Articles - Page 140

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

matt-garrepy

Are you looking to modernize your tech stack but feel hamstrung by your legacy systems? If so, you're not alone. Many organizations are in the same boat—stuck with old, outdated systems that are holding them back from taking advantage of newer, more innovative technologies.
<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/you-ll-be-breaking-up-with-bad-customers-and-9-other-predictions-for-2022-and-beyond" target="_blank">According to Gartner</a>, by 2024, 80% of CIOs surveyed will list modular business redesign, through composability, as a top five reason for accelerated business performance.   

So, what exactly is the problem with legacy architectures:
<ul>
<li>They are not composable; they don't have APIs to interact with other platforms</li>
<li>They are not scalable or stable and often have performance issues</li>
<li>They are difficult to maintain or update, increasing IT costs in both time and resources</li>
<li>Extensively customized and third-party elements of the application may no longer be supported</li>
<li>The system is no longer agile to emerging customer needs</li>
</ul>
Organizations are sitting on age-old infrastructure and applications, built over many years to meet the needs of their business. For that reason, these applications are not easy to replace. So, what options do organizations have to modernize?
<h2>Migration</h2>
Even though on the surface this sounds like the ideal solution, practically speaking, it's often very disruptive. The primary reason for this is the reliance on these applications and mission-critical workflows tied to them. They're powering many external or internal touchpoints and experiences, and you can’t afford to destabilize the backend these touchpoints so heavily rely upon.  
Integrations with various upstream and downstream systems and customizations have been made to the core capabilities of these systems to meet evolving business needs over the years. This means it’s not easy to find one system that can do everything that your legacy system does, even though it’s been put together with glue and duct tape.  
Finally, no one wants to spend the time and money needed for a migration project. Most organizations only invest in projects that will bring them immediate ROI. Complete system overhauls just don't fit into this model of business thinking because they take too long-term of an investment without any tangible benefits at first glance (and many end up costing more).
<h2>Re-Architect / Re-Build</h2>
This involves rewriting the legacy application from scratch. Similar to the migration option, this is also highly disruptive, time-consuming, and costly. If you do decide to go forward with a rebuild, you'll want to employ a composable strategy. However, chances are you will have a hard time justifying this approach to your steering committee.
<h2>Retain / Encapsulate</h2>
What if you could encapsulate your existing legacy system with a modernization layer? The idea here is to create a modern facade on top of your legacy systems to interface with modern applications while replacing pieces of the legacy system one small step at a time.
The “Strangler Pattern” is a technique for slowly replacing legacy systems with new ones. As the name suggests, the idea is to "strangle" the old system by gradually adding new features and functionalities on top until the legacy system is eventually replaced. This approach has several advantages, including that it doesn't require a complete rip-and-replace of the old system.
<h2>How the “Strangler Pattern” Works</h2>
There are two main ways to implement the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchapparchitecture/tip/A-detailed-intro-to-the-strangler-pattern" target="_blank">Strangler Pattern</a>: top-down and bottom-up. 
With top-down strangulation, you start by creating a new system that mimics the functionality of the old one. Once this new system is up and running, you slowly start routing traffic away from the old system and towards the new one. Eventually, all traffic will be directed to the new system, at which point you can decommission the old one altogether. 
Bottom-up strangulation takes a different approach. Instead of starting with a brand-new system, you begin by identifying pieces of functionality that can be migrated from the legacy system to a new one without disrupting business operations. These migrated pieces are then wrapped in an API that exposes them to other parts of the system. This process is repeated until all functionality has been relocated to the new system and the legacy system can be decommissioned. 
This is the most practical approach organizations can employ to charge ahead toward digital transformation while maintaining stable operations. For instance, if you have a homegrown CMS, you create an API layer that encapsulates the legacy system and exposes only the content and functions that are required by the new customer experiences that you'd like to launch.
<h2>Legacy Systems Need More Than APIs </h2>
Okay, so you’ve added APIs to your legacy applications, so we should be good to go, right?  
Well, not quite. Legacy systems were never built to support today's traffic loads from modern touchpoints, and their infrastructure is weak—they can't keep up with the demand of your modern apps or websites. This means if you want these old apps running smoothly on an <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">API-driven</a> front end, they need something more: a fast-performing data layer that indexes what would have been stored locally in legacy applications.
What if you have multiple legacy systems that hold onto related data and you need these relationships to be exposed for the front-end experience? An example of this in an e-commerce domain would be a grocery brand with a product catalog, ingredients, and recipes that may all be stored in separate homegrown, proprietary, or legacy applications. This content from multiple systems may need to be connected before exposing it to an experience such as a product details page on an e-commerce website. 
Now, you can argue that we should be able to modernize each individual system with an API and then simply call the APIs from the front end and connect the data on the client side. This is theoretically possible, but it’s not sustainable. 
If you want to build multiple front-end applications relying on the same underlying data and business logic, especially if the frontends are built on several different frameworks, you have to repeat the same work every time, creating redundancies and inconsistent experiences. To make matters worse, what if the data in each of these legacy systems have gaps, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies? 
Adding APIs on top of bad data and content doesn’t solve this problem. After all, garbage-in means garbage-out.  
<h2>So, What’s the Best Way Forward?</h2>
I hope it is evident that a rip-and-replace or full rebuild are not practical solutions for legacy modernization. Piecemeal, step-by-step, replacement of functional components using the Strangler Pattern is definitely a more viable option. However, when you implement this pattern, you have to be aware that the system performance, scalability, and data unification are real concerns that must be addressed. 
What you need is a way to create a scalable, persistent, and API-enabled data layer that syncs with your legacy backends and is able to unify, normalize, and optimize the data before it is consumed by the front end. This data layer should be able to model the complexity of your data sources without shoehorning you into a pre-built schema of any sort. This not only removes the need to perform gymnastics on the front end, but it also ensures a separation of concerns in your experience stack.
At Conscia.ai, we provide an elegant solution to this problem with the DX Graph – and I invite you to learn more about our innovation at <a href="https://conscia.ai/" target="_blank">www.conscia.ai</a>.
<h2>About Conscia.ai</h2>
<a href="https://conscia.ai/" target="_blank">Conscia.ai</a> is an Experience Orchestration Platform that empowers digital teams to create personalized, omnichannel experiences in a composable tech stack. Conscia.ai offers two standalone products, the DX Graph and the DX Engine.
<h2>About the DX Graph™</h2>
One of the biggest roadblocks in the journey toward composability is legacy systems and data silos. If your data is trapped in one or more data sources that are not accessible via APIs, the DX Graph allows you to create an API-first modernization layer on top of your existing systems of record. Secondly, the DX Graph allows your digital teams to sync with these systems of record to create a 360 view of all your siloed content and data, where you can relate, search, enrich and distribute your data to downstream applications and touchpoints.
<h2>About the DX Engine™</h2>
With the shift towards headless and composable architectures, marketers have lost the ability to intuitively manage experiences; the control over who sees what content when, and where now falls squarely into the hands of the developer. The DX Engine puts marketers back in control to activate personalized and intelligent experiences on all channels from a centralized, intuitive interface. The DX Engine connects to all of the backend content and data sources (including the DX Graph) through real-time APIs and abstracts out the complexity of these integrations for business and marketing teams. 
<a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23/program" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/12/cms-kickoff-2023-banner-1024x151.jpg" alt="CMS Kickoff 2023 banner" /></a>
<h2>Join Sana at CMS Kickoff 2023</h2>
January 17-18 in St. Petersburg, FL
Don't miss the only conference tailored for everyone working with content management systems, from beginners to experts! Featuring two packed days with a carefully curated mixture of talks, workshops, activities, world-class facilitators, thought provokers, speakers, and session leads – including Sana Remekie's presentation, "The Journey from Monolith to Composable."
Register today at the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23/program" target="_blank">CMS Kickoff 2023 website</a>.

From Legacy to Composable: What’s The Best Way Forward?

sana-remekie

Composite image of Sana Remekie in front of arrow leading from "legacy" to "composable" with the Conscia.ai logo in the bottom right corner.

<a href="https://www.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Weebly</a> is one of the most popular website builders on the market, and they've just unveiled the third generation of their platform.
It's called <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> Carbon, and it's being honored with a total Weebly re-launch.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WiJGGbcUOag?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>More Mobile Than Ever</h2>
According to Weebly:
<blockquote>“Carbon is a complete relaunch of the Weebly platform that delivers a new line up of services to help both seasoned and budding entrepreneurs create, build and grow their business and eCommerce store from any device, anywhere.”</blockquote>
With brand new iPhone, iPad, iWatch, and Android apps, Weebly Carbon puts the total power of Weebly into mobile, enabling users to design websites from the ground up, entirely from a smartphone or tablet.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dashboard491x0-is.png" />
Updates to Weebly's Dashboard also mean that Weebly users and merchants can get a quick insight into traffic, sales and a number of other useful metrics.
<h2>New Responsive Templates &amp; A New App Center</h2>
A brand new App Center gives entrepreneurs easy access to dynamic apps that integrate directly into the Weebly editor to help them through hurdles like getting found on search engines, international shipping, funding, marketing, text message enabled customer support and social media integration.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/theme_gallery438x0-is.png" />
Further to these apps, Weebly has rolled out new responsive templates, and has also given their users the ability to “try on” any theme for free in order to change the look of their site in seconds – all while preserving their content.
Weebly's CEO and Founder, David Rusenko, made the following comments regarding Weebly Carbon:
<blockquote>“Weebly Carbon will give a business of any size, or entrepreneur of any age, a complete platform to build their business like never before and the flexibility to do it from anywhere.
We believe the trifecta of beautiful design, ease of use and unprecedented mobile access is the future of small business.”</blockquote>
To find out more, <a href="https://www.weebly.com/" target="_blank">visit Weebly website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/weebly/" target="_blank">Weebly via our CMS Directory</a>.

Weebly Carbon: Introducing The Third Generation of Weebly

mike-johnston

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-ai-raises-40-million-to-bring-the-power-of-ai-to-content-management/">Kontent.ai</a>, an award-winning modular content platform, shared some big news yesterday that's reinforcing its ambitious growth plans. Along with stellar additions to its executive team, the company also announced a newly minted membership in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a> and the opening of new offices in New York City.
In addition to covering the announcements, CMS Critic had a chance to ask <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vojtechboril/" target="_blank">Vojtech Boril</a>, the company's Vice President of Growth &amp; Marketing, a few questions about the news.
<h2>Kontent.ai prepares to enter its next phase of growth with two key hires </h2>
The senior executives joining the Kontent.ai team are <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-stuck-480207/" target="_blank">Olga Stuck,</a> who will serve as COO, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/montewilson/" target="_blank">Monte Wilson,</a> who has been named Head of GTM Strategy and Field Operation. According to the company's press release, these key executive appointments will serve Kontent.ai during a time of major growth and change, energized by a recent <a href="https://kontent.ai/blog/kontent-ai-has-raised-40-million-in-growth-capital/">$40 million growth capital</a> investment from Expedition Growth Capital.
With more than 20 years of experience in organizational development, Stuck has guided companies like Moravia IT and RWS Moravia through organic growth as well as acquisitions, scaling from 500 to 3,000 employees in 23 locations. “My mission is to help Kontent.ai scale and bring the organization to a new level while preserving our unique culture, relationships, and DEI at the center of what we do,” she said. 
Wilson's role at Kontent.ai is to fuel growth, developing innovative go-to-market plans and efficient sales and operational structures. Wilson's impressive pedigree includes successful builds, turnarounds, and rebuilds of organizations for companies like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-updates-experience-platform-and-experience-commerce-releases-new-sitecore-content-hub/">Sitecore</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-wordpress-acquires-parse-ly-siteimprove-releases-upgraded-accessibility-product-twilio-segment-releases-2021-cdp-report-and-more/">Oracle</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a>.
“Martech is a highly competitive business segment, so it is vital that you have the right product, the right team of highly talented individuals, and be with the right ecosystem of partners," said Wilson. "Kontent.ai is perfectly positioned for high growth, especially since composable, headless technologies are really taking off in the market. We have unique advantages that I’m certain will allow us to quickly separate from the pack and help customers realize the potential of this new space. The talent in this team and the capabilities of the product speak for themselves, and I’m honored to be a part of the Kontent.ai team,”
<h2>Kontent.ai joins MACH Alliance to deepen cooperation with other vendors and empower large organizations  </h2>
Another critical accomplishment for Kontent.ai is achieving <a href="https://kontent.ai/blog/kontent-ai-joins-the-mach-alliance/">membership in the prestigious MACH Alliance</a>, a group of more than 70 independent technology companies advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. MACH architecture – which stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless – empowers organizations to adapt to customers’ changing behaviors and deliver results.   
A true cloud-native service since its inception, Kontent.ai meets the Alliance’s stringent certification standards, with its membership serving as strong validation of the platform’s impact and future vision. Becoming a member of the MACH Alliance will also allow Kontent.ai to deepen technology cooperation with other MACH vendors and deliver even more value to customers.
"Joining the MACH Alliance, Kontent.ai is pleased to shine a light on our long-standing dedication to MACH technology principles," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartomlo/" target="_blank">Bart Omlo</a>, CEO, Kontent.ai. "Our customers’ measurable success with our modular content platform is evidence of the transformative power of MACH, not only for engineering teams but also for global content teams.” 
<h2>Expanding Kontent.ai’s global footprint with an office in New York City </h2>
To meet increasing global demand, the company has opened another office in the U.S. to support its growing customer base on a local level. The new office – located in the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City – will serve as the main hub for all U.S. operations, enabling professionals at Kontent.ai to help US-based clients reach their ambitious goals.
According to the company's press release, the decision to choose New York City was reinforced by a successful New York-based session of the <a href="https://horizons.kontent.ai/" target="_blank">Kontent.ai Horizons conference</a> in November. The Kontent.ai team believes their presence in New York City will provide a great platform for establishing stronger and closer relationships with customers and partners. 
Kontent.ai's distributed team continues to work from multiple different locations around the globe, with offices in London, Amsterdam, Brno, Olomouc, Sydney, and previously Bedford, New Hampshire. On its mission to help people tell stories that change the world, the company is rapidly growing with new hires across engineering, sales, customer success, and other departments. 
<h2>Q&amp;A with Vojtech Boril, Vice President, Growth &amp; Marketing at Kontent.ai</h2>
Our CMS Critic editorial team had the opportunity to connect with Boril and follow up with a few questions regarding the company's recent announcements.
CMS Critic (CC): Large technology companies are announcing layoffs and adjusting expectations for 2023. With your recent investment news, Kontent.ai appears more bullish. That said, how do you see a potential recession affecting your new business strategy?
Vojtech Boril (VB): We keep a positive outlook for 2023 and plan to continue hiring across the board (for both commercial and technical roles). We can still see strong traction for Kontent.ai, and while the growth rate may slow down due to a recession (that would eventually impact every business), we're still confident that we will significantly grow year-over-year. 

CC: How will the new MACH Alliance membership help Kontent.ai better differentiate in what is becoming a more crowded space? Which vendors or categories do you see as key for growing your composable opportunities?
VB: Kontent.ai has always been focused on what we do the best: content management at scale. While the market is becoming more crowded, we strongly differentiate from other headless CMSs by providing key capabilities for business and marketing teams too, including real-time collaboration, superb content governance, or content collections. That being said, since we focus solely on content management (and do not plan to change this focus), it's critical for us to build strong relationships with other MACH vendors to provide customers with a composable DXP offering. We see the biggest partnership opportunities with vendors in areas of commerce (eg commercetools or Vue StoreFront), personalization (eg Uniform or Conscia.ai) and localization (eg Phrase or XTM Cloud).
CC: You mention an aggressive hiring strategy. Will more of the investment be made in specific regions like the new NA/NYC office?
VB: We're building and scaling Kontent.ai as a global, remote-first organization with office hubs in some critical locations. While our office in New York City is our main hub for North America, we're hiring across the entire US without any specified location requirement, as we aim to bring on the right talent. Over the next few years, we expect significant growth in NA, which is why the location is a focus for us from a hiring perspective, but we're also hiring in Europe (most significantly in the Netherlands, UK and the Czech Republic).
<a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23/program" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/12/cms-kickoff-2023-banner-1024x151.jpg" alt="CMS Kickoff 2023 banner" /></a>
<h2>Meet Bart and Vojtech at CMS Kickoff 2023</h2>
January 17-18 in St. Petersburg, FL
Don't miss the only conference tailored for everyone working with content management systems, from beginners to experts! Featuring two packed days with a carefully curated mixture of talks, workshops, activities, world-class facilitators, thought provokers, speakers, and session leads. Meet Bart Omlo and Vojtech Boril from Kontent.ai and mingle with CMS experts and users from around the globe at this exclusive event in beautiful St. Petersburg. 
Register today at the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23/program" target="_blank">CMS Kickoff 2023 website</a>. 
<h2>About Kontent.ai</h2>
Kontent.ai is a leading modular content platform that enables marketers and developers to plan, create, and deliver content at scale. Business teams collaborate daily in the intuitive authoring experience designed for governed content production and management, real-time reviewing and approvals, and modular content reuse. In parallel, developers leverage the total flexibility of the headless solution, best-of-breed technologies, and composable AI to deliver digital experiences via API to any channel. With hubs in New York, London, Amsterdam, Brno, and Sydney, Kontent.ai helps companies like Zurich Insurance, Algolia, Vogue, AC Milan, and Oxford University unlock the full potential of their content and connect with customers worldwide.

Kontent.ai Adds Key Executives, Joins MACH Alliance and Opens NYC Office: Q&A with Vojtech Boril

cms-critic-staff

Kontent.ai logo against a black background

This year’s winner of the People’s Choice Award for Best Enterprise CMS is <a href="http://www.liferay.com">Liferay</a>!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/liferay-250x156.jpg" />
Congratulations to everyone at Liferay for their awesome work and on this win. It certainly is an excellent option for enterprise users.
Liferay is an open-source enterprise portal solution. Some of the key advantages that the system offers is its ability to be deeply integrated with various web technologies (.NET, PHP, Java &amp; More). Liferay Portal  includes document management enhancements and the company has introduced the Liferay Marketplace, a new app store for its growing community of customers, developers and partners.
Liferay also offers Liferay Social Office, a social collaboration suite for enterprises. Their customers often select it for its lean qualities, although the company is building out a more comprehensive UXP with content management capabilities and its Liferay Social Office product. Liferay is very easy to adapt and customize to suit a variety of needs.
This isn’t the end of the awards, however, as the Critic’s Choice portion of the awards which will be selected by CMS Critic will be announced soon.
<ol>
<li>Liferay</li>
<li>Adobe CQ</li>
<li>Sitecore</li>
<li>Drupal</li>
<li>Typo3</li>
</ol>
Thanks to all for really driving hard for the votes and don’t forget to stay tuned to our site to find out which of our five shortlisted competitors below takes the <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critic’s Choice Award</a>, to be announced soon.

People’s Choice Winner for Best Enterprise CMS is…

<a href="http://writercrate.com/" target="_blank">Writer Crate</a> is a monthly crate of quality items for Writers, Bloggers, Poets and Wordsmiths of all kinds.
<a href="http://writercrate.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cratecover-1868x0-is.jpg" /></a> Founded by none other than myself, I thought I'd take the time to share my latest venture with the CMS Critic community, seeing as much of our audience is made up of content marketers and publishers.
Currently, Writer Crate ships for free in the UK. We also ship to the US, Canada and mainland Europe. The October Crate is now in stock, and you can <a href="http://writercrate.com/blogs/news/62423107-whats-in-the-october-writer-crate" target="_blank">find out what's inside it right here</a>.
<h2>“So, Which CMS Did You Use?”</h2>
Ah, yes, the inevitable question.
Essentially, Writer Crate is just another eCommerce project, and thus, I needed to opt for an eCommerce solution.
Many capable platforms crossed my mind, and after some trial and error, I chose to stick it out with Shopify.
I fell in love with a template, I was impressed by the fast set up process, and the pricing fit the bill, so to speak. <a href="/shopify-review-ecommerce-only-simpler/" target="_blank">With my existing knowledge of Shopify as a stellar eCommerce solution</a>, I took the plunge. So far, so good.
<a href="http://writercrate.com/" target="_blank">Show Me Writer Crate</a>.

Writer Crate Launched

This year’s winner of the People’s Choice Award for Best CMS for SMB (Small to Midsize Business) is <a href="http://dotnetnuke.com">DotNetNuke</a>!
<img style="max-width:360px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace_-_best_website_builder_for_2013_vvidjh.png" alt="dotnetnuke" />
Congratulations to everyone at DotNetNuke for their awesome work. It was a hard fought battle with Liferay for first place but DotNetNuke took over in the end and won this year with the most votes.
DotNetNuke is an open-source project and one of the most widely adopted Web Content Management Platforms for building websites and web applications on Microsoft .NET.
Organizations use DotNetNuke to quickly develop and deploy interactive and dynamic websites, intranets, extranets and web applications.
The DotNetNuke platform is available in a free Community Edition and the subscription-based Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition with an Elite Support option. DotNetNuke Corp. also operates the DotNetNuke Store where users purchase third-party software apps for the platform. Founded in 2006 and funded by Sierra Ventures, August Capital and Pelion Venture Partners, DotNetNuke Corp. is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif.
Our runner up for this year was <a href="http://liferay.com">Liferay</a>, which fought a hard battle and did a commendable job of making Oxwall work for their win.
This isn’t the end of the awards, however, as the Critic’s Choice portion of the awards which will be selected by CMS Critic will be announced soon.
<ol>
<li>DotNetNuke</li>
<li>Liferay</li>
<li>Umbraco</li>
<li>Composite C1</li>
<li>Kentico</li>
</ol>
Thanks to all for really driving hard for the votes and don’t forget to stay tuned to our site to find out which of our five shortlisted competitors below takes the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/">Critic’s Choice Award</a>, to be announced soon.

People's Choice Winner for Best CMS for SMB (Small to Midsize Business) is...

<img alt="zoho crm" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/workspace-820315_1280-1_fuama1.jpg" />
Zoho has just rolled out the latest major version of <a href="https://www.zoho.com/crm/">Zoho CRM</a>, making it, “the industry's first multichannel CRM” in the process.
Zoho CRM, which is free for up to 10 users, helps manage the contacts and sales processes of small businesses, enterprise-scale organizations, and everyone in between.
Here's what the latest version brings to the table.
<h2>Zoho CRM: Multichannel Customer Engagement</h2>
Thanks to this update, Zoho CRM now supports email, social media, live chat, and phone communications, enabling salespeople to engage their customers and prospects across all major channels.
Highlights of the latest version of Zoho CRM include:
SalesSignals: SalesSignals keep salespeople informed in real-time about customer actions on various touchpoints like social media, satisfaction surveys and support tickets helping them act in time and make speedy sales.
SalesInbox: Zoho is completely changing the way salespeople go about their email with the launch of a new product that works with ZohoCRM: Zoho SalesInbox, a dedicated mail client for salespeople. Emails are organized as per CRM data, adding more context. Metrics like template analysis, version comparison and open rates make sure quality of email keeps improving.
Mobile apps for field sales: Salesreps can check-in at customer locations, find prospects nearby, track sales activities, and close more deals on the move with Zoho CRM's new mobile app. Sales managers can foster desired practices among their teams with metric-driven sales contests using the new Zoho Motivator app for iOS, which works in sync with Zoho CRM.
<h2>A Revamped UI</h2>
To accompany the newly supported channels, Zoho also took to their CRM's user interface. Now, it boasts usability innovations such as Timeline View, Page Layouts, and Gamescope to improve salespeople's ability to close deals.
Here are the highlights:
Clean and minimalist new interface: The latest version of Zoho CRM is designed to minimize the processes involved in sales and maximize selling. It does so with an intuitive new interface and smart new features:
Timeline view: Salespeople can see their customers' historical data and interactions with their team, all in one place. They can also see any upcoming action items that have been assigned to members of their team.
Advanced filters: This insight-discovery tool allows businesses to probe their CRM data based on activities such as tasks, notes and emails.
Page layouts: Many businesses face the challenge of having to handle sales processes that might not always fit into the common CRM sales cycle. Page Layouts enable companies to handle multiple products and processes using a single CRM account.
Gamescope: With this feature, anyone, not just sales managers, can create contests and invite their peers to play a game for a friendly wager. Sales activities like making calls and closing deals could win an employee points, trophies and badges. The use of game playing elements promotes healthy competition within a team. GameScope complements Zoho Motivator, which is a metric-driven gamification tool.
<h2>“Enhancement to Help Close Deals”</h2>
Raju Vegesna, Zoho's Chief Evangelist, says this release is all about helping salespeople close more deals:
<blockquote>
“Today, every progressive sales team needs a CRM that connects with customers and prospects regardless of their preferred communication channel.
At the same time, the CRM must remain flexible enough to advance the sales process through any channel. Our aim with this release of Zoho CRM is to provide the multichannel support that connects salespeople, prospects and customers and provide the usability enhancements that close more deals.
“The new additions to our CRM speak to our growing commitment to being a key player for mid-market and enterprise businesses.”
</blockquote>
For more information on Zoho CRM, visit<a href="https://www.zoho.com/crm/"> www.zoho.com/crm</a>.

Zoho CRM Goes Multichannel

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

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To complete our featured coverage of DNN Software, we're taking a look at how <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a> handles day to day content management.
Over the course of this week, I have delved into Evoq 8's <a href="/a-closer-look-at-dnn-evoq-8s-integration-options/" target="_blank">integration options</a>, <a href="/how-dnn-evoq-8-charges-advocate-marketing-with-gamification/" target="_blank">advocate marketing features</a>, <a href="/blending-analytics-personalization-for-optimum-results-with-dnn-evoq-8/" target="_blank">analytics &amp; personalization features</a> and more. Mike Johnston was also given a <a href="/a-video-walkthrough-of-evoq-content-by-dnn-software/" target="_blank">personal product demonstration</a>, before his <a href="/mike-interviews-navin-nagiah-ceo-of-dnn-software-video/" target="_blank">interview with DNN's CEO Navin Nagiah</a>.
For those of you who still aren't familiar with DNN Software, the .NET giants are trusted by over 2,000 brands across the globe, including a number of Fortune 500 companies, DNN was named the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
<h2>Craft &amp; Manage Content (Without Calling IT)</h2>
In my coverage of <a href="/blending-analytics-personalization-for-optimum-results-with-dnn-evoq-8/">Evoq 8's analytics and personalization features</a>, I mentioned that DNN Software's CEO, Navin Nagiah, recently said that:
<blockquote>“Websites are now being owned more and more by marketers. But if you go back five, eight, ten years ago, website were owned by IT.
So the CMS [Evoq 8] had to pivot to be one for marketers. Super easy to use, super simple to update content.”</blockquote>
Obviously, the words of the company's CEO are reflected in the finished product that is Evoq 8. The platform has been designed from the ground up to be used by marketers, rather than by IT.
Adding pages is a simple process, with details like page descriptions, titles and tags being easy to configure.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-add-page.png" />
Evoq 8 also provides pre-built page layouts for marketers to choose from, alongside the option for them to craft their  own and save it as a template for re-use.
This includes the ability to drag-and-drop resizable page elements in order to perfect the design of each page with ease.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-341079x0.png" />
Marketers can also resize, crop and rotate images on the page without accessing an external image editor. Evoq 8 automatically resamples the image for best quality.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-image-editing.png" />
<h2>Every Asset, One Interface</h2>
DNN Software has done very well to streamline the entire asset management process with Evoq 8.
The platform <a href="/a-closer-look-at-dnn-evoq-8s-integration-options/" target="_blank">integrates with a number of popular storage solutions</a> including; Box, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Azure Storage and Microsoft Sharepoint.
More impressively though, DNN Evoq 8 doesn't just integrate with these individual solutions. It centralizes them, bringing every asset from every storage solution to one manageable interface.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-asset-manager1079x0.png" />
As with all other interfaces, the asset management page within Evoq 8 is sleek and beautiful. Files and folders are neatly tiled, while convenient search options top the page.
Furthermore, marketers can subscribe to notifications in order to be alerted any time a file or folder is added or changed, in any connected repository.
<h2>Lexus-like</h2>
I'm going to end our featured coverage of DNN Software with another quote from the company's CEO Navin Nagiah, which I found highly interesting.
<blockquote>“We're like a Lexus. Very good value for money, high utility, really well designed, and we're going to stay with you for a while.”</blockquote>
Find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8 by <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visiting their website</a>.
Also, you can explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

DNN Evoq 8: Getting To Grips With Content Management

Thanks to today's technology, courses that don't require meeting in a classroom are not only possible; they're increasingly common. In fact, these days, even classes that do meet in person very often have an online component (even if that just means that the syllabus is posted on a website and assignments are turned in online). Students in traditional, in-person courses are increasingly required to participate in interactive online activities as part of their course work – such as contributing to a discussion forum, adding information to a wiki, or taking part in video web conferencing. Regardless of how many (or how few) online components a course entails, today's learning management systems (LMS) give instructors many options for how to handle important aspects of teaching, from enrolling students to organizing lessons and tracking student progress. Moodle, Course Toolkit, EDU 2.0, JoomlaLMS, and ATutor are all impressive and versatile systems available for educators.
<h2>Moodle</h2>
Moodle is a free source LMS used by educational institutions and businesses alike. This LMS makes it simple to add whole groups of students to a course, assign administrative privileges, create interactive and engaging course content and activities, and track and comment on student progress. Moodle allows instructors to set up workshops, quizzes, or course blogs – as well as to add PDF resource documents, set up discussion wikis, and embed film clips into a lesson. The simple user interface makes it easy to export items to Google Docs, Dropbox, etc. The fact that Columbia University's Teachers College (considered the premier graduate school of education in the United States) uses Moodle as its default system for courses is quite an endorsement.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/moodle_interface.jpg" />
Learn more about <a href="/products/moodle/">Moodle</a>
Visit their website: <a href="https://moodle.org/">Moodle Website</a>
<h2>Course Toolkit</h2>
Course Toolkit is a free, fully customizable LMS in PHP, allowing instructors to create and manage all types of educational course content – from quizzes and tests to collaborative wikis and multimedia content. Instructors may create HTML documents, but Course Toolkit's easy-to-use WYSIWYG visual editing tools makes the system easy to use without any technical knowledge whatsoever. This LMS allows instructors to invite students to join the course (and to control who has access to which materials), as well as to track student activity. It comes complete with gradebooks, automated grading, live test results, attendance monitoring, and other built-in reporting tools. This system enables a high level of interaction via a variety of tools, from messaging to an interactive whiteboard and video chat.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/course_toolkit_interface.jpg" />
Visit their website: <a href="http://www.coursetoolkit.com/">Course Toolkit</a>
<h2>EDU 2.0</h2>
EDU 2.0 is a cloud-hosted LMS that's free for schools that have up to 2000 students. Such a plan never expires and includes access to online help and community support forums, as well as unlimited storage and bandwidth. Custom CSS and HTML are both supported for deep web customization, but no technical knowledge is necessary to use this highly customizable system featuring dashboards and dropdown menus. A help menu is available, with detailed instructions and screenshots featured for most help topics.
EDU 2.0 supports instructor-led, blended, and self-paced classes alike. Given that courses can be saved in a library as templates for reuse later, it's easy to automatically create new classes and sessions just before the start of the term, as well as to teach multiple sections, using the unique “class sync” feature to publish changes from a master copy of one class to others on the list.
EDU 2.0 allows for many different account types (for parents, administrators, and others, for example), and it simplifies registration and course access by allowing student enrollment via file import, student roster, email, or self-enrollment through access codes. Only students in the course may access resources, and URLs cannot be shared outside of the roster without instructor permission. Instructors may also enable and disable whether and when resource links are displayed for those enrolled. Students may be deactivated through a time-based system, too. The system also allows for automatic generation of certificates of course completion at the end of the term, at which time grades may also be downloaded via CSV file or API through the gradebook feature – which also allows for many grading and weighting options. (Many other reporting tools are also available).
This LMS comes equipped with a curriculum builder; alternatively, instructors may use preloaded US Common Core standards and analyze how well a class covers the curriculum. It is also has full multimedia capability, with built-in support for messaging, forums, chat rooms, wikis, surveys, debates, and blogs. Resources may be archived and shared with colleagues.
Instructors using EDU 2.0's LMS may create student groups, and the lessons and section order may be reordered by simply dragging and dropping. The system allows users to easily return to where they left off in a lesson. Instructors may also track attendance (easily recorded in a PDF) and lesson progress, as well as time spent on the site. They may also receive alerts to any possibly offensive content. Rubric builders and many types of assessments (including portfolios) are available, including a variety of quizzes and personalized assignments. Instructors may even decide how many late assignments the system will accept (if any), tailoring this parameter for individual students as needed.
EDU 2.0 also integrates with many common systems, including Skype (for web conferencing), Google Docs, LDAP, Calendars (iCal), and Paypal (for paid courses). A school-wide activity feed is also available.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/edu_20_interface.jpg" />
Learn more about <a href="/products/neo/">EDU 2.0</a>
Visit their website: <a href="https://www.edu20.org/">EDU 2.0 Website</a>
<h2>JoomlaLMS</h2>
JoomlaLMS is an on-premise, proprietary, fully functional learning management system used by schools and corporations alike. JoomlaLMS offers custom development services and a variety of course templates. The system allows for self-enrollment and administrator-approved enrollment, at which time students may also pay ( if applicable); instructors may set a maximum number of students who can enroll, too, as well as establish a waiting list. An instructor can also control who may access what (and when) – as well as at what level, depending on the user roles that they define. At the same time, it's easy to toggle between student and teacher modes – in order to see the interface as the students see it when they're logged on.
Once users are enrolled, they may create customized profiles. After that, aside from access to features like a homework drop box, quiz creation, and the ability to monitor student activity on the site, many instructors love being able to create a virtual interactive classroom through JoomlaLMS's live conference tool, featuring audio/video streaming, a virtual whiteboard, and the ability chat within a conference (and even record the session).
Other communication-enabling features include course announcements, a calendar of due dates (and other time-sensitive information), a discussion forum feature, and the ability to exchange files and messages without having to use email. Files that may be uploaded and managed include HTML documents, .zips, .pdfs, text, audio, video, etc. It's also easy to set up a library of course material – and to control the order in which students may access information (to ensure that they don't skip any lessons). JoomlaLMS also shows users where they last left off.
Finally, this system makes evaluating student progress simple. Instructors may view (and download, in a number of formats) many types of reports. Quiz results are easily emailed, and course grades are also simple to record. Instructors may even issue certificates of completion at the end of the term. In turn, JoomlaLMS also allows students to rate and comment on the course.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomlalms_interface.jpg" />
Learn more about <a href="/products/joomlalms/">Joomla LMS</a>
Visit their website: <a href="http://www.joomlalms.com/">Joomla LMS website</a>
<h2>ATutor</h2>
ATutor is a free, open source, web-based, on-premise LMS in PHP that conforms with international accessibility standards. An automated installer and upgrade are both available for a more worry-free experience, and a link to the full user handbook is always in sight. Instructors will be able to start their courses off on the right foot by importing a comma-separated list of students for enrollment and enabling CAPTCHA and email confirmation to ensure registrant validity. The enrollment manager also allows instructors to control access levels.
Once students are enrolled, they can set up personalized network profiles, including a profile photo. The system allows them to control the theme and display settings that they see when they log in – and shows them where they last left off in a lesson. Adaptive navigation allows students to move through content in a variety of different types of sequences, and an FAQ section and search engine enable students to quickly and easily find the information that they need. Like any great LMS, ATutor allows instructors to set up a discussion forum and collaborative groups. Other means of interactive communication include chat rooms, user inboxes, and group blogs.
Both students and instructors can add web links to the site, and instructors may create course content in either HTML or, if they prefer, plain text. It's simple for instructors to create course reading lists and glossaries, too – as well as to set up tests in almost any format imaginable. They can even create quick polls to get student opinions. When all is said and done, teachers won't need to reinvent the wheel from one term to the next, as content is easily stored to a local computer, and a master copy of a course (which is easily populated by available backups) may be created for future use.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/atutor_interface.jpg" />
Overall, the type of learning management system that instructors prefer may largely depend on course content, structure, and subject matter. Some courses may lend themselves more to an LMS that simplifies standardization and automation, while courses in which student creativity and participation in discussions are more highly prized may value other LMS features. The good news is that popular LMSs – such as those mentioned here – have many features from which to choose (by design), making them versatile for a variety of teaching situations.
Learn more about <a href="/products/atutor/">ATutor</a>
Visit their website: <a href="http://atutor.ca/">ATutor Website</a>
Do you know of a good Learning Management System that we've missed? Let us know in the comments below.

5 Learning Management Systems with Educator-Friendly Features

This week, <a href="http://www.blackmonk.com/" target="_blank">BlackMonk CMS</a> – a platform designed to power online newspapers, business directories and community portals, released version 3.2 of their product. 
I recently carried out an in-depth <a href="/blackmonk-cms-review/#.Uywg7fl_vvU" target="_blank"> review of BlackMonk </a> , where I detailed their range of functionalists and features which make community, directory and news portal website building easy. 
Now, with the release of version 3.2, BlackMonk users can make use of some interesting enhancements – some of which I called for during my review of their platform. 
<h2>Rich Snippets &amp; Rich Static Pages</h2>
First of all, BlackMonk version 3.2 increases the click worthiness of your content in search engines by leveraging Google’s rich snippet feature.
Rich snippets is a feature of Google Search which structures the description of a search listing based on nature/type of targeted content. For example, listing of a news story comprises of story headline, name of news service, time elapsed since publication and a brief summary of the story.
<img alt="BlackMonk Rich Snippets" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blackmonk.jpg" /> BlackMonk now optimizes your content in line with the benefits of Google’s rich snippet feature, resulting in a substantial increase in Click through Rates (CTR).
Furthermore, the BlackMonk team have also added rich formatting and multimedia content insertion features, making it simple to create rich static pages. This was a feature which I felt was missing in my <a href="/blackmonk-cms-review/" target="_blank">review of BlackMonk CMS</a>, and to see their team react so quickly to that concern is admirable.
Not to mention, it also gives their platform a boost in a very important area.
<h2>Disqus Comments &amp; More</h2>
Version 3.2 of BlackMonk also brings about built-in Disqus comments with Single Sign in Option (SSO).
<img alt="BlackMonk Disqus Comments" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/disqus_comments.jpg" /> You can now allow users to engage with content via the popular Disqus comments system, which allow users to reply to comments posted by fellow users. The Single Sign In Option allows users to post comment without the need for creating a Disqus account.
Additional features included in version 3.2 are CSV upload histories, error logs and over 100 other fixes.
To find out more about BlackMonk CMS, or to request a demo, check out their <a href="http://www.blackmonk.com/" target="_blank"> official website</a>.
Also, be sure to check out my <a href="/blackmonk-cms-review/#.Uywg7fl_vvU" target="_blank"> BlackMonk CMS Review</a>.

BlackMonk v3.2 Released

“Online learning” is a term most of us have probably heard by now, but how exactly are instructors able to run every aspect of an online course – from assigning work to collecting it and monitoring student participation? (And what exactly does “participation” even mean or look like in an online environment?)
Actually, while online learning can refer to “online only” courses – such as the MOOCs we've begun to hear so much about recently (massive open online courses) – on today's university campuses, online learning is often just an additional tool that's used in what we think of as traditional courses (ones that meet in a classroom several times a week), too. For instance, while many professors still collect hard copies of student papers, an increasing number of university instructors are ditching the drop box outside their office doors for the virtual alternative. While some may just ask students to email their work, thanks to today's LMS (learning management systems), better and more centralized ways to collect and track student work are available today. While signed in to an LMS, students and faculty can also access a whole host of other features for organizing a course and enabling more effective and efficient communication.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/atutor_screenshot.jpg" alt="ATutor screenshot" />
While an LMS such as LearnCore is commonly marketed to corporations for training purposes – allowing employees to complete training modules, for example, as they pass tests and move up to the next level – ATutor, on the other hand, is marketed to educators who teach in settings that we more traditionally associate with a university (or some other type of school) in the most basic and classic sense of the word. An LMS such as Edu 2.0 – or BrainX, Moodle, or Joomla – is a popular choice among traditional educators and corporate trainers alike.
Visual Features Help Span the Distance
Among instructors of online-only university courses, a very popular feature (that virtually every LMS offers) is the capability for instructors, with just a few clicks, to set up and monitor a discussion forum. In a 100% online course (where the instructor may never meet the students in person – and they may never meet each other), a discussion forum gives students a chance to interact simultaneously with both one another and the course material (and also provides a way for instructors to consider a “class participation” component when grading). What is more, an LMS that allows students to create user profiles with photos helps to put a face to the names on the roster. In addition, video conferencing (and the ability for both students and professors to upload videos) allows the course to expand beyond reading and writing black-and-white text. Interactive Whiteboard technology can often be added to a live video conference so that all communication tools are available, all at once.
Many Creative Options
Regardless of whether a course only meets online – or is a “hybrid,” only integrating some virtual features into the ways in which students interact with one another and their professors – an LMS allows instructors and students alike to use their imaginations, bringing a multimedia approach to learning. While instructors can still assign and collect – through online means such as an LMS – old-fashioned term papers and the like, LMS blogging capability also allows professors to add a contemporary and creative twist to writing assignments and make student work available for the whole class to read and comment on.
In addition, instructors can post key vocabulary, FAQs, or a library of course reading materials, as well as design quizzes that students take online (which may be graded automatically). They can also create wikis that students add to in order to demonstrate what they know in a way that's more fun and interactive. Students also enjoy the opportunity to create and share educational videos (which, for example, can take the form of a skit that engages key course concepts). These can be created by individual students or through collaboration for group projects, which are considered an increasingly valuable part of a well-rounded university education.
Organizing Basic Course Logistics
On the practical side, an LMS will usually allow professors to invite (and, often, enroll) students – and post not only a course calendar but also important announcements. What's more, the instructor may control when students access any or all information on the website. Many also come with a system for sending individualized messages to students, as needed – as well as giving students grade information and other feedback. An LMS will often also come with an attendance-tracking system. Student groups may be set up for collaborative projects, in which case the messaging also allows students to easily contact one another.
Increasing a Sense of Community
In fact, within an online class environment, what happens quite naturally is that students will often want to be able to message each other anyway, even if there are no group projects. That's the thing about a really good LMS; while many might fear that online learning “distances” students from each other and their professors, really these systems can be used to remind us of one of the most humanizing aspects of learning: it's just plain fun.
Simply put, an LMS can help increase the amount (and quality) of communication between stakeholders. In fact, students who are shy in person – perhaps because the course is held in a language that isn't their first or perhaps because they have a fear of public speaking – will often open up and thrive in a virtual environment. An LMS can also allow professors to create and easily administer student polls and surveys, allowing them to get to know the group better – and to get a better sense of which elements of the course and teaching are effective and which aren't (and make adjustments accordingly). The truth is, rather than making education feel impersonal, a good LMS, when used to its full advantage, can make a class what it should be: a real community (in every sense of the word) of fully-engaged learners.

What is a Learning Management System (LMS) and What Does it Do?

Next week, I will be attending the 2014 Adobe Digital Marketing Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. Held at the Salt Lake City convention center, this event is definitely a unique one that I do my best not to miss. 
Not only is Salt Lake City a beautiful place but Adobe tends to put 110% into their conferences and this years will be no exception. Two of the speakers I'm most interested in hearing from this year are Robert Redford (actor &amp; director) and Yancey Strickler (CEO and Co-founder of Kickstarter.com).
Adobe also knows how to throw one helluva party (<a href="/the-summit-bash-at-the-adobe-digital-marketing-summit/#.UymfP1f5a0M">see past pictures of the Summit Bash here</a>). This year, we will be treated with a concert by Vampire Weekend (last year was an amazing concert by The Black Keys).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adobesummit2012.jpg" />
It's not all about the party though. The conference is a great place to see the new innovations that Adobe is bringing to the forefront and each year, I'm impressed with what they are doing. As a major player in the online marketing space, it only makes sense to keep up on what they are doing to see how they are staying competitive and relevant. I also tend to connect with quite a few related vendors that attend the show and have booths there, so it's a win-win for me.
Stay tuned on the site and on Twitter as I'll be live tweeting from the event starting mid next week. For more info on the Adobe Summit, check out their website: <a href="http://summit.adobe.com/">Adobe Summit 2014</a>.

See you at the Adobe Summit!

Our featured coverage of DNN Software continues this week, and this time we're looking at the analytics and personalization features of <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a>.
Trusted by more than 2,000 brands worldwide, including a range of Fortune 500 companies, DNN was named the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
DNN Evoq 8 was released with a focus on a few different fronts, including both analytics and personalization. Let's get into how the platform helps marketers combine the two.
<h2>The Metrics Come Easy</h2>
Evoq 8 serves up detailed and relevant metrics, in a way that's both stylish and yet easy to process. Even for laymen.
<a href="/a-video-walkthrough-of-evoq-content-by-dnn-software/" target="_blank">Much like the rest of DNN Evoq 8</a>, the analytics dashboard is very easy on the eyes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/page-level-content-analytics700x0.png" />
The sleek nature of the dashboard doesn't come at the cost of functionality though. With it, marketers can easily:
<ul>
<li>Track Page View activity over any length of time, comparing time periods as well as visitors to views.</li>
<li>Monitor the average time spent on each page, along with the bounce rate for the time period.</li>
<li>See the top referring domains driving traffic to the page, top operating systems used, and the top conversion activities.</li>
<li>Understand which traffic channels are driving visitors to the page, and which devices those visitors are using to access the page.</li>
<li>Analyze how are visitors are navigating to and from the page, segmented by traffic type.</li>
</ul>
In other words, Evoq 8 provides marketers with ample information regarding their visitors, arming them with the information they need to adjust content and form marketing campaigns.
However, what really caught my eye, was the presentation of these stats and facts.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/analytics-nav-summary.png" />
The use of flow charts, pie charts, and line graphs may not be anything new, but Evoq 8 actually makes them fun to look at. And that's new.
Everything is quirkily colour-coded, while the interface itself is elegantly minimal on every area of the analytics dashboard. In short, these are seriously important metrics presented in a brilliantly casual way.
<h2>Multi-layered Personalization</h2>
DNN Evoq 8 is capable of tailoring content based on device, behavior, location, or user profile. The end goal is of course to increase both engagement and conversions by dishing out the most relevant content to each visitor.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dnn700x0.png" />
To craft personalized experiences, Evoq users can set personalization rules.
Through these rules, marketers can arrange specific and tailored content which will only be seen by select groups, all of which are determined by the initial personalization rules.
For example, a banner promoting a North American competition can be configured to be displayed on the website for US and Canada based visitors only.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization-rules_1.png" />
A simple rule can be set to display this version of the website specifically to North Americans, while the rest of the world are shown another version, perhaps without the banner.
Naturally, Evoq 8 lets marketers view, edit, and delete their different page versions.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization-pages.png" />
The natural link between these two marketing features is obvious. Without the stellar analytics system, DNN Evoq 8 users would have trouble identifying their customers, making personalization almost impossible.
Likewise, DNN's personalization features would be of little use without the helpful information provided by its analytics system. Together, they offer valuable stats and metrics, paired with some powerful tools designed to make optimum use of them.
<h2>The Marketer Shift</h2>
Evoq 8's supremely simple approach to both analytics and personalization is no accident.
During <a href="/mike-interviews-navin-nagiah-ceo-of-dnn-software-video/" target="_blank">Mike Johnston's recent video interview with Navin Nagiah</a>, DNN Software's CEO made these telling comments:
<blockquote>“Websites are now being owned more and more by marketers. But if you go back five, eight, ten years ago, website were owned by IT.
So the CMS [Evoq 8] had to pivot to be one for marketers. Super easy to use, super simple to update content.”</blockquote>
I'd say that the shift towards marketers is on track, as “super easy” and “super simple” are two apt descriptions of the analytics and personalization features within Evoq 8.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

Blending Analytics & Personalization For Optimum Results With DNN Evoq 8

CMS Summit 26

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

What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

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 - 140

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What's ahead for Open Source CMS?