Articles - Page 146

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

It’s time to kick off another featured week, this time with Solodev, winner of our People’s Choice Award for “Best Cloud CMS of 2016”. Solodev is a cloud-based enterprise-grade <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">web experience platform</a> designed to empower organizations and developers to build beautiful websites and deliver amazing digital experiences.
Launched in 2006, Solodev is well established in the content management space, serving clients across the globe in a wide range of verticals.
As new trends and practices have emerged in the CMS space, the Solodev team has carefully constructed its latest software release with two major points of focus: the digital experience and their new cloud infrastructure.
Solodev’s latest release comes with a marketing toolbox to help marketers and content authors tailor the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/inside-the-machine-of-the-digital-experience/">digital experience</a> to the end user. Additionally, Solodev is now fully optimized for the entire Amazon Web Services product suite, giving users the ability to rapidly deploy websites with unparalleled levels of security and scalability. As they pivot towards the cloud and digital experiences, Solodev continues to add to its existing functionality and pave the way within the enterprise WCMS industry. Solodev also released their first flavor of their platform for Windows adding to an already lengthy list of achievements in 2016.
Over the next five days we will be reviewing the three pillars of Solodev:
<ul>
<li>The Solodev Web Experience Platform</li>
<li>Solodev’s New Cloud Environment</li>
<li>Solodev’s New U.S. Based Enterprise Support Offering</li>
</ul>
The Solodev Web Experience Platform
Solodev is a platform that boasts interactive page building, built-in analytics, landing page creation and management, a framework to easily build custom applications, and the ability to deliver the right experience to the right audience at the right time through content targeting to different customer segments. But perhaps most importantly for big brands, Solodev has the security and scalability that comes with being housed in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud.
Enterprise Content Management in the Cloud
Solodev’s move to the cloud allows brands to leverage Solodev as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. That means once you’re signed up your brand will have everything it needs to kick off its large-scale web project, instantaneously. Solodev delivers robust support for elastic load balancing, auto scaling, global CDNs, and disaster recovery – keeping customer data safe and secure across Amazon Web Services global network of state-of-the-art data centers.
AWS provides a cloud-based experience with world-renowned infrastructure and rapid content delivery. Solodev hasn’t tried to re-invent the wheel here; they’ve used the best technology to support their platform. It’s that simple.
Thanks to that intelligent decision, Solodev users benefit from:
<ul>
<li>Scalability
<ul>
<li>Elastic Load Balancing</li>
<li>Auto Scaling</li>
<li>Elastic File Storage</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Global CDN
<ul>
<li>AWS CloudFront</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Availability Zones</li>
<li>Security
<ul>
<li>24/7/365 Monitoring</li>
<li>Server Redundancy</li>
<li>Network Firewalls</li>
<li>IP-based restrictions</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/" target="_blank">*Click here for a map of Amazon Web Services availability zones</a>
The benefits of Solodev’s AWS Cloud Infrastructure don’t stop there, though. The sheer amount of server availability zones across the globe puts your website close to your audience, no matter where they are in the world.
Furthermore, Solodev is capable of scaling up resources at any time (like, during peak hours or peak season), before scaling them back down again during quieter periods. And what’s more is, you only pay for the resources that your sites uses. Now that’s intelligent.
Superb Support Options
Solodev offers an unparalleled online knowledge base packaged with hundreds of pages of documentation and how-to-guides and videos to guide you through using the Solodev Platform. Solodev also rolled out an online support ticketing system that is available to all Solodev users. This is further backed by an industry leading web development blog that equips readers with the knowledge they need in order to build better websites, particularly on the Solodev Platform.
And if all of that isn’t enough, Solodev released a new offering called “Solodev Launch” that can provide dedicated launch teams to augment your internal IT department “a la carte” with your online project development needs.
Getting Started with Solodev
Solodev offers three subscription plans for brands to get started with their platform. Plans start from $99/month as shown below.
<ul>
<li>Small – Single Server Instance ($99/month)</li>
<li>Medium – Single Server Instance ($399/month)</li>
<li>Cluster – Multi Server Cluster ($1,830/month)</li>
<li>Enterprise – Multi Server Cluster (Call 1-800-859-7656 for details)</li>
<li>Enterprise – On-Premise (Call 1-800-859-7656 for details)</li>
</ul>
*For more information on Solodev Pricing, visit their pricing page.
To learn more about Solodev, check out their website at <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">www.solodev.com</a> and their <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/products/solodev-cms/" target="_blank">Solodev CMSCritic Listing</a>. And of course, be sure to stay tuned for more featured coverage during this Solodev featured week.

Exploring the Solodev Web Experience Platform

mike-johnston

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/deploy-scalable-cost-effective-websites-in-minutes-using-solodev/" target="_blank">Yesterday we discussed Solodev's new cloud infrastructure built layer by layer to give customers the full power of Amazon Web Services</a>. The final pillar of Solodev is Support and in 2016, Solodev decided to take their support offering to an entirely new level. Here’s a list of some of the new additions to Solodev’s support offerings:
<ul>
<li>24x7x365 HelpDesk</li>
<li>Enterprise Support Plans</li>
<li>Staff Augmentation Services</li>
<li>Onboarding Teams</li>
<li>Video Tutorials</li>
<li>Technical Documentation</li>
<li>Solodev Web Development Blog</li>
<li>Customer Success Engineers</li>
<li>Phone Support</li>
</ul>
Solodev now offers standard support to all customers while also offering enterprise support plans at an additional cost. Standard support plans include HelpDesk access to submit support tickets, phone support, and access to Solodev’s technical documentation, instructional videos, and web development blog that posts daily code tutorials.
<h3>Solodev Launch: Deliverables Tailored to your Needs</h3>
Solodev’s new enterprise support offering, Solodev Launch, is a collaborative team-based approach individually tailored to customers’ business goals and site objectives. Although Solodev Launch is extremely enhanced support, it also serves as an extension of your marketing, development, design, and IT departments and can fill any roles missing on your team. Solodev Launch has a single purpose – to help Solodev’s customers get up and running as quickly and effectively as possible.
<h3>Enterprise Support: When Downtime is Not an Option</h3>
Solodev’s enterprise support plans give you access to in-house developers at Solodev who can assist you with diagnosis, repairs of site functionality, module implementations, system integrations, and platform customizations. Customer Success Engineers enhance your technical team, help champion best practices and help ensure consistency and accuracy with your Solodev deployment.
Sometimes waiting even for a couple of hours is just not an option which is why Solodev’s enterprise support ensures you don't have to wait your turn to get help. With their 1 hour, 24×7 response time you can sleep better at night knowing support is just a phone call or email away.
Solodev has an array of web related roles that can fill in the missing roles on your team. Whether you need a quick help with your design, integration or enterprise training, you can source professionals to ensure your projects turn into a success.
<h3>What's Ahead for 2017?</h3>
As you can see Solodev didn’t just move to the cloud or roll out a new release of their product this past year. Solodev made massive upgrades and added onto their product offering as they plowed through their product roadmap. Solodev turned their offering into a well-oiled machine and, quite possibly, the only turnkey enterprise CMS solution on the market of its kind. With an enterprise grade web experience platform backed by a carefully crafted cloud infrastructure sitting on Amazon Web Services and robust enterprise support offerings to ensure customer success, Solodev is definitely the CMS to look out for in 2017.
Solodev is currently offering a 14 Day Free Trial of the Solodev Web Experience Platform. This includes an instance of Solodev on an Amazon EC2 server as well as 50GB of storage, 2GB of memory, as well as email and chat support. You can also purchase <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/seller-profile?id=8e11c912-6253-41b8-b065-bf32bd27911b" target="_blank">Solodev on the AWS Marketplace</a> with plans starting at $99/month.

Ensuring customer success every step of the way

After a few months of alpha and beta versions the first stable version of Elxis CMS 4.0, codename Nautilus, is here. This version includes a number of bug fixes, improvements, library updates, new interface languages as well as a few new features.
Along with the stable version an update patch for all beta versions was also released and you can download it from <a href="http://www.elxis-downloads.com/">EDC</a>. Since version 4.0 rev1358 Elxis has multilingual XML parameters and a new configuration option named SITELANGS. This new option allows you to limit the displayed languages in Elxis frontend only to specific ones (the default option is to use all available languages). With the release of the stable version we strongly encourage you to download and use Elxis 4.0 instead of the old series 2009.3.
For those currently running older versions of Elxis, you can see the differences in this comparison between the two editions.
More info: <a href="http://www.elxis.org/">http://www.elxis.org/</a>

Elxis CMS 4.0 (Nautilus) is available

Social networking CMS <a href="http://elgg.org/" target="_blank">Elgg</a> has released two important security updates for two of their current versions. Elgg 1.8 has received version 1.8.19, whilst Elgg 1.7 has been upgraded to  1.7.22.
Elgg is a free and open-source social networking software that has been around since 2004. The popular platform provides a robust framework on which to build all kinds of social environments, from a campus-wide social network for your university, school, or college or an internal collaborative platform for your organization to a brand-building communications tool for your company and its clients.
Features and functionalists include blogging, microblogging, file sharing, networking, groups, and much more.
The security fixes in both of these new security updates will help to enhance the security of the “Remember Me” feature and also introduces measures to prevent brute-force attacks of the “Remember Me” cookie. This upgrade will invalidate all “Remember Me” cookies for admin users, so admin users may need to log in again.
<h3>Other changes in 1.8.19 include:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Fixed numerous PHP warnings.</li>
<li>Groups: Corrected breadcrumb for group discussion pages.</li>
<li>Fixed RSS validation for the River RSS feed.</li>
<li>Moved Site Secret update to configure -&gt; advanced.</li>
</ul>
However, perhaps more importantly, Elgg have also strongly encouraged their 1.7 users to make the migration to 1.8 in lieu of Elgg 1.9 releasing.
<blockquote>Users of 1.7 should migrate to 1.8 ASAP as Elgg 1.7 will no longer be updated when Elgg 1.9 is released.</blockquote>
For more information on the release of Elgg versions 1.8.19 and 1.7.22, check out Elgg's official blog. Both versions can also be <a href="http://www.elgg.org/download.php" target="_blank">downloaded here</a>.
Additionally, you can explore more of Elgg via our CMS Directory.

Elgg Release Security Updates & Encourage 1.7 Users to Migrate

Ecwid, the ecommerce platform that makes it a snap for anyone to sell their products anywhere, has launched a fully automated sales tax and VAT solution for online merchants, in partnership with TaxJar. Previously, online sellers had to determine sales tax and VAT rates and complicated rules to configure data tables manually, in order to determine when, and how much sales tax to collect at checkout. Further, online businesses were required to keep up with new laws and regulations in every location where they sold products, just to remain compliant. During the periods nearing monthly or quarterly sales tax deadlines, these merchants were forced to sort through complicated spreadsheets reflecting their sales histories, so they could create and remit sales tax filings across various states.
Effective immediately, all premium Ecwid merchants have built-in access to highly-accurate, automated tax calculations using TaxJar’s SmartCalcs technology in the US, Canada, Australia and the European Union. Additional countries will follow soon. In addition, in late summer, Ecwid merchants also will be able to connect their online store (as well as other channels they may be utilizing like eBay or Square) to TaxJar’s automated reporting and filing technology, in order to fully-automate sales tax management.
“TaxJar is committed to providing full sales tax automation to small and medium sized businesses,” says Mark Faggiano, founder and CEO of TaxJar. “A few years ago, we set out on a mission to bring the most modern technology available to solve the sales tax pains of merchants, in a way that is both affordable and extremely easy to use. Partnering with Ecwid enables us to work with the leader for small business ecommerce in order to reach and alleviate sales tax woes for millions of online sellers globally.”
“Ecwid is committed to providing an e-commerce platform that makes selling online extremely easy and productive for small businesses globally. Yet, ask any online seller about managing sales tax, and they cringe,” says Jim O’Hara, president of Ecwid. “Providing our new automated tax calculation feature powered by TaxJar that essentially eliminates our customers’ concerns when it comes to sales tax helps us deliver on our promise and make our merchants more successful.”
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ecwid">Learn more about Ecwid.</a>

Ecwid is First SMB e-Commerce Platform to Provide Both Fully Automated and Logic Based Sales Tax and VAT Calculation

Solodev’s cloud infrastructure put them on the map at Amazon Web Services re:Invent 2016 beginning with the release of the new Solodev Web Experience Platform, when they were announced as one of twenty AWS partners to join AWS SaaS Subscriptions program shortly after becoming the world’s 1st Enterprise CMS available On-Demand. In addition to winning our People’s Choice Award for “<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/solodev-cms-winners-of-the-best-cloud-cms-award-now-available-in-the-aws-cloud/" target="_blank">Best Cloud CMS</a>” of 2016, Solodev launched their first iteration for Windows on the AWS Marketplace. The combination of these major strategic moves has positioned Solodev as both an innovator and thought leader in enterprise cloud computing in the CMS space.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3w-GC_KXjc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Before taking a deeper dive into Solodev’s Cloud Infrastructure, let’s look at a few of the core benefits of hosting your website in the cloud with Solodev and AWS:
<ul>
<li>Deploy content to customers anywhere in the world quickly, with no need to build a data center or find a co-location provider</li>
<li>Automatically scale capacity up and down as your business requires</li>
<li>Improve resource utilization and pay only for what you use</li>
</ul>
Now let’s take a deeper look at Solodev’s state of the art cloud architecture.
<h3>Scalability</h3>
Solodev utilizes several tools to help your website scale along with your business. Solodev employs <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/" target="_blank">Auto Scaling</a> to maintain application availability and allows you to scale your server capacity up or down automatically per conditions you define. Auto Scaling can also automatically increase the number of server instances during demand spikes to maintain performance and decrease capacity during lulls to reduce costs.
Solodev utilizes <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/efs/" target="_blank">Amazon Elastic File System</a> (Amazon EFS) that provides simple, scalable file storage in the AWS Cloud. With Amazon EFS, storage capacity is elastic, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, so your applications have the storage they need, when they need it.
On top of scaling your website and file system, Solodev users benefit from <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/" target="_blank">Elastic Load Balancing</a> that automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple Amazon servers. This enables Solodev users to achieve fault tolerance in their applications, seamlessly providing the required amount of load balancing capacity needed to route application traffic.
<h3>Global CDN</h3>
Solodev utilizes <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/" target="_blank">Amazon CloudFront</a>, a global content delivery network (CDN) service that accelerates delivery of websites, APIs, video content or other web assets. It integrates with other Amazon Web Services products to give developers and businesses an easy way to accelerate content to end users with no minimum usage commitments.
<h3>Availability</h3>
A major benefit of being in the AWS Cloud is their multiple availability zones around the globe, as well as server redundancy for each layer of the technology stack, customers can attain extremely high levels of availability. For example, a high capacity event that could potentially degrade site access can trigger extra web servers operating round-robin, including reserve capacity in the second availability zone; a fully redundant file system in the second availability zone that is constantly syncing; master-master replication for database pairs; and a secondary load balancer in a redundant environment.
<h3>Security</h3>
Security is integral to the Solodev Platform and is embedded into every architectural layer. Firewall systems and IP-based restrictions protect their perimeter network and prevent unauthorized access to customer systems. Solodev utilizes security-monitoring applications that monitor for unusual activity and constantly screen for possible or actual security breaches. In an actual security event, Solodev Security and Engineering team members are alerted to promptly isolate any issues.
Additionally, to ensure the highest quality software environment, Solodev performs ongoing vulnerability scans and penetration testing. Solodev stands by the infrastructure supporting the their platform – any vulnerabilities are reviewed and patches are applied according to documented timelines and the severity of the vulnerability. To prevent unauthorized users from accessing a customer’s instance, Solodev also offers granular permission settings.
Solodev is currently offering a 14 Day Free Trial of the Solodev Web Experience Platform. This includes an instance of Solodev on an Amazon EC2 server as well as 50GB of storage, 2GB of memory, as well as email and chat support.

Deploy scalable, cost-effective websites in minutes using Solodev

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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Over the course of this Solodev CMS featured week, I’ve <a href="/exploring-solodev-cms-8/" target="_blank">overviewed the enterprise platform’s core features</a>, its <a href="/solodev-cms-bringing-multi-site-management-to-healthcare-organizations/" target="_blank">presence within the healthcare industry</a>, the <a href="/solodev-cms-powering-next-generation-local-government-websites-to-improve-constituent-services/" target="_blank">role it plays for numerous local government bodies throughout the United States</a>, and its <a href="/solodev-cms-facilitating-successful-project-launches/" target="_blank">hands-on approach to project launches</a>.
 To conclude this featured week, I’m going to delve into the custom integration capabilities of Solodev CMS 8, and how that helps to drive the progress of brands online.
The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is the brand I’ll be focusing on, as it’s an organization that currently benefits from Solodev’s customization capabilities.
<h2>State of the Performing Arts</h2>
The Dr. Phillips Center is a state-of-the-art performing arts center in Orlando, FL.
Opened in November 2014, the nearly $400M venue features a 2,700 seat amplified hall (the Walt Disney Theater) for Broadway theater-class events and a 300-seat venue (the Alexis &amp; Jim Pugh Theater) for smaller shows and events. A third theater, a 1,700-seat acoustic hall for ballet, operas and orchestral performances, will open its doors sometime in late 2018.
It’s truly a one-of-a-kind entertainment venue.
To establish a worthwhile online presence, Dr. Phillips partnered with Solodev to develop a start-of-the-art website that matched the sophistication of their performing arts center. A major goal for the new website was to drive more self-service transactions – particularly online ticket sales. This is in accordance with current trends. According to a report issued by Juniper Research, the volume of mobile tickets is forecasted to increase to 23 billion worldwide by 2016, more than quadruple the four billion delivered in 2011.
In the end, the site included a sophisticated online seat selection and ticket purchasing system that was highly customized to work in lockstep with the Center’s ticketing software platform, Tessitura.
As well as falling in line with prevailing customer preferences, selling tickets through the website meant lowering costs by driving more self-service actions. By keeping customer transactions online and away from expensive customer service reps, Dr Phillips could offer a more user-friendly ticket buying process with less financial strain.
<h2>The Final Performance</h2>
On top of meeting its goal to sell tickets easily through its website, the Dr Phillips Center website project was built to excel in other areas. This applies particularly to the website’s seat selector tools. For example, seat maps needed to render in a size large enough to be easily clicked – including with a finger on a mobile device.
The Select Your Own Seat (SYOS) solution was developed by Solodev to work seamlessly with the mobile-responsive capabilities of the website. For example, by using scalable vector graphics of the venue seating charts, as opposed to Flash, mobile device compatibility was ensured.
More customization came in the form of account profiles, which allow for multiple logins to accommodate the Center’s head of household account requirement. Site users are also encouraged to make online donations during the purchasing process, and can select parking spaces from a geo-coded map with overlays, further streamlining the customer experience.
<h2>Dr Phillips Performing Arts Website Whitepaper</h2>
In response to the roaring success that is the Dr Phillips Performing Arts website, Solodev developed an informative white paper, which derives helpful details from the project.
To find out more about Solodev CMS, <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a>

Custom Integration that Drives Business: How Solodev CMS Powers Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

So far during this Solodev featured week, I’ve <a href="/exploring-solodev-cms-8/" target="_blank">explored the enterprise platform’s core features</a>, its <a href="/solodev-cms-bringing-multi-site-management-to-healthcare-organizations/" target="_blank">presence within the healthcare industry</a>, and the role it plays for <a href="/solodev-cms-powering-next-generation-local-government-websites-to-improve-constituent-services/" target="_blank">numerous local government bodies throughout the United States</a>.

And although Solodev CMS has a healthy stake in both of those industries, it also powers websites across the rest of the enterprise spectrum.
One thing those enterprise websites (and the enterprise companies behind them) have in common, are successful launches.
The planning that goes before it, the execution that brings it about, and the work that comes after it with the goal growth. Here’s how Solodev aims to streamline the entire process.
<h2>The Benefits of Solodev Launch</h2>
Large web deployments are really interactive business platforms that accomplish the digital goals of an organization.
Typically, this involves many steps and moving parts, including; design, build, migration, integrating with third-party technology to streamline business operations, and workflow management.
As such, Solodev CMS’s powerful out-of-the-box features make it an ideal launch platform for mid-to-enterprise class custom application and integration projects.
With Solodev’s built-in RESTful API, custom, complex front-end builds can be developed that handle various business critical transactions within a site by getting/leveraging data from third-party sources.
In many cases, the client or referring agency partner needs assistance with these large migration and deployment projects. Which is why Solodev came up with Solodev Launch.
<h2>The Solodev Launch Team</h2>
The Solodev Launch program leverages internal Solodev resources to ensure that projects get launched on time, on spec and on budget.
Solodev puts forth a mix of skills to assist end clients or agency partners with the build, design and integration processes.
In other words, Solodev is able to deploy a team of experts to helps smooth over the launch process, so their client can focus on other issues that require their attention.
<h2>Solodev Launch in Action</h2>
Florida Department of Education
Solodev has put its launch team into action on many deployments in the past. On one such occasion, the Florida Department of Education was the client in question.
The FDOE serves more than 2.7 million students in the state’s more than 4,200 public schools and 28 colleges. This makes it one of the largest education systems in the United States.
As a result of its size, the Solodev launch team had to help migrate 3,500 pages of content along with 20,000 digital assets including documents, images, and media files. A monster of a job, but it was done.
Today, the FODE website can handle 100,000 concurrent users, and currently averages 30,000 users per day.
Dr. Phillips Center 
A good example of the level of customization that the Solodev Launch team can accomodate comes in the form of the Dr. Phillips Center, a newly opened (November 2014) state-of-the-art performing arts center in Orlando, FL.
Their website was developed in Solodev CMS 8 and is hosted in the Solodev CMS 8 AWS environment.
It includes a sophisticated online seat selection and ticket purchasing system that was highly customized and vastly improved the user experience with the Center’s ticketing software platform, Tessitura.
Miami Beach App
Furthermore, the Solodev RESTful API also allows developers to build apps that access data from the CMS.
The Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority springs to mind here. They needed to create apps around visitor activities and leveraged Solodev CMS to develop a powerful mobile application platform.
Today, the Miami Beach app works like a comprehensive 411 resource that provides granular details on every business as well as on city amenities and happenings.
The app contains nearly 7,000 business listings each with extensive detail. Those listings are accessible by category, so in addition to finding an accountant nearest their location, visitors and residents can select a hotel based on its architect or a restaurant based on the noise level of its dining room. Now that’s detail.
Solodev can also accommodate sophisticated integrations with solutions like CRMs, Marketing Automation Systems, and third party API integration.
To find out more about Solodev CMS, <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a>

Solodev CMS: Facilitating Successful Project Launches

<a href="https://www.crownpeak.com/">Crownpeak</a>, a digital experience platform (DXP), has just announced a strategic partnership with <a href="https://www.ilumino.co/">ilumino</a>, a digital accessibility services and consulting firm. The two companies will offer an integrated solution that helps improve digital experiences for users with disabilities while evolving accessibility strategies for organizations.
The “Crownpeak + ilumino” solution combines Crownpeak’s automated accessibility scanning technology with ilumino’s deep subject matter expertise in online accessibility. It also addresses a key gap that exists with many CMS and DXP platforms: access to human-powered testing and remediation.
While the announcement was made today, the joint solution is already in use by several billion-dollar corporations, including a tech-enabled business services firm, a major U.S. insurance company, and a global top 10 consumer packaged goods company that operates in 190 countries and has hundreds of brands.
<h2>The growing demand for digital accessibility</h2>
With more than <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/business-case/">1 billion people</a> worldwide living with some form of disability, it’s more important than ever for organizations to deliver inclusive digital experiences. This need has been elevated during the Covid-19 pandemic as more consumers turned to digital channels to connect and transact. Accessibility is now a key imperative for brands, requiring websites and apps to accommodate for users with vision, hearing, mobility, cognitive, and other disabilities.
Crownpeak’s <a href="https://www.crownpeak.com/products/digital-quality-management/web-accessibility">Digital Quality Management</a> (DQM) technology represents a deeper investment from CMS and DXP platforms around digital equality. With these types of built-in scanning resources, organizations can deliver consistent digital experiences across an expanding array of digital touchpoints, from websites to mobile apps to the Internet of Things (IoT).
But as is often the case, technology is not enough. In fact, many tools require manual human insight to identify false positives and whitelist contextual issues. There are also a myriad of governance and compliance issues that limit the ability of any tool to solve problems on its own.
Crownpeak also says that most organizations take a “disjointed approach” to their accessibility. While content teams might adhere to standards and best practices – including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/">WCAG</a>) or  – they depend on basic browser plug-ins and third-party testers to generate one-time reports. This reflects a limited focus on remediation versus a long-term strategy around accessibility and content quality.
<h2>The Crownpeak + ilumino Solution</h2>
Together, Crownpeak and ilumino offer a single, integrated approach that evolves the accessibility model. The solution combines Crownpeak’s DQM technology, providing automated and ongoing scanning and auditing against WCAG guidelines, with <a href="https://www.ilumino.co/solutions/">ilumino’s expert services</a> – which focuses on nurturing a company’s “culture of accessibility.” ilumino also brings a seasoned practice around accessibility planning and strategy, so customers can unlock the value of their investment while meeting critical compliance benchmarks.
“All too often, when it comes to accessibility testing, companies receive ‘one-and-done’ reports on violations – with no real consideration of the company’s technical resources or its ability to actually act on the findings,” said Mark Reardon, CEO at ilumino. “So benefits achieved are often just temporary. Crownpeak + ilumino offers a better solution and, importantly, a path toward continual compliance. Our partnership combines the scalability of Crownpeak's software platform with our expert manual consulting services. Together, we offer organizations a global solution for their digital monitoring and compliance needs – all within the unique confines of their established branding and marketing, and all aimed at providing more inclusive digital experiences.”
By combining the speed and power of Crownpeak’s tools with the essential human side of ilumino’s accessibility testing and consulting, the partnership delivers a more complete solution for advancing digital accessibility. Additionally, the pairing brings best-of-breed capabilities to content operations, enabling teams to deliver more accessible user experiences while maintaining cohesive brand guidelines and business practices.
“Making the web more accessible to all is an imperative everyone can agree on – but challenges related to cost, complexity and knowledge gaps often hold companies back,” said Chris Sigala, general manager of Crownpeak’s Digital Quality Management business. “Crownpeak + ilumino resolves these issues. We’re encouraged by the results we’ve seen from the partnership in a relatively short amount of time – as large organizations are realizing immense value and impact by leveraging the strengths of both organizations in powering their digital accessibility programs.”
<h2>Key features</h2>
Some noteworthy highlights of the Crownpeak + ilumino solution include:
<ul>
<li>Accessibility and compliance dashboard – providing a “single-source of truth” for automated and manual accessibility monitoring</li>
<li>Automated site scanning (enriched by manual testing) – enterprise-grade, multi-site scanning technology</li>
<li>Manual testing and consulting – performed by certified accessibility experts</li>
<li>In-house or guided remediation – tailored to each organization’s unique design and development workflows</li>
<li>Ongoing support – ensuring sustained compliance through a proactive approach</li>
<li>Accessibility pattern library – simplifying remediation and establishing long-term organizational assets</li>
<li>Litigation support – with expert review and consulting on any accessibility-related legal actions received</li>
<li>Accessibility statement – drafted to demonstrate an organization’s commitment to digital inclusion</li>
<li>Enterprise strategy – assisting with a prioritized roadmap and risk management</li>
</ul>
<h2>What’s next for accessibility?</h2>
The partnership between Crownpeak and ilumino crystallizes the importance of digital equality for organizations, but it also represents a more evolved approach to accessibility. While meeting WCAG, ADA and AODA can help businesses mitigate risk and avoid lawsuits, we need a deeper understanding of what accessibility means to a diverse audience of consumers. Further, CMS and DXP platforms will require continuous investment in their “accessibility readiness” – and for now, that requires a balance of human support and insight.
That said, the accessibility landscape continues to shift. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, it made no mention of websites or mobile apps. No one could have predicted their future ubiquity or importance, but the omission continues to plague the legal system. Despite having a working draft of the <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag-3.0/">W3C’s WCAG 3.0 guidelines</a>, the U.S. courts (among others) haven’t adopted clear laws or policies when it comes to digital accessibility.
In fact, this week, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a <a href="https://static.reuters.com/resources/media/editorial/20210408/gil--trialcourt.pdf">2017 trial-court ruling against Winn-Dixie</a> stores by a visually-impaired customer, concluding that their websites were not a “public accommodation” as the ADA defines the term. The ruling succeeds at creating further confusion, which is precisely why expertise from consultants like ilumino is so essential.
If you're interested in learning more, Crownpeak and ilumino will discuss their partnership during a webinar, “<a href="https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7241109117052532235?source=PR">Getting Started on Your Digital Accessibility Journey</a>, on May 19, at 11 a.m. ET, where they will provide practical, actionable steps for creating and executing an effective digital accessibility program.
<h2>About ilumino</h2>
POWERING DIGITAL INCLUSION. ilumino is a digital accessibility company driven by a passion to help create a more inclusive online world through compliant technology that everyone can enjoy. A user-focused approach makes the accessibility of websites, software or mobile applications, documents, and digital platforms straightforward, scalable, and complementary of established branding. Custom solutions and expert services render lasting results by focusing on usability as well as compliance. For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.ilumino.co">www.ilumino.co</a>.
<h2>About Crownpeak</h2>
Crownpeak provides the leading digital experience platform. The industry’s only true SaaS-based solution, Crownpeak offers best-in-breed capabilities that empower companies to create, deploy and optimize omnichannel digital experiences – faster and easier than ever, and with zero infrastructure to maintain. Crownpeak also provides built-in solutions for digital governance and digital quality management. Relied on by the world’s top brands, these solutions make it easy for organizations to address WCAG and ADA accessibility compliance across their digital properties – while improving SEO, reducing bounce rates, increasing brand equity, and enhancing user experiences. With Crownpeak, companies can deliver high-impact, trust-building, accessible experiences at scale – improving engagement, loyalty and revenue. For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.crownpeak.com">www.crownpeak.com</a>.

Crownpeak and ilumino Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance Digital Accessibility

cms-critic-staff

Crownpeak and ilumino logos in lockup format.

One of the more common errors made when evaluating products designed to enable an online presence is the misunderstanding of the difference between a WCM and a CMS.
In order to help alleviate this confusion, I thought I'd offer up how I view the two, so you can get a better understanding when trying to decide which solutions to explore as part of your short listing process.
<h2>WCM</h2>
A WCM is a Web Content Management system. These systems are designed to provide your organization with a means of putting your business online with relative ease. A WCM, on a basic level, will offer such features as: easy content editing, versioning (revisions of your content), media management, workflow management for content approvals and publishing, template modification and an easy to use dashboard of sorts to provide you with an overview of your site(s). Most CMS vendors offer WCM within their enterprise suites but they can also be offered as standalone packages for smaller organizations.
Examples of web content management systems include (but are not limited to):
<ul>
<li><a href="https://buildwithcraft.com/" target="_blank">Craft CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.wordpress.org" target="_blank">WordPress</a></li>
<li><a href="https://drupal.org" target="_blank">Drupal</a></li>
<li><a href="https://joomla.org" target="_blank">Joomla</a></li>
<li><a href="https://typo3.com" target="_blank">TYPO3</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>CMS</h2>
A CMS, on the other hand, is a system that provides a way for multiple users to collaborate, interact with and control access to data through a common interface. While some CMS vendors may bundle their content management systems with WCM components, this is not always the case, nor is it mandatory.
Examples of content management systems include (but are not limited to):
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jahia.com" target="_blank">Jahia</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.sitecore.net" target="_blank">Sitecore</a></li>
<li><a href="https://getmura.com" target="_blank">Mura CMS</a></li>
</ul>
You can see a full list of all platforms broken down into helpful categories within our directory here: https://www.cmscritic.com/dir/
The biggest issue nowadays is the misuse of the terms and this can often lead to a great deal of confusion as some WCM vendors may call their systems CMS, when in fact, they are not.
<h2>Website Builders</h2>
Further to CMS and WCM there are also products called Website Builders. These products are hosted in the cloud (meaning you don't have separate hosting costs to worry about) and are designed to help you quickly and efficiently build a website or online store with ease. Most of the time, they are extremely easy to use and packed with features.
Examples of content management systems include (but are not limited to):
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly" target="_blank">Weebly</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/out/webydo" target="_blank">Webydo</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/out/motocms" target="_blank">MotoCMS</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Portals</h2>
For those interested in learning about what a Portal is (so may terms, so little time!) you can read this excellent write up by Paul of Liferay: https://www.liferay.com/products/what-is-a-portal/web-platform which gives a great overview and explanation.
If you need further help or clarification, <a href="https://forum.www.cmscritic.com/" target="_blank">post in our forums</a> and we'll get right back to you!

CMS or WCM - Which is Which?

With the holidays approaching, I thought rather than write a million press release style articles, I'd just share with you what has happened over the last couple of weeks in the CMS world.
Here are some of the popular happenings from in an around the world of CMS and business software:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/blogs/antti-hietala/detail~@magnolia-core-5-5-is-our-strongest-release-so-far~.html" target="_blank">Magnolia 5.5 was released</a></li>
<li><a href="https://contao.org/en/news/contao-3_5_20.html" target="_blank">Contao 3.5.20 was released</a></li>
<li><a href="http://documentation.concrete5.org/developers/background/version-history/803-release-notes" target="_blank">Concrete5 8.0.3 was released</a></li>
<li><a href="http://processwire.com/blog/posts/pw-3.0.45/" target="_blank">ProcessWire 3.0.45 was released</a></li>
<li><a href="http://share.ez.no/blogs/community-project-board/the-week-in-review-ez-platform-1.7.0-release-name-changes-php-7-benchmarks-and-more" target="_blank">eZ Platform 1.7.0 was released</a></li>
<li><a href="https://arastta.org/blog/arastta-1-5" target="_blank">Arastta 1.5 released</a></li>
<li>ExpressionEngine 3.4.6 released</li>
</ul>
Check out the websites for more info and have a great holiday!
~Mike

CMS News Round-up - December 19, 2016

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/out/bigcommerce" target="_blank">Bigcommerce</a> has set out its vision for 2016, revealing an eventful roadmap for all to see.
The popular eCommerce solution was chosen for two awards last year here on CMS Critic; The 2014 Critic's Choice Award for Best Enterprise eCommerce Solution and The 2014 Critic's Choice Award for Best eCommerce Solution for SMB.
Bigcommerce also welcomed <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/bigcommerce-appoints-brent-bellm-as-ceo/" target="_blank">a new CEO during 2015, in the form of Brent Bellm</a>.
Tim Schulz, the Bigcommerce Chief Product Officer <a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/bigcommerce-in-2016-positioning-retailers-for-success-and-innovation/" target="_blank">outlined their 2016 roadmap in a blog post</a>. Here's a summary.
<h2>Bigcommerce 2016: From Themes to Point of Sale</h2>
Here's a breakdown of the areas Bigcommerce is planning on improving throughout the course of 2016:
<ul>
<li>Storefront &amp; Themes</li>
<li>Product Management</li>
<li>Inventory Management</li>
<li>Marketing &amp; Conversion</li>
<li>Analytics &amp; Reporting</li>
<li>Checkout &amp; Payments</li>
<li>Shipping Solutions</li>
<li>Accounting</li>
<li>POS &amp; Offline Selling</li>
<li>Social Media &amp; Social Commerce</li>
<li>Marketplace Selling, i.e. Amazon, eBay, Rakuten</li>
<li>B2B Features</li>
</ul>
Thats a broad range of areas for Bigcommerce to focus on. I don't doubt their ability to cover each one, but it's certainly going to be interesting to see how they fit it all in.
<h2>Introducing Stencil</h2>
Along with their roadmap unveiling, Bigcommerce also made an interesting announcement in the form of <a href="https://stencil.bigcommerce.com/">Stencil</a>.
According to Bigcommerce, Stencil will be, “the world’s leading design framework for branded storefronts,” and it's due for release within the next few months.
An early partner making use of Stencil made the following comments about the tool:
<blockquote>
“To me, Stencil is what makes Bigcommerce unique compared to other ecommerce platforms. It gives theme developers the flexibility and freedom the industry is desperate for.”
</blockquote>
It certainly sounds like an interesting design tool, although there doesn't really seem to be much information on it as of yet. The finer details aren't being advertised right now, it seems.
However, you can sign up to become an <a href="https://stencil.bigcommerce.com/" target="_blank">early-access developer for Stencil</a>, to test drive it for yourself.
Overall, it looks like Bigcommerce will be busy in 2016, and that can only be a good thing for its growing user base.
Also, be sure to explore more of Bigcommerce through our CMS Directory.

Bigcommerce Unveils 2016 Roadmap & Announces Stencil Launch

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

Toiling in order to attract customers and make sales is already difficult and time consuming enough, yet the effort needed to process and ship those very orders can be just as arduous. But not any more.
<a href="http://mbsy.co/3mQzZ" target="_blank">ShipStation</a> is a cloud-based software designed to help online merchants process, fulfil, and ship their orders from all the most popular online marketplaces and shopping carts via world renowned carriers.
Founded in 2011, ShipStation has since flourished into one of the most popular, flexible and feature-filled shipping softwares on the market.
<h2>Signed, Sealed &amp; Delivered from the Cloud</h2>
One of the beauties of ShipStation lies in its accessibility. The software is completely cloud-based, meaning that there is nothing to download or install, and yet you can access it on any device, from anywhere in the world, and at any time.
ShipStation itself enables you to import, sort, and process your orders just the way you want them.
The software combines order processing, production of shipping labels, and customer communication in an easy to use, web-based interface that integrates directly with major carriers and selling platforms.
Shipping rules can be specifically defined, labels can be printed in bulk, returns can be professionally managed, branding can be applied and much more. It's everything you need to successfully fulfil orders, all in one place.
Yet, the conveniences of using ShipStation don't end there.
<h2>Seamless Integration with Popular Marketplaces &amp; Carriers</h2>
No matter how or where you sell your products, or with which carrier you like to deliver them, ShipStation can almost always seamlessly integrate.
Marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Bigcommerce, Volusion, Etsy, PrestaShop, Squarespace and many more are all a piece of cake for ShipStation to join forces with.
This integration includes automatic order retrieval, automatic customer notification regarding order status and tracking, customized email confirmations, branded shipping slips and so forth.
And if that wasn't enough of a comfort, ShipStation also integrates just as easily when it comes to popular carriers, including FedEx, UPS, DHL and USPS.
It's as easy as selecting your orders, choosing and then automating your shipping options and then printing your shipping labels all in one fell swoop. There's also no need to separate orders by carrier, weight or destination. ShipStation simply handles it all with no complications.
<h2>Multi-channel Unification</h2>
ShipStation isn't just compatible with different online marketplaces – it's compatible with all of them at once.
For merchants who sell through multiple channels, like Amazon and eBay for example, this means that ShipStation can process all orders seamlessly, even though they come from different selling platforms.
This is also true for when you use multiple carriers. ShipStation once again streamlines the process, allowing you to manage multiple carrier shipments using just one interface, without having to constantly log in and out of individual carrier accounts.
So, the chore of attending to each platform and carrier to gather up and fulfil orders is long gone – all thanks to ShipStation's all-in-one solution.
To find our more about ShipStation, and to sign up for a completely free 30 day trial, <a href="http://mbsy.co/3mQzZ" target="_blank">visit their official website</a>.

ShipStation: a Seamlessly Integrated Cloud-based Shipping Service

Weglot - The easiest way to translate a website

The easiest way to translate a website

#18164c

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