asset Management

Open Source software, by definition, is freely available to the public. Anybody and everbody can use it, add to it and create extensions for it.
In contrast, closed source, or proprietary software, is a model that restricts public access to the source code of the product in question. Only the owners of the software can tinker with it.
Both of these models are well represented within the CMS industry and beyond, and both have their merits. Unsurprisingly though, the world of open source is the busier one, with the public contributing to it as much as any one company could ever imagine.
And yet, <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">PrestaShop</a> – one of the world’s most popular eCommerce solutions – has played an interesting and notable role in the open source eCommerce industry.
Here’s a look at what they’ve done to further the open source cause.
<img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/download.jpg" />
<h2>Community Service</h2>
Since its launch in 2007, PrestaShop has grown into one of the world's most popular eCommerc solutions, powering over 200,000 online stores world-wide. How, you ask? The PrestaShop team probably said it best:
<blockquote>
“Each merchant and community member carries out projects large and small that contribute to not only their personal growth, but also the growth of PrestaShop. We continue to work hand-in-hand with the community and are passionate about creating features, modules, and templates according to their needs. The success of our software is thanks to countless hours by numerous contributors from around the world.”
</blockquote>
That same community, which is reportedly 700,000 strong, along with PrestaShop's own contributions, has come together to make PrestaShop what it is. Together, they improve their software, fix bugs, create extensions, build themes and so forth.
Plus, PrestaShop's community have their own headquarters, otherwise known as the PrestaShop forums. With over 620,000 registered members, the forum is a multi-lingual hive of all things PrestaShop. In essence then, they have fostered an eCommerce-focused open source community within the larger open source community.
It would be appropriate to say that PrestaShop's inclusion in two categories for the People's Choice CMS Awards 2014, is thanks to their hardworking community.
<h2>An Oncoming Cloud</h2>
There’s a cloud coming, but it’s not dark and gloomy. Quite the contraary, actually.
Recently, PrestaShop announced PrestaShop Cloud. It has everything PrestaShop users have come to know and love, but it’s hosted entirely in the cloud. For free.
That’s right. PrestaShop are on the brink of delivering a world class free, open source and cloud hosted eCommerce solution.
PrestaShop Cloud is currently still in closed beta, and everybody has been invited to <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/en/beta" target="_blank">sign up</a> for their chance to test it out before its official launch.
A hosted version of PrestaShop is no minor step. It’s a chance to bring the open source project even closer to those aspiring online merchants who simply don’t know how or where to begin their journey. Once again, it;s a service to the community, and a massive one at that.
So, with a thriving open source centric community, and a fully cloud hosted solution on the horizon, it’s fair to say that PrestaShop is doing a fine job of flying the open source flag for the eCommerce industry.

A Look at PrestaShop’s Contribution to The World of Open Source

Previously known as Edicy, <a href="http://www.voog.com/">Voog</a> is Berlin based multilingual website builder that offers an extremely simplistic way for users to create their own site.
Whilst it’s not known as the most sophisticated website builder around, it does have a reasonable price tag attached, so I decided to check it out.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
To get set up with Voog, simply click the ‘Get Started’ button on the homepage – which will bring you to the screen for selecting a template.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/getting_started679x0-is.png" />
From here you select your theme, add in a few personal details (like your name and phone number), and you’re taken to the editor.
Voog doesn’t have a ‘free’ version but there’s a 30-day free trial that you can access without entering any credit card details.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sign_up_1437x0-is.png" />
<h2>Design</h2>
The theme of simplicity runs through all of Voog’s UI and UX. Everything is very clearly labeled and laid out. The Voog team have streamlined their process down to the bare bones of functionality and it works quite well.
The site is extremely easy to use and there’s no real learning curve involved.
Their template choice is contemporary but quite limited and there’s a very ‘samey’ feel to what’s on offer. All of the templates have a very sparse, European arthouse style, and seem to be geared more towards artists, designers, or boutiques. If you’re running a more ‘corporate’ business, you may not be happy with the selection available.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/templates_2602x0-is.png" />
All of the templates are responsive by default, which is a plus. However, some of the templates that I tried out on iPad weren’t retina compatible and looked a little blurry as a result.
Voog do have a very tasteful selection of fonts to choose from and I found it very hard to make an ‘ugly’ site with their system.
<h2>Editor</h2>
Voog’s WYSIWYG editor is definitely easy to use, but it’s completely rigid. Everything is drag-and-drop based and any text that’s visible on the page can be clicked on and edited with the Rich Text Format toolbar.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/editor_1636x0-is.png" />
Features are pretty limited, and the elements you see at the bottom of the page – ‘Text’, ‘Gallery’, ‘Form’, ‘Movie’, ‘Map’, and ‘Custom’ – are all you have to work with.
If you want to add social media apps or anything beyond what you see here, you have to enter custom code through the ‘Custom’ box.
<h2>Rigid</h2>
Each design comes in two flavors – front page and common page – and you can’t edit these in any way.
When I tried to add an element to my theme, I dragged it into the picture area and then discovered that I couldn’t move it. It had a fixed spot on the design and I could only edit what was inside it, not where it was.
This applies to all of their other elements also.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/text675x0-is.png" />
You can edit the themes if you know coding and CSS, but not everyone is going to be clued in on that side of things, and it’s especially unlikely that people using a website builder this basic would be uber savvy about coding.
This is a bit of a let down from Voog and it leaves them trailing behind the current trend of site editors that allow complete control over your design right out of the box.
There are only 11 templates available, which means you don’t have that much choice either.
<h2>Features</h2>
If you’re looking for a site builder with a ton of apps, widgets, and features built-in, Voog is not for you. It’s quite sparse, to say the least.
Their custom app allows you to insert script or raw HTML from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/login">Twitter</a>, but I found that complexity to be out of step with how basic everything else was.
One of Voog’s key selling points is the multilingual feature. Everything can be listed in multiple languages (15 in total), which will definitely appeal to users selling items in multiple regions.
Everything on Voog is automatically optimized for SEO and there is a decent analytics package set up as standard also.
<h2>Blogging</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog_sample492x0-is.png" />
Voog’s blogging platform is completely native and extremely basic. It’s simple to implement on your page with the drag-and-drop functionality but seemed a little too simplistic to me.
If your business plans to utilize a comprehensive blog as part of your marketing plan, I’d think twice before basing your system on this.
If you need a basic blogging platform, this is about as basic as it gets.
<h2>eCommerce</h2>
There isn’t any option to insert a web store or a web store element on the trial version, but the site says that you can insert a ‘simple’ web store by contacting them directly.
<h2>Pricing</h2>
Voog has a very simple and fair <a href="http://www.voog.com/pricing" target="_blank">pricing structure</a> that is completely in line with the site’s philosophy.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-27_at_16_24_21816x0-is.png" />
They have a Standard package for €8 a month that allows for 2 GB storage, 3 users, 30 pages, 3 languages, a custom domain, password protected pages, a fully customizable design (via code), and API access and developer tools.
This is quite a comprehensive package of Voog’s core features and it’s decent value too.
Their Plus version is available for €14 a month with all the Standard features plus 10 GB storage, unlimited pages, a free custom domain, and a database tool.
They also have a Premium version for €49 a month that gives you full features plus the ability to host Voog’s system on your own hosting.
Voog doesn’t have a free version outside of a 30-day demo.
<h2>Overall</h2>
Voog will be the perfect site builder for some users but it will probably be too sparse and basic for the majority of businesses. It would suit someone with a very basic understanding of web design who wants to insert their text in a nicely designed template.
The editor is as simple as it can be and very easily navigated.
Voog is a good option for the novice user who wants to build a simple site, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking for anything more than that.
The templates are nice but rigid, the features are limited, and the blogging and eCommerce functions are ultra basic.
This is a decent site builder that works well – but doesn’t really measure up against the top competition in this field.
To check Voog out for yourself, just follow this <a href="http://www.voog.com/">link</a>.
<h3>Pros:</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Excellent multilingual features
</li>
<li>
Nice templates
</li>
<li>
Good font selection
</li>
<li>
Intuitive WYSIWYG editor
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cons:</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Completely rigid templates unless you know code
</li>
<li>
No free version
</li>
<li>
Ultra basic blogging
</li>
<li>
Very simple eCommerce
</li>
</ul>

Voog Review

grainne-logue

<a href="http://cratejoy.com/" target="_blank">Cratejoy</a> is a brand new eCommerce platform with a focus on subscription payments. A streamlined way to build an online subscription business.
The platform enables you to build a subscription business via pre-designed templates, comprehensive subscriber management options, built in analytics and more.
The founders of Cratejoy, Amir Elaguizy and Alex Morse, have noticed the growth of subscription model based businesses, and have pinpointed it as a growth market within the eCommerce industry. In a blog post about the launch of Cratejoy's beta, Amir Elaguizy made this interesting point:
<blockquote>
“Cratejoy is based on a simple idea: subscription is the next chapter of commerce, benefiting both businesses and consumers.
Subscription businesses allow for merchants to easily forecast sales and prepare materials, essentially solving inventory problems, one of the biggest issue facing the retail industry today. What’s more, the subscription model focuses on retaining consumers rather than only converting them; this allows merchants to invest in the quality and improvement of their products and services, as opposed to just marketing and advertising efforts.”
</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/amiralexcratejoyheadshot700x0.jpg" alt="Cratejoy" /> Essentially, Cratejoy has everything you need to build a subscription service.
The custom back end boasts some handy features, like a coupon and promotions system, automatic validation of subscriber email addresses, automatic shipping emails, and a rather pretty analytics system to help you stay on top of your business. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mbp2_092614.png" alt="Cratejoy Analytics" />
Plus, there are community forums, a dedicated support team 
As far as pricing goes, Cratejoy offers a free plan, although this includes a $0.50 transaction fee and a 3.75% share of revenue. Paid plans mean lower transaction fees, revenue shares. However, all plans get unlimited storage and all the aforementioned features. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mbp2_092614.png" alt="Cratejoy" /> <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/premium-plans.jpg" />
For me, Cratejoy seems as if it will be a lucrative choice for those looking to establish subscription businesses. It's a hosted, supported and professional solution, taking the guesswork out of what would otherwise be a tricky setup. The revenue sharing scheme may not be everybody's cup of tea, but in this emerging market within the eCommerce space, the benefit of having a dedicated team behind you can't hurt. 
To read more about the history and vision behind Cratejoy, <a href="http://blog.cratejoy.com/we%E2%80%99ve-launched-start-your-subscription-business-with-cratejoy-today" target="_blank">check out their official blog announcement of the beta</a>.
To sign up for the beta, <a href="http://cratejoy.com/" target="_blank">visit the Cratejoy website</a>.

Subscription Payment Platform Cratejoy Opens Public Beta

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