Articles - Page 111

What I Mean to Say: A Practitioner Perspective on AI, Semantics, and Content Evolution

msalvatierra

Customer demand for personalized buying experiences is at an all-time high.
We have grown accustomed to getting exactly what we want at the swipe of a finger – everything from clothing and takeout to private drivers and child care services. In this “there’s an app for that” world, brands have no choice but to provide seamless and relevant customer experiences across all channels from mobile device to store front.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/office-620822_1280-1550x0-is.jpg" />
This means understanding customers on a personal level and then engaging them in targeted real-time journeys to deliver the most relevant customer experience.
So, how are brands doing?
<h2>Misunderstood &amp; Disconnected</h2>
At a time when consumer demand is up and loyalty is tenuous at best, marketers are struggling to gain a clear picture of their customers. In fact, a <a href="#resource">recent study</a> from IBM and Econsultancy found a massive disconnect between how well businesses think they are marketing and the customer’s actual experience.
While 90 percent of marketers agree that personalizing the customer experience is critical to their success, four out of five consumers believe that the brands they interact with do not understand them as individuals.
But wait, there’s more.
Half of these consumers reported changing their banking, mobile, internet or satellite/cable service provider in the last 12 months due to experience-related factors. This perception gap has huge implications for a brand’s bottom line and begs the question of why are brands missing the mark?
One explanation for this relevancy void may be that many marketers lack the innovative tools that are crucial for multi channel engagement. According to the study, only 34 percent of marketers said they do a good job of linking their online and offline customer experiences.
So, what can brands and marketers do to bridge this great customer experience divide?
<h2>Personalization, Engagement &amp; Trust</h2>
Below are three tips for evolving the consumer/brand relationship into a two-way relationship to build true customer loyalty and brand trust:
<ul>
<li>
Make it personal: With an overwhelming percentage of consumers believing that brands do not understand them as individuals, it’s time for marketers to leverage the power of big data and analytics to better understand their customers. Instead of making educated guesses, marketers must dive deep into who their customers are, how they are feeling and then glean insights that can be used to make valuable connections.
	Gone are the days of the old-school “spray-and-pray” model that pushed the same message to thousands of individuals – consumers see right through that and demand more tailored interactions to catch their attention and more importantly, their wallets.
</li>
<li>
Customer experience should be your #1 priority: We’re seeing a shift where consumers value their experience with a brand even more than the price of the item or the service itself.
	According to Gartner, brands that offer personalization will outsell those who don’t by more than <a href="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2962317">15 percent by 2018</a>. It has become imperative for brands to compete based on their customer experience, or risk losing valuable customers to the competition.
</li>
<li>
Earn your customers’ trust for greater insight: The IBM/Econsultancy study found that 61 percent of consumers would be willing to share highly-sensitive personal information with a brand they trust.
	For marketers, earning your customers’ trust is like hitting the jackpot. The more information a brand can gather about a specific customer, the better they can tailor offers and communications to deliver a more relevant experience.
</li>
</ul>
Brands have a unique opportunity to engage and serve their customers’ needs like never before. By personalizing each interaction, engaging with customers at every touch point and leveraging analytics to understand each individual, brands can drive customer loyalty.
These outstanding experiences cultivate a powerful and influential core of individuals who are doing you the ultimate service, advocating your brand by sharing across their social networks.

The Great Customer Experience Divide: Three Tips for More Personalized Marketing

mike-johnston

After <a href="/motocms-3-0-beta-now-available/">being in beta since November 2014</a>, MotoCMS 3.0 has finally arrived.Powering over 140,000 websites across the world, MotoCMS is a website builder with a range of excellently designed templates, and a user interface renowned for its simplicity.MotoCMS 3.0 brings in a new and “revolutionary approach” to color palette tweaking, easier media files management and, of course, responsive design. Here's an overview of what's new.<h2>A Look at MotoCMS 3.0</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15765x0-is.png" /> MotoCMS 3.0 templates are have been available via TemplateMonster for a while, but now they're formally up for grabs on the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-templates/">MotoCMS website</a>, witht eh company making sure everything was ship-shape before an official release.With each one of the cool MotoCMS 3.0 templates you get:<ul><li>100% responsive design;</li><li>Improved WYSIWYG editor with drag-and-drop functionality;</li><li>2-minute step-by-step installation for hosting;</li><li>New plugins and widgets (with more to come);</li><li>Multi-language admin panel;</li><li>24/7 free support;</li><li>Free automatic updates within a product etc.</li></ul>Being totally responsive was something that MotoCMS was struggling with for a while. With Google's latest update making responsive design more important than ever for SEO purposes, MotoCMS have managed to bring their platform into the responsive safety zone with this update.Perhaps the most notable new feature though, is the Color Picker, one of MotoCMS' newest innovations.According to MotoCMS, “this small widget [Color Picker] has great powers for website tweaking. [it] should become a handy tool for color aficionados and for color theory newcomers.”<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/motocms-3_0_-color-picker733x0-is.jpg" /> Color Picker shows main five colors of a template color palette with five additional sub-tones for each one (thus, you have 25 hues to work with).When one colour is changed, all related elements across the entire website will be changed instantly. It's a great way to define a website's colour-set with consistency, from headers to buttons.MotoCMS has come a long way with this update, making their already sleek interface a force to be reckoned with by getting faster and more Search engine friendly. It will certainly be interesting to see how they progress from here on out.There are already over 70 MotoCMS 3.0 templates for users to experiment with, all of which can be <a href="/products/motocms">purchased right here</a>.To find out more about MotoCMS, and to sign up for a totally free trial, <a href="/products/motocms">check out their website</a>.

MotoCMS 3.0 Formally Launched

So you want to start your own discussion forum. Awesome. Now all you need is some forum software to help build and manage it.
The world of CMS (content management systems) has a lot to offer no matter what kind of website you're looking to build. That's both good news, and bad news.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/laptop2.jpg" />
As for the good news, it means that you'll eventually find yourself a forum platform that tickles your fancy. The bad news is, thanks to there being so darn many to choose from, it'll be hard to make a final call.
To give you a helping hand, here are my top picks for forum software in no particular order.
<h2>1. Vanilla Forums</h2>
<a href="https://vanillaforums.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6.png" /></a> 
Got yourself a large community? Vanilla is an open-source and extendable discussion forum which comes in two flavours, <a href="https://vanillaforums.org/" target="_blank">self-hosted</a> and <a href="https://vanillaforums.com/" target="_blank">cloud-hosted</a>.
If you're comfortable with the technical side of running a website, you can download the self-hosted version for free. To make use of Vanilla as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) and forget about the hosting and technicalities, their pricing begins from $99 per month.
Thanks to a detailed level of design customization, Vanilla can be branded to match existing websites, or tailored to look just the way you want. Plus, it integrates with WordPress, Salesforce, Zendesk, Mailchimp, and more.
<a href="https://vanillaforums.com/">Try Vanilla</a>
<h2>2. Ninja Post</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-12.png" /> 
If you're looking for something quirky, Ninja Post could be the forum CMS for you.
The charming interface is simple for both users and administrators, while a live-feed approach is used by default on the homepage, giving community members a look at the latest threads as they roll in.
Ninja Post isn't lacking in features either. With real-time updates, built-in spam defence, thread tagging, gamification and some neat analytics, the platform can hold its own against any rival. To get more acquainted, check out my <a href="/ninja-post-review/" target="_blank">Ninja Post Review</a>.
<a href="https://www.ninjapost.com/" target="_blank">Try Ninja Post</a>
<h2>3. Node BB</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-10.png" />
NodeBB is sleek. It also has various themes and plugins ready to be used alongside a host of built-in features.
On top of the basic offerings of media embedding, mentions and social integration, NodeBB also serves up real-time updates, favorites, drafts, desktop notifications and instant messaging, keeping members connected as they browse the forums. It's a feature-filled solution by anybody's standards.
NodeBB can be downloaded and self-hosted for free, while the cloud-hosted version has plans starting from $35 a month.
<a href="https://nodebb.org/" target="_blank">Try NodeBB</a>
<h2>4. GetSatisfaction</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-9.png" />
GetSatisfaction is actually a customer community platform, designed to be used by companies wishing to give their customers a place to congregate.
The platform brings forth CRM integration, gamification features, powerful analytics and various ways to glean feedback and testimonials from customers. GetSatisfaction also helps promote a company's community as a self-serving support source for their customers.
Try GetSatisfaction
<h2>5. PlushForums</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-13.png" /> 
PlushForums is a commercial fork of Vanilla Forums, but there's nothing Vanilla about its style.
The user interface is sleek at every turn, while features like real-time updates, member blogs and gamification make it a robust forum solution — especially as it offers plans starting from $49 per month. PlushForums is also easy to monetize, with PayPal subscriptions and banner advertising settings built in. So, it's not just a pretty face.
In fact, we here at CMS Critic like PlushForums so much, we decided to use it for our own <a href="https://forum.www.cmscritic.com/" target="_blank">CMS discussion forum</a>. You can find out more through my <a href="/plushforums-review/" target="_blank">Plushforums Review</a>.
<a href="https://plushforums.com/" target="_blank">Try PlushForums</a>
<h2>6. VBulletin</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-8.png" /> 
Initially released in 2000, VBulletin has been around for a while, and for good reason.
Renowned for handling of some of the Internet's largest discussion forums, VBulletin comes in two forms; <a href="https://www.vbulletin.com/en/features/" target="_blank">VBulletin 5 Connect</a> and <a href="https://www.vbulletin.com/en/vbulletin-cloud/" target="_blank">VBulletin Cloud</a>. The former being the self-hosted version, for which a license needs to be purchased.
Unlike some other cloud-hosted solutions though, VBulletin offers an extremely cost-effective route into owning your own forum, with plans starting from just $14.99 per month.
<a href="https://www.vbulletin.com/" target="_blank">Try VBulletin</a>
<h2>7. MyBB</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7.png" />
Founded in 2002, MyBB has been in the forum industry for years.
Thanks to being free, open source, and mature, MyBB can be heavily customized through its theme and plugin library. I wouldn't put it at the top of my list for non-technical users, but for those who know their way around code, MyBB has long been known as an excellent platform.
It's also worth noting that there is no cloud-hosting here, although features like polling, reputation, and built-in email campaign management make it a solid option.
<a href="https://www.mybb.com/" target="_blank">Try MyBB</a>
<h2>8. bbPress</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-11.png" /> 
WordPress fan? Of course you are. Thus, bbPress is worth checking out.
Written by Matt Mullenweg (the Founder of WordPress) during a trip, bbPress is a lightweight forum solution that benefits from a long list of themes and plugins, just like its older brother, WordPress.
Used together with BuddyPress, you can have yourself a fully fledged online community-forum hybrid, with all the perks and trimmings enjoyed by WordPress users across the world. For free.
<a href="https://bbpress.org/" target="_blank">Try bbPress</a>
<h2>9. phpBB</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-14.png" /> 
So long as you aren't new to the Internet, you're almost bound to have come across a phpBB forum in digital travels.
It's a tried and tested open source solution, and although it isn't bursting with modern features, it's supremely easy to set up, manage and use on a day-to-day basis. Just like many other oldschool forum softwares though, phpBB has stuck to the good old-fashioned model of free, open source, and do it yourself — with no clouds in sight.
<a href="https://www.phpbb.com/" target="_blank">Try phpBB</a>
<h2>Over To You</h2>
So there you have it, nine particularly fantastic forum CMS, each one capable of building online discussion boards. They differ somewhat in price, ease of use and scalability, but I believe there's something for everybody within the list above.
Which one is your preferred platform? Let me know via the comments below if I missed your favorite forum software out.

9 Fantastic Forum CMS

<a href="https://www.socialengine.com/" target="_blank">SocialEngine</a>, the online community building CMS, has unveiled a new version that brings in a wide range of bug fixes and improvements.
This update follows up from version 4.8.7, where <a href="/socialengine-cloud-gets-responsive-themes-roadmap/" target="_blank">SocialEngine Cloud received responsive themes and a roadmap</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4_8_9-image-1.png" />
Here's what Social Engine users can look forward to after they upgrade.
<h2>Upgraded Ning Importer, Facebook &amp; YouTube API Fixes</h2>
Online community nurturers who are looking to move from Ning to SocialEngine can now do so with greater ease, as Social Engine 4.8.9 comes with an enhanced importing feature.
Furthermore, SocialEngine has been tweaked to align with new Facebook and YouTube APIs which were recently introduced. That means that users who were experiencing issues with embedding and integration with either Facebook or YouTube should no longer have a problem.
A long list of bug fixes have been implemented also, while a range of plugins also received updates. The full changelog, along with other details, can be found on the <a href="http://blog.socialengine.com/2015/06/22/socialengine-php-version-4-8-9-is-here/?mc_cid=221217ebb7&amp;mc_eid=4633301b38" target="_blank">SocialEngine blog</a>.
The social networking CMS space needs a hero right about now, and although this update alone won't change that fact, SocialEngine 4.8.9 is a small but healthy step forward.
To find our more, you can explore <a href="/products/social-engine/" target="_blank">SocialEngine through our CMS Directory</a>.

SocialEngine PHP Version 4.8.9 Released

<a href="http://www.blackmonk.com/" target="_blank">BlackMonk</a>, the Banglore based CMS founded in 2012, has kicked off a new project in the form of <a href="http://www.teamwave.com/5" target="_blank">TeamWave</a>.
Claimed to be the platform which the BlackMonk team use for themselves, TeamWave has been further developed and honed to be an all-in-one business solution.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5-1.png" />With <a href="http://www.teamwave.com/5" target="_blank">a private Beta already in full flow</a>, along with the chance for businesses to claim the platform for free, here's a look at what TeamWave does.
<h2>An Overview of TeamWave</h2>
Built primarily for small-medium sized businesses, TeamWave is an integrated suite of business applications. It's designed to give the average business everything they need, from collaboration apps to CRM capabilities.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog-022x637x0-is.jpg" />
Here are the core functions found within the different applications of TeamWave.
<ul>
<li>Customer Relationship Management (CRM)</li>
<li>Project Management &amp; Collaboration</li>
<li>Human Resource Management System (HRMS)</li>
<li>Invoicing</li>
<li>Marketing Automation</li>
<li>Analytics &amp; Contact Management</li>
</ul>
BlackMonk have said that inspiration came from SaaS vendors such as Basecamp, Trello, Pipedrive, BambooHR &amp; HubSpot. Their aim has been to take the most useful aspects of each of the tools mentioned, and unify them under the banner of TeamWave.
As of right now, little is known about the specifics of each TeamWave app. As the project progresses, it will be interesting to see just how detailed and powerful the CRM, analytics and marketing automation systems are.
In the meantime, <a href="http://www.teamwave.com/5" target="_blank">TeamWave is free for the first 1,000 companies that sign up during the beta</a>, with no restriction on the number of users each company can have. Further details on this announcement can be found on the <a href="http://blog.teamwave.com/2015/06/18/introducing-teamwave-everything-your-business-needs/" target="_blank">TeamWave blog</a>.
To get an idea of what the team behind TeamWave can do, check out my <a href="/blackmonk-cms-review/" target="_blank">review of BlackMonk</a>.

BlackMonk Unveils TeamWave: A Unified CRM, Collaboration & Marketing Platform

<a target="_blank" href="https://ghost.org/">Ghost</a>, one of the most exciting blogging platforms in the world, has announced a massive digital migration project.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ghost_logo_big_400x0.png" /> The open source platform has come along leaps and bounds since its relatively recent emergence in 2013. It has been made winner of the <a href="/2014-most-promising-cms/">2014 Critic's Choice Award for Most Promising CMS</a>, <a href="/blogging-platform-roon.io-acquired-by-ghost/">acquired Roon.io</a>, and has rocked the boat of blogging platforms everywhere — <a href="/wordpress-vs-ghost/">including WordPress</a>.Now, in a bid to both improve the quality of Ghost(Pro) — the platform's hosted solution — as a product, and also to protect Ghost(Pro) users from legal issues over their blog-expressed opinions, Ghost has made two separate moves, both of which are interesting.<h2>Ghost(Pro) Begins Migrating to DigitalOcean</h2>Ghost was initially propped up by Dell servers in the UK, but John O'Nolan, Ghost's founder, has opted to relocate the service to a, “new [and] more robust home up in The Cloud (TM) — on top of DigitalOcean’s global infrastructure.”<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/digitalocean-1904x0-is.png" />The transition will be gradual, but will eventually see that Ghost(Pro) users get a better level of performance and stability from their blogs, thanks to them running on far more sophisticated hardware and a wider network.Moving to DigitalOcean will also allow Ghost to work towards providing HTTPS support for all customers, which is a common request according to them.<h2>Customer Data In The UK? No Way.</h2>Historically, Ghost's customer data has also resided in the UK, but not for much longer.Citing the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/interactive/2014/oct/03/conservatives-human-rights-act-full-document">UK government's recent pledge to scrap the Human Rights Act</a>, Ghost has grown concerned over the freedom of the words they battle to help publish. According to them, some of their more outspoken customers could be in legal danger if they choose to keep their data UK based.The Netherlands on the other hand, <a target="_blank" href="http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html">is ranked second in the world for Freedom of Press</a>. And that's why Ghost's customer data is moving there.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/united_kingdom_of_the_netherlands531x0-is.png" /><blockquote>“Ghost stands for freedom of speech and independent publishing.In addition to the big upgrade in performance with this move, we’re also incredibly excited about the greater privacy and legal protection which this new location is going to provide to all of our customers and users.” – John O'Nolan</blockquote>This Dutch promise of enhanced freedom, paired with the presence of DigitalOcean's AMS Centre in the Netherlands, made for the perfect new home for Ghost's default customer data. It's another way in which Ghost seem to be genuinely and proactively putting their customers first.On a side note, this also gives us an interesting insight into how politics impacts the world of CMS. Ghost may not be the biggest name in software at the moment, but their vast potential and rapidly growing user base will be a loss to the UK, for sure.Ghost have also said that, over the coming months, they'll be dishing out more details about how Ghost(Pro) works on a technical level. All part of Ghost's open and friendly (and nerd-friendly) relationship with its user base.Find out more about this announcement <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.ghost.org/digitalocean/">via the Ghost blog</a>.And of course, you can explore more of <a href="/products/ghost">Ghost through our CMS Directory</a>.

Ghost Begins Move to DigitalOcean & Withdraws Customer Data from the UK

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

#ffffff

<a href="https://www.optimizely.com" target="_blank">Optimizely</a>, one of the world's leading platforms for website optimization and customer experience refining, has just announced “Optimizely Personalization”.
Launched five years ago by two former Google product managers, Optimizely's goal has always been to make A/B testing and actionable data accessible to everyone in the business world.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/optimizely_logo_blue700x0-is-hidpi.png" />
Optimizely offers a totally free to use avenue into optimization, yet also caters for some of the world's biggest brands, including Sony and Microsoft.
With over 7,000 businesses already aided in that regard, Optimizely are now turning their focus towards the latest marketing trend; Personalization.
<h2>Introducing Optimizely Personalization</h2>
Built on Optimizely's Experience Optimization Platform, this new product is designed to help businesses deliver personalized experiences across their web and mobile presence.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot-of-optimizely-personalization-results-700x306_1.png" /> In a nutshell, Optimizely Personalization lets marketers:
<ul>
<li>Discover meaningful audiences to help generate hypotheses for personalizing.</li>
<li>Target visitors in real time based on the actions they take on your site as well as what you know about them from other data sources.</li>
<li>Create compelling experiences tailored to each audience that work on your web and mobile site with an elegant workflow.</li>
<li>Measure the impact of the changes you’re making for every audience, backed by Optimizely's impressive <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/statistics/">Stats Engine</a>.</li>
</ul>
Optimizely Personalization is now in private beta, and has been given a general release date for Fall 2015.
To learn more about Optimizely Personalization, check out their <a href="https://blog.optimizely.com/2015/06/17/introducing-optimizely-personalization/" target="_blank">official blog announcement</a>.
You can also get started on your own Optimizely experiments for free, <a href="http://optimizely.com" target="_blank">via their website</a>.

Optimizely Personalization Announced: General Release Set For Fall 2015

ShopLocket, known for being a sleek and easily embeddable eCommerce solution, is shutting its doors for good. Thankfully for ShopLocket users though, FoxyCart are extending a helping hand.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shoplocket-logo-fc61f95548fc7c1c05ad9dd827fca615.png" /> According to the notice on the ShopLocket website, June 30th is the official discontinuation date.
ShopLocket has also issued some advice on what their users should do next. Essentially though, ShopLocket users have no choice but to jump ship.
<h2>FoxyCart To The Rescue</h2>
Although ShopLocket users are free to migrate anywhere they wish, <a href="http://www.foxycart.com/shoplocket-ecommerce-offer" target="_blank">FoxyCart seems to be the only eCommerce solution offering a supported migration option out of ShopLocket</a>.
FoxyCart is an eCommerce solution that, like ShopLocket, is designed to be used alongside existing websites already leaning on a CMS and various business tools. FoxyCart is lightweight, popular and integrates well with a variety of platforms, from WordPress to Salesforce. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/foxycart695x0-is.jpg" />Here's FoxyCart's direct message to ShopLocket users:
<blockquote>
“We’re here to help you migrate over and start selling again. In fact, we’ll create FoxyCart versions of your ShopLocket products for you and help you get them on your website.”
</blockquote>
ShopLocket have openly admitted that, although users can export order data in CSV format, there's no way to export product details. Hence, ShopLocket merchants with more than a handful of products are looking at a lengthy re-uploading process to get all their products on to a new platform.
With that in mind, FoxyCart's generous offer to help with this process directly will surely be welcomed by many ShopLocket users. A much-needed life jacket for those jumping ship.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.foxycart.com/shoplocket-ecommerce-offer" target="_blank">FoxyCart's ShopLocket exit plan</a>.
To explore more of FoxyCart as an eCommerce platform, <a href="http://www.foxycart.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a>.

ShopLocket Discontinued, FoxyCart Steps In To Help Merchants Migrate

<a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce</a>, one of the world's most successful eCommerce platforms, has named former HomeAway and PayPal executive Brent Bellm as their new Chief Executive Officer.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logo-1.png" />The eCommerce platform has grown impressively in recent years, and now powers almost 100,000 stores across the world. Brands like Samsung, Marvel and Ubisoft also make use of <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce</a>.That growth was recognized by CMS Critic in the 2014 CMS Awards, where <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce</a> was crowned winner of the <a href="/2014-winner-best-ecommerce-for-enterprise-and-best-ecommerce-for-smb/">Critic's Choice for Best Enterprise eCommerce Solution for SMB</a>.Here's a look at the company's latest and most significant recruit.<h2>“A Strong Backbone”</h2>Bigcommerce have said that they, “sought a leader whose backbone is strong, but whose ultimate goal is employee and customer success.”For them, they have found such a leader in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/brent-bellm/14/52/3b3">Brent Bellm</a>.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/23584f4.jpg" />The executive was formerly the President and CCO of HomeAway Inc, as well as the VP of Global Product and CEO of Europe at PayPal. An illustrious professional history by anyone's standards.Here's what the new Bigcommerce CEO had to say upon his appointment:<blockquote>“In just six years, Bigcommerce has grown from a small, relatively unknown company to a recognized leader and disrupting force in commerce.I have been serving offline and online retailers, with a focus on small- and mid-sized ones, for 20 years. Bigcommerce is the right platform at the right time and place to power these merchants and drive business results.”</blockquote>Bigcommerce have also <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/brent-bellm/">conducted a light hearted interview with their new CEO on their blog</a>, which is well worth reading if you want a better feel for exactly who Brent Bellm is.To find out more about Brent Bellm's appointment, or to get started with your own store, check out the <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce website</a>.Plus, you can explore more of <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce through our CMS Directory</a>.

Bigcommerce Appoints Brent Bellm As CEO

CMS Critic is constantly looking for ways to better serve its readership. As of right now, that means adding to the team.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logo.png" />
We're looking for somebody to contribute regular news articles here on the site, in a way which upholds the values of CMS Critic.
These values include professionalism, integrity, and unbiased coverage for the benefit of the website's growing audience.
If you're interested in applying, check out the details below. If you know of somebody who would be a good fit for the role, please share this post with them.
<blockquote>
As a content management system news and review website, CMS Critic specifically covers news coming out of the world of eCommerce, blogging platforms, website builders, marketing suites and so forth.
Naturally, a keen interest in the CMS / Web Design / Web Development industry is required, while experience with a range of CMS platforms is ideal.
The selected candidate will need to submit one article per week. Payment will be on a monthly basis, at a fixed rate of $250.
The selected candidate will work under an Editor, and may be asked to source and suggest news content.
Only applicants from North America or the UK will be considered.
[Please Note: The above stipulation is to ensure that; (1) applicants are native English speakers, (2) applicants reside within similar timezones to the existing editorial team, (3) the successful candidate may have the opportunity to travel to CMS events, which are primarily held in North America &amp; Europe. Thus, a closer proximity is beneficial.]
<h2>How to Apply</h2>
You can send your pitch / resume to kaya@www.cmscritic.com
Please ensure that your email’s subject line is “Writer Application”, and please include a short paragraph about what your favourite CMS is, and why.
</blockquote>

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Despite the Gala Dinner from <a href="/jahia-one-2015-day-one/">Day One</a> running into the early hours, the Jahia team still managed to put on another exciting show on Day Two of JahiaOne 2015.Attendees got to see Jahia show off some of their latest projects, before a number of high-profile customers took to the stage to laud the vendor's technological heroics.Here's a summary of all the best bits of Day Two.<h2>Marketing Factory &amp; Commerce Factory</h2>Jahia love themselves a factory.During Day Two, they seized the opportunity to formally announce and demonstrate their latest project and “killer app”, Marketing Factory.Senior Vice President Clement Egger presented the project, which he claimed was filling a glaring gap in the market.“Marketers are in pain”, the executive asserted, pointing out that marketing suites were either too simplistic and weak, or too broad and confusing for the average marketer or marketing team. Marketing Factory, he claimed, had been designed to bridge the gap.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_2909.jpg" /> He walked us through a demonstration of some of Marketing Factory's core features, giving everybody a taste of how it tackles visitor profile building, segmentation, interest capturing, and other aspects of the personalization process.We also got to look at how the platform handles and presented stats and facts to marketers.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_2907.jpg" /> It's also worth noting that Marketing Factory doesn't require Digital Factory, and can thus be used on any project, along with any other platform.Despite not being totally finished, Marketing Factory looked impressive. We're looking forward to seeing the finished product before the end of 2015.In a later presentation, Clement Egger (who was now almost stealing the show!) once again presented another Factory to the audience, Commerce Factory. This time though, he was accompanied on stage by his wife and Jahia's Senior Consultant, Wanda Egger.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/commerce683x0-is-hidpi.jpg" /> I personally thought it was a nice touch to have the couple present together. It reminded the audience that despite being an internationally recognized technology vendor, Jahia is also a human effort, propped up by real people and relationships.Clement Egger openly admitted that Commerce Factory was indeed first announced at JahiaOne 2014, and he also admitted that, a year on, it is still yet to be released.However, he claimed that the delay was for the best, as Jahia understandably wanted such a vital product to be as polished as possible before release.His wife Wanda took us through a detailed demonstration, completing a transaction on-screen and showing off some of the back end capabilities.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logo-commerce-factory-476x90.png" /> Commerce Factory is set to offer features designed to help merchants with cross selling and up selling, and also serves up bundle features, Google Shop exporting, a recommendation engine, and more.The new release date for Commerce Factory is Fall 2015 – yet another Jahia product we're looking forward to.<h2>Workspace Factory 3.0, Customer Testimonials &amp; Free Certification Exams</h2>Wanda Egger also took us through what is set to be the latest edition of Workspace factory, formerly known as Jahia wise, which is the vendor's document sharing and professional collaboration solution.Her presentation revealed that Workspace Factory 3.0 will have a release candidate in July 2015, approximately two weeks after the general release of Digital Factory 7.1.More Jahia customers also got to sing the company's praises during Day Two, with the National Governors Association and Delta Faucet detailing their Jahia journeys.Furthermore, Jahia also offered up a totally free certification exam during the course of the day.In fact, a relatively large number of hands shot up when Christopher Justice, Jahia's new head of Marketing, asked to see a show of hands for those about interested in sitting the exam. A positive sign for the future of the platform, no doubt.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2015-06-11_07_38_02530x0-is-hidpi.jpg" />With the closing keynote, Jahia turned another page of its current, buzzing chapter. A lot has changed and grown within the company between JahiaOne 2014 and JahiaOne 2015, and if that should continue, JahiaOne 2016 will be nothing short of awesome.A big well done to Jahia for hosting a genuinely enjoyable event, and an even bigger thank you for their hospitality, it was appreciated.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.jahiaone.com/home">Learn more about Jahia One</a>.

Jahia One 2015 Day Two: Marketing Factory, Commerce Factory & More

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.jahia.com/products/digital-factory">Jahia's</a> second international conference kicked off in sunny Paris yesterday, and it wasn't short of appeal.Mike Johnston and I were in attendance, <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic">live-tweeting</a> all the best bits as they happened under the <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JahiaOne?src=hash">#JahiaOne</a> hashtag while soaking up the nerd-friendly atmosphere.Before the conference began, Mike also got to sit down and interview both <a href="/cms-critic-interviews-christopher-justice-of-jahia-ahead-of-jahiaone/">Chris Justice</a> and <a href="/cms-critic-interviews-emmanuel-garcin-of-jahia-ahead-of-jahiaone/">Emmanuel Garcin</a>, discussing Jahia's recent growth, current projects and future aspirations.Here's how the first day of Jahia One went down.<h2>Looking Back on Jahia's Recent Achievements &amp; Preparing For Future Innovations</h2>Just as he did at Jahia One 2014, Elie Auvray, Jahia's CEO and Co-founder, kicked off the proceedings with a welcoming keynote.He spoke of Jahia's growing role in the CMS industry, and expanded on Jahia's focus on building an ethos based upon, “Convergence, Resilience and Commitment”.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_2863205x0-is.jpg" />Elie Auvray went on to single out Ben &amp; Jerrys (a Jahia customer) as one successful Jahia case. He told of the company's need to adapt and provide for its growing mobile audience, particularly in the far east.Based on this example of what used to be nothing more than an Ice Cream company, Elie made the call that technology was no longer classed as its own industrial sector. Rather, he asserted that technology was now an integral part of almost every sector in existence.Gene Phifer from Gartner followed up with a presentation of his own, delving deep into how technology is still surprising us — as well as how it will continue to surprise us.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2015-06-11_10_27_44649x0-is-hidpi.jpg" />He spoke of how companies are already using beacons and geofencing to engage and market to customers, the future of 3D printing, smart medical devices, and so forth. More importantly though, he touched on how this technology would impact industries like the healthcare and transportation sectors.The Gartner veteran eventually linked this all back to the growing need for user experience platforms like Jahia to help companies sell experiences, and not just products.<h2>Forms, Cars &amp; Jahia On Your Wrist</h2>Day One of JahiaOne was also host to a presentation of the upcoming Jahia Digital Factory 7.1, given by Senior Vice President Clement Egger.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2015-06-11_11_37_14727x0-is-hidpi.jpg" />Scheduled for release before the end of June, Digital Factory 7.1 brings about features like easy module duplication, “work-in-progress” statuses for unpublished (designed to relieve confusion between multiple editors), improved elastic search, better tag implementation and multi-language publishing.This was followed by a demonstration of Jahia Form Factory, by Stephane Monier, Jahia's VP of Business Development EMEA.Jahia customer Europcar was also present, represented by David Roux. He discussed Europcar's online presence before and after Jahia, detailing the key differences and benefits brought forth by the Jahia platform and support team.He highlighted the launch of 15 websites in 15 different countries within just two days as the most impressive example of how Jahia helped evolve Europcar's online presence.Perhaps the most interesting presentation though, came from Jahia CTO Serge Huber.In an impressive display of technical versatility, Jahia has rapidly responded to the release of the Apple Watch by releasing <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jahia.com/apple-watch">a rather tidy integration</a>. Serge Huber demonstrated the Apple Watch Jahia integration live at the event.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_2797545x0-is-hidpi.jpg" />He showed off some handy functionality, including managing and replying to comments, highlighting the convenience of dealing with spam while on the move.Serge Huber stressed that all good Apple Watch apps should refrain from asking you to take out your iPhone in order to make use of the app itself. This was obviously the case with Jahia's integration, which seemed to work extremely well entirely on its own. However, that's not to say that a “Handoff” feature wasn't available for those wanting to continue comment management on their iPhones.<h2>Sailing on The Seine</h2>To cap off the first day of Jahia One, Jahia invited all attendees aboard a boat for a Gala Dinner.The charming vessel cruised through the waters of the Seine river, which flows through the heart of Paris.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2015-06-11_22_20_53727x0-is-hidpi.jpg" />The food was excellent, the atmosphere was friendly, and the views were stunning. Fortunately for everybody on board, night happened to fall just as the boat floated past the Eiffel Tower, giving everyone a beautiful close up view of the tower lighting up as the sun gradually set.Before the boat docked, Mike Johnston presented Elie Auvray with Jahia's recently claimed awards from the 2014 CMS Awards here at CMS Critic.The awards won by Jahia were the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-java-cms-for-small-to-midsize-business/">Critic's Choice for Best Enterprise JAVA CMS for Small to Midsize Business</a> and the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-java-cms/">Critic's Choice for Best Enterprise JAVA CMS for Enterprise</a>. It was a positive way to end a lovely evening.Stay tuned for our coverage of Day Two on <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic">our Twitter page</a>, as well as right here on the website.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.jahiaone.com/home">Learn more about Jahia One</a>.

Jahia One 2015 Day One: Achievements, Apple Watches & A Boat Ride

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JahiaOne kicks off tomorrow and to give you some insight into the men behind the vision at Jahia, we've taken the opportunity to sit down with two major players in the executive team.This second interview is with Jahia's Chief Operating Officer, Emmanuel Garcin.With a <a href="/growth-expansion-jahia-receives-22-5-million-round-of-funding/">massive cash injection</a> earlier this year, it seems like Jahia is destined for some pretty substantial growth over the next few years.Tune in to find out how they are making use of this opportunity to steadily and intelligently improve their user experience platform for existing and future customers. To learn more about Jahia, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jahia.com">visit their website</a> or tune into our <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic">Twitter profile</a> starting tomorrow to see live tweets from the event under the hashtag <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23jahiaone&amp;src=typd">#jahiaone</a>.

CMS Critic Interviews Emmanuel Garcin of Jahia ahead of JahiaOne

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