Articles - Page 106

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

During the much reported Sitecore Symposium in Las Vegas this month, I had a chance to sit down with Sitecore's Corporate VP of Commerce, Ryan Donovan to discuss the future of commerce in the upcoming Sitecore 8.
 Mike: Can you tell us a bit about the integration of Commerce into Sitecore 8 and talk a bit about the future plans for the product?
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/avatar.jpg" alt="Ryan Donovan" />Ryan: Sure, we just shipped <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/About/Press-and-Media/Press-Releases/2014/08/Sitecore-Commerce.aspx">Sitecore Commerce 7.2 (in August) powered by Commerce Server </a>and that is the fruit of the acquisition coming to bear. It is, I think, the industry's first fully integrated commerce and content platform in one because we've really tried to focus on making it a completely seemless experience in terms of adding commerce capabilities into Sitecore.
We have Sitecore Commerce 8 coming as part of Sitecore 8 and what that's going to add is a second product to the Sitecore Commerce family called <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/About/Press-and-Media/Press-Releases/2014/01/msft-ecommerce.aspx">Sitecore Commerce powered by Microsoft Dynamics AX</a>. This new product is the fruit of the partnership that was announced last January between Sitecore and the Dynamics AX organization of Microsoft. This new product will be focusing on providing a true omni-channel solution. In other words, you'll have the exact same pricing, tax, shipping and calculation logic between online and the store. You can then have a seemless buy online and pick up in the store or buy online, return to the store experience with instant order history the second you make the purchase. This will then bring us into the realm where we can really begin to personalize based on behaviors and store behaviors in the contact center in addition to just digital channels. The first product, Sitecore Commerce powered by Commerce Server is targeted at scenarios such as B to C and the Sitecore Commerce powered by Microsoft Dynamics AX is really aimed at omni-channel retailers.
 Mike:  What are your biggest success stories since <a href="/sitecore-buys-commerce-server-aims-to-bring-ecommerce-to-their-platform/">the merger?</a> Do you have any customers that are doing some impressive things with the product?
 Ryan: We started the early access program in the spring with Commerce Server 7.2 and we're seeing a lot of net-new interest but we are also seeing a lot of interest from the legacy Microsoft Commerce Server customer base because it's a very logical feature rich upgrade for them that can also help them preserve some investments they've made into their deployments. With the powered by Dynamics AX solution, we're seeing lots of interest from the Dynamics AX customers out there because it will give them a complete experience management and commerce solution.
 Mike: What's the next stage for your team at Sitecore? What is the next step in bringing together the perfect platform for commerce and content?
 Ryan: We are really aiming to focus on enabling end to end marketing experience management, so really putting the best practices into the product; for instance; what are the types of things you would want to do to optimize for conversion.The goal of course would be to help lower the barrier of entry and help build knowledge share. We also are aiming to enhance the product to offer more and deeper capabilities from a commerce perspective so we can address broader and broader customer scenarios. We are really focused on the enterprise space and so their requirements are more complex than mid market solutions. One of the areas we are looking to innovate in is pricing, I've heard comments from some people no commerce platform does pricing well for their business and those are the types of problems we are looking to solve. I think our value proposition is very simple in that we are a one technology platform so it's going to be a completely cohesive business user experience for the merchandiser, the market and ultimately, for customer service reps.
 Mike: Having come from Commerce Server before Sitecore, what have you seen change since the acquisition took place?
 Ryan: Customers of Commerce Server were always adding other products into their solutions, so they'd have a CMS, they'd have a search solution and a marketing automation solution but they were having to go to great lengths to actually integrate these things. There was a lot of developer cost and IT cost involved but the business user experience was also fragmented in terms of actually doing a marketing campaign. Since the merger, customers seem to be very excited about the one platform value proposition. It was really interesting because with the legacy customer base, we anticipated that people would be a lot more reserved about moving to a single platform but instead we're seeing the opposite. A surprising amount of customers are wanting to embrace the whole Sitecore platform and replace their old ones completely and do it quickly.
 Mike: Can you share with us what the commerce piece will look like in Sitecore 8?
 Ryan: Absolutely, here are some screenshots!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/category_products200x0.png" alt="sitecore 8 commerce" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/site_alltabs200x0.png" alt="sitecore 8 commerce" /> <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/category_products_iconview200x0.png" alt="sitecore 8 commerce" /> <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/customcatalogs_rules_itempicker200x0.png" alt="sitecore 8 commerce" /> <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/products_details200x0.png" alt="sitecore 8 commerce" /> <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/variants_inventory200x0.png" alt="sitecore 8 commerce" />
To learn more about Sitecore Commerce, visit <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Platform/Channels/Commerce-Experience.aspx">http://www.sitecore.net/Platform/Channels/Commerce-Experience.aspx</a>

Interview with Corporate VP of Commerce at Sitecore, Ryan Donovan

mike-johnston

The rise of social networking has, without doubt, led to a number of significant changes on the web. Previously, to get support from a company, one would have to either register with their forums or interact with them via email. With the introduction of sites such as Twitter, Facebook and the new Google+ platform, the means by which users communicate with companies has changed.
Twitter is, without question, the best example of positive change in the way that both companies and organizations communicate with the public. In 140 characters or less, you can get quick updates on road conditions, traffic problems, news updates from around the world and even technical support.
In fact, a lot of these means of gathering knowledge quickly and easily are the exact reason why it is so successful. I can recall a number of occasions where I've been driving on the highway and have come up on a major delay where I am suddenly stuck for an extended period inching along. Without hesitating, my first move is to check the traffic reports on Twitter via <a href="https://twitter.com/AMARoadReports">@AMARoadReports</a> where I am informed of the nature of the delay and how long I can expect to wait. This is, to me, invaluable information that I wouldn't normally have access to without an excessive amount of searching.
Had the organizations that provide this service not taken to Twitter as they have, this information would be much more difficult to access and as a result, I am also less likely to find value in the services they offer.  As a customer, knowing that they openly provide me with this service (without the need for being a customer in the first place) makes me more inclined to do business with them by other means (ie: emergency services, etc).
A number of companies have also taken to Twitter as a means of providing technical support to their customers, whether intentionally or otherwise. For example, <a href="http://www.zendesk.com">Zendesk</a> is a provider of one of the largest web based support products out there. If you check out their Twitter account, you'll see that they often get questions from users who are either experiencing issues or have inquiries.
Here's an excerpt from their Twitter account (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/zendesk">@zendesk</a>) as an example:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/moodboard_ui_lwekxp.jpg" alt="Zendesk (zendesk) on Twitter" />
Firing off a quick response is a great way to show your customers that you are listening and helps build confidence in the product and Zendesk does this very well.
(Quick tip: If you are looking to buy software or a service from a company and they have a Twitter account, check out their profile and see how well they interact with their user base. This is often a great way of determining how a company handles their customers and in turn, how you can expect to be handled should you become one!)
Does this type of interaction occur with other sites such as Facebook? Yes, but to a lesser degree. The main issue being that on Facebook, it's more difficult to filter through all of the interactions  to get to the replies whereas Twitter feels more like it's been (deliberately or not) designed for this type of interaction.
Facebook's strength is in the way that users are able to show they are fans of a product. This is a great way  to show potential customers how popular your product or brand is. There is certainly interaction on Facebook between customers and the organizations they are fans of but it's less personal. There is definite value to having a Facebook page, but there are also plenty of issues with the way they have been implemented.
As an example: Let's say Joe sets up a fan page for the company he works for and a few weeks later, Joe is dismissed or goes to work for another company. Good luck changing the ownership of that page to someone else if Joe is disgruntled. Do a simple Google search for “facebook fan page transfer ownership” and you will see how many people have encountered this issue. This particular problem has been an issue since they were implemented and there still has not been a solution for it.  Most of the time, Facebook fan pages tend to be treated more like feed subscriptions whereby you can get the latest updates without cracking a news reader such as Google Reader.
With the recent introduction of <a href="http://plus.google.com">Google+</a> (in beta and invite only at the moment), I am starting to notice that it offers somewhat of a best of both worlds scenario. Google+ offers a clean and uncluttered interface and very good interaction. It is, in my opinion, a cleaner and more professional approach to communicating than Facebook.  Will it replace or challenge Twitter in the future? No, I don't think so but I also don't think that's it's intention either.  I see it as more of a LinkedIn meets Facebook without the clutter social network and I think it will likely be quite successful.
Where Google+ is likely to do best is with the Circles method of sharing. Right now, Google+ only allows personal accounts but should they introduce the same for businesses, I can see huge value in the way that it allows you to communicate with specific circles of people. We'll have to see whether Google allows businesses to form a presence in the future. If they are smart, they will as this will drive up their usage and adoption significantly.
What all of this leads us to is the importance of utilizing all of the available tools out there to interact with your customers. No longer can an organization expect to simply put up a website and consider that sufficient. Social networks have become a very valuable addition to the repertoire and they need to be considered carefully during the CMS selection process. Does the system you are considering have solid social network integration? If not, it's probably not the best tool for this day and age.

The Rise of Social Networks and the Importance of Engaging your Customers

LightCMS has released a number of new features, including password-protected pages and calendar enhancements.
These days, not a month goes by unless LightCMS reveal new updates. In recent months, they have <a href="/lightcms-launches-new-partner-platform/" target="_blank">released a new partner platform</a>, <a href="/lightcms-unveil-new-element-ui/" target="_blank">made improvements to their interface</a>, <a href="/lightcms-rolls-out-blogging-enhancements/" target="_blank">enhanced blogging features</a>, and much more. It's for this reason, amongst many others, that LightCMS has been <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/" target="_blank">nominated in the Best Cloud CMS for SMB category for the CMS Awards 2014</a>.
Now, let's take a look at what the latest update brings to the table.
<h2>Password Protected Pages</h2>
Firstly, a new password protection feature allows you to restrict access to certain pages of your site, granting access to only those visitors who know the password. This was always possible via LightCMS' Users and Roles section, but there were many requests for a quick and easy way to restrict access without having to create a new user or user type.
To enable the feature, simply go to a page’s settings and select the “Advanced” tab. Enter a password in the Password field, and that page becomes password protected. It's really that easy. To unprotect a page, all you have to do is clear the password field.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/passwordprotectpage.png" alt="LightCMS" />
When a visitor attempts to access a protected page, the system displays the “Protected Page” message, prompting the visitor to enter the password before it will display the page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/protectedpage.png" alt="LightCMS" />
Registered users assigned to an administrative role, or any role that grants editing privileges for the page, can access the page without having to enter the password, as long as they are logged in.
<h2>Manage Events &amp; (Better Manage) Posts</h2>
LightCMS users who publish a calendar of events on their websites will be excited about the new “Manage Events” feature.
Similar to “Manage Posts” for blogs, Manage Events gives you a listing of all of that calendar element’s events. To view the Manage Events page, go to the page with the calendar element and select Manage Events from the Calendar element’s drop-down menu.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/manageevents700x0.png" alt="LightCMS" />
Using the new grid interface, you can easily sort, filter and search for events. Plus, you can specify the number of events to display in the grid by selecting the number from the drop-down list in the upper left corner.
As for blog post management, this existing feature now includes the same features that were introduced on the Manage Events page detailed above. This includes sorting, filtering, and pagination.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/manageposts700x0.jpg" alt="LightCMS" />
<h2>Event Management Improved</h2>
And finally, LightCMS now allows you to specify an end time for an event. Previously, you could set only the event start time.
To set up start and end times for an event, enter them in the time section of the event settings page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/calendarwitheventandtime.png" alt="LightCMS" />
Before this update, event times only displayed on the event's detail page. Now, both the start time and end time can be displayed in event summaries in list or calendar view.
To find out more about all of these LightCMS updates, check out the official blog announcement, which includes the full release notes.
Also, make sure you explore more of LightCMS via our CMS Directory.

LightCMS Unveils Password Protected Pages & Calendar Enhancements

The only thing better than a happy ending, is a promising beginning. 
 Unfortunately, <a href="http://www.injader.com/" target="_blank"> Injader CMS</a> didn't have a happy ending last time around. After <a href="/injader-cms-project-closes-doors/" target="_blank"> closing its doors over four years ago</a>, the platform had been lying lifeless ever since. Until now. 
 The Founder, Ben Barden, has just revived his project, giving it another, more promising start to look forward to. It's not quite on it's feet yet, but it's alive and kicking. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/injader-avatar.jpg" alt="Injader CMS" />
<h2>Injader CMS 2.5.0</h2>
Injader is an open source CMS for technical users. 
 Version 2.5.0 brings about a handful of new features and bug fixes. These include:
<ul>
<li>New: Simplified Control Panel layout</li>
<li>Guides: Created new install guide under /guides/</li>
<li>Guides: Created new upgrade guide under /guides/</li>
<li>Bug: Fixed an issue where the custom order field wasn't getting set, causing a database error</li>
<li>Bug: Fixed an issue with the default timezone not being set</li>
<li>Bug: Fixed several notices in the installer</li>
<li>Upgrades: Upgraded jQuery from 1.3.2 to 1.11.1</li>
<li>Upgrades: Upgraded TinyMCE from 3.0.1 to 3.5.11</li>
</ul>
You can <a href="https://github.com/benbarden/injader/releases/tag/v2.5.0" target="_blank">view the full list of features here</a>. Plus, there's a brand new Injader website on the way, and version 3.0 is in the works.  
 Ben Barden, Injader CMS' Founder, had this to say about the revival:
<blockquote>
Despite the neglected state of the project, it's still a surprisingly fast CMS that uses a very small amount of memory. So I thought it would be worth revisiting.
Although you can technically upgrade to 2.5.0 from either 2.4.4 or 2.4.5, the plan is to break backwards-compatibility with the next major release – 3.0.0. If all goes well, this will include a major overhaul of the theme system. So I wouldn't recommend you start building themes on the current version.
</blockquote>
So, although Injader CMS' revival is an ongoing one, you can <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/injader/"> download Injader at SourceForge</a>.
Or, you can  <a href="https://github.com/benbarden/injader"> fork Injader on GitHub</a>.

Injader CMS Revived With Version 2.5.0

In another dramatic shift to the content management and digital experience landscape, Episerver <a href="https://www.episerver.com/company/press-room/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform">has announced</a> its plans to buy Optimizely. 
Episerver, the customer-centric digital experience platform, is recognized as a leader in the <a href="https://www.episerver.com/reports/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms">Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>. With the acquisition of Optimizely, an innovator in experience optimization, Episerver appears to be ramping up its competition with enterprise DXP players like <a href="https://www.adobe.com/marketing/experience-manager.html">Adobe</a>, <a href="/acquia-launches-new-open-digital-experience-platform/">Acquia</a> and <a href="/sitecore-updates-experience-platform-and-experience-commerce-releases-new-sitecore-content-hub/">Sitecore</a>.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gartner-magic-quadrant.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/09/gartner-magic-quadrant.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/09/gartner-magic-quadrant.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/09/gartner-magic-quadrant.png 1432w" /><figcaption><a href="https://www.episerver.com/reports/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms">Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a></figcaption></figure>
In today’s data-driven market, experimentation has become essential. Today's brands need to adapt to consumer changes faster than ever and create more personalized experiences based on data. By combining Episerver’s content and commerce capabilities with Optimizely’s experimentation and optimization, marketers will now be able to build custom digital experiences that get smarter over time and drive more purchases and conversions. 
<h3>Better control of layouts, logic and more</h3>
Together, Episerver and Optimizely will enable organizations to run better experiments across both frontend layouts and backend logic with easy-to-use, tailored recommendations. According to Episerver, the combined power will give organizations the ability to optimize the entire experience across multiple touchpoints while increasing revenue, improving productivity, and realizing cost savings. 
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/layouts-and-logic.png" alt="Layouts and Logic" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/09/layouts-and-logic.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/09/layouts-and-logic.png 785w" /><figcaption>Layouts and Logic</figcaption></figure>

<h3>Improved Outcomes</h3>
A/B testing has long been an established practice for marketers, helping teams to develop more unique, highly targeted digital experiences for each customer – while scaling to thousands. These "experiments" can help drive transformation, enhance customer engagement and improve brand differentiation.
Embracing a culture of experimentation is driving improved outcomes for many brands, particularly those leveraging the enhanced capabilities of a digital experience platform. Leading platforms like Adobe and Sitecore have integrated deep personalization and analytics into their offerings, and testing has become a key pillar of the experience optimization stack. 
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/outsized-results.png" alt="Measure the outcomes of every action" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/09/outsized-results.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/09/outsized-results.png 785w" /><figcaption>Measure the outcomes of every action</figcaption></figure>
That said, companies are no longer limiting their experiments to A/B testing, and instead are expanding their efforts (A/B, C/D and so on) across all aspects of the digital experience. Episerver's move to incorporate Optimizely into their platform demonstrates a growing demand for more insight around consumer data, as well as greater speed and control over adapting the digital experience. 
<h2>Optimizely: A Proven Platform</h2>
Optimizely is a leader in experimentation and progressive delivery. Founded in 2009, it became synonymous with A/B testing, subsequently building a broader suite of testing tools for marketers. Its proven platform has run over 2 million experiments across the user journey to optimize the customer experience for some of the world’s most prominent brands like Peloton, Nike and Uber.
The union of Episerver and Optimizely will combine an advanced set of customer-centric digital experience capabilities with more freedom to experiment, enabling digital teams to replace guesswork with evidence-based outcomes.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/dLMqzpXcZNNUoM1_OxXHAQW1ztCKyaZL4aVhaJAVs1_UVxT0KktqrmanWkG0uW0SU0QF346MtL2UJUhVp2dv5XCrDERdCgK9E-lUEC6ns7owJUTODlJOOsATD1DccyehEvOnINOn" /></figure>
<h3>About Optimizely</h3>
<a href="https://www.optimizely.com/">Optimizely</a>'s leading platform offers a complete set of digital experience optimization technologies – including AI-powered personalization and experimentation – which encompasses A/B testing, multivariate testing, and server-side testing. Optimizely enables brands to deliver more relevant experiences driven by data, including Gap, StubHub, IBM, The Wall Street Journal, and many more. To learn more, visit optimizely.com.
<h3>About Episerver</h3>
<a href="https://www.episerver.com/">Episerver</a> empowers businesses to scale through the most customer-centric approach to digital experiences. Its Customer-Centric Digital Experience Platform™ features best-in-class content management and robust commerce, both backed by AI-powered data and personalization solutions. The platform has consistently earned industry, analyst, and media recognition for its vision, capabilities, and customer commitment. Episerver’s 900+ partners and 825+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 8,000 brands enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue, and grow their brands.

Episerver To Acquire Optimizely, Adding Experimentation And Optimization To DXP

paris-tuzun

One of the most prominent blog software platforms with one of the biggest communities in both the blog and CMS world, WordPress is a force to be reckoned with. Or is it? WordPress has been around for a long time and has/is growing like mad. It's like a weed. Except one you don't want to pull out of your garden because it keeps getting prettier, better and nicer. Today, we'll examine this popular platform in this review of WordPress 2.5.
Let's look at the ridiculously easy install. This is the first screen you see. Brings new meaning to the term “keep it simple stupid” doesn't it?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp1_1.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
WordPress then gives you the precursor screen below that tells you basically what to expect on the next couple screens.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp2_1_.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Now that you've been informed. You can fill in the info below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp3_11.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Enter your Blog title and email below: <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp4_1.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" /> Bam, done. Now that's a total of 4 screens to get installed. Insanely easy, very quick and ridiculously simple. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp5_1.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" /> Now log in with admin details provided on the screen above. And you can change the password after your first login. You have to love the sense of humor the lads at WordPress have. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp6.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" /> After logging in you get to the admin screen or “dashboard”
Ok let's take a breather and review the dashboard. Here's where wordpress really shines. You want a blog that makes your life easy? You've found it. WordPress 2.5 has auto update capable plugins.. just click on the plugin link.. wordpress will automatically tell you if there's an update available and let you automatically download and install it. No effort required. Where do you get the plugins? Well they have 2200 as of this review. Yes, 2200. and it's a BLOG platform for crying out loud.
Need themes? There are thousands.. literally. You can't type anything in google without tripping over a wordpress theme about it. The control center has one click theme switching (with screenshots). Installing and updating a plugin consists of clicking a button.. The dashboard provides you with the latest wordpress news and the Wysiwyg editor just works beautifully.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp7.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Where does wordpress fail? I guess the default theme could use some work:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp8.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Can you tell I'm smitten? Seriously though.. for a blog platform… You simply cannot find a better solution than WordPress. Some will claim it's also very capable as a CMS.. while I think it would struggle in that area, mainly due to lack of forums integration and lack of CMS like themes (wordpress does LOOK like a blog after all).
Community? Massive. WordPress has a community larger than most CMS communities. Support is amazingly quick and there are tons and tons of sites with hints tips and more to get the eager blogger any info they need quickly. With the size of the community and the number of people using it, it's quite possibly the best supported blog platform that exists today.
Would you use it for a portal? Perhaps not. However, for what it claims to be able to do, it does it and more with ease.
Our ratings are below:
Community 10/10 (I said it before and I'll say it again, massive with a huge number of support sites around)
Expandability 9/10 (For a blog platform, very expandable. The only thing lacking is forums or some kind of discussion platform)
Themability 10/10 (Can't touch wordpress for themes.)
Useability 10/10 (Fabulous dashboard, easy install and simple theme switching, auto updating plugins. nuff said)
<h2>Overall Score: 9/10</h2>

A Review of WordPress 2.5

CMS Summit 26

Find out at CMS Summit 26, May 12 - 13 in Frankfurt, Germany

What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?

#ffffff

Radiant CMS is a simple, no-frills Content Management System that is built using Ruby on Rails. It is licenced under the MIT Licence, which means it is freely redistributable and can be employed for both commercial and non-profit usage. Let's get straight to it with our Radiant CMS Review.
Main Features
<ol>
<li>Radiant has a fairly simple and minimal admin interface that has barely three tabs – Content, Design and Settings. We will delve deeper into the admin back end later.</li>
<li>In Radiant, you can create Pages using Markdown, Textile or plain HTML, among several others. Furthermore, content can be reused easily by employing as a Snippet.</li>
<li>Pages can be organized within a Child / Parent hierarchy.</li>
<li>Radiant has a custom macro language called Radius which can be used to further extend the system.</li>
<li>Radiant is well localized, with native language packs for English, German, Russian, Italian, Dutch, French and Japanese.</li>
<li>Last, but not least, Radiant comes with support for custom text filters as well as page caching.</li>
</ol>
An Overview of the Back end
As mentioned above, the admin interface has barely three tabs:- Content, Layout and Settings. Lets proceed tab by tab.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cmsc3i-580x262.jpg" alt="Radiant CMS Review" />
Content:
In Radiant, the website's content revolves around pages. Such pages can be organized in (virtually) any hierarchy. By default, it comes with templates for Home Page, Error 404, RSS Feed, Site map, etc. You can add, remove or modify pages as needed.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/cmsc3ii-580x278_n4fmas.jpg" alt="Radiant CMS Review" />
Radiant CMS Backend: Edit Page
Design: 
The Design section is further sub-divided into two parts: Layouts and Snippets. The Layout area lets you modify the Stylesheets and control the look and feel of your website.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/survey_1_k3eyvw.png" alt="Radiant CMS Review" />
Snippets, on the other hand, are handy pieces or chunks that can be added as and when needed. They come in handy as you no longer need to build (and then re-build) the same sections of your website multiple times, such as sidebars and menus or comment mechanisms. Radiant comes with predefined snippets for Articles, Comments, Footer, Header, Newsletter, RSS, Site Map, Navigation, etc.
Settings:
Settings Page is perhaps the most populated section in the entire admin interface. Still, it is far simpler than other CMS platforms on the market. It has three sub-tabs, namely, Personal, Users and Extensions.
In Personal Preferences, you can specify your user name, display name, email and Gravatar, along with preferred language and password. On the Users page, you can view or modify the user accounts on the website.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cmsc3iv.jpeg" alt="Radiant CMS Review" />
Lastly, in Extensions, Radiant lists all the installed extensions that can be used to further enhance your website's features. Radiant comes with several pre-installed extensions such as text filters for Mark Down, Textile and Smarty Pants as well as few language packs. Further extensions can be downloaded from the website of Radiant CMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cmsc3v.jpeg" alt="Radiant CMS Review" />
So, is it worth it?
Well, Radiant CMS does not (yet) feature on the list of most automated script installers, nor is it the first choice for many web admins.
Personally, I loved the swift and clean administrative interface, especially the manner in which Radiant handles Pages. The flexibility of adding hierarchy easily to Pages as well as the good support for localization add to Radiant's USP. Further more, Snippets also come in handy when setting up a website, and Radiant seems to do well there too.
Since not many CMS use Ruby on Rails, Radiant falls in a different category altogether. Yet, compared to the rest, it needs to implement few more features — the most emphatic being an easy Update mechanism. Also, apart from extensions, Radiant CMS is in need of templates or themes to further simplify the process of designing a website. Lastly, I feel the community needs to be built better too, but this inactivity in forums can be attributed to the fact that most non-PHP CMS have a smaller user base.
And now, here are few points for (and against) it:
You SHOULD use it if…
<ul>
<li>You need a no-nonsense, minimal CMS,</li>
<li>You need Ruby on Rails,</li>
<li>You do not need the complex admin back ends of other CMS,</li>
<li>You just need to get a small sized website up and ready,</li>
<li>You are comfortable with tweaking code to modify the site.</li>
</ul>
You SHOULD NOT use it if…
<ul>
<li>You need one-click installs of themes or templates,</li>
<li>You do not need Ruby on Rails or you prefer PHP,</li>
<li>Your website is a grand project that goes beyond mere ‘pages',</li>
<li>You'd need to edit features like site Permalink structure without editing the code.</li>
</ul>
Verdict
In today's Content Management hemisphere where hardly any software has a specifically rigid genre of operation (WordPress is being used as a CMS and Drupal can be employed to power blogs), Radiant CMS strives to be different. Radiant CMS surely is nimble and easy to use, and does not compel you to learn Rocket Science in order to master it. But this is precisely all that it is. If, for instance, you intend to run a magazine blog or a news site using it, you'd be better off with other CMS options such as Joomla or even WordPress. On the other hand, if you have a small or medium sized website, Radiant will work well for you.
Links 
<a href="http://radiantcms.org/">Website</a> | <a href="http://radiantcms.org/demo/">Demo</a> | <a href="http://github.com/radiant/radiant/wiki/">Documentation</a> | <a href="http://radiantcms.org/download/">Download</a>
Have you used or are using Radiant CMS? Share your experiences with us in the comments below!

Radiant CMS Review

Launching your business website, you expect to benefit from your online presence. You take good care of your website proper layout and navigation, make it responsive and provide your customers with the most relevant content. Unfortunately, all your efforts can come to nothing if you aren’t able to ensure your website seamless performance 24/7.
<h3>Make Uptime Monitoring One of the Main Priorities</h3>
Uptime is one of the most important factors that determines your website success or failure. It is an indicator of your “website health” and a decisive component of running an online business. That’s why it should become one of the main concerns of any website owner.
Tracking your website uptime enables you to get “a wake-up call” about website outages as soon as they occur and and, maybe, question your hosting provider. You have an opportunity of resolving these issues before they become critical and badly affect your business.
<h3>Website Downtime Is Your Budget Buster</h3>
To tell the truth, downtime is an inevitable thing that happens even to the best websites. It can be caused by a poor web hosting, traffic overload, plugin or theme-related problems, hacking attempts or malware, or just by force majeure such as natural disasters.
If your website is down it can significantly affect your business. Downtime can result not only in lost sales and decreased profits. What is more harmful, it can cause bad user experience that will result in the loss of your business credibility and push your customers into the competitors’ grasp. To prevent this, you should consider a few things.
<h3>Choose a Reliable Hosting</h3>
With a proper web hosting provider, you will always feel safe and sound. A good provider will constantly ensure that the hardware is in perfect order and the servers are never overloaded so that downtime can’t happen to your website.
And even if it happens a reliable provider will immediately take control over the situation. Without a moment’s delay, he will inform you and other clients about the downtime, clearly explain its reason, and start fixing the problem.
<h3>Check Your Website Every Time You Change Anything</h3>
After making any changes in the settings, installing a new plugin or updating never forget to check your website performance. Some installations or updates can go not so seamlessly as you’ve expected and result in the White Screen of Death. The sooner you know about the problem, the quicker you’ll be able to solve it thus preventing your customers from the bad user experience.
<h3>Remember to Make Regular Backups</h3>
A good backup strategy is of vital importance for data security. A backup is your effective defense against any data loss giving you an opportunity of restoring original data. Most hosting services provide this option as an add-on. You can also use a plugin to automate the process.
<h3>Take Care of Your Website Security</h3>
Hacking attempts are a growing threat nowadays. According to Sophos Security Report, on average 30,000 websites are hacked daily. That’s why you should take basic precautions to avoid this problem. Make sure your username is more original than “Admin”. Use a strong password consisting of at least 8 characters and using a combination of lower-case and capital letters, numbers or other symbols.
Change your password at least once in 60 days. Use a security plugin or extension and run a website security scan on a regular basis. And if something unforeseen really happens to your website, never forget to inform your customers about it not to lose their trust.
<h3>MotoCMS Uptime Monitor Is Your Reliable Guard</h3>
It goes without saying that you can’t constantly track your website uptime, opening and closing the browser day in, day out to make sure it works properly. MotoCMS Uptime Monitor will perfectly cope with this task for you and help you avoid problems caused by an unexpected downtime.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/intro1000x614-cropx0y54-is.jpg" />
MotoCMS Uptime Monitor is a service that enables any MotoCMS customer to keep a close eye on a website performance 24/7. Don’t forget to turn on email notifications on your smartphone. Because once your website is down, you will get your first email about your site crash. Why first? Because as soon as everything is fixed and your website is up and running, you’ll receive one more automatic notification.
<h3>How to Subscribe to MotoCMS Uptime Monitor</h3>
If you are not a MotoCMS customer yet, you can easily become one and build your online business with <a href="https://www.motocms.com" target="_blank">a website builder</a> from MotoCMS by yourself. Any MotoCMS customer is always able to subscribe to the Uptime Monitor service in a personal account. The subscription will enable you to track your website with the interval you choose and receive instant email alerts.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/uptime-monitors.jpg" />
The process of subscribing is as easy as ABC. You should log into your &lt;a href=”https://accounts.motocms.com/site/login”&gt;MotoCMS personal account&lt;/a&gt; and add a domain name for “Uptime Monitors” by pressing “Add New” button in the appropriate section. There are 3 types of available subscriptions you can choose from according to your business needs: “Starter”, “Developer” and “Ultimate”.
<ul>
<li>The Starter Plan is a basic one that will perfectly suit the owners of one website.</li>
<li>The Developer Plan is a good idea for the businesses with several websites or the web developers who make their first steps in a career. The plan enables you to permanently monitor up to 5 websites.</li>
<li>The Ultimate Plan gives experienced web developers an opportunity of tracking an unlimited number of their clients’ websites.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/subscriptions.jpg" />
Moreover, you are free to choose between monthly and yearly subscriptions. You can check and upgrade your plan to a better one anytime with the help of “Upgrade Plan” button within the “My Subscriptions” tab. As soon as you subscribe to the Uptime Monitor, you will get a full access to all the necessary information concerning the status and downtime of your site.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/analytics.jpg" />
To cut a long story short, never let your business reputation or your bank account suffer because of your website downtimes. Don’t waste time and do everything to ensure that your website is always up and running, providing you with satisfied customers and increasing your income.

Make Sure Your Business is Always Online with MotoCMS

A new release of the DotNetNuke is upon us, but this one is a bit different from previous releases in that it offers a redesigned UI and some impressive new features.
Check out these screenshots showing off the new look:
<img style="max-width:482px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/resized_opentext_logo_izshym.jpg" alt="Dotnetnuke 6 screenshot 1" />
Some of the highlights from the release announcement:
<ul>
<li>For the first time ever, the DotNetNuke Store (Snowcovered.com) and the Extensions Forge<a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Extensions-Forge.aspx">,</a> with over 10,000 application extensions, are directly accessible from within the core DotNetNuke platform. The tight integration simplifies the process of finding, purchasing and installing DotNetNuke apps</li>
<li>DotNetNuke 6 delivers a platform that is fully compatible with Windows Azure Hosting and provides cloud service integration with the addition of the new Windows Azure Storage and Amazon S3 folder providers. DotNetNuke 6 provides a great foundation for moving to the cloud, whether you need to your whole site to live in the cloud or just your content.</li>
<li>DotNetNuke 6 Professional and Enterprise includes a great new eCommerce module that empowers organizations to quickly add eCommerce capabililities to their website. The new eCommerce module is designed for organizations seeking to deliver a small portfolio of digital goods and services to their end users and is built from the ground up with simplicity and customer experience in mind.</li>
<li>vailable exclusively in the DotNetNuke Enterprise Edition, the Microsoft SharePoint Connector for DotNetNuke enables fast, secure publishing of documents stored in Sharepoint to public web sites, extranets or intranets. Organizations can securely manage their document library within SharePoint and selectively publish those documents using the flexible, cost effective DotNetNuke platform.</li>
<li>DotNetNuke 6 has gotten a major new platform upgrade as the result of a complete conversion to C#. This language change will make it more accessible to a larger development community and allows us to leverage many development tools which have always had strong C# support. The C# version of DotNetNuke has been available for the past year and starting with DotNetNuke 6, it is officially the primary development language of the platform.</li>
</ul>
Official announcement: <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Blogs/EntryId/3137/Announcing-DotNetNuke-6.aspx">http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Blogs/EntryId/3137/Announcing-DotNetNuke-6.aspx</a>

DotNetNuke 6.0 now available, offers simplified interface

<img title="openedit" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/openedit_vv9jiq.jpg" />Our latest interview is with Openedit founder Christopher Burkey. Openedit is an interesting project that was founded approximately 10 years ago and utilizes java as it's base. We always find it very interesting to get a chance to talk with people who have been indepth in the industry for quite sometime as there's always an opportunity to learn something new. So sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy the read!
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.
CC: You began development of Openedit approximately 10 years ago, is that correct? What prompted you to begin this project?
CB: Yes, many people don’t realize we have been developing OpenEdit for over 10 years, using our own development team, as well as developers from the OpenEdit Community. OpenEdit began with a multi-year project for General Electric Aircraft Engines. The project required us to develop a web application, which would allow GE to capture technical data on jet engines. Each feature of OpenEdit had to be self-contained with as few interdependencies as possible. The idea was to allow any feature of OpenEdit to be able to interact with, or even within, other parts of their application. From this, OpenEdit evolved into a web application framework used to create and maintain dynamic websites and custom web applications, most notably, Digital Asset Management, Content Management and Ecommerce.
CC: Why did you choose to go open source and what other services does your company provide in order to remain profitable?
<img style="max-width:150px" title="Christopher Burkey " src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/chris-140x150.jpg" alt="Christopher Burkey " />
CB: Sharing knowledge and allowing developers to have the source code in hand empowers them, it drives innovation. Most of the features in OpenEdit were developed for and by organizations with specific Content Management and Digital Asset Management requirements in their work environment. OpenEdit users have seen that open source provides freedom of setting up their systems as they wish and freedom in the long term. A software company can give their software away and make money on services or add-on’s. Or perhaps a company can sell the software for a high initial price and provide support for free. When a company sells software and support, many times, it results in the customer becoming frustrated, because they don’t understand the reasoning behind paying for a software they have no control of and also paying for its support and services. OpenEdit sells installation services, project work and hosting – there is no charge to download, use and upgrade OpenEdit.
CC: What is the primary objective and/or target market of your product?
CB: Our primary market is Marketing and Creative Services departments within large firms. OpenEdit offers the best web based, open source Digital Asset Management and Content Management software used across the enterprise. Our focus is on workflow, search, management and collaboration, multi-media, repurpose of assets, PDF and image format conversions. Today, OpenEdit is used by marketing and creative services departments having thousands of users and managing millions of digital assets across the enterprise.
CC: What separates Openedit from similar platforms? Is there a specific functionality that makes it stand out?
CB: OpenEdit is the most feature rich platform for DAM and CMS. We offer the only Digital Asset Management solution that includes a full Content Management System, integrated Blogging, eCommerce, Events Calendar, Multi-language support and Social Networking tools. Every feature of OpenEdit is all-inclusive, we don’t charge for add-ons 
or even upgrades for that matter.
CC: Given the current state of the economy, what objectives does your company have for 2009 in order to “stay afloat” during these difficult times?
CB: Our approach is to keep focusing on Digital Asset Management integrated with Content Management. Make sure that our clients are treated like royalty and that OpenEdit is flexible enough to keep up with the latest feature requests from our target market.
CC: If there was one thing you would change about your platform what would it be and why?
CB: The one thing we would change is to package our product better. We want to make multiple flavors of OpenEdit that match the needs of certain groups of clients. We believe in permission marketing within software. What that means is if a customer gives us permission to sell them something then we should provide a version of OpenEdit that is tailored to their needs. For instance, OpenEdit comes with all of our feature sets but narrowing down or expanding those features for specific types of users will make OpenEdit more appealing to that audience. As an example, we have a solution available online today, it’s directed toward large marketing departments but we also want to make an eCommerce flavor of OpenEdit that is packaged for photographers to sell prints of photos online.
CC: What do you feel is the most overlooked feature or functionality of your product?
CB: The most overlooked feature of OpenEdit is the Debug Mode. This mode allows users to change any part of any web page within their site. The changes that they make are stored in a separate folder structure so it is easy to track what has been customized for a specific client. This allows us to support hundreds of installations of OpenEdit with customizations and still be able to upgrade them regularly without too many problems. With Debug Mode developers can provide continuous integration and quick, agile development.
CC: Where do you see the future of the content management system industry going?
CB: Our philosophy has always been that CMS and DAM is a great fit for one another. OpenEdit began with a pure content management solution, in which General Electric could capture data and it naturally evolved into the inclusion of a Digital Asset Management solution, this direction continues to prove itself.
We have already seen growth in the interest of open source CMS and DAM for 2009. Search methods will continue to change, so individuals can search the way they want, rather than being forced to search a specific way. Social networking is something we see our CMS and DAM users have an interest in. The Web Browser makes a great desktop replacement, thus online document editing capabilities will see continued growth. Corporations need a suite of integrated web based document management and editing tools that they can host and use within their entire enterprise.
CC: Where do you see Openedit fitting in with this future?
CB: OpenEdit is an extensible and flexible enough platform to be used within a huge variety of enterprise environments. Every business has custom needs, which is why OpenEdit was built from the ground up based on real work agile development. OpenEdit is a major force in the future of CMS and DAM and will continue to add and refine our features as CMS requirements grow for our users.
CC: Do you plan to offer SaaS options for Openedit?
CB: OpenEdit has offered reliable and inexpensive hosting for clients who do not have their own servers for over 10 years.
CC: What are your favourite implementations of your product? Can you share some websites that use your product that you find interesting or innovative?
CB: My favorite implementations include:
<ul>
<li>Slamdance Film Festival – uses all the parts of OpenEdit for a very low cost implementation. OpenEdit hosts this one: 
<a href="http://www.slamdance.com/">http://www.slamdance.com</a></li>
<li>Proyecto Piloto – I like this one because it is in Spanish and was put together and maintained by non-technical users and it features lots of images: <a href="http://www.proyectopiloto.cl/">http://www.proyectopiloto.cl</a></li>
<li>WWE – World Wide Entertainment – This is an eCommerce site that is used to sell licensed media to their partners. This site requires a login.</li>
</ul>
You can see a list of our clients on our website <a href="http://www.openeditdam.com/">http://www.openeditdam.com</a>
CC: How do you feel Openedit compares with other open source projects in the ECM market such as Alfresco for instance?
CB: The most striking difference between OpenEdit and traditional CMS's is the use of a database. Most CMS's start with a database then they build editing and management tools around the data. OpenEdit starts with the HTML User Interface and the data is defined on the fly as needed. This allows us to create entire web applications stored within a file sub-directory. It is very intuitive and flexible 
to create new applications just by creating more folders. It is not intuitive for users to have to create or alter database schemas each 
time they want to create a new simple web application.
CC: Can you provide us with some insight as to future modifications or upcoming changes?
CB: In the immediate future OpenEdit is working on data mining tools that will help a business search across all of their media repositories. We plan to provide detailed summary reports and navigation tools to simplify searching for all digital files, such as video, images, documents, brochures, logo’s, etc.
CC: Do you have any parting comments for our readers?
CB: OpenEdit has proven itself to be a powerful CMS and DAM solution for many companies and organizations. The OpenEdit community is of the utmost importance, as they keep coming up with innovative ways to use OpenEdit.
The progression from a content management solution into one which also integrates full digital asset management capabilities seemed obvious to us years ago. Integrating the management, collaboration, sharing and reuse of all digital assets across web content management and digital asset management is achieved using OpenEdit.
We always welcome any sort of feedback about OpenEdit, please feel free to post here in our online user forum <a href="http://www.openeditdam.com/OpenEditDAMblog/index.html">http://www.openeditdam.com/OpenEditDAMblog/index.html</a>
The OpenEdit developer website can be found at <a href="http://www.openedit.org/">http://www.openedit.org</a> and our website devoted to OpenEdit DAM and CMS is <a href="http://www.openeditdam.com/">http://www.openeditDAM.com</a>
We think that Java is the best tool for Enterprises, that’s why we use Java and Object Orientated development to build OpenEdit. We feel that choice has been advantageous by allowing our team to re-use and constantly refactor our code for over a decade without ever starting over. Our competitors who are using PHP, Perl and proprietary software systems such as Microsoft, seem to have to re-architect every few years to avoid endless mounds of confusing spaghetti code or to adapt to new technology such as Ajax. Java has been great for our clients and OpenEdit.
Thanks for this opportunity!

Openedit Founder, Christopher Burkey Interview

<a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a> is a popular eCommerce platform that helps newer, growing brands take their business to the next level with a free 15-day trial. On average, those stores that use <a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a> grow twice as fast as the industry average!Because BigCommerce is designed for growing brands, the process for using it should be pretty straightforward and intuitive.The platform is updated regularly, and it has been proven to appeal to both new and seasoned businesses. Must be pretty diverse, right?I decided to check it out for myself. Keep reading for my BigCommerce review.<h2>Getting Started</h2>It’s definitely easy to get started with BigCommerce. It’s an easy sign-up and log-in process. Here’s how it went down:First, you enter your login information. This will take you to a screen where you select what you want to do.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-1943x0-is.png" />If you still aren’t entirely sure what to do, you can scroll down and select one of the links. I found that to be particularly helpful.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-2939x0-is.png" />From this Dashboard view, I first started out by customizing my store. I wanted to focus on creating an ecommerce space that followed the same branding as the rest of my business.<h2>Usability</h2>From the dashboard, I chose the ‘Storefront’ tab, presented on the left scrollbar with white text on a dark grey background. Overall, this looks very sleek and user-friendly.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-3935x0-is.png" />There are drop-down menus to give users additional options, something that is especially helpful when you’re still figuring out the best way to go about things.A great number of free themes are available, but you can also choose to purchase a theme. The process is easy and it’s simple to navigate.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-4939x0-is.png" />There are themes available for each industry, better enabling users to offer the best shopping experience possible for their customers and maintain consistent branding.For each theme, there are updates, different style options, and some helpful information.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-5923x0-is.png" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-6676x0-is.png" />It gives you a list of all of the features each theme offers, tells you what each theme is offered for, and then gives links to resources for when you need help and documentation.Once you’ve got your theme chosen, you can move on to the logo portion of the setup.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-7726x0-is.png" />This area’s super easy to navigate, straightforward, and versatile. Upload your logo, or add some text as a placeholder, and you’re good to go.You can also add a Favicon, located at the bottom there, which adds a little icon to the tab on the user’s browser. This is a great way to further maintain consistent branding, and lets users know which page they’re looking at just by glancing at the tabs.From there, you can start setting up the carousel of your homepage.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-8935x0-is.png" />This is SUPER easy to use, with text boxes that are easy to type in and edit. In the screenshot above, I’ve swapped out the default text for some of my own, giving you a better example of how this section is done.Moving on down the left menu, let’s go to ‘Web Pages’, which is where you piece together your actual store.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-9933x0-is.png" />Click on a page to get started. In this case, I started with ‘Shipping &amp; Returns’, because it was first.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-10931x0-is.png" />Once you click on it, you’re taken to the above page. There are several options, but it’s easy to understand and not the least bit overwhelming.There’s an easy-to-use text box, so you can edit your content directly. Once you’re done with the content of your page, you can scroll down for the remaining options.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-11855x0-is.png" /><h2>Design</h2><h3>Responsiveness</h3>BigCommerce has definitely taken great strides to make sure their store templates are as responsive as possible, complete with mobile optimization. As demonstrated in the above screenshots, this platform makes it possible for users to customize a lot of the template elements, making it more unique to their business and brand.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-12.png" />This screenshot is an example of that. As you can see, the template fits neatly within the borders of the screen, and the design is sleek and user-friendly.It’s easy to navigate, and doesn’t look cluttered or misaligned like many other ecommerce platforms do when viewed from a mobile device.<h3>Store Templates</h3>BigCommerce offers a huge range of ready-to-use templates in various styles, allowing users to meet the branding requirements that best align with their business.Even better is the fact this platform takes things one step further and arranges the templates by industry, making it easier for users to select the most effective theme possible.<h2>Features</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-13181x0-is.png" /><h3>Marketing</h3>BigCommerce has tons of marketing options for your store, all of which are pretty easy to use and allows you to track them with various types of analytics.From there, you can streamline your channels to better allow you to serve customers across your various social media platforms.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-14.png" />It works really well, but it would be helpful to have a few more channel options available, such as Twitter and Google+.<h3>Apps</h3><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigcommerce-review-15931x0-is.png" />A wide range of useful apps are available, including both paid and free apps. They are broken up into categories, so users can best determine which apps will accelerate the growth of their business.The apps all seem to be very reasonably priced for everything they offer.<h2>Extras</h2>With BigCommerce, there are several extras available to users. This includes additional social media links, email templates, and even gift certificate templates.<h3>Blogging</h3>There is a blogging option available through BigCommerce, which has a very basic blogging platform that resembles WordPress.It’s easy to use, straightforward, and even has SEO options available to help boost the visibility of the user’s content.<h2>Pricing</h2>BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial period, which gives you plenty of time to decide if this platform is the right one for you and your business. After that, you have a range of price options, all with their own features. All options include a 10% savings if you pay annually, rather than monthly.The most basic price option is a full-featured online store for $29.95 per month, which comes with a whole host of features and everything you need to run a successful eCommerce store.The next option offers optimized lead conversion and customer group management, with a price of $79.95 per month. The next, and final, option starts at $249.95 per month and offers everything plus high-volume security and faceted search.The pricing page clearly showcases which features each package comes with, both with text and visuals – making it very easy to determine which package is right for you.<h2>Conclusion</h2>BigCommerce is an easy-to-use, highly efficient option for ecommerce owners. It’s got plenty of features, including marketing and offering the ability to streamline consumer shopping across multiple channels.The template options are customizable and versatile, and the high level of security on the Pro package is definitely worth the price.Blogging for your business is a great way to reach new audiences, interact with current customers, and keep your sales funnel alive and thriving. The blogging feature built into this platform makes it easy to regularly publish (and schedule) content for your customers.For more information, visit the BigCommerce site <a target="_blank" href="http://bigcommerce.evyy.net/c/12549/185949/2941">here.</a>Have you used BigCommerce, or are you interested in giving it a try? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

BigCommerce Review - An Easy to Use Choice for eCommerce Shops

If you’re a child of the 1980s – or just a fan of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80057281">Stranger Things</a> – you might remember the directory sign at your local mall. It was the one place you could find exactly what you were looking for in a sea of stores, and they’re still a fixture to this day.Unfortunately, most site searches can’t even get you to the food court. In many cases, you’re left sifting through a morass of results, wondering if you’ll ever find your way to that rad new pair of acid-washed jeans.Like malls, site search has been around for a long time. But now, it’s becoming an even more vital part of the digital experience. After all, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/search-and-you-may-find/">more than half of people are now “search dominant</a>”, meaning they will use a website’s search over the navigation to find what they’re looking for.From an SEO perspective, navigation is key. But modern search tools can add a complementary layer of insights and analytics. These cutting-edge, AI-driven technologies can energize your marketing by understanding how your customers are searching – not just what they’re searching for.One of the best site search tools we’ve seen is Swiftype, which was <a target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/09/elastic-acquires-swiftype/">purchased by Elastic in 2017</a>. This powerful SaaS platform has positioned itself as a clear leader in the site search landscape and has evolved to include app search and a host of other features.In this article, we’ll take a close look at Swiftype’s features and explore how you can customize your search results, leverage analytics, and even build marketing strategies within the platform. It’s like a mall for best-of-breed site search capabilities – and we’ll show you exactly where to shop.<h3>Goodbye, Google Search</h3>Back in the day, Google Site Search was the defacto standard. Not only was it easy to implement, but it brought the world's leading search technology down to the website level. Unfortunately, Google deprecated the service in 2018, forcing thousands of websites to scramble for a new solution.Quite a few niche players answered the call, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.algolia.com/">Algolia</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cludo.com/">Cludo</a>, and others. Enterprise brands also muscled their way into the game, with <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/cloudsearch/">Amazon CloudSearch</a> and Google Search Console offering alternatives.What was missing was the best of both worlds – a cost-effective, cloud-based service that offered core site search with scalable enterprise features. That’s where Swiftype comes in.<h3>What is Swiftype?</h3>Swiftype is a cloud-based SaaS platform that enables organizations of all sizes to create and manage a tailored search experience with real-time feedback, user insight, and search trend analytics. Users are able to monitor which content visitors are searching for and which results they’re engaging with as they browse your website.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-analytics-dashboard.png" />Swiftype is incredibly easy to install and customize. Once you sign up and enter your website’s address, Swiftype automatically indexes your site and renders your custom search engine in real-time. In addition to providing a “marketer friendly” no-code experience, Swiftype also gives advanced developers access to resources including their API.Swiftype offers two main products – Site Search and App Search – which can be added to websites and CMS platforms. We’ve explored both in more detail below.<h3>Swiftype Site Search</h3>Swiftype Site Search provides all the tools you need to deliver more relevant search results for your website users. It's simple to set up and use, and has some dynamite out-of-the-box features, including:<ul><li>Autocomplete: Guide users to the content, answers, or products that matter most with real-time results – right as they type.</li><li>Search Refinements: Dynamically expand on simple search, allowing your users to refine results by attributes such as date, price, author, location, or content type.</li><li>Comprehensive Documentation: Swiftype has clear and simple guides that can help you build the perfect search experience. You'll have all the materials you need to become a master of high value search experiences.</li><li>Advanced Search Algorithm: Powered by AI/ML, Swiftype Site Search is built on an advanced search algorithm that delivers relevant results for even the most complicated queries.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-site-search-features.png" /><ul><li>Search Controls and Analytics: Site Search surfaces the most important data points and performance indicators for your search. It also gives you the tools to take action and improve performance, including patented technologies that allow you to tweak your search engine’s output globally or on a per-query basis.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/search-controls-and-swiftype-analytics.png" /><ul><li>Developer Tools: One of Swiftype’s strengths is its ability to appeal to marketers with a no-code experience. But it also provides a robust, developer-friendly API for creating custom record schemas, indexing data in real-time, embedding search into any user interface (such as a website or CMS), and programmatically tracking events. You can view the API documentation <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/overview">here</a>.</li><li>Real-time Search Analytics: Swiftype allows you to see what your users are searching for, clicking on, and engaging with as it happens – so you have more actionable insight about their behaviors. With its powerful real-time search analytics, you can track the highest performing content on your website or app, assess which autocomplete queries are most popular, and learn what content was most commonly chosen from autocomplete suggestions.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/real-time-search-analytics.png" /><ul><li>Tracking conversions and autocompletes: Search conversions tell you where your users go after performing a search.</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/tracking-conversions-and-autocompletes.png" /><ul><li>Find out What Users Aren’t Finding: Swiftype shows you common searches that return no results – so you can optimize your content strategy. Swiftype’s custom result ranking feature lets you add results to these search terms to help visitors find more of what they’re looking for.</li></ul><h3>Swiftype App Search</h3><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-app-search.jpg" />While Site Search provides a powerful solution without a steep learning curve, Swiftype App Search goes deep with developers. You get access to a robust set of APIs that allow you to customize your search experience – all backed by the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.elastic.co/elastic-stack">Elastic Stack</a>.Swiftype App Search harnesses the power of Elasticsearch, built on the constantly improving foundation that Elastic provides. It includes features like typo-tolerance, stemming, bigram and phrase matching – as well as search customization capabilities like Curations, Weights, Boosts and Synonyms.Together, these tools help you fine-tune relevance based on your business objectives in conjunction with data from App Search’s Analytics platform.Other key features include:<ul><li>Real-time Analytics: Measure how users interact with your search engine and track everything in real-time, revealing unique insights into user behavior.</li><li>Relevance Tuning: The App Search Dashboard makes relevance tuning as simple as point-and-click. Make customizations in the web-based interface and preview their impact in real-time – all with no code.</li><li>Schemaless Indexing: App Search supports dynamic schemas and real-time reindexing. Simply send JSON to the API and Swiftype analyzes it for whatever search application you build.</li></ul>You can see the full list of App Search features <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/app-search/features">here</a>.<h3>How to Add Swiftype Site Search to Your Website</h3>One of Swiftype’s main selling points is its ease of installation – and based on our experience, it delivers as billed.Swiftype’s website claims it takes as little as five minutes, and for the essentials, that was pretty much spot on. The tools were a quick study, and the interface is clean and lightweight, making it pleasant to work in.To set up Swiftype on your website, you first need to <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/users/sign_up">create your account</a>, then an Engine (short for “Search Engine”). After beginning your Site Search trial, enter your website's URL when prompted.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-create-engine.png" />Once the scan is successful, provide your Engine with a name and select its default language. You can choose from over 13 different languages, including English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and German. For the full list, see Swiftype’s documents on <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/crawler-configuration/language-optimization">language support</a>.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-choose-engine-language.png" />The final step is adding the search experience to your website. Once you click on the Installation button, you’ll need to configure the design of your Search Field and Result Container. From there, you can choose how to style your results, configure autocomplete, and tune an array of options.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-style-your-results-and-other-configurations.png" />Once you have the basic configuration in place, you’ll receive an embeddable JavaScript snippet. Place that snippet on each webpage to enable the search. The snippet will look like this:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-javascript-snippet.png" />And that’s it. If you’re savvy and committed, it can take just a few minutes – and that’s pretty slick.<h3>How to Add Swiftype Site Search to Your CMS</h3>Content management systems often miss the mark on their own search capabilities. By adding Swiftype, you can instantly improve a CMS experience and add your CMS content automatically using Swiftype’s <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/tutorials/add_search_to_any_cms">Site Crawler</a>.On the more advanced end, you can even set up callbacks that can be used to hook into content, alerting Swiftype that new content is available to index.While the installation process is relatively straight-forward – and works well for most CMS platforms based on their documentation – there are a few more steps involved. But Swiftype offers some great <a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/documentation/site-search/tutorials/add_search_to_any_cms">step-by-step guidance</a> to build out the experience.<h3>Customer Support</h3>Swiftype offers broad customer support, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.g2.com/products/swiftype/reviews">according to the reviews</a>, it offers one of the best experiences around.Swiftype Standard and Pro support is focused on making sure your Swiftype Engine is working as expected – and is fully available. To that end, they offer:<ul><li>Analysis of the state of your engine</li><li>Actions you can perform to stabilize or tune your engine</li><li>Pointers to Swiftype documentation or forums if your question is outside the scope of the platform itself</li></ul>Elastic reported their response time and hours below:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-customer-support-plans.png" />In addition, they provide a lively community of support for Swiftype users. With the community forums, you can get your more in-depth questions answered.<h3>Pricing</h3>Swiftype has two separate plans for Site Search and App Search. The Site Search plan starts at $79/month and App Search starts at $49/month.Site Search:There are three plans for site search: Standard, Pro, and Premium.The standard plan gives you all the core search features and analytics, as well as multilingual support.With the Pro plan, your website gets crawled twice a day instead of once per week. Additionally, you get cross-domain search and PDF/document indexing.The Premium plan is their enterprise-level search and security.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-site-search-plans.png" />App Search:Just like the Site Search plans, Swiftype’s App Search plans offer Standard, Pro, and Premium Packages.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/swiftype-app-search-plans.png" /><h3>Conclusion</h3>While good navigation is important, people always seek the path of least resistance. That’s why site search is so essential: it enables more control over intent, allowing a user to search for specific content quickly and easily – and even discovering new stuff along the way. In that sense, it’s another layer in your personalization strategy.While Swiftype is easy to set up, marketer- and developer-friendly, and offers a broad range of tools, it’s not the cheapest solution on the market. But if you’re looking for a platform that makes search a more strategic part of your experience, Swiftype is at the top of the list. It offers unmatched control and scalability, and brings more power and presence to site search as a strategic asset. With world-class customer support to boot, it’s really a solid platform on every level.You can start a <a target="_blank" href="https://app.swiftype.com/signup?product=ss">free</a> trial today. Acid-washed jeans not included.<h3>About Swiftype</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://swiftype.com/">Swiftype</a> is a search and index company based in San Francisco, California, that provides search software for organizations, websites, and computer programs. Notable customers include AT&amp;T, Dr. Pepper, Hubspot and TechCrunch. Swiftype's site search can be used for faceted search, full text search, real-time search, and concept search queries. The company's plans offer on-demand and live recrawls and indexing of websites. Other features include drag-and-drop result customization, real-time analytics and adjustable weights. In an effort to further grow outside of site search, Swiftype introduced an enterprise search service in February 2017.<h3>About Elastic</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://www.elastic.co/">Elastic</a> builds software to make data usable in real time and at scale for search, logging, security, and analytics use cases. Founded in 2012, the company develops the open source Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash), X-Pack (commercial features), and Elastic Cloud (a SaaS offering). Elastic is used by organizations including Cisco, eBay, Goldman Sachs, NASA, Microsoft, Mayo Clinic, The New York Times, Wikipedia, and Verizon to power mission-critical systems.

Swiftype Review: Add Powerful Elastic Search to Websites, Apps and CMS Platforms

While redesigning their websites, many businesses expect modern UIs and cool features alone to generate big leads. But they won’t. Unless backed by a consistent content marketing strategy that talks big clients.
Let me explain what I mean.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/how_to_win_big_customers_with_your_website-02603x0-is.png" />
<h2>Understand Big Customers</h2>
Big attracts big. You don’t need to be as big in size as they are, but be big in your approach, look big, sound big. Embrace enterprise thinking in your message. Speak their language.
Because of the strict vendor selection policies, large companies tend to cautiously assess candidates’ competencies and processes. Don’t make them guess about your authority, state it right away on your pages. No gambling. They don’t want you to be the best, they want you to be reliable in delivering what they expect from you. They want you to solve problems.
<h2>Create Problem-oriented Content</h2>
Talking about problems on your website builds credibility. It means you probably know how to solve them. These guys seem to be experts, they’ll think. You will have to prove it, though, but for now it’s all about the first impression. So take your chance.
Use your blog to create problem-oriented yet engaging insights. To make your content more effective, follow these key steps:
<ul>
<li>
Build content around clients’ problems and needs, not your products/services. No salesy, screaming copy
</li>
<li>
Insert cross-references between posts and pages to engage visitors to read more
</li>
<li>
Link articles with product/service pages
</li>
<li>
Include confident CTAs
</li>
</ul>
However, don’t try to cover every area of your expertise. Narrow down the focus to emphasize your strongest competences.
<h2>Increase Promotion of Key Expertise</h2>
Make your key products/services disproportionately visible for search engines and people (but don’t abandon other business directions). You will need to publish over 100 webpages to promote the focus area.
Should you start looking for copywriters? Yes, you should. Sounds heavy on your marketing budget? Yes, it does. But we are talking big customers, remember?
<h2>Provide Deep Insights</h2>
Large enterprises don’t make spontaneous moves. They take the time to think. So give them food for thought by offering detailed case studies and white papers (executives love white papers) available through registration. White papers are still the most influential lead generation tools.
For example, according to Eccolo Media 2014 B2B Technology Content Survey Report, 49% of respondents (US companies) rely on white papers (among other content items) while making technology purchases. But don’t disappoint potential clients by talking too much about your company and products/services.
Leave out that marketing hype and biased or too general information.
Personalize Content
Don’t be surprised if a potential client returns to your website in 2 months or more after downloading a white paper. You want to be prepared for that by showing relevant content based on the interaction tracked down during their previous visits. Collecting and analyzing data such as the time spent and the buttons clicked on particular pages, you can build each visitor’s up-to-date profile to help you personalize the content for further interactions.
In other words, you will increase your chances for conversion by giving visitors what they want on the go. If, say, last time they were looking for translation services at your agency, it makes no sense bombarding them with proofreading options now.
Have you ever noticed how accurate personalized product recommendations can be? You’d probably go ‘No way! How do they know?’ That’s exactly how you want to surprise your leads during the next visits.
So, when looking for a <a href="https://www.scnsoft.com/web-portal-development">web portal development vendor</a> to redesign your website, make sure to state your need for personalization features in an RFP to filter out those who can’t do it.
<h2>Ready for the Big Hunt</h2>
Generating big leads with a website requires a consistent content marketing strategy based on a complex portal development technology beyond just a cool design. But it is possible.
At <a href="https://www.scnsoft.com" target="_blank">ScienceSoft</a>, we delivered websites that attracted, and converted into customers, Royal Bank of Canada, Robert Half, Siemens, Philips and other large companies. Now, it’s your turn to win big leads.
* * *
This post is sponsored by ScienceSoft. Find out more at <a href="https://www.scnsoft.com" target="_blank">ScnSoft.com</a>.

How to Win Big Customers with Your Website

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 106