Articles - Page 181

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

When deciding to build a new website, many businesses’ first question is: what CMS should I choose? But picking a CMS isn’t about choosing whatever the best CMS in the market is. Every company’s needs are different and, accordingly, different CMS platforms will be best for different companies.
Many companies also get stuck in the idea of whether to choose a proprietary or an open source solution, or to find a platform that is specifically catered to their industry. Although these can be helpful things to think about, they can also be counterproductive if they take away from choosing the best CMS platform for you. In fact, going for a platform that isn’t an obvious choice for your industry may lead to great ideas you hadn’t considered.
The key when it comes to choosing a CMS is to understand your unique requirements and those of your customers and to pick a solution that can accommodate these. In this article we bring you the top 7 questions you should ask yourself before, and not after, choosing a CMS solution:
1. What’s your budget?
The first question before you even begin your search for a CMS platform is, what’s your budget? This will help you rule out whatever options are off the table from the get go, and prevent you from wasting your time researching solutions that you will never be able to adopt.
Understanding the scope and size of your project, as well as of the CMS platforms available, is a good way of gauging what a reasonable budget may be.
2. What is the purpose of your site?
Once you have budget considerations out of the way, the next thing you should consider is: what is the purpose of your site? Is it intended as a long-term business website, or are you building it for a short-term project?
This question will be important when considering your site’s architecture; if you're thinking long-term, your site should be built in a way that is flexible enough for any future developments, growth and use cases. This approach will help you avoid any future unforeseen costs brought on by a badly planned content architecture.
If, on the other hand, you're building a short-term site, you may want to put all your efforts into making the site look exactly the way you'd like it to look right now, potentially saving time and resources that you would otherwise spend planning your content architecture. Keep this in mind when choosing a CMS, as different platforms may be geared towards different timelines and take different approaches to content architecture.
Another aspect to think about in regard to your site's purpose is whether you're looking only for a CMS, or for a CMS provider. Are you just looking for a tool that your development team can use to build your site, or would you prefer a provider that is able to guide you through the process, to provide support and to maintain your site for you? These are questions to keep in mind, as they'll come with different costs and platforms.
3. What are your performance and integration needs?
The nature of your site will determine what your hosting and integration needs are and it's important to think of these in advance. Particularly online storefronts tend to be integration-heavy and often require scalable hosting options to prevent the site from crashing during high-traffic streaks.
Even if your site is not an online store, it is still important to determine first what your performance and integration needs are and then choose a CMS solution that can accommodate these. This goes hand in hand with planning your content architecture; as long as you've mapped out your entire site you'll be aware of what particular integrations are needed. In the same way, thinking about your top use cases and expected traffic fluctuations will give you a better idea of what your hosting needs will be. Mapping all this in advance will help you make better CMS choices.
4. What are your internal resource capabilities?
Once you've established your integration and performance needs, it's time to think logistics. Who will actually build and maintain your website? Do you have in-house developers? Are your content editors technical or non-technical?
If you have in-house developers, keeping them in the decision-making process will be a key way to ensure that whatever CMS platform you choose uses programming languages that your developers are familiar with.
You will also need to work with your development team, agency or CMS provider to ensure that the site is coded in a way that reduces content editors’ reliance on developers as much as possible, especially if your content editors are non-technical. If every time you make an update to your website you need to rely on developers, you will waste precious time and resources, so make sure that your CMS allows you to do this.
5. How soon do you need your website?
What is your project timeline? Are you planning a long-term website and ready to wait a few months to ensure the site is optimal? Or do you need something quick within a few days or weeks?
If you need something fast, the best option may be to go for a pre-templated solution, although this will mean being quite restricted in terms of design. Picking a CMS that provides templates and that allows your team to quickly put a site together without relying on any external parties will be the best option.
If you’re thinking long-term, focusing on ensuring your design serves your unique business needs, and not the other way around, will enable you to build a more effective site and, ultimately, a more valuable tool in the long run.
6. What are your security requirements?
Security is always a concern for businesses building new websites, although how much of a priority it is will depend on the nature of your company. The key is to ensure that your site has the necessary security measures in place, without hindering on performance or user experience.
The general perception is that open source platforms aren’t as secure as proprietary platforms, which isn’t always the case. However, as a rule of thumb, make sure that the platform you choose can be made secure according to your unique needs and that it has the necessary certifications. Thinking about this in advance will prevent any unforeseen security hiccups along the way.
7. What features do you require?
Finally, when you have established all your above needs and determined a few CMS solutions that fit the bill, the best way to pick a winner is to look at their features. What are the main features that you need and which platform best aligns with them?
This consideration goes hand in hand with your website purpose and project roadmap. By looking at what you’d like your site to deliver, you can establish the key use cases and user journeys and determine what features are appropriate for each. This applies to future use cases and journeys too: are there any features that you would like to implement later on in the future? Which CMS platform is best aligned to your long-term product roadmap or vision?
We hope you found these tips helpful. What were your top considerations when choosing your CMS platform? Let us know in the comments!
If you would like to find out more about how Agility CMS can help you, <a href="http://agilitycms.com/home#request-a-demo">request a free demo</a> now.

How To Choose the Best CMS for Your Business Needs

mike-johnston

There are about 3 billion people on the planet.
But, roughly 205 billion emails are sent each day. That’s 2.4 million per second and 74 trillion per year!!
Considering how many businesses have active email lists, this means consumers are getting swamped with massive amounts of emails every single day.
Most of them end up in the trash bin, unread and completely ignored.
Now, if you’re like most business owners, you’re going to want to get the most return on investment possible for each email you send out.
So, let’s take a look at the five types of emails you should be sending, so you can make sure each message you send is worthy of opens and doesn’t go ignored by your list subscribers.
<h2>1.The Newsletter Email</h2>
The newsletter is the most popular type of email, with the vast majority of businesses sending them out regularly.
These tend to be distributed on a consistent schedule, usually on weekday mornings, and will include content that supplements the company’s blog, some important events and announcements about the company (keep this to a minimum – it’s not as interesting to your readers as it is to you), and links to content from relevant third parties.
Regardless of whether you have unique newsletter content, or curate it from other sources, it needs to be relevant to the interests and needs of your readers.
<h2>2.The Feedback Request Email</h2>
If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you’ve more than likely been asked to rate the product you purchased and give feedback.
Customers are asked to give their opinion everywhere they go, from retailers to dentists. They are asked for feedback so often they tend to be unaware of how valuable it is to the business.
This is why it’s important to make it compelling enough that they WANT to provide feedback.
An alluring subject line like, “Special invitation from ___” will stand out in their inbox and make them want to see what they were invited to.
Once you’ve got their attention, personalize the body of the email by using the customer’s name in the greeting, mentioning the location of where the product was recently purchased, and using the name again in closing.
Personalization has been proven to improve both click-through and completion rates, because it doesn’t look like a mass email blast sent to everyone on your list. It makes it feel like it’s exclusively for them, and makes them feel special.
If there’s one thing consumers like, it’s when a brand makes them feel special.
<h2>3.The Nurturer Email</h2>
This one is all about lead nurturing, and is typically a series of emails that go out over a certain period of time – usually several days or several weeks.
They’re all related, and serve as a way of moving leads through your sales funnel in order to convert them from readers to customers.
Not only does this help increase your conversions, but it also gives your engagements a boost. By including links back to your website content and strong calls-to-action, you can get people to interact with your brand without having to do much.
Automating this series of emails saves your team time, so you can nurture targeted leads with very little effort. Instead, you can focus on expanding your audience and getting more sales.
<h2>4.The Transactional Email</h2>
If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ve received this type of email.
If you have any type of commerce aspect to your brand, you’ve undoubtedly sent this type of email in the form of receipts and purchase confirmations.
Transactional emails are pretty straightforward, but they’re powerful enough that they have <a href="http://www.experian.com/assets/marketing-services/reports/transactional-email-report.pdf">8x the amount of clicks and opens</a> than any other email type out there.
Don’t waste that opportunity, though!
Take time to include some personalized content, links to recent blog posts, or some future purchase recommendations to keep your reader coming back for more.
<h2>5.The Milestone Email</h2>
Did you know birthday emails have over 480% higher transaction rates than promotional emails? They also generate 342% higher revenue than the promotional emails. <a href="https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2015/11/birthday-email-marketing-guide/">That’s right</a>.
Think about it: How many times have you gone over to Starbucks to cash in on your birthday drink? How many times have you made a purchase because of a birthday discount from other places?
These emails WORK.
Milestones you can celebrate with your subscribers include their sign-up anniversary or even your own company/brand’s anniversary.
Combine these with an exclusive, limited time offer or promotion, and watch your clicks and conversions jump through the roof.
<h2>Final Thoughts</h2>
If you want to give your business a boost, you should be incorporating these five types of emails into your marketing efforts.
But, you have to do them the right way.
If an email doesn’t look good on your reader’s device, or if it’s too hard to read, your reader is more than likely just going to delete it. If it happens enough, they’ll probably hit unsubscribe.
With the constant evolution and growing popularity of mobile technology, it’s imperative you optimize your emails AND website for mobile.
You’re also missing out if you’re not investing in some sort of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/dont-panic-the-ultimate-guide-to-picking-a-marketing-automation-tool/">email marketing automation tool</a>. Automate the menial tasks, and you can focus on growing your brand and running your business.
But, no matter what type of email you send – or how you send it – the bottom line is always going to be value.
Each email should provide as much valuable as possible to your audience, and demonstrate the importance of your brand. It should encourage interaction, and should be relevant to the needs and interests of your subscribers.
And because your user experience matters as much as the content, you want to make sure it’s easy for your readers to see your brand’s value through super easy-to-read, mobile-optimized emails.
What type of email do you find to be the most effective for your brand or company? Let me know in the comments below, or find me over at <a href="http://www.alexiapbullard.com">www.alexiapbullard.com</a>

If You Aren’t Sending These 5 Types of  Emails, You’re Missing Out

alexia-bullard

WordPress, Drupal and Joomla make up the big-three in content management systems, collectively they form the three most popular and widely-used CMS. Security wise, CMS are a goldmine for hackers, as they provide the building blocks for a large portion of all the world-wide web. The popularity of these systems means they are a prime target for hackers. Because of this, the systems have been developed over time to be extremely secure. All services are free and open-source projects that use extensions and add-ons to supplement core code to allow for additional features. Individually, they all offer a different take on security, but have similarities in that they are all based on the PHP scripting-language and support the use of relational database management systems, mainly utilising MySQL.
<h2>WordPress</h2>
WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular CMS on the planet, and for this reason it is exposed to a constant attention from hackers. The WordPress security team is made up of 25 experts, including lead developers and security researchers. A number that seems low, given the number of sites running off WordPress is around 75 million and accumulates up to 27% of the entire net.
WordPress offers enhanced security for members for their paid service – WordPress VIP. By paying for the VIP treatment, a dedicated group will do an in-depth code review to seek out vulnerabilities. They will also guide customers with suggestions for best practices in development to make sure that the site will continue to live on without significant maintenance costs or major issues.
The major security vulnerability with WordPress, and most CMS, is the entry points created using third party plug-ins and extensions, which make up 56% of known vulnerabilities in WP. Overall, the security is at the level it needs to be to protect such a vast number of sites, and security suggestions are updated frequently by the maintenance team to guide users on the best security practices.
<h2>Joomla!</h2>
Joomla is an easy-to-use CMS that appeals to those who may have limited experience and knowledge in managing content online, or who may be looking for a simple CMS solution. This means that even though Joomla’s core is highly secure, there is pitfalls users can fall into when implementing their system without appropriately configuring all system components. 
Documentation made readily available by Joomla encourages users to focus on what they can do to improve their system security, as opposed to just relying on the system itself. It is worth noting that Joomla has the least amount of individuals on their security team with just 13 people, but provides solid information to individuals using their services to configure security in the appropriate way.
<h2>Drupal</h2>
Drupal is considered to be the most secure of the big three, designed for the more tech-savvy users, it has the ability to cater for large amounts of complex content. The Drupal community is very serious about security and has a dedicated all-volunteer group of forty individuals, who work to improve and maintain the security of the Drupal project.
The scalability to large sites is what sets Drupal apart from the other two offerings, and the list of Drupal sites used for state, provincial and national governments is the perfect indication that the system is highly secure. Government sites including the White House, House of Representatives and all U.S. government departments use Drupla. I’m sure those in charge on administering those sites have received consultation from some of the leading experts in information security that Drupal is the best way to manage highly classified data online.
<h2>Statistical comparison</h2>
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system provides a reference-method for publicly known information-security vulnerabilities and exposures. The CVE is funded by the National Cyber Security Division of the United States of Homeland Security and is considered to be one of the most reliable sources of cyber security assessment. According to CVE data, if you compare market share to incident rate, Drupal comes out with the least number of incidents to market-share ratio and since 2005, Joomla has had the most amount of found vulnerabilities, with 327.
Drupal experienced a tough time in 2008 when security team had to deal with 75 known vulnerabilities and 52 in the following year. To put that into perspective there was only 29 vulnerabilities found in 2015 and 2016 combined, showing a determination to keep those numbers down by the security team in recent years.
46% of the total vulnerabilities found in Drupal consisted of cross-site scripting (XSS) – referring to a code injection attack wherein an attacker can execute malicious scripts into a legitimate website. A method used to bypass access control and gain unauthorised access. 39% of WordPress vulnerabilities were also due to cross-site scripting and 15% of total vulnerabilities for Joomla. 
Joomla’s vulnerability percentage is made up mostly of code execution flaws (54%) – vulnerabilities that allow the execution and injection of shellcode to give an attacker the ability to manipulate a system in to granting administrator privileges. Joomla has also struggled with SQL injection attacks (40% of total vulnerabilities) – in which SQL statements (database queries) are inserted into an entry field for execution by the attacker, giving them means to carry out such actions as dumping database contents to the themselves for further investigation. Both Drupal and WordPress fare much better in defending themselves against both code execution and SQL injection attacks.
With the right implementation of information security, it is valid to use any of the big three as a suitable CMS based on business requirements. A more robust and secure CMS such as Drupla may be more appropriate for large datasets and complex content management. For a different type of experience where ease of use and less amounts of complex data is used, Joomla or WordPress may offer a better solution. In any case, there is no 100% guarantee that a security breach won’t happen and the steps taken to secure the system are as important than the security of the systems themselves.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Overall, Drupal offers the system with the most focus on security and the dedicated team of volunteers have done well to keep vulnerabilities statistics low in recent times. Whereas, Joomla offers the least amount of security based on statistics and the least amount of people working for their in-house security team. With the popularity that comes with WordPress it’s almost impossible to create a wholly secure environment, but with careful planning and cautious use of plug-ins it’s possible to increase security to a suitable level.

The Big Three: A Security Comparison of WordPress, Drupal and Joomla!

Miami, Florida – March 20, 2017 – dotCMS, a leading edge, open-source Java based content management platform, is proud to announce the launch of their new UI/UX with the unveiling of dotCMS 4.0. Built using Angular 2 JS and coupled with inspiration from the concepts of Google’s Material Design, this anticipated major version release introduces the dotCMS 4.x series, focusing on the redesign and advancement of the platform’s UI/UX.
“We’ve been working hard to create an updated product UI that takes advantage of some of the latest trends as well as emphasize what matters most: a better user experience.” said Jason Smith, dotCMS Chief Creative Officer. “This is only the first step of an agile process rollout as we continue to unveil the new redesign in the 4.x series throughout 2017.”
The first release in the 4.x series is inclusive of enhancements to the platform aimed at increasing usability, efficiency, and all around improved user experience. A notable enhancement in 4.0 is the single page app layout that allows for a consistent menu on all pages. The seamless experience a constant menu provides is an improved experience from past versions that required users to migrate between sections to complete tasks. This new improvement will be especially welcomed by content editors.
Users will notice new notifications at the top of the page with the single page app layout. These are comparable to the notifications on smartphones and inform users when tasks are completed. In addition, a new centralized “Actions Button” provides users quick access to their most recent content and widgets, pages, files, and personas. The “Actions Button” improves the editor’s ability to quickly access the platform and post new content, pages etc. Moreover, a fully manageable and customizable device preview allows editors to preview content on mobile in addition to desktop.
Smith emphasized, “We knew a new UI was important to our customers, especially content editors, but we wanted it to be much more than just a simple reskin.” Smith added in, “While we did update the look and feel, we also centralized tasks, added new ways for users to easily track their pending projects, and more. Launching our redesign as a series instead of all at once allows us to give our customers the efficiency that they’re looking for while constantly improving our product.”
dotCMS 4.0 is now available for download and can be viewed on the dotCMS demo site at <a href="http://www.dotcms.com/">http://www.dotcms.com</a>.
For more information on this release, please visit: <a href="http://dotcms.com/docs/latest/change-log">http://dotcms.com/docs/latest/change-log</a>
About dotCMS
dotCMS is a leading , open source content management platform for companies that want innovation and performance driving their websites and other content-driven applications. Extensible and massively scalable, both small and large organizations can rapidly deliver personalized and engaging content across browsers, mobile devices, channels, second screens and endpoints — all from a single system.
Founded in 2003, dotCMS is a privately owned US company with offices in Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts and San Jose, Costa Rica. With a global network of certified development partners and an active open source community, dotCMS has generated more than a half-million downloads and thousands of implementations and integration projects worldwide. Notable dotCMS customers include: TELUS, Standard &amp; Poors, Hospital Corporation of America, Royal Bank of Canada, DirecTV, Nomura Bank, Thomson Reuters, China Mobile, Aon, DriveTest Ontario and ICANN.

New UI/UX Unveiled in dotCMS 4.x Series

You know these customers: they browse your site, add items to their cart, navigate to your checkout page and then, inexplicably, disappear never to return again.
If you’re wondering why your customers are leaving your site without converting, we can help. In this article we compile the 8 top tips to make your checkout pages as efficient as possible, so you can turn more of those hesitant visitors into conversions. We hope you find them useful.
1. Reduce the number of checkout steps
Making your checkout process as simple as possible is the best way to increase conversions. Whether this involves reducing the number of checkout steps or simply the amount of information required of customers is up to you, and each has its pros and cons.
Generally, a one-page checkout will be favoured by customers. However, this can pose limitations in terms of how much information you can collect from them before they drop off. For example, with a multiple step checkout you could capture customers’ contact information right at the start, even if they drop off during later checkout steps.
If capturing that information is a top priority, a 2-step checkout process could be the right option for you. The key thing is to ensure that you only require whatever information is absolutely necessary to make the process as seamless as possible.
2. Reduce the number of form fields
One of the ways you can significantly simplify your checkout process is by reducing the number of form fields that customers are required to fill out. Your forms should really only ask the most essential information:
Other than reducing the amount of information, there are other things you can do to simplify the process, such as automatically generating field information where possible.
An example is shipping and billing addresses. More often than not, these two addresses match, so why not give your customers the option to simply check a box and avoid having to enter the information twice?
The same applies to zip/postal codes. A convenient option might be to allow customers to enter it and automatically generate addresses that match that code in a drop-down menu.
3. Make account creation optional
An element that often leads to drop-offs is the need to create an account in order to make a purchase. Make no mistake; many customers will see this as a burdensome and unnecessary step that will only drag on the purchase experience.
A way of avoiding this is offering customers the option to check out as guests. That way all they need to do is enter their payment details, and they’re done. No annoying emails or confirmation links involved.
Another option is to place the registration option at the end of the purchase process, instead of the start. For example, you could place it on the confirmation or thank you page. This way you can ensure that those customers who are interested in returning to your site in the future are able to do so more easily.
If your aim is to get as many people as possible to create customer accounts, also avoid requiring too much information of them. A customer account shouldn’t be treated as a lead generation channel, but instead as a tool to provide your customers with a positive experience.
Making it easy but convenient for customers to create accounts will allow you to build up your mailing list and to nurture and encourage them to return as customers in the future.eCommerce checkout
4. Implement upselling and cross-selling
Checkout pages offer perfect opportunities to generate additional revenue through upselling and cross-selling. You can do this by offering customers the option to upgrade to more expensive versions of your product, or to purchase additional ones.
Displaying the upgraded or recommended products as one of the steps of the checkout process can be an effective way of doing this. You can also increase the attractiveness of the offers by giving them credibility, for example through “most popular” tags, positive reviews or discount offers.
A great way to up your cross-selling game is to take advantage of personalization tools. Personalization can automatically make relevant product recommendations based on categories, increasing the chance that customers will find that particular recommendation useful and make a purchase.
5. Ensure your checkout is mobile-friendly
Mobile commerce will account for 45% of total U.S. eCommerce sales by 2020, so it’s essential to ensure that your eCommerce site caters to these customers. If your checkout process is not mobile-friendly and easy to complete on any device, customers will simply drop off.
On the other hand, mobile checkout should never exclude any of the options or capabilities of the desktop site, such as product variants. The mobile commerce experience should be identical to the desktop one in terms of the ability to browse, purchase and pay for products.
6. Offer a variety of payment options
Increasing your checkout’s efficiency is ultimately about meeting your customers’ needs, whatever these may be. This includes ensuring that they are able to pay in whatever way is most convenient for them, whether it’s their credit card, PayPal or Apple Pay.
By providing additional options other than debit or credit card payments, you can spare your customers one of the most annoying parts of the online shopping experience: finding their wallet. Debit and credit card payments also require entering a billing and shipping address, which is just another obstacle between your customer and conversion. The faster your customers are able to complete their purchase, the more likely they are to make it.
7. Ensure a modern design
Possibly the biggest concern about online shopping that customers experience is security. Customers want to feel reassured that the sites they are shopping on are secure and that their credit card details are safeguarded.
Your site’s design can have a huge impact on your customers’ perception of your site’s security. An outdated-looking site will give customers the impression that your security is also outdated and will lead to a lot of them dropping off without purchase.
By ensuring your checkout pages are modern and responsive you can set your customers’ minds at ease and significantly increase conversions.
8. Provide round-the-clock support
One of the most frustrating online shopping experiences is attempting to make a purchase but being unable to complete it. Although more often than not this will lead to users dropping off, you could go a long way by offering live support (via chat or phone) whenever these issues do arise, as many customers will be happy to remain on your site if the issue can be solved promptly.
What’s more, providing this kind of customer support just when the customer needs it most will give them a very positive experience that may encourage them to return to your site in the future.
Do you have any other tips for effective eCommerce checkout pages? Let us know in the comments!
For more web strategy best practices, visit <a href="http://blog.agilitycms.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://blog.agilitycms.com/</a>.

8 Essential Features of Effective eCommerce Checkout Pages

dotCMS, a leading Java-based content management system, and Authentic, a Digital Agency, today announced they have entered into a partnership agreement to support dotCMS’s rapid growth in the US.
“Authentic’s vision for the future of digital marketing, passion for quality, and culture of innovation is what we find compelling,” added Tim Brigham, CEO of dotCMS. “We are at the forefront of where customers want to go digitally, and Authentic has demonstrated with their success that clients agree with that thinking. I couldn’t be more excited to see where our partnership takes both of us.”
dotCMS, as both a company and a technology, fits with Authentic’s overall vision to work with enterprise-level clients create authentic digital experiences for their customers. dotCMS, a java-based CMS tool, provides flexibility, ease of implementation, and faster-to-market solutions that appeals to clients in today’s fast-paced, results-driven marketing environment.
“We’re excited about the expansion of our capabilities to offer clients a robust tool and dedicated management team in dotCMS that will allow both firms to continue growth in the US and beyond,” says David Roe, CEO of Authentic. “As a global company, we now have the ability to further tailor our offerings and service models to meet the individual needs of each client by better serving our ever-growing list of both international clients, and clients supporting a global brand presence.”
About Authentic
Authentic is a world-class digital agency that is reinventing the way companies leverage digital channels to reach their customers. We know how digital can be used to create a personalized, constantly evolving marketing approach that garners measurable success. This approach means that our clients can be more creative with less risk, and our clients’ customers can get authentic digital experiences that matter to them. Comprehensive digital marketing services include marketing and user experience strategy, creative ideation and production, technology implementation, and more.
Authentic is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia with offices in New York, New York; Washington, DC; and Lima, Peru.
To learn more, visit beauthentic.digital.
About dotCMS
dotCMS is a leading , open source content management platform for companies that want innovation and performance driving their websites and other content-driven applications. Extensible and massively scalable, both small and large organizations can rapidly deliver personalized and engaging content across browsers, mobile devices, channels, second screens and endpoints — all from a single system.
Founded in 2003, dotCMS is a privately owned US company with offices in Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts and San Jose, Costa Rica. With a global network of certified development partners and an active open source community, dotCMS has generated more than a half-million downloads and thousands of implementations and integration projects worldwide. Notable dotCMS customers include: Telus, Standard &amp; Poors, Hospital Corporation of America, Royal Bank of Canada, DirecTV, Nomura Bank, Thomson Reuters, China Mobile, Aon, DriveTest Ontario and ICANN. For more, visit <a href="http://www.dotcms.com">www.dotcms.com</a>.

dotCMS and Authentic Announce Partnership

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How would you feel about increasing the number of productive hours you spend working every day, without working harder, or for longer? What about eliminating errors, enhancing your business processes, and reducing all the dreaded admin you have to do? Good news, you can — It’s all about automation.
One thing every small business owner, entrepreneur, middle-manager or startup can agree on is that there’s never enough time to get everything done. Whether it’s managing finances, dealing with customer service, boosting sales, or creating content, demands on your attention are seemingly endless.
Perhaps the most subtle, and the biggest drain on your time is that dreaded area, Administration. It’s all the small things — Replying to email, updating customer details, sending out invoices, tracking project tasks, producing reports. It might not add much value to your business, but it’s essential to running a successful operation. Unfortunately, you and your employees could be spending <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240076">as much as half of your time</a> on administrative tasks
<h2>Benefits of automation</h2>
It’s time to put a stop to that by automating as much of your business operations and processes as you can. The revolution in “Software as a Service (SaaS)” apps (software that runs in your web browser) has created a vast ecosystem of automation that you can take advantage of. Here’s how automation can help your business:
<ul>
<li>Significantly reduce the time you spend on admin — Automation can increase your productivity by around 20%, simply through processing information and data without you needing to get involved.</li>
<li>Remove errors when transferring data and information — Mis-keying, lack of oversight, and being rushed can all lead to normal human errors when handling information. Automation removes that problem by transferring data automatically.</li>
<li>Enhance business processes and how you support employees and customers — With information that’s there when you need it, you and your employees can provide more efficient and effective customer service. That helps to build trust with your customers, which is good for the bottom line.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Examples of automation</h2>
There are hundreds of ways automation can help your business, here are just a few examples:
<ul>
<li>Automatically billing time you record against client projects back to their invoices — If you run projects in Basecamp, Trello, Asana, or many of the other project management apps, you can record time spent on client tasks and automatically bill it back to your invoice and accounting software.</li>
<li>Integrating your Client Relationship Management (CRM) and customer support information together — If you track customers in CRM software, you can automatically add their details to your customer support solution. That makes providing excellent customer service a little easier.</li>
<li>Tracking your return on investment from Adwords in Google Analytics — If you use Google’s Pay Per Click advertising product, AdWords, you can automatically link it to your Google Analytics account. That lets you easily track visits, sales, conversions, and revenue so you can see your marketing ROI and invest more wisely.</li>
<li>Linking your bank feed to your accounting software — No one enjoys account reconciliation, but you can make it a little easier by importing your bank account data into your accounting app to make reconciliation easier.</li>
</ul>
Other ways to automate your business include:
<ul>
<li>Sending emails to Slack channels.</li>
<li>Adding mailing list signups to CRM.</li>
<li>Generating business reports from data.</li>
<li>Sending data to Google Sheets for analysis.</li>
<li>Publishing to your <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/dir/cms">content management system</a> automatically.</li>
<li>And many, many more.</li>
</ul>
<h2>How to automate your business processes</h2>
Automating your business is very simple.
<ol>
<li>Decide what information you want to transfer between apps.</li>
<li>Identify the apps you want to transfer information between.</li>
<li>Find out if you can transfer information natively, or if you need to use a third-party service.</li>
<li>Setup the automation.</li>
<li>Test it and go!</li>
</ol>
There are two main ways to add automation to your business — Via “Native Integrations,” and via “Third Party Apps.”
<h3>Native integrations</h3>
Most decent SaaS apps have inbuilt integrations. To find out what your particular software supports, search for the “Integrations” page on their website and find out what it links to. They should also have clear instructions on setting up your integration.
<h3>Third Party Apps</h3>
There are two main services that allow you to automate apps and transfer information between them. They are “<a href="http://www.ifttt.com">If This Then That (IFTTT)</a>” and “<a href="http://www.zapier.com">Zapier.</a>” Both work with most of the major SaaS apps. They allow you to link two or more apps together, poll those apps periodically for data, and if they find any, transfer it to the new app. Both are very easy to set up and use.
Once you’ve set up your automation, test how your data is transferring and make tweaks. Over time you’ll be able to significantly enhance your workflow.
It really is worth taking the time to understand automation and how it can work for your business. You’ll enhance your productivity, reduce frustration, avoid errors, and create happier customers.

Your Most Valuable Resource is Time — Get More of it through Automation

Cloud-first headless CMS in the SaaS model is clearly going to revolutionize content production and delivery to a multi-channel, multi-device generation. But, how exactly is it going to impact business, and should digital agencies be getting on the bandwagon now?
For any digital agency looking to increase the ROI of their digital initiatives, become more agile, and gain a competitive advantage through a true cloud platform, the answer is “yes, you should be getting involved now!”
1) Stop Babysitting the Technology
We all know how much effort it takes to run a traditional CMS, whether on-premise or in the cloud. You need to configure the hosting environment, install the CMS, apply hotfixes and upgrades, take care of security, and ensure proper backup protocols are in place. Just think of the countless hours you are spending only babysitting the CMS and the amount of your client's budget that is not going to the actual project. All that time could be used to deliver higher value, complete more successful projects, and increase your business’s effectiveness.
With a cloud-first headless CMS, you focus on delivering business results instead of “CMS projects” and increase the value for your clients.
2) Decrease Time to Market with Greater Agility
Digital transformation is having a huge impact on many industries, and agility is no longer a business advantage—it’s a business necessity. To make an impact in the market, businesses must launch new digital initiatives and test new ideas much faster. They need an agency that is much more flexible and will enable them to launch in a matter of weeks. With traditional CMSs, it is very common to take your static HTML prototype and convert it into the template format used by the CMS. With a headless CMS, it is much easier and faster. You can launch the static website and then start making the website dynamic step by step—begin with your content-rich blog or news section, continue with an in-depth product catalog, and top it all off by making your invaluable Contact Us page content editable.
And, to make it all even better, the cloud-first headless CMS approach provides better separation of the CMS and custom code. This enables continuous deployment and other agile development techniques that greatly help to decrease the time to implement changes to your website and even to roll them back again, if necessary.
Go live much faster with a cloud-first headless CMS.
3) Get Creative and Become Innovative
Don’t feel restricted to just a website. A cloud-first headless CMS lets you explore all kinds of new possibilities, including mobile applications, bots, virtual reality, interactive in-store displays, digital assistants, wearables, or Internet of Things. Easily combine its API with any development technology, including modern JavaScript frameworks, such as AngularJS, React, or Ember, and let your creative side shine through.
With a cloud-first headless CMS, your agency will gain so many opportunities to design innovative digital experiences that start standing out from the crowd.
4) Unrestricted Content for Unlimited Design
How often have you had to reconsider website layouts because the content didn’t fit right? Or had to consider the content layout before you even wrote it? Or worse still, had to rewrite content to fit uncompromising templates? Well, with modular content and a cloud-first headless CMS, those headaches are a thing of the past. By creating content items and assets in modular form, you can take the same content items and reuse them in any layout you want.
With a cloud-first headless CMS, modular content will save you countless hours in content creation and provide you with many layout options, ensuring your projects always meet the needs with the minimum of effort.
5) Happy Employees Are Loyal Employees
Traditional CMSs are built on one specific development platform. That means that, as an agency, you need to have developers that know a specific programming language and how to develop in your CMS of choice. Trying to find such a person could be as difficult as finding a unicorn, and if you can’t find them, you’re stuck trying to train them to become productive.
Here is the real beauty of a cloud-first headless CMS—your developers can use any development platform. By utilizing their favorite tools and development and deployment processes to develop standard applications rather than CMS-specific templates, your developers will be productive and efficient from the very beginning. And not having to rely on a particular technology or having to train your developers from scratch means you can easily move developers across projects. Stop thinking “I only have .NET projects for the next month, what do I do with all my PHP developers?” Instead, let them use their PHP skills for the project and utilize a cloud-first headless CMS.
Additionally, your more experienced developers will probably tell you that they hate CMS projects. They want to write the code their way. Cloud-first headless CMS lets them do that.
With a cloud-first headless CMS, your team is happier, it is much easier to hire new developers, and you can build your business around dedicated professionals because of the increased employee retention. 
6) Increased Profits and Productivity—the Real Advantage
Every digital agency wants to increase their productivity and ultimately their profit margin. With a cloud-first headless CMS, you can achieve exactly that with:
<ul>
<li>Quicker implementation and deployment—using a cloud-first headless CMS is easy and results in shorter implementation times. Additionally, deployment and configuration of the CMS are much quicker because it's provided as a cloud service.</li>
<li>Consistently successful projects—with a cloud-first headless CMS, you have more control over the whole solution. Your developers won't waste time trying to figure out something that is impossible, making sure the precious project budget is not thrown away.</li>
<li>Low-margin upgrade projects are a thing of the past—you’ve probably experienced many times clients not being interested in investing into upgrade projects. They are time consuming and are barely profitable for the agency. With a cloud-first headless CMS, the upgrades are performed by the service provider, meaning you concentrate on implementing new, profitable projects.</li>
</ul>
Enjoy working on profitable and more successful projects.
Don't Wait for Your Competitors to Try This First!
The cloud-first CMS wave is coming, and the ones that jump on it first will gain the competitive advantage! Try <a href="http://www.kenticocloud.com">Kentico Cloud</a> for yourself and see why you should be thinking about a cloud and headless approach for your next project!

Cloud-first Headless CMS—The Game Changer for Digital Agencies

Miami, Florida — dotCMS, a leading, enterprise Java content management platform, has released their latest version, dotCMS 3.7. The 3.7 release builds on dotCMS’s existing push publishing capabilities and provides users an intuitive and straightforward way to publish dotCMS managed files, pages, folders or entire sites to Amazon S3’s service. The 3.7 release also provides a slew of developer-focused improvements, such as new digital asset management (DAM) capabilities that can resize and thumbnail Photoshop and PDF files, shorter, friendly (id-based) URLs, and more.
The ability to statically publish files, content, and sites to Amazon’s S3 reveals a world of possibilities for dotCMS customers who can immediately take advantage of this capability. Setting up a dotCMS site or sites for static publishing is UI based and requires zero development skills or IT involvement. Once setup, the static S3 sites can be used as a CDN for website acceleration, disaster recovery, or as point in time archival purposes. Publishing content (e.g. files, pages) to S3 can be tied into dotCMS workflows and the static publishing or unpublishing of content can be scheduled for future dates.
“With static publishing, dotCMS 3.7 really opens up the door for businesses to use our content management platform in new ways,” said Will Ezell, dotCMS CTO. “Static publishing is ideal for improved performance, disaster recovery, utilizing dotCMS as just an authoring site, and more.”
dotCMS 3.7 also includes features to enhance ease of use for editors with new image management features and shorter, friendly, global URLs. The new image capabilities include handlers that allow for easy resizing and thumbnail functionality of multiple, frequently used formats, like PSDs, PDFs, and TIFF documents. Much like the popular URL shorteners used for social media, friendly URLs allow for shorter, easier-to-use URLs for dotCMS image, file, and other assets.
“Static publishing is a huge push forward for our customers,” commented Ezell. “For those customers who need sites that can easily handle traffic surges, want increased speed and security of their site, or version control, static will be key in their future development.”
The dotCMS 3.7 release also includes a number of other fixes and improvements including better support for SQL Server and WEB-DAV repository access. For a more complete list of fixes included in dotCMS 3.7 as well as more information on the newest features, please visit: <a href="http://dotcms.com/docs/latest/change-log">http://dotcms.com/docs/latest/change-log</a>
About dotCMS
dotCMS is a leading , open source content management platform for companies that want innovation and performance driving their websites and other content-driven applications. Extensible and massively scalable, both small and large organizations can rapidly deliver personalized and engaging content across browsers, mobile devices, channels, second screens and endpoints — all from a single system.
Founded in 2003, dotCMS is a privately owned US company with offices in Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts and San Jose, Costa Rica. With a global network of certified development partners and an active open source community, dotCMS has generated more than a half-million downloads and thousands of implementations and integration projects worldwide. Notable dotCMS customers include: Telus, Standard &amp; Poors, Hospital Corporation of America, Royal Bank of Canada, DirecTV, Nomura Bank, Thomson Reuters, China Mobile, Aon, DriveTest Ontario and ICANN.

dotCMS Launches Static Publishing in Latest Release, dotCMS 3.7

Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of <a href="http://www.epicor.com/industries/default.aspx">industry-specific enterprise software</a> to promote business growth, today announced that it has acquired privately-held docSTAR, an award-winning developer of document management software based in Schenectady, New York. The transaction closed on Jan. 3, financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition brings docSTAR collaborative cloud-based enterprise content management (ECM) and automated accounts payable (AP) solutions to the Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions portfolio. Founded in 1996, docSTAR has over 20 years of experience delivering solutions that enable organizations to increase productivity, reduce cost and transaction cycle times through business process automation.
Today, nearly 2,000 organizations in North America rely on docSTAR solutions—available as a cloud hosted service or on premises. docSTAR enables customers to streamline business processes with smart enterprise content management, document management, automated accounts payable and electronic forms technology that integrates with third party ERP solutions. docSTAR solutions are suitable for a number of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, legal, non-profit, education and the public sector. docSTAR customers include <a href="http://www.docstar.com/customer-success/allison-marine">Allison Marine Contractors, Inc.</a>, Crescent Crown Distribution, the <a href="http://www.docstar.com/customer-success/cleveland-indians">Cleveland Indians</a>, <a href="http://www.docstar.com/customer-success/mohawk-fine-papers-inc">Mohawk Fine Papers, Inc.</a>, and the <a href="http://www.docstar.com/customer-success/united-way-greater-knoxville">United Way of Greater Knoxville</a>, to name a few.
“The acquisition of docSTAR supports our strategy to strengthen and expand our cloud offerings to continually enhance customer experience and the value we deliver to our customers,” said Kathy Crusco, chief operating and financial officer, Epicor. “docSTAR brings valuable knowledge and experience in the development and implementation of cloud-based document management software, with a successful track record integrating its solutions with leading ERP offerings. A near term focus following the acquisition will be on extending docSTAR integration to Epicor ERP.”
With the close of the acquisition, former President and CEO of docSTAR, Tom Franceski, will lead the document management business at Epicor as general manager reporting directly to Crusco.
“We are excited to join forces with Epicor, a recognized leader in the global ERP market, as we share a commitment to enhance the customer experience through cloud offerings that automate business processes and promote growth,” said Franceski. “The increased scale gained as part of a global organization will enable us to further technology innovation to deliver greater value to customers.”

Epicor Acquires Leading Document Management Software Provider docSTAR and Expands Cloud-Based Solutions Portfolio

The Danish social Intranet company Colibo Inc. has just raised its first major venture funding from a series of prominent investors alongside the Danish Growth Fund. Colibo is injected with an investment in the DKK double-digit million range – funds that are to be used for establishing the company in the US and UK and the further development of the company’s Social Intranet solution, Colibo. Colibo has been on an amazing growth path. The first Intranet solution was installed in 2014, and Colibo has gained significant market shares in Denmark in just a short period of time. Now, the Colibo-solution is to be released internationally, and the company is to be established in the US and UK.
+70,000 users in more than 14 countries
Colibo is a user-friendly and dynamic Intranet alternative for companies and organizations that otherwise would have used Microsoft Sharepoint as their digital workspace solution. The Colibo solution has more than 70,000 users across 14 countries, and customers include The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Central Denmark Region, Kosan Crisplant, Clipper Group and several Danish municipalities.
Social Intranet tools raise productivity with up to 25 %
According to McKinsey Global Institute analysis1, companies can raise productivity of their administrative staff with up to 25 % by using social Intranet tools, making the knowledge of the organization searchable and by basing the company on a communication platform that supports social workgroups.
Colibo is a spin-off of Mediaworkers – a digital agency, recently awarded the fast-growth company prize for the second consecutive year, and who has brought Colibo all the way to Series A venture through independent financing.
“We are very excited about raising capital as well as gathering a team of investors with solid international software experience. Likewise, we are now able to execute our product roadmap for Colibo, catapulting our software to rank among the very best in the world”, says Mogens Sejer Iversen, CEO and Founding Partner of Colibo.
Mogens Sejer Iversen is now handing over the CEO position in Mediaworkers to Henrik Sejer Gelineck Berg, currently the the company’s CFO. However, Mogens Sejer Iversen continues as head of Mediaworkers Group – the underlying holding company that (among others) is the sole owner of the successful games studio Funday Factory.
Prominent investors ensure the next growth phase Stig Hølledig who is known from the software unicorn Sitecore, is among the Colibo investors says about the potential with Colibo: “Globally, we are facing a growing number of companies who are going to replace their old Intranets with more dynamic digital workspaces over the next couple of years. We are closing this market demand perfectly with Colibo. At the same time, we – the investor – are very impressed with the significant value the solution provides including very satisfied customers representing some of the most demanding organizations in the country,” Stig Hølledig says.
To learn more, visit http://colibo.com/

Innovative Danish software-startup raises millions in venture funding

It looks as though the popular project / task management software, Trello, has caught the interest of a buyer! Atlassian, makers of JIRA and Confluence (amongst other things), have announced their purchase of the popular service.
Trello is something I've personally used for quite some time on CMS Critic and I'm excited to see what improvements we can expect from this purchase. It's my hope that rather than absorb the service and discontinue it, that Atlassian expands on the great offering that's already there and builds it into something even more amazing.
According to a <a href="http://blog.trello.com/trello-atlassian" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recent blog post</a> from Trello CEO, Michael Pryor:
<blockquote>
“..you can expect Trello to become even more awesome and more fun than it is today. We’re as committed to our original vision and brand as we were on launch day but we now have more firepower to fulfill that mission. We will continue operating as a standalone service, and we will continue to integrate deeply with all of the tools available out there that help people collaborate (and you can look forward to some great integrations with HipChat, Confluence and JIRA).”
</blockquote>
Thankfully, according to Atlassian Co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, it looks as though for now they do intend to maintain Trello as a stand alone service:
<blockquote>
If you currently use Trello as either a free or paid user, you can rest assured that we will continue to offer Trello as a standalone service. We’ll be working with their product team to help them accelerate development efforts. If you are an Atlassian user, I encourage you to set up an account on Trello and check out how it might work for your team.
</blockquote>
To learn more about the acquisition and both companies plans to proceed, read the following posts:
<a href="https://blogs.atlassian.com/2017/01/atlassian-plus-trello/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://blogs.atlassian.com/2017/01/atlassian-plus-trello/ </a>
<a href="http://blog.trello.com/trello-atlassian" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://blog.trello.com/trello-atlassian</a>

Trello Is Being Acquired By Atlassian

This much-debated topic requires further clarity that will, in turn, benefit both the platform provider and the buyer. Let’s start with a definition of each and compare the core differences between them that set them apart.
A CMS, technically a WCMS for Web Content Management System, is used to build, launch, manage, and host websites. In the case of CMS, the user experience is singular, displaying the same content and messaging to every user.
A <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Web Experience Platform</a> is also used to build, launch, manage, and host websites. However, a Web Experience Platform delivers a different experience to every website visitor based on a plethora of data which is leveraged to personalize the user experience. With the ability to personalize content and deliver different user experiences to every customer persona, the opportunities are limitless.
Websites built on a CMS are focused on singular content and messaging while a Web Experience Platform can deliver unique web experiences with the content, medium, and messaging completely personalized to the user. Yes, content is still the operative term but it is no longer singular. In a Web Experience Platform, you have tons of content ready to serve up to a wide range of customer personas.
Currently, CMS companies are desperately scrambling to become Web Experience Platforms as they have noticed the tremendous benefit in doing so. Serving up personalized content tailored to the user, giving one user a different experience with your website than another, that is where the future of website management is headed.
As CMS companies scramble to pivot towards delivering tailored web experiences, existing Web Experience Platforms are far ahead of the game but not for long. It is likely that by the end of 2017 a majority of companies previously known as CMS providers will rebrand themselves as Web Experience Platforms. This will push the boundaries of programming languages, <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">web design</a>, and frameworks as well as the designers and engineers who use them, forcing them to adapt to the new standard in web development which will undoubtedly lead to new programming languages, frameworks, web design practices and much more.
Be wary of vendors that claim to be Web Experience Platforms. A lot of CMS companies are calling themselves Web Experience Platforms, even if they technically aren’t, and others are holding onto the CMS acronym while adding a Web Experience Platform, almost as an additive to the CMS. And everyone else is either a true Web Experience Platform or a CMS. You cannot be both at the same time, the entire purpose and vision of each product, despite being web oriented, is drastically different.
The Web Experience Platform, at times known as a Digital Experience Manager, will become the new standard as technology moves quickly and the entire CMS market migrates their focus to the digital experience. So if you’re looking for a website solution you now know the state of the union and can ask the right questions when looking for platforms to build and manage your website(s).
Begin with this question. Can you really deliver content tailored to the user? And I don’t mean an ad targeted at a certain user that takes them to a certain landing page. I mean someone visiting your website, and all of its pages, and seeing content specific to the customer persona they fall into.
For example, your company sells to marketers, developers, software executives, and agencies. So in the case of a Web Experience Platform, you create content for all of those customer personas and create a conditional structure to serve up the appropriate content based on the persona of the user which can come from several sources of data, namely behavior, cookies, browser history, viewing device, etc.
So reading this as a business executive you’re probably going to ask your IT or Engineering Lead tomorrow why you don’t have a Web Experience Platform. They probably won’t know what that is but tell them to step on it. Be there first, don’t join in at the last second because there isn’t a better time to switch as long as you find the proper vendor with a roadmap to increase the level of personalization the platform provides.
As an end user, a consumer on the web, guess what? Less closing out of windows, skipping through pages, and wasting time looking for the right content online— it’ll be tailor made and served to you. The effect of this shift will be felt across the digital world not just on websites but all digital devices as content becomes more personalized and the experience becomes the focus.
As a buyer, when debating whether or not to choose a CMS or a Web Experience Platform it's much like debating over whether to get a 2017 BMW 7 Series or a 1994 Honda Civic assuming they cost the same. Wouldn't you rather be driving the brand new BMW 7 series?
Web Experience Platforms are the next generation of Content Management Systems. Make sure your existing CMS has a product roadmap that leads to evolving into a Web Experience Platform and if not, find a Web Experience Platform that runs on all six cylinders.
<h3 style="user-select:auto">About the Author</h3>
Shawn Moore is the founder &amp; CTO of Solodev and the driving force behind the Solodev Web Experience Platform. A visionary leader, Shawn has strategically grown Solodev from inception to a successful company that services clients across the nation and has been named to the Inc. 5000’s fastest growing private companies for the past two years in a row.
Winner of several industry awards for Best CTO and CIO, Shawn Moore is changing the content management landscape with Solodev. With over a decade of executive experience serving as CEO of Solodev and COO for software company Helium Flash, Shawn has the industry knowledge and product passion that continues to drive the development of the Solodev Platform. He is a graduate of Stetson University and often speaks on IT related trends and topics at conferences and universities across the state.

The Difference Between a CMS and a Web Experience Platform

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