Articles - Page 22

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

<hr /> Shock and awe.Seems like a fitting phrase to describe the amount of passion and participation we saw in our 12th annual CMS Critic People’s Choice Awards. Yup. We’re a little shocked, and a whole lotta awe. And it’s all thanks to you. A lot has changed in the decade-plus that we’ve been conducting our annual shindig. In the beginning, there were no DXPs or headless CMSs – just a few APIs and a dream. We also had a smaller cohort of participants.Sure, some of the same players are still in the mix, and plenty of new ones, too. We’ve even seen a few mergers along the way. But brands aside, what’s really astounding is how content management continues to be relevant after all these years – and we’re still celebrating the innovation and community gravitas these platforms create. Speaking of community… if there’s one thing our People’s Choice Awards brings out, it’s the people who build with these amazing tools and technologies. Once again, you showed us how much love and loyalty exist in your own ecosystems, and how fierce that loyalty can be. You got the word out – to the tune of thousands of nominations and votes – and it’s inspiring. It's always bittersweet to see another Awards season come and go, but we have an exciting year ahead with lots of new innovation in the pipeline. So without further ado, here are the winners and the highlights from this year's amazing event.<h3 id="umbraco-sweeps-with-5-category-wins-">Umbraco sweeps with 5 category wins </h3>There's usually one big movie that sweeps at the Academy Awards, lurching victories in multiple categories. Things don't always play out that way with our own Awards program – but this year, there was one vendor that came out on top. It’s no surprise that many platforms fit into several of this season's 16 categories. Many DXPs offer products like a DAM that can be procured separately (and that’s just one example). To that end, we let you – our audience – nominate and vote for the tools you love in each solution space.This year, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a> brought the rain. They swept in five categories: Best Enterprise CMS, Best DXP, Best Headless CMS, Best Composable Solution, and Best AI Solution in a CMS or a DXP. With the launch of its Umbraco Heartcore headless CMS – as well as an array of AI plugins and integrations – it’s clear that Umbraco’s users are thrilled with its features and came out to support the platform in a big way. Congrats to the Umbraco team and its community for driving home these wins.<h3 id="joomla,-statamic,-and-shopify-score-gold-in-multiple-categories">Joomla, Statamic, and Shopify score gold in multiple categories</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/joomla">Joomla</a> also made a splash with two category wins for Best Free CMS and Best Open Source CMS. Every year, Joomla’s community gets activated around the CMS Critic Awards, tapping its vast global reach to muster support.<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/statamic">Statamic</a> also scored in two categories: Best Flat File CMS and Best Static Site Generator. The platform has a tenacious following, and continues to be vocal in promoting the Awards across its user community.Despite a decent cohort of competitors, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/shopify">Shopify</a> won in the Best e-Commerce Solution and Best Headless Commerce Solution categories. Over the last two years, the platform has turned up the headless heat with its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shopify.com/plus/solutions/headless-commerce">ShopifyPlus</a> back-office solution for powering storefronts, giving it a broader platform of offerings and embracing more composable strategies. <h3 id="optimizely-takes-the-dam-prize">Optimizely takes the DAM prize</h3>It was a heated battle in the DAM department, but <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/optimizely">Optimizely</a> won out with its digital asset management suite – designed to work with leading CMSs, but also with the company’s own content management platform. This includes customizable workflows for maintaining brand compliance across large ecosystems. In the Best ECM category – the specialized Enterprise Content Management vertical – we had a relative newcomer shake things up. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.notion.so/product">Notion</a> was nominated in the early round and went on to upset previous winners by taking the gold. This includes a few stalwarts that have an almost unshakable dominance in the field. For Best Website Builder, you loved <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/yootheme">YOOtheme</a>. A perennial favorite with CMS Critic Awards voters, YOOtheme provides page builder capabilities for both <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a> and Joomla, as well as hosting a marketplace of themes and templates. The enduring loyalty for the Hamburg-based provider is heartening, especially as choice and competition increase in this field. In the Best DXC (Digital Experience Composition) lane, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/netlify">Netlify</a> outpaced the competition – which has certainly grown over the last year. DXC has been an evolution, and a category that has only just emerged (relative to our established pools). We’ll be watching this space and the growth of orchestration tools as we look ahead to the 2024 Awards. Finally, you picked <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contentstack-offers-microsoft-azure-becomes-only-multi-cloud-saas-cms-qa-with-cto-nishant-patel">Azure</a> as the Best Development/Hosting Platform. While <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/microsoft-sharepoint">Microsoft</a> continues to expand its foray into search and AI, its cloud ecosystem is providing a solid foundation for building applications and scaling services to meet the growing demands of modern digital experiences. <h3 id="the-class-of-2023">The Class of 2023</h3>For a quick snapshot of the results, here’s the list of all the 2023 winners. You can also watch this video:<figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/dap0L8bXGos"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dap0L8bXGos" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> <img style="width:14.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/umbraco-edited.png" alt="Umbraco Logo" />Best Enterprise CMS: UmbracoBest DXP: UmbracoBest Headless CMS: UmbracoBest AI Solution in a CMS or DXP: UmbracoBest Composable Solution: Umbraco <img style="width:30.71%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/joomla-edited.png" alt="Joomla! Logo" />Best Free CMS: JoomlaBest Open Source CMS: Joomla <img style="width:30.09%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/statamic-logo.jpg" alt="Statamic logo" />Best Flat File CMS: StatamicBest Static Site Generator: Statamic <img style="width:29.25%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/shopify-logo-white-bg.webp" alt="Shopify logo" />Best e-Commerce Solution: ShopifyBest Headless Commerce Solution: Shopify <img style="width:30.31%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/optimizely-logo-white-bg.webp" alt="Optimizely logo" />Best DAM (Digital Asset Management): Optimizely <img style="width:31.16%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/yootheme-edited.png" alt="YOOtheme Logo" />Best Website Builder: YOOtheme <img style="width:28.96%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/03/notion-logo.jpg" alt="" />Best ECM (Enterprise Content Management): Notion <img style="width:28.66%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/03/netlify_logo.png" alt="" />Best DXC (Digital Experience Composition): Netlify <img style="width:28.75%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/03/microsoft_azure_logo.png" alt="" />Best Development/Hosting Platform: Azure<h3 id="congratulations-to-all-our-2023-winners">Congratulations to all our 2023 Winners</h3>What more can we say? Once again, we’re thrilled to have such a passionate community of readers, and we’re already looking forward to next year’s Awards. At CMS Critic, a big part of our charter is to serve the CMS community. Like you, we’re an assemblage of developers and content professionals, and we want our industry to shine and endure. We also want to attract new talent to our collective ranks, and having your participation helps stoke interest and drive awareness. YOU make this possible, and YOU matter to the movement. If you didn't get nominated or take home a win, that's OK – there's always next year. Keep an eye out for announcements for our 2024 Awards, so you can start promoting early in the nomination round. It's really anyone's game if you can rally your customers and communities. We’ll also be featuring some additional events throughout the year, so stay tuned and make sure you’re signed up to receive our emails. It's easy: visit <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/">www.cmscritic.com</a> and click “Sign Up” in the upper right corner. <h3 id="hey-winners…-ready-to-collect-your-prizes?">Hey winners… ready to collect your prizes?</h3>Calling all winning vendor marketing departments: looking to promote the good news and get the goods? Email us at <a href="mailto:info@cmscritic.com">info@cmscritic.com</a> to request your exclusive badges and claim your 30-day Product Directory upgrade. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Announcing the Winners of the 2023 CMS Critic People’s Choice Awards

cms-critic-staff

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://preston.so/">Preston So</a> is an institution in the CMS world. A vanguard of the hallowed halls of content.It's not hyperbole. He's been at it for a long time and made incredible contributions to the industry. Not only is So a gifted leader and communicator who's helped drive the product roadmap at places like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.oracle.com/">Oracle</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/gatsby">Gatsby</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/acquia">Acquia</a>, but he's also an adept writer who's penned multiple books on an array of CMS-related topics (it's worth noting that he's also an accomplished <a target="_blank" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyglot">polyglot</a>). Now, after a recent break, he's continuing his journey with a platform that's also somewhat of an institution: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dotcms.com/">dotCMS</a>, a leading hybrid-headless content management system first released in 2009.“Having worked in the<a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=cms&amp;highlightedUpdateUrns=urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7168650435443019776"> CMS</a> world for 17 years, I've seen my fair share of market players come and go,” he remarked in a recent <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/prestonso_headless-cms-decoupleddays-activity-7170423703070035968-YQ80?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop">LinkedIn post</a>. “But dotCMS has always struck me from the beginning as a formidable source of inspiration and innovation in the space.”Today, the company announced that So has joined the company as Vice President of Product. In this role, he will be responsible for scaling the dotCMS product team and driving its product management, strategy, and design efforts. According to the company's press release, So will also be tasked with building a developer relations team as the company continues to grow its customer base and product portfolio. “We are delighted to welcome Preston to dotCMS," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zainishaq/">Zain Ishaq</a>, CEO at dotCMS. "Preston is a visionary leader in the CMS space who we have admired for a long time,”  “We are deeply focused on innovation as we solve complex content management challenges for our customers. Preston’s experience will help us bring cutting-edge products to our customers."<h3 id="a-visionary-voice-in-the-cms-realm">A visionary voice in the CMS realm</h3>Preston So is a senior product leader with two decades of experience in software and 9 years of leading product, design, engineering, and developer relations at leading technology and media organizations. As mentioned, he is also the author of multiple books, including <a target="_blank" href="https://preston.so/books/immersive-content">Immersive Content and Usability</a> (A Book Apart, 2023), <a target="_blank" href="https://preston.so/books/voice-content">Voice Content and Usability</a> (A Book Apart, 2021), <a target="_blank" href="https://preston.so/books/gatsby">Gatsby: The Definitive Guide</a> (O'Reilly, 2021), and <a target="_blank" href="https://preston.so/books/decoupled-drupal">Decoupled Drupal in Practice</a> (Apress, 2018).A globally recognized authority on the intersections of content, design, and code, he is an editor at <a target="_blank" href="https://alistapart.com/author/preston-so/">A List Apart</a> and has <a target="_blank" href="https://preston.so/speaking">delivered keynotes</a> around the world in three languages. So is also the founder of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.decoupleddays.com/">Decoupled Days</a>, the first and only non-profit headless CMS conference, held in New York and Albuquerque since 2017. “I’m truly excited to join the dotCMS team and to contribute to an organization that has long been at the vanguard of the CMS industry,” said So. “dotCMS has always been a formidable innovator in the space, and I’m humbled by the opportunity to support and learn from our customers’ success with best-of-breed headless APIs like <a target="_blank" href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL</a> and established core capabilities like no-code page building and structured content modeling.” <h3 id="building-on-a-legacy-of-success">Building on a legacy of success</h3>dotCMS has established a clear position in the market as a hybrid solution, providing headless CMS capabilities alongside marketer-focused tools like a page builder. That platform was designed to be flexible and developer-friendly, so users can architect around their requirements with an API-first model, allowing for easy integration with an existing tech stack. It's also a multi-site solution, providing simplified management for a broad ecosystem of experiences. As a content management system, dotCMS is focused on helping global enterprises with sophisticated content requirements. It's best suited for organizations across industries that manage multiple brands, websites, workflows, and content types across multiple languages. The blending of secure and scalable tools for a development team with intuitive editing tools for content and marketing teams makes it a comprehensive offering. dotCMS counts notable brands such as Dairy Queen, Newell, Greensky, Chewy, and Comcast have chosen dotCMS as customers. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Preston So Joins dotCMS as Vice President of Product

The DXP Kerfuffle: Finding the Big Chords in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant

matt-garrepy

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/jonstewart">Jon Stewart</a> is president and co-founder of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/zensource">ZenSource</a>, and CMS Critic contributor.  Both <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">Content Management Systems</a> (CMS) and Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) play pivotal roles in the education industry. They share many of the same features, however they serve different purposes in managing and delivering digital content. The complexity arises from the overlap of functionalities, compounded by the fact that many CMS vendors have evolved into DXPs, and DXP-first platforms now include a CMS. This makes it increasingly confusing for marketers and IT professionals to decode which to use and the benefits of each. Despite this, both CMS and DXP have an important and powerful place in MarTech and higher education. But there's no need to invest in costly and complex DXP-first platforms to achieve scale. By utilizing open-source <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/drupal">Drupal</a> with a composable approach to MarTech architecture, these two systems can be combined to deliver a comprehensive omnichannel marketing platform. This article aims to clarify the key differences and advantages of both tools, offering tips on building a fully open DXP.  <h3 id="the-difference-between-a-cms-and-a-dxp---">The difference between a CMS and a DXP   </h3>In short, while a CMS is primarily focused on content creation and management, a DXP extends its functionality to provide a holistic digital experience by incorporating various tools and capabilities to engage users across multiple touch points.  <h4 id="content-management-system-(cms)">Content Management System (CMS)</h4><ul><li>Focus: Primarily focuses on content creation, management, and publication. </li><li>Purpose: Designed for organizing and handling digital content such as text, images, videos, and documents. </li><li>Features: Provides tools for content creation, editing, version control, and workflow management. Typically used for websites and blogs. </li><li>User Experience: Centers around content editors and publishers who create and update content. </li></ul><h4 id="digital-experience-platform-(dxp)">Digital Experience Platform (DXP)</h4><ul><li>Focus: Encompasses a broader scope, going beyond content management to deliver a comprehensive digital experience. </li><li>Purpose: Aims to create seamless, personalized, and engaging digital experiences across various channels. </li><li>Features: Combines CMS capabilities with additional tools like customer data management, analytics, personalization, e-commerce, and more. </li><li>User Experience: Targets a wider audience, including marketers, developers, and IT professionals, to enhance overall digital experiences.    </li></ul>There doesn’t have to be a choice between a CMS and a DXP platform. Depending on the specific needs and goals of your organization and with proper planning and architectural design of your platform, a Drupal CMS can act as the base. Over time, additional features can be incorporated to create a full suite of DXP components. Shifting away from a monolithic approach to a single code base and process, IT professionals can opt for a decoupled system. This approach facilitates the gradual integration of features, ensuring smoother scalability, upgrades, and time-to-market advantages.            <h3 id="strategy-#1:-start-with-drupal-at-the-core">Strategy #1: Start with Drupal at the core</h3>Starting with Drupal at the core of the platform of your DXP offers significant benefits. Drupal is a powerful and flexible open-source CMS, particularly when used in higher education. It has gained exponential popularity for its versatility and extensibility. Drupal provides a highly flexible framework that allows developers to customize and tailor the platform to meet specific project requirements. Its modular architecture enables the creation of custom features and functionalities, making it suitable for a wide range of web applications that can be integrated over time such as behavioral analytics with personalization and marketing automation. It offers a user-friendly interface for content creators, allowing them to easily publish, edit, and organize content and the content modeling and structuring features make it efficient for managing diverse types of content.           Drupal is well-suited for projects of varying scale which is why it can be so powerful for scale across a multi-channel DXP content delivery model. Whether you are building a small website or a complex enterprise-level application, Drupal's scalability ensures that the platform can grow with your project's needs and publish content from one database to all your channels. It also offers strong support for APIs, facilitating integration with third-party services and applications which is crucial for creating interconnected systems that a DXP will rely on.The Drupal ecosystem includes a vast library of modules and extensions that extend the platform's functionality. This rich repository allows developers to leverage pre-built solutions, saving time and effort in development. Lastly, Drupal is committed to continuous innovation, regularly releasing updates and new features. This ensures that projects built on Drupal can take advantage of the latest technologies and trends in web development. Therefore, as the Drupal community actively expands its product roadmap, there are increasingly more modular components that help with creating core DXP features.           <h3 id="strategy-#2:-optimize-drupal-for-decentralized-authoring">Strategy #2: Optimize Drupal for decentralized authoring</h3>Optimizing Drupal for decentralized authoring while maintaining centralized brand consistency involves strategic planning, configuration, and the implementation of specific features. This will act as the authoring foundation for your enterprise-scale higher ed DXP, accommodating users with varying levels of access and roles as the platform extends. The key is to allow for users to grow within the system, striking the right balance between control, scalability of content and marketing activities, and the preservation of brand consistency. Starting this process involves establishing a well-defined content structure and modeling strategy, including a clear definition of content types, fields, and relationships to ensure consistency across various content creators and website sections. The design should be separated from the data structure, so that authors do not have to worry about breaking UI whether they’re creating content or setting up rules for marketing automation.        Leverage Drupal's role-based permissions capabilities to assign specific roles and permissions to different content authors. Ensure that decentralized authors have appropriate access levels based on their responsibilities while maintaining control over critical brand elements. Implement a content moderation workflow to control the content lifecycle. Define stages such as draft, review, and publish to enable centralized oversight and approval before content goes live. This ensures brand consistency and quality control.     Store brand assets (logos, images, style guides) in a centralized location within Drupal. Provide decentralized authors with easy access to these assets through a media library or asset repository to maintain brand consistency in visual elements. Develop custom content templates to guide content authors in creating consistent content. Templates can enforce standardized layouts, styles, and branding elements, ensuring a cohesive user experience across the site. Maintain consistency in categorization and tagging by using shared taxonomies and vocabularies. Centralize the management of categories to avoid content fragmentation and ensure that similar content is categorized uniformly. Using permissions, you can define which assets can be shared among users within the central Drupal instance. Lastly, provide training and ongoing support for content authors to ensure they understand and adhere to brand guidelines. Foster a collaborative environment where decentralized authors feel empowered to contribute while respecting brand consistency.                <h3 id="strategy-#3:-extend-drupal-over-apis-using-microservices-">Strategy #3: Extend Drupal over APIs using microservices </h3>Extending Drupal over APIs can transform the CMS into an open Digital Experience Platform (DXP) tailored for higher ed, providing flexibility, and delivering a seamless and personalized user experience across various channels. A major advantage of a microservices approach is the ability to scale individual services independently. By extending Drupal with microservices, you can ensure that specific components, such as authentication or search functionality, can scale horizontally based on demand, optimizing performance and resource utilization. This allows Drupal to offer personalized content recommendations, dynamic layouts, and targeted experiences based on individual user preferences and interactions. First, break down Drupal's monolithic structure into smaller, independently deployable services. Each microservice should represent a specific business capability, such as content management, user authentication, or personalization. This decomposition allows for agility and scalability, as each microservice can evolve independently. With APIs at the core, seamlessly integrate third-party services and applications into the DXP, enabling Drupal to act as a central hub orchestrating interactions and ensuring a cohesive user experience.Adopt an API-first design approach to expose microservice functionalities through well-defined APIs. Drupal, serving as the central content management microservice, provides APIs for content creation, retrieval, and modification, promoting smooth communication and data exchange with other microservices. Integrate user authentication services, recommendation engines, or analytics platforms as separate microservices, fostering a modular and extensible higher ed DXP.Implement DevOps practices for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), enabling independent development and faster release cycles, while also reducing the risk of system-wide failures during updates. Monitor and analyze the microservices architecture using centralized tools to gain insights into performance, reliability, and user interactions for quick issue identification and continuous improvement.Engage with the Drupal and broader higher education community, collaborating for knowledge sharing and adopting best practices. This approach ensures that the higher ed DXP remains open, extensible, and aligned with industry standards. Extending Drupal over APIs using a microservices approach enables the creation of a flexible, scalable, and personalized higher ed DXP, preserving Drupal's renowned content management capabilities.<h3 id="strategy-#4:-build-with-security-as-your-foundation">Strategy #4: Build with security as your foundation</h3>Securing your higher ed DXP is crucial in the evolving digital landscape, where cyber threats persist and grow more sophisticated. As your DXP scales, it becomes an attractive target for cyber attackers. Adopting a security-first approach ensures resilience, safeguards sensitive data, and mitigates risks.Drupal prioritizes security with a robust security model and dedicated team, following best practices and regular updates. Enhance DXP security with thorough threat modeling, incorporating secure design principles, and adopting a defense-in-depth strategy. Identify possible threats, vulnerabilities, and attack vectors specific to your solution. Understanding the potential risks allows you to proactively design security measures. Incorporate secure design principles from the outset. Embrace the principle of least privilege, implement proper data encryption, and follow the principle of defense in depth. Design your solution with security controls at multiple layers, making it more challenging for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities. Train developers in secure coding practices, conduct regular code reviews, and adhere to data protection regulations, industry standards, and legal requirements. Make sure your team stays informed about changes in compliance standards and update your security measures accordingly. Implement robust authentication and authorization mechanisms. Use strong and adaptive authentication methods, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), to verify user identities. Define and enforce granular access controls to ensure that users and systems have the minimum necessary privileges. Perform regular security audits and penetration testing to assess the effectiveness of your security controls. Identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses through simulated attacks, allowing you to remediate issues before they can be exploited in real-world scenarios.  Develop and regularly test disaster recovery and business continuity plans. In the event of a security incident or a system failure, having a well-defined plan ensures a swift response, minimizing downtime and data loss.            Encrypt sensitive data both in transit and at rest. Use industry-standard encryption algorithms to protect data from unauthorized access. Implement secure key management practices to safeguard encryption keys. Implement robust security monitoring tools to detect and respond to security incidents in real time. Set up alerts for suspicious activities and establish an incident response plan to quickly contain and mitigate security breaches. Since Drupal requires regular module updates for security patches, deploy a dedicated team to keep up with this process. Keep all software components, frameworks, and libraries up to date.For developers, marketers, and authors of your DXP, educate them on security best practices and raise awareness about social engineering tactics. Human error is a common cause of security breaches, and a well-informed workforce is a crucial line of defense.Engage with the broader security community, participate in information-sharing forums, and stay informed about emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Collaborating with the community enhances your organization's ability to stay ahead of evolving security challenges. By integrating security into the core of your solution, you create a robust and resilient fortress against potential threats. This proactive approach not only safeguards your higher ed organization but also establishes a foundation of trust in your solution's security posture.      <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Empowering Higher Ed: 4 Strategies to Transform your Drupal CMS into an Open Source DXP at Scale 

jonstewart

<hr /> As content goes global, the need for reliable and accurate translation is exploding. While a multitude of tools exist to automate the translation function – everything from <a target="_blank" href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/weglot">Weglot</a> – they sometimes lack the foundation of an experienced services arm that reinforces the quality and nuance.This is where <a target="_blank" href="https://www.argotrans.com/">Argo Translation</a>, a Chicago-based language services company, is breaking the language barrier. The company recently announced the launch of its new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.argotrans.com/technology/cmsconnect">CMSConnect solution</a> for digital platforms, which marks another milestone in its strategy to build innovative technology solutions that enhance the translation experience.Argo Translation provides tailored professional translation services in more than 80 languages to a range of industries including legal, healthcare, manufacturing, and financial. It also provides guaranteed certified translation quality.CMSConnect is the firm's cross-platform multilingual suite. It seamlessly pipes in source content from numerous PIM, CMS, CRM, and DAM platforms and translates it into nearly any language. This enables companies to accelerate the delivery of digital content with less friction, providing a more streamlined approach to reaching international markets or a diverse workforce that speaks multiple languages. “We are very excited about the release of CMSConnect,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/argondizzo/">Peter Argondizzo</a>, Co-Founder of Argo Translation. "It allows us to deliver peace of mind through a care-free implementation that becomes part of our customer's process – not an additional process that takes time to train and requires additional resources for implementation."<h3 id="making-translation-easier-across-multiple-dx-platforms">Making translation easier across multiple DX platforms</h3>As its name indicates, CMSConnect delivers its translation capabilities to content management systems. But it's more than a CMS solution – and powers several PIM, DAM, and CRM systems.This currently includes a bench of industry-leading platforms, including <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/akeneo">Akeneo</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/inriver">InRiver</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/microsoft-sharepoint">SharePoint</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sitecore">Sitecore</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/kentico">Kentico</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe Experience Manager</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hubspot">HubSpot</a>, SFDC, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a>. In each case, CMSConnect makes the process easy by translating content into nearly any language using a platform's native features. One of the key benefits is reduced overhead. With CMSConnect's plug-and-play implementation, there's no reliance on developer resources to get up to speed quickly. The submission process is simple, requiring only a few clicks. CMSConnect also reduces the cost of translation by lowering the setup and maintenance costs.<h3 id="ideal-for-e-commerce,-product-management,-and-more">Ideal for e-Commerce, product management, and more</h3>Argo Translation's solution has a strong focus on e-commerce and product management professionals who have domain over an extensive product catalog. It's also a good fit for HR professionals who need to publish timely communications to non-native English-speaking employees via their employee website, or marketing professionals who need to connect with international audiences at the speed of their market.The CMSConnect option for Akeneo – a product information management (PIM) system – crystallizes the value of the platform, helping users manage accurate and complete information for their product catalogs and dealing with the complexities this can create when translating content into different languages.The Akeneo connector makes the whole process easier by translating numerous catalogs into different languages with ease. It eliminates the need for manual file transfer, management, and tracking of changes, in addition to removing any cutting and pasting of translations. CMSConnect also provides built-in security, integration, and features that fit within your existing processes.Learn more about CMSConnect at <a href="argotrans.com/technology/cmsconnect">argotrans.com/technology/cmsconnect </a>

Argo Translation's New CMSConnect Streamlines Digital Platform Translations

<hr /> DAM is having a moment right now. And it's not just the publication of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/announcing-the-dam-wave-q1-2024/">Forrester's Q1 Wave Report for Digital Asset Management Systems</a>, which hit the streets today. That's certainly adding to the gravitas.No, “DAM” is overflowing for a number of reasons. For starters, brands are creating an epic deluge of content. It's undeniable, but it's also perfectly logical. We live in a world that thrives on digital detritus, and modern creative tools have made it easy to produce an unthinkable number of assets at lightning speed. But therein lies the problem: how do you manage it all? Add to that the very real phenomenon of generative AI, which is rippling across the functionality landscape with terrific force. As brands automate and scale the production of the assets they're producing – driven in part by personalized variants and test iterations – marketing departments are under increasing pressure to police the streets and maintain governance.As much as AI is part of the problem, it's also presenting itself as a solution. Such is the case with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-dam-bolsters-search-share-and-analytics-capabilities">Acquia DAM</a> (formerly Widen), which has been piloting a new bench of AI capabilities – some of which were announced at Engage Boston, which I <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/from-accessibility-to-ai-and-beyond-five-key-takeaways-from-acquia-engage-boston">covered in detail here</a>. The company has been innovating on the edge with generative AI for quite some time, injecting its DAM with search and share features and a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-dam-introduces-new-generative-ai-features-for-product-and-image-descriptions">product and image description generator</a> last year.Today, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> introduced a new set of integrations for its digital asset management solution, designed to expand its brand management capabilities. The company says the integrations with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-campaign-studio">Acquia Campaign Studio</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://stock.adobe.com/">Adobe Stock</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> will reduce the complexity of maintaining consistent brand experiences across digital channels – and help marketing and creative teams save time and squeeze more value from their content assets.As Acquia knows too well, brands aren't showing any signs of slowing their content hustle. In fact, it's quite the opposite: they need to differentiate with fresh and relevant content to power their marketing campaigns and drive more clicks and purchases. That includes harnessing an ever-growing landscape of visual product imagery, graphics, and more.I had a chance to connect with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/about-us/team/jake-athey">Jake Athey</a>, Vice President, Sales and Go-to-Market, DAM and PIM at Acquia. He's the muscle behind the ever-growing mountain of digital assets, helping to evangelize Acquia's solutions through the marketer's lens. As a DAM and PIM expert, he brings a deep understanding of the evolving landscape – a journey he began during his time at Widen.“Brand leaders today are looking to free up their teams to be more creative and to use digital content assets in new ways,” he said. “These new integrations help customers scale their use of digital content across digital channels and across regions to deliver a better brand experience in less time.”<h3 id="beef-up-marketing-automation-with-acquia-campaign-studio">Beef up marketing automation with Acquia Campaign Studio</h3>First and foremost, Acquia DAM is now integrated with Acquia Campaign Studio – the company’s full-scale marketing automation solution. The integration leverages Acquia’s instant search connector tool, so once a user is authenticated in the DAM connector within Campaign Studio, they can search, view, and select the asset of their choice within Campaign Studio’s email and landing page builders. Here's something really cool: by tapping this connection, any pictures in emails or landing page builders dynamically change when they're updated in Acquia DAM. This has a potentially huge benefit for marketing teams as it will not only save time but also reduce the chance of using off-brand or unapproved content. As you might imagine, this is super valuable for brands that have hundreds – or even thousands – of assets in various places to support decentralized users and brands (think franchises or distributors).<h3 id="access-images-with-ease-via-adobe-stock--">Access images with ease via Adobe Stock  </h3>The Adobe Stock integration offers what you might expect from a CMS or DXP stock image connector, reducing the friction of accessing images, video, or other digital assets in one place while piping in essential metadata. But Acquia DAM goes beyond the typical by providing a more enhanced UX with smoother workflows. Creative pros can choose which types of Adobe Stock assets to monitor and sync, and the integration handles file copying and categorization in Acquia DAM. “Our new Adobe Stock integration simplifies the creative workflow for our customers significantly by automating the syncing of newly licensed assets from Adobe Stock directly into Acquia DAM,” Jake said. “This means that as soon as a customer licenses a new asset on Adobe Stock, it’s automatically uploaded to DAM, along with important metadata like the asset’s ID, title, and keywords. Users can tailor this integration to their needs by choosing which types of assets they want to sync, such as photos, illustrations, and videos.”Jake also explained that the setup uses <a target="_blank" href="https://www.oauth.com/">OAuth Server-to-Server</a> credentials. Customers need only provide their Client ID and Client Secret specific to their Adobe Stock account to enable a secure connection. But once established, the rest should be cream cheese. It's worth noting that Acquia DAM also provides long-standing integrations with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/">Getty Images </a>and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/">Shutterstock</a>, both of which offer well-documented API recipes for integrations. The real magic is how a platform harnesses these capabilities and surfaces the value. “The Adobe Stock integration follows a similar automated approach to syncing assets,” Jake said. “Since this is a managed integration, there will be no need for a new user interface – everything is syncing in the background to make things easy for users.”<h3 id="interpret-more-accessibility-with-google-translate">Interpret more accessibility with Google Translate</h3>Language translation and localization is finally becoming table stakes for globally-aware brands (although it's a mystery why it's still missing on so many sites). Still, software UX is often overlooked. Acquia aims to mitigate that by adding Google Translate to its DAM, helping to ensure that branded content is accessible, searchable, and relevant to diverse users and groups. It's simple: customers can use Google Translate to automatically translate text from selected metadata fields. The DAM automatically repopulates these fields with translated content in up to 20 languages. For those of us who have integrated Google Translate at the web layer, we know there's been a palpable lack of control and customizability. I asked Jake how Acquia is enabling DAM users to “massage” translated content if the text requires any additional tweaks after a human review. There are certainly other tools that facilitate this, and it's a place where AI is also making a dent in the obstacles. “With Acquia’s flexible permissions and dynamic path notifications, customers can set up their desired governance and workflow processes, so they have an opportunity to check translations,” he said. “As with the use of generative AI, we believe incorporating human review into a translation workflow is a best practice. We also have an OpenAI Translate Native Integration on our product roadmap.”<h3 id="building-on-a-legacy-of-ai-innovation">Building on a legacy of AI innovation</h3>As previously noted, AI has long been a part of the Acquia roadmap. Last May, when I <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-taps-its-modular-open-source-legacy-to-drive-the-composable-future">spoke to Deanna Ballew</a>, SVP of Product at Acquia, she shared a bit about where the company's AI investment had started – and how the open source Drupal community was already innovating around ChatGPT connectors at the CMS level. I asked Jake about the recent AI announcements from Engage last November, and what we might expect on the horizon. He gave me a bit of what's in the rearview mirror, and a peek through the windshield. He started with Acquia DAM’s Workflow AI Assistant, which was launched in 2023, and supports the ability to more efficiently generate new creative and copy ideas and editing suggestions to streamline work-in-process cycles. It also helps to keep teams on brand, accelerating time to market with new brand assets.This was followed by the aforementioned AI-powered keywords and automated description, caption, and alt-text generation – which supports the ability to catalog, find, and use new assets more quickly. Automated alt-text generation also supports SEO and accessibility to optimize brand asset performance across digital channels.“Acquia DAM’s new search by color and color filters help users to quickly find and use available assets based on design color scheme and brand colors,” he shared. “The new integration with Adobe Stock and our existing integration with Shutterstock also tap into the generative AI capabilities of those platforms.”So what's next? Some pretty sophisticated stuff.“New AI capabilities to come include advancements to smart tags, facial recognition, focal point cropping, video transcription, and AI-based GPT video generation and editing,” Jake said. “With all of these and more, our intention is to enable marketers and creative pros to accelerate content velocity, while staying true to brand standards and supporting richer digital experiences for their own customers.”<h3 id="what's-ahead-in-2024-for-acquia-dam?">What's ahead in 2024 for Acquia DAM?</h3>As Jake pointed out, Acquia DAM supports a wide range of organizations across sizes and industries. Acquia proper continues to support Fortune 1000 organizations, including a majority who have – or are replacing – a DAM.  “With these innovations, Acquia is also focused heavily on serving the late-stage majority of first-time DAM buyers in the middle market, with an estimated 200,000 companies in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan,” he confirmed. “Acquia is focused on brands and agencies alike, and serves marketing communications, creative/design, digital/web, product, and e-commerce functions.”In terms of target industries, the company is focusing on manufacturing and engineering, supply chain and logistics, financial services, food and beverage (including manufacturers, distributors, grocery stores, and restaurants), consumer goods, healthcare, education, and more. Obviously, this list can become more granular, but it provides a high-level snapshot of where they see opportunities for DAM to make a difference.As I previously discussed with Deanna Ballew, the theme of composability remains key to Acquia (and just about every platform in the industry). As a legacy DXP with a more traditionally monolithic posture, Acquia has been making strides to decouple its products in the right places, so customers can leverage the efficiencies of a composed DXP while purchasing a specific product within the portfolio. To that end, it's worth reinforcing that Acquia DAM may be used as a standalone solution or with content management systems such as Drupal or other products in the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (Acquia DXP).You can learn more about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/acquia-dam/features/ai">Acquia DAM’s native AI features</a> and the new set of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/products/marketing-cloud/dam/integrations">DAM integrations </a>on its website. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Acquia DAM Adds New Integrations to Enhance Brand Management 

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/ryan-breen">Ryan Breen</a> is CTO at Fastr, a digital experience composition platform built for e-commerce, and a CMS Critic Contributor. To differentiate, e-commerce businesses need to deliver the right content to the right audiences. But the “right content” and the “right audience” change every single day.That means you have to make data-optimized content changes at the same pace. That’s your minimum viable content velocity. But you’re stuck: meaningful content changes require developer intervention. AI, 2024's proposed solution to all velocity problems, only exacerbates this problem. It’s boosting the content creation pace across departments faster than speeding up developer release cycles.<h3 id="presentation-is-content">Presentation IS Content</h3>The traditional approach of minor tweaks – like adjusting copy or shuffling UI elements – barely scratches the surface. These changes are superficial, allowing for only cookie-cutter modifications. What we need goes deeper, demanding a radical shift in how content is presented. This is about more than aesthetics; it’s about structural transformation.Consider the scale of change required: the capability to serve entirely different layouts of your product detail page (PDP) to various audience segments. Take a case study where analytics reveal that users coming from search engines exhibit distinct shopping behaviors. They are more inclined to purchase related products than the specific SKU they initially viewed. The logical move? Experiment by altering the PDP layout for these users, placing related products prominently at the top, instead of their usual position below the fold.This approach isn’t about making a single change. It’s about the ability to test a multitude of visual treatments – 5, 10, even 20 variations – to pinpoint what truly engages your audience. And this testing isn’t static; it evolves daily, adapting in real time to the insights gathered.<h3 id="the-ai-productivity-paradox">The AI Productivity Paradox</h3>The advent of AI in business operations presents a profound challenge I call the “AI Productivity Paradox.” On the surface, AI technologies promise significant productivity gains across the board. Marketing and e-commerce teams are leveraging AI to generate a flood of innovative ideas, scaling their creative output to levels previously unimaginable. Imagine this: 20 individuals in e-commerce and marketing now produce 200 times as many viable, impactful ideas each day as they did last year, thanks to AI tools at their disposal.To put this into perspective, consider the equation: (A) the number of ideas generated by the team, times (B) number of target audience segments, compounded by (C) the multiple variants you need to test to get a strong signalIf A is now 200 and B and C are anything above 0, a development team is now staring down the barrel of a combinatorial explosion of demands. A neverending, ever-growing influx of content change initiatives that must be handled with no latency.At the same time, every other part of the business was already waiting on development for site updates. It’s not like development teams anywhere match a business's needs for velocity. Now, this explosion of creative output from e-commerce and marketing teams – amplified by AI – will blow open an ever-widening gap in productivity.This disparity is not just a logistical headache; it’s a strategic bottleneck that stifles innovation, slowing down the essential process of testing and learning. Without a shift towards more scalable, developer-independent systems for executing these ideas, the promise of AI-enhanced productivity is a bottleneck – not a breakthrough.<h3 id="speed-wins">Speed Wins</h3>In today’s e-commerce landscape, agility goes beyond making superficial tweaks with ease (and, sorry, your CTA text is superficial). Agility is about enabling immediate, profound shifts in how content engages and converts. Traditional approaches, marked by delays and developer bottlenecks, miss the rapid pace at which market trends evolve. All content must adapt as fluidly as consumer preferences and market dynamics do, unencumbered by the grindingly slow human latency of development time.And no: clunky, semantically void page builder components aren’t a solution. Their limited scope and bulky controls make them cookie-cutter templates with more steps. Today, we’re giving marketers components like a “carousel with 4 images.” Turning that into a labyrinth of dropdowns so they can spend hours composing a “carousel with 4 images” component into a “carousel with 4 images grouped vertically on desktop but not on mobile and with a translucency effect on hover on desktop” isn’t going to get us where we need to go.Instead, we envision a future where developers empower e-commerce, marketing, and AI tools with the capability to design every pixel of the Product Detail Page (PDP) and sculpt every underlying interaction. This isn’t about providing a bigger box of basic tools; it’s about handing over the keys to the entire workshop. In this new world, developers focus on creating sophisticated, flexible environments that offer total creative control – environments where non-technical teams can intuitively design, test, and refine every aspect of the e-commerce experience without compromise.By stepping away from the bottleneck and repositioning themselves as enablers, developers unlock the full potential of their colleagues in e-commerce and marketing. This shift is critical. It’s about equipping those closest to the customer with the means to apply their insights and ideas directly, in real time, without the mediation of cumbersome, limiting tools.This is how we get something more than pain and dashed hopes from our AI investments.This is how we overcome the AI Productivity Paradox. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

How to Free Your e-Commerce Business from the AI Productivity Paradox

ryan-breen

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

#ffffff

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/strapi">Strapi</a> has always been a tenacious force in the headless CMS field. The platform delivers a healthy dose of customizability to its users and can play on the REST and GraphQL sides of the API court – maximizing its extensibility for querying content. Overall, it's super flexible for developers, earning it a whopping 60,000 stars on GitHub. Not too shabby.Last year, Strapi reached over 4 million downloads, putting it at the top of the open source headless CMS rankings. At the same time, <a target="_blank" href="https://cloud.strapi.io/">Strapi Cloud</a> – the company's fully managed offering – exploded to over 500 customers. These include major global brands like Publicis Sapient.According to Strapi's community forum, Strapi Cloud was a direct response to users who loved the Strapi platform, but weren't interested in managing servers, dealing with scalability, or coping with other laborious tasks (for those of you who still deal in Chef scripts, you know what we're talking about). The company really endeavored to reduce the friction around the overall developer experience, making it easier for users to get value from Strapi without the complexities of server management.Now, to make things even easier, Strapi Cloud has introduced a new Developer Plan for individuals and small businesses. Designed with simplicity and accessibility in mind, the Strapi Developer Plan is specifically tailored to meet the evolving needs of developers in the early stages of their project lifecycle, offering out-of-the-box features and an exceptional developer experience. The new plan will join Strapi's bench of offerings, which also includes Community, Pro, Team, and Enterprise tiers. "We're excited to introduce the Developer Plan as part of our commitment to supporting the vibrant developer community," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-burgy-strapi-%F0%9F%9A%80-88671673/">Pierre Burgy</a>, CEO of Strapi. "We recognize the importance of providing developers with tools that are not only powerful but also accessible and easy to use. With the Developer Plan, we aim to empower developers to turn their ideas into reality without the complexity and cost often associated with managing infrastructure."<h3 id="new-pricing-and-greater-transparency--">New pricing and greater transparency  </h3>Strapi's Developer Plan offers some key advantages, starting with the price tag. The new model offers a competitive monthly subscription fee of only $29, giving developers access to critical features while eliminating hidden costs. This reflects a commitment to make the pricing experience more predictable for users.The Developer Plan has also been designed with scalability in mind, enabling Strapi Cloud to literally grow with your project. For example, you can add up to two additional seats at $15 per month per seat, supporting greater collaboration while standing firm around affordability.When it comes to essential resources, Strapi Cloud is also doubling down on value. The Developer Plan starts with 15 GB of storage and 50 GB of bandwidth, allowing developers to expand as needed at cost-effective rates. The entire Developer Plan is also focused on transparency, providing clear – and fair – overage charges. This ensures developers only pay for what they need with no “gotchas.” In fact, the asset storage costs are fairly generous, with overage fees decreasing to just $0.5 per extra GB of storage for the Developer plan (and $0.6 per extra GB for Pro and Team plans).Who is the plan ideally suited for? According to Strapi, it's a great fit for Individual developers, freelancers, and small teams working on projects such as personal blogs, portfolio sites, small e-commerce platforms, or experimenting with new web technologies. <h3 id="elevated-features-to-enhance-the-developer-experience">Elevated features to enhance the developer experience</h3>In addition to the Developer Plan, Strapi Cloud has introduced several new features. This includes new regions, automated backups, and custom domains. With upcoming SOC2 certification, a new developer-friendly Command Line Interface (CLI), and advanced multi-environment support, Strapi Cloud is now capable of scaling from small projects – such as personal blogs and portfolio sites – to larger corporate sites and composable applications. Additionally, Strapi Cloud's outstanding uptime performance over the past year demonstrates a significant leap forward in its ability to deliver a robust, secure, and highly customizable platform. Strapi has also launched a new initiative that offers significant Strapi Cloud discounts to qualifying open source and non-profit projects. Visit the company's website to learn more about the steps to qualify for this program.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Strapi Cloud Introduces New Developer Plan with Additional Features

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/nazy">Nazy Fouladirad</a> is President and COO of Tevora, a leading global cybersecurity consultancy, and a CMS Critic contributor. Most organizations today are increasingly dependent on more than just their internal teams and on-premise solutions to drive their businesses forward. The growing popularity of cloud platforms and "as-a-service" models across various industries has also led to a significant increase in organizations partnering with third-party providers.However, while collaborating with multiple external vendors and service providers can help organizations expand, it can also introduce new risks. Given the rise in cybercrime and strict regulatory standards today, the need to have a mature third-party risk management program is essential to ensure <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/how-to-secure-your-cms-in-5-steps">their data is secure</a>, especially when handled by those outside the company.<h2 id="recognizing-the-risks-of-third-party-vendors">Recognizing the Risks of Third-Party Vendors</h2>Establishing strong business partnerships is an important component of business growth. Whether hiring an outside marketing firm to drive brand awareness or working with a managed services provider to outsource IT and cybersecurity, the right partnerships help businesses operate more efficiently. However, it's important to be aware of certain risks associated with extending your operations outside your organization.When vendors require access to confidential business information to offer their services, the duty to protect that data starts moving beyond the company's immediate reach. Without due diligence, this can pose <a target="_blank" href="https://www.checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/cyber-security/what-is-cybersecurity/biggest-cyber-security-challenges-in-2023/">significant security challenges</a>, particularly if your partners aren't upholding the safety standards your business adheres to. While most service providers are obligated by data protection laws and regulations to protect sensitive client information, the reality is that not all companies are equally secure. Besides the financial risk associated with a major business disruption across connected services, businesses may also face significant fines and penalties if they fail to maintain regulated compliance standards that govern their specific industry.<h2 id="what-are-third-party-security-&amp;-compliance-audits?">What are Third-Party Security &amp; Compliance Audits?</h2>For organizations that need to have more transparency regarding potential security risks that may be present with a third party, security risk and compliance audits are essential. A third-party security and compliance audit or assessment is a methodical review process handled by outside risk management experts to thoroughly vet the security standards of any business partnership.Depending on the industry your organization operates in, there are a variety of different assessments or audits that can be used to identify any areas of concern.For example, a SOC 2 attestation, sometimes referred to as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tevora.com/what-is-a-soc-audit/">SOC audit</a> or SOC certification (which is technically incorrect), is often used to benchmark internal control frameworks in the following Trust Criteria:<ul><li>Security</li><li>Privacy</li><li>Confidentiality</li><li>Availability</li><li>Process Integrity</li></ul>These attestation reports are the opinion of a CPA firm and identify an opinion of conformity against the selected Trust Criteria. It is important to note that not all SOC 2 reports test all five Trust Services Criteria, as it depends on scope. This is similar but holds a bit less rigor than an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tevora.com/blog/what-is-an-iso-audit/">ISO 27001 audit</a>, which checks that systems and processes align with the framework established by the International Organization for Standardization.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.fedramp.gov/">FedRAMP High Authorization</a>, used for assessing Cloud Service Providers performing critical and essential services for Government Agencies, has over 400 controls and is even more rigorous than the ISO 27001 certification.To streamline third-party vendor assessments, some may use SOC 2, ISO 27001, HITRUST, or FedRAMPas alternative evidence for vetting vendors rather than conducting one-off assessments.<h2 id="steps-to-executing-third-party-security-&amp;-compliance-audits">Steps to Executing Third-Party Security &amp; Compliance Audits</h2>Conducting a third-party compliance audit is often left to risk management specialists due to the complexity of the process. While every audit can be different depending on the depth and scale of the partnership, most external audits will follow a similar formula.Below are the typical steps used when executing third-party security and compliance audits:<h3 id="1.-identify-all-of-your-partnerships">1. Identify All of Your Partnerships</h3>Thoroughly evaluating the business's active partnerships is the first step before performing any type of third-party audit. Oftentimes, businesses may be primarily concerned with only one or two active partnerships they rely on regularly. However, having a completely transparent understanding of your complete risk profile requires identifying each and every vendor you engage with. This could be a supplier of physical goods, logistics companies that you currently contract, SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) providers, or a company where this is a direct change of company information.<h3 id="2.-tier-your-vendors">2. Tier Your Vendors</h3>Not all vendors are created equal. The most important vendors are those that you share the most sensitive data with, have access to your networks, host or build applications, have physical access to your facilities, or can interrupt your key business processes. These vendors are often referred to as Tier 1 vendors. Other vendors you may rely on but are not as critical can be considered Tier 2. Vendors that do not provide essential services – such as a coffee supply vendor or shipping provider – may be considered a Tier 3 vendor.  For Tier 3 vendors, just knowing that they are accounted for and have been identified as a Tier 3 vendor is all that is required. <h3 id="3.-build-a-plan-for-vendor-assessments-by-tier">3. Build a Plan for Vendor Assessments by Tier</h3>Working with a trained risk assessment professional, you should define the assessment, process, depth, and acceptable alternative evidence allowed for each tier of vendor.  By organizing your assessment process by Vendor Tier, you'll be able to narrow down the focus of your audits to the areas that are most critical for the services provided.Part of building a successful vendor assessment plan should start with the alignment of your company’s existing security framework to your Vendor assessment model (ISO 27000 series, NIST 800 series, HITRUST Certification, or FedRAMP/StateRAMP). Typically, more mature vendors will have their own security programs developed and backed by one of these frameworks. Having the ability to crosswalk between the frameworks can help show how your company’s security controls are implemented through outsourcing to these vendors. A tool commonly used within the Third Party Vendor Management space is the <a target="_blank" href="https://sharedassessments.org/sig/">Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) Questionnaire</a>, which helps map controls to various frameworks. The SIG Questionnaire has over 1000 controls, whereas the SIG Lite contains about 200 controls. Many Vendors will have a SIG or SIG Lite available for review during the third-party assessment process and this can be an effective way of getting standardized information from your vendors. <h3 id="4.-notify-your-vendors">4. Notify Your Vendors</h3>While certain portions of a third-party risk assessment can be managed without the direct involvement of your vendors and with the use of various monitoring tools, their participation is essential to complete an assessment. Many companies will make assessment requirements part of their new vendor onboarding process to ensure that all parties are aware of the potential for assessment before or during the length of the partnership. In any event, it's important to clearly lay out any requirements your business may have when it comes to completing assessments to ensure vendors are aware and willing to comply.<h3 id="5.-define-scope-of-engagement">5. Define Scope of Engagement</h3>Some assessments are much more comprehensive than others. In all situations, though, it's important to define the scope of engagement that will be required for each vendor. This is another area where understanding your risk categories will help, as it will assist in prioritizing engagement in the right areas and with the right teams. Doing so helps to avoid your vendors becoming overwhelmed with requests for information that could potentially cause strain on the relationship.<h3 id="6.-complete-the-review-and-identify-areas-of-improvement">6. Complete the Review and Identify Areas of Improvement</h3>After gathering the required information, your risk management team can produce a detailed review of potential areas of concern. Given the thoroughness of the data collected, some areas might need additional exploration to guarantee the review's accuracy and to ensure the insights provided are easy to understand and actionable.<h2 id="don't-let-your-third-party-risk-catch-you-off-guard">Don't Let Your Third-Party Risk Catch You Off Guard</h2>While your organization might prioritize and invest in proper security measures, not all vendors necessarily share that commitment. However, collaborating with skilled risk management experts can help confirm that all your partnerships value security and risk mitigation as much as you and your clients do. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Make Sure Your Vendors and Partners aren’t a Security Risk with Third-Party Security & Compliance Audits

nazy

<hr /> Humans love to muse about the future. And why not? It’s veiled in mystery, replete with speculation, and full of plot twists. That makes it both exciting and terrifying. Like… a horror movie.Along those lines, a word in the composable lexicon conjures some of the same exhilaration and fear: future-proof. While fairly intuitive, it's all about anticipating what might happen and developing strategies to minimize the shocks and stresses of possible future events.It sounds great, but it also presents a bit of a quantum entanglement. How can tools or processes remain malleable enough to adapt to unpredictable changes? How do organizations accurately predict and avoid the pitfalls (and classic horror movie tropes)?This is where the past and the present can help untangle the uncertainty, and it's precisely why software platforms conduct research: to help guide a future-proof strategy and thwart any potential nightmares. To that end, <a target="_blank" href="https://hygraph.com/">Hygraph</a>, a headless CMS known for its content federation, recently published an insightful survey on the state of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management</a> and what the future might look like. There are some terrific data points, and here's the big one: according to the report, 84% of organizations believe their existing CMS limits their ability to unlock the full value of their data and content. It further suggests that only 35% of current data and content is being used effectively. If this translates to a larger scale (the sample includes 400 engineering and product professionals in the US, UK, and Germany), the numbers represent a stagnant dissatisfaction with current CMS deployments. But these figures are just scratching the surface.I recently spoke to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/content-management-for-a-new-reality-a-conversation-with-hygraph-ceo-michael-lukaszczyk">Michael Lukaszczyk</a>, co-founder and CEO of Hygraph, about the findings. It’s all part of what his company calls the “Future of Content” report, which pulls back the curtain on CMS challenges many businesses face when delivering modern digital experiences. The survey includes real-world input from tech leaders and prescribes a few strategies for overcoming some of the industry’s key obstacles.  While no one has the exact prescription for tomorrow, Hygraph’s report provides critical insights around trends and patterns, which might prove invaluable when selecting a CMS that’s future-proofed for what’s ahead – and maybe make things a little less scary.<h3 id="siloed-data-and-content-are-major-limitations">Siloed data and content are major limitations</h3>I asked Michael what he gleaned from the “Future of Content” research, specifically around the impact of value on organizations. Most of us in the content management field recognize a ubiquitous perception of the grass always being greener when users are asked about their satisfaction with a tool or stack. “We had 84% of people being dissatisfied with the current architecture and stack,” he codified.  “Well, it's been like this forever, and we want to change it. But a lot of companies and larger organizations struggle with the change management.”In that sense, the real challenge lies in the escape vector. Stakeholders might be keenly aware of the issues but are held back by the risks associated with implementation or migration. Along with this general malaise around unlocking value from their existing setup, Hygraph’s report also indicates that 92% of organizations say their content and data sources are siloed – with nearly 40% describing it as “very siloed.” As we’ve discussed in many previous articles, data from diverse sources and legacy systems have resulted in expensive and laborious integration code, which presents a drag on growth and innovation. This is where composable strategies and technologies are emerging as solutions – with many vendors, Hygraph among them, participating in the ecosystem as members of the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-publishes-first-annual-report-showcases-industry-impact-and-plans-for-2024">MACH Alliance</a>. <h3 id="custom-software-is-an-innovation-bottleneck">Custom software is an innovation bottleneck</h3>It’s always easy to blame the CMS. It is, after all, the elder statesman of the stack – and a relatively broad target due to its essential role across a myriad of systems and requirements. While any given CMS might perform a wide range of duties out of the box, it will inevitably fall short in some areas, forcing it to be stretched in different directions based on architectural dependencies. One of the biggest obstacles has been the need to tap multiple content and data sources. To that end, the “Future of Content” report revealed that 77% of respondents need to build and manage custom software to connect diverse content and data sources with their existing CMS. The survey respondents also concurred en masse that these integrations – which, as we know, can be very complex – create an innovation bottleneck with potentially severe consequences. <h3 id="cms-challenges-negatively-impact-productivity-and-revenue">CMS challenges negatively impact productivity and revenue</h3>With just a third of respondents stating that their CMS is effective at “underpinning new digital services,” there’s clearly a gap around readiness. But the report digs deeper into the details. According to the research, over three-quarters of respondents say that the difficulty of exposing and using existing data and content in their digital services has restricted their revenue opportunities. This is where the buck stops, shining a light on the most tangible result of a limited CMS. From a productivity perspective, 76% of respondents also say that technology constraints prevent them from empowering more content creators within their organization. At the CMS level, this is just as pronounced, with almost half of respondents saying that changes can only be made by a few users with essential skills. Michael noted that these limitations underscore the need for content federation, one of the key tenets of Hygraph’s position in the headless CMS market. He said this approach – alongside a headless CMS – could accelerate both innovation and revenue opportunities.“To compete in the content economy, organizations need to unlock value from content without bottlenecks or migration and duplication issues,” he said. “Content federation leverages all data sources across business infrastructure, and delivers it exactly where needed.”<h3 id="future-proofing-cms-for-a-world-of-content-rich-applications">Future-proofing CMS for a world of content-rich applications</h3>As Michael indicated, many of the existing challenges can be rolled up to having the right tool for the right use case, particularly as the market evolves to include more content-rich applications beyond websites. In his opinion, this shapes how users and organizations choose the platforms to build, manage, and ultimately future-proof their needs. “In the ‘Future of Content’ report, I observe two main trends [in the CMS market],” he explained. “The first is that headless CMSs are being reverted to become way more visual again. That is sort of the Storyblok and the Uniform stake, and this is to try and catch the demand of the business personas. It's really the static experiences that you build at the end of the day, like websites. But there's also the other direction, such as hybrid CMSs, that are more complex in data modeling and help you build really content-rich applications.” But how are content-rich applications evolving the charter? The example Michael gave is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.onepeloton.com/">Peloton</a>, which has two key properties in its digital ecosystem. The first is the corporate website, which is most likely owned by a marketer – someone who prefers a static build experience. But Peloton is chiefly experienced through its app, where users engage on stationary bikes and treadmills in video-based classes. These experiences also need a layer of content management.“Over the past couple of years, there’s been an increasing demand for this, and we see more and more companies with requirements for content management in their applications,” Michael said. “One of my predictions is that this will become more important. And if you want to build a more complex, content-rich application, then you wouldn't build the workout application of a Peloton with a website builder using a visual component. It's an application.”<h3 id="leveraging-the-benefits-of-content-federation">Leveraging the benefits of content federation</h3>Hygraph’s evangelizing of content federation cuts through clearly and continues to be one of its unique market differentiators. Its federated content platform represents what it calls the “next generation of content management,” evolving beyond a headless CMS to help power a many-to-many relationship between different content sources and devices. With Hygraph, you can effectively federate data from various sources, streamline content processes, and eliminate the need for a separate experience composition solution or custom middleware. This is also made possible through Hygraph's robust <a target="_blank" href="https://graphql.com/">GraphQL</a> content APIs.In an increasingly dense field of headless players, Michael and his team have trumpeted the benefits of content federation via real-world use cases, specifically around the ever-present challenge of migrating legacy content and data – and tapping composable capabilities to realize the potential.“Our recommendation is not to do a one-off migration, but rather replacing pieces out of the stack and modernizing step by step what you can,” he said. “If you use content federation with Hygraph, you can plug in a few of the systems that exist within your stack while the rest live in this monolithic scope. But they can live side by side – and then, as time goes on, you pull more and more pieces out of the old world into the new. So if you use tooling or have this layer that allows you to be the middleware – which is content federation – and it's a much safer migration path.”<h3 id="why-this-report-matters">Why this report matters</h3>It's a sure bet that any vendor-sponsored research will position its own platform as the go-to solution. This is, after all, a function of marketing at some level. But Hygraph’s report provides clear and relevant metrics in the right places while weaving in guidance from technology leaders. It’s worth noting that the survey was commissioned by Hygraph but conducted independently by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.colemanparkes.com/">Coleman Parkes Research</a> in the summer of 2023.Along with the raw numbers, the “Future of Content” report also provides guidance around eliminating bottlenecks, adopting best practices, and future-proofing your content strategy to achieve optimal performance. These additional benefits highlight the report’s emphasis on education across every facet of an organization, from technical to business – which Michael sees as critical for building consensus around the modernization investment.“I think it takes a lot of education for tech leads and architects,” he expressed. “They need to get the message that the technical depth in the stack is holding them back from achieving the business results they want. But if you talk to people who are more on the business side of things about technical depth, they don't see an internal rework as necessarily positive – they see it as pricey. It takes six months to rework all this, [so] they don't push those projects forward. But the report shows that there's also education needed for owners of those architectures, so they understand that modernization will pay off. It takes some time but it will pay off – big time.”And that sounds like a future worth fighting for. To download the full report, visit <a target="_blank" href="https://hygraph.com/resources/future-of-content">https://hygraph.com/resources/future-of-content</a> <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Is your CMS holding you back? Hygraph’s survey reveals insights about the future of content

<hr /> One of the key advantages of the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-publishes-first-annual-report-showcases-industry-impact-and-plans-for-2024">MACH Alliance’s</a> best-of-breed open ecosystem is the propensity for like-minded composable systems to join forces – and together, bring unified solutions to market.The latest heroic team-up: <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/agility">Agility CMS</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/netlify">Netlify</a>. The duo just introduced an enhanced integration that harnesses the robust features of Agility’s headless CMS with <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.netlify.com/connect/overview/">Netlify Connect</a> – a data unification layer designed to give teams greater freedom and control when creating websites, online stores, and applications with data from any new or existing content source. According to Agility’s press release, this collaboration sets out to redefine how enterprises manage their content and modernize their web architecture, bridging the gap between legacy content and modern <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">Content Management Systems (CMS)</a>. "Bringing Agility CMS and Netlify Connect together is a game-changer for enterprises looking to embrace the future of content management and modern web architecture," said <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility">Joel Varty</a>, CTO at Agility CMS. “This approach not only streamlines content integration but also ensures that organizations can easily adapt and evolve their digital strategies with a phased approach that leads to fast ROI.”The general availability of the Agility CMS Connector with the Netlify platform is a significant step forward for both MACH vendors, giving enterprises a more agile and future-proof approach to content management and web architecture.<h3 id="netting-an-integration-with-netlify">Netting an integration with Netlify</h3>Agility, a cloud-based, API-first headless CMS, has been blazing trails with its built-in layout management capabilities. By giving users a clear visual “blueprint,” they have greater control and confidence over their content placement. At the same time, Netlify Connect has gained traction as a go-to solution for integrating content from multiple sources into a single data unification layer – one that’s easily accessible through a <a target="_blank" href="https://graphql.com/">GraphQL API</a> (another fixture that’s become increasingly popular). Netlify Connect is particularly ideal for enterprises that have data spread across multiple data sources, enabling updates to sync websites and web apps automatically with the latest content. Connect’s scalable, no-code approach to content integration also makes it an attractive play. This is where the impact can be felt with a robust headless CMS that’s designed as the next step in a stack’s composable modernization. And while Netlify Connect supports multiple data sources on the CMS level, it’s worth noting that this new integration represents the first Partner Developed Connector with Netlify – a real feather in Agility’s cap, and a clear commitment to its shared innovation with its development platform partner. “This integration is remarkably similar to the integration we previously developed for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/gatsby">Gatsby</a>,” said Varty. “It’s built on top of our Sync SDK, and provides incredibly fast access to your content, now with the framework of your choice. We’re expecting folks will appreciate the unified data access experience.”As Varty further pointed out, Netlify Connect is one way to solve the “many data sources” conundrum in a way that assures fast access to data, given that Netlify caches it in their layer. “Depending on your solution, this can help solve a lot of problems, especially if you have private connectors accessing data that’s previously been locked away somewhere without a decent API, or maybe your API just doesn’t perform well under load. Netlify Connect can really help there.”<h3 id="what’s-next-for-agility-and-netlify">What’s next for Agility and Netlify</h3>Part of the secret sauce for Agility and Netlify is having a shared vision. Both companies empower enterprises on their journey to manage and migrate from legacy monolithic systems to composable, cloud-native solutions – but doing so in a systematic, phased approach. The benefit is clear: enterprises want to remain in control, and being forced to immediately adopt a completely new ecosystem is counterproductive.Along with Connect, Agility is looking ahead to additional opportunities with Netlify. This includes aligning with <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.netlify.com/create/overview/">Netlify Create</a>, a visual experience platform for building and operating enterprise websites with a decoupled architecture.“Netlify has expanded its product ecosystem with both Connect and Create,” Varty shared. “I think Connect is the most compelling piece of the puzzle for organizations that want to unify how they bring content and data to their web properties, so I’m hoping the Agility integration – which is open source – can serve as an example for others on best practices here. As for Create, we’re working with Netlify closely on an Agility solution that brings the best of both platforms to the forefront.”I asked Varty about the reaction from Agility’s partners and customers, and if any feedback had emerged during the beta phase of the connector’s development. It’s clear that it’s still early days, but he’s bullish about the potential – and Agility is gearing up to support its channels with the right resources, including additional web frameworks that are amplifying site performance.“We’re actually working on updates to our reference solutions for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/nextjs">Next.js</a> to provide examples for our partners to get started with this, as well as new starters for <a target="_blank" href="https://remix.run/">Remix</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://astro.build/">Astro</a>,” he explained. “There’s been a ton of requests for those updated starters, so we’re expecting lots of folks will either migrate existing solutions there, or use these references packages on new solutions and rebuilds."<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>As many vendors look for terra firma in a rapidly evolving marketplace, alliances are being forged up and down the stack to deliver greater value. For headless CMSs facing an increasingly competitive and commoditized ecosystem of offerings, intangibles like MACH Alliance certification are helping to up the ante and create differentiation.Still, the biggest challenge is the buyer. While the addressable US market looks more promising in 2024, enterprises are focusing on optimization – vis-à-vis speed and performance – to enhance the customer experience and improve outcomes. They’re also impeded by a growing cache of data and content sources from a myriad of places, including legacy systems, that must be harmonized. Agility’s headless features and novel layout capabilities are a boon to teams, but the Netlify Connect integration gives them an edge in addressing the “many data sources” conundrum that Varty referenced, helping to further optimize and accelerate access to data. This also gives organizations greater choice and flexibility as they expand their digital strategies.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Agility CMS and Netlify Connect Launch New Unified Content Integration Solution

<hr /> As 2024 begins to take shape, digital optimization is becoming paramount for organizations as they focus on the ever-elusive goal of growth. With increasing competition across digital properties, brands seek new ways to understand customer behavior and create personalized experiences that allow them to attract, engage, and retain customers.The tools are getting better – and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/amplitude-introduces-snowflake-native-amplitude-app-with-new-snowpark-container-services">Amplitude</a> continues to lead with innovation. The company recently announced the expansion of its Digital Analytics Platform to include Session Replay, new experimentation capabilities, and simplified event tagging. With Session Replay, Amplitude now combines qualitative and quantitative data to help companies understand the “why” behind user behavior. The platform will also offer new Experiment capabilities to help teams build personalized websites and campaigns. Additionally, a visual tag editor will effectively lower the barrier to entry for companies getting started with data collection and instrumentation. “Understanding customer behavior is the key to building successful products and enabling businesses to thrive," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoisajenstat/">Francois Ajenstat</a>, Amplitude’s Chief Product Officer. "With these new capabilities, we’re bringing the next generation of digital analytics to market, combining qualitative and quantitative insights and simplifying how companies get started with Amplitude. With a single platform that is easy to use and easy to scale, every company can deliver better customer experiences that drive growth.”Alongside redesigned pricing options to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes, these new capabilities will help companies see everything their customers do, understand what drives growth, and build better products – all in one place.<h3 id="multiple-platform-enhancements">Multiple platform enhancements</h3>The new features of Amplitude’s platform include:<h4 id="session-replay">Session Replay</h4>With Session Replay, companies can visualize the user journey through the product, showing what customers like and where they get stuck. Integrated with Amplitude Analytics, organizations can access qualitative and quantitative insights to fix issues, drive greater conversion, and, ultimately, improve the customer experience. Session Replay is generally available today.<h4 id="experiment-for-web">Experiment for web</h4>Deliver personalized experiences with Amplitude's new web experimentation capabilities. Easily test multiple landing pages to optimize web and campaign performance. Paired with Amplitude Analytics, teams can gain a holistic understanding of what impacts customer behavior and how to deliver experiences that drive growth. Experiment for web will be generally available in the first half of 2024.<h4 id="visual-tag-editor">Visual tag editor</h4>Visual tag editor automates the data collection and instrumentation process to help teams intuitively track website or app activity. Visual tag editor will be generally available in the first half of 2024. With plans for organizations of all sizes, companies can get all the tools they need at once or start small and scale as their business grows. Plans include Free, Plus, Growth, and Enterprise, and can be explored on the Amplitude website. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Amplitude Expands Platform Capabilities with Session Replay and Simplified Pricing

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/tom-cranstoun">Tom Cranstoun</a> is the principal consultant at Digital Domain Technologies Limited and a CMS Critic contributor. Reflecting on the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff24/program">Boye &amp; Co CMS Kickoff 2024</a> down in St. Pete Beach, it's clear we're at a tipping point with AI in the CMS space. The event was a melting pot of CMS enthusiasts and experts, all there to predict and shape how we handle CMS. The setup was perfect for learning, networking, and bouncing ideas off one another, with sessions covering a wide range of topics.We had some standout talks, like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/deane">Deane Barker's</a> Q&amp;A and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/can-you-trust-your-ai-data-new-standards-emerge-to-help-ensure-transparency">Kristina Podnar's</a> insights into Generative AI. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/beckybrown1/">Becky Brown</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcrasmussen/">David Rasmussen</a> hit home the importance of change management for content teams. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/miketwills/">Mike Wills'</a> take on flexible content models for multichannel strategies was enlightening, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffeaton/">Jeff Eaton</a> shed light on how CMS page builders affect team dynamics.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianbrowning/">Brian Browning </a>showed us practical AI applications that are changing digital experiences. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-tucek/">Debbie Tucek</a> pushed us to think of content as a product, while <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickywiki/">Ricky Frohnerath</a>'s masterclass on high-performance content teams was a game-changer. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickrudd/">Nick Rudd'</a>s perspective on AI in real-time content generation was eye-opening, and sessions by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlim/">Marli Mesibov</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmckeiver/">Brian McKeiver</a> on the CMS buy vs. build dilemma and digital commerce were thought-provoking.<h3 id="the-twist-in-my-expectations">The twist in my expectations</h3>I noted that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff24/program">agenda of the CMS Kickoff 2024</a> offered only a slight focus on AI. The speakers often mentioned it during their talks; it’s very “of the moment” in our industry.I, like you, have been to many seminars, presentations, and conferences around AI and what it will do for you and your content. I was pleasantly surprised this was not about AI creating the content – it was about AI reading the content. It turned my expectations upside down, fired up my brain, and I could not stop taking notes.The whole CMS Kickoff conference was not just about AI. I have many takeaways that I am working on. But the most important is this: the AI revolution will change our industry and everyone else’s. Still, despite its great promise and clear benefits, it soon becomes clear that using AI to create content is not ideal. In fact, AI-generated content has many problems, including:<ul><li>Enforcing the use of internal style guides.</li><li>Maintaining a brand tone of voice.</li><li>Avoiding gender or race biases.</li><li>Avoiding cultural nuances.</li><li>Knowing which sources were used in the training of the AI (too few sources means limited vocabulary – conversely, too many sources suggest the corporation loses control. Does the AI manage to use local idiomatic expressions? For instance, a “sidewalk” is a “pavement” in the UK).</li><li>AI sometimes gives up asking the prompter to continue. </li><li>AI is becoming regulated, and legal ramifications will soon become commonplace, changing in each jurisdiction.</li></ul>And this is just the beginning. <h3 id="rethinking-ai’s-role-in-content-management">Rethinking AI’s role in content management</h3>Throughout the event, the speakers made me rethink AI's role in content management. Given the translation, bias, regulation challenges, and lack of trust in AI, one needs to employ reviewers and editors to correct the content – because AI is better suited for consuming content. Let’s think that the current state of AI creating content is a beta experiment, best left to the tech guys. After all, we have a business to think of.Nick Rudd led an exciting discussion explaining how AI should be thought of. He began by asking how an eight-year-old purchases toys. He described it as simple and direct, without the baggage of brand loyalty or complex decision-making. Kids are smart. They know what they want.Ignoring the elephant in the room, “TikTok” (an entirely different article), the eight-year-old goes to Google/Bing/Whatever and types in:“I WANT A TOY PLESIOSAURS” <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:80%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/02/tom-cranstoun-screen-1.png" /></figure> What didn’t the eight-year-old do?<ul><li>They didn’t go to Amazon.</li><li>They didn’t refine the search.</li><li>They didn’t look at brands.</li><li>They didn’t read customer reviews.</li><li>They didn’t sort by price or popularity or whatever.</li><li>They didn't read the price (well… mostly).</li><li>They didn’t create an account.</li><li>They didn’t click on dropdowns.</li><li>They ignored video and animations.</li><li>They didn’t read the copy.</li></ul>What happens when AI reads content? It behaves like an eight-year-old: <ul><li>It will ignore retailers.</li><li>It will probably not refine the search.</li><li>It will ignore brands.</li><li>It might skim customer reviews.</li><li>It might sort by price.</li><li>It won’t create an account.</li><li>It won’t follow your dropdowns.</li><li>It won’t give you an email address (you no longer know who your customers are).</li><li>It will ignore the videos and animations.</li><li>It will ignore the “see our shop links”.</li><li>It will skim-read the copy if it can find it among the ads.</li></ul><h3 id="how-will-“ai-simplicity”-affect-your-business?">How will “AI simplicity” affect your business?</h3>The idea of simplicity will challenge how AI interacts with our current web designs and content structures. The next step in AI monetization is that the AI offers to purchase the toy – keeping any discounts, commissions, and recommendation fees bypassing the retailer. This will impact KPIs as AI activity increases and human interaction decreases. What happened to <a target="_blank" href="https://stackoverflow.com/">StackOverflow</a> recently will begin to affect us all. The online Q&amp;A platform for developers is releasing 28% of its staff to save costs, which is not necessarily related to AI. But look at the point where ChatGPT entered the picture: <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:73.55%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/02/tom-cranstoun-screen-2.png" /></figure> <h3 id="what-about-a-site's-kpis?">What about a site's KPIs?</h3>As AI interaction increases, our reliance on traditional KPIs must fall.Every website today uses analytics to drive statistics, such as:<ul><li>The number of total visits.</li><li>The number of unique visitors.</li><li>The number of new vs returning visitors.</li><li>Geographical location of visitors.</li><li>Net promoter score.</li><li>Pages viewed per session.</li><li>Dwell time.</li><li>Bounce rate.</li><li>Conversions, including A/B testing.</li><li>Organic search visitors.</li><li>The number of social share impressions.</li><li>Feedback and reviews.</li><li>Cart abandonment.</li></ul><h3 id="design-by-engineers:-a-trap">Design by engineers: a trap</h3>The conference also highlighted a common pitfall: websites designed by engineers focus on looks over function, which does not work well for AI. We need a more structured approach to content modeling for better clarity and organization.Today’s HTML markup makes sense to the browser: <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:85.84%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/02/tom-cranstoun-screen-4.png" /></figure>  However, opening the “View Page Source” shows a different take: <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:85.9%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/02/tom-cranstoun-screen-3.png" /></figure> Buried in the HTML are the brand name, the price (more than one is shown in the HTML), and the description. Note that discounts and age suitability are placed in the text. A human reading this would have difficulty, never mind an AI.Engineers create text and image boxes in your CMS; they let you fill and serve them.They might call them hero’s carousels, cards, etc. They are dressed up text and image boxes with interactions.This is the Design by Engineer Trap.<h3 id="what-needs-to-be-added-to-our-sites?">What needs to be added to our sites?</h3>Content Modeling and schema presentation!A lot has gone wrong. The IT people who made this website are very clever engineers; I could not do this.The engineers took the site owners' desires and made pretty pictures with text and prices, highlighting discounts. They made it reasonably fast and effective and made the site owner one of the world's wealthiest men.Look at other sites’ HTML. How do they handle pricing? Awful!Each site dresses up text in presentations. No semantic meaning is given to the objects described. There is no content modeling. It looks like Al will need an LLM for each brand!!  This is not going to work in the Al world.Something major must happen…<h3 id="content-modeling-the-traditional-cms-way">Content modeling the traditional CMS way</h3>You probably already know it: the model gets built into the CMS.This is a trap.Designers fixate on the presentation when envisioning a website – and build a style guide with fonts, colors, components, and interactions. They create heroes, cards, lists, articles, carousels, accordions, tabs, text, and much, much, more.<h3 id="what-next?">What next?</h3>The content team is asked to create: <ul><li>Testimonials. Someone decides that testimonials should be in the cards component.</li><li>Special offers. Someone decides that testimonials should be in the lists component.</li><li>A “coming soon” message. Someone decides that testimonials should be in the image with a link component.</li><li>Bulk discount messages. Someone decides that Bulk Discount should be in the text component.</li></ul>Content modeling by developers!<h3 id="so,-what-do-we-need-to-do-about-this?">So, what do we need to do about this?</h3>We need technical improvements, enthusiastic use of content models, and application of schema without putting cognizant overload on the content team – which is a big ask. I assure you it will be worth it.Let’s look at the HTML example we showed earlier, this time with schema applied: <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:86.1%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/02/tom-cranstoun-screen-5.png" /></figure> Now a machine can see the price, the description, the brand, the discount, and the age applicability. It knows it is for a product, not an ad on the site. <h3 id="call-to-action">Call to action</h3>We are in marketing, so we must end with a call to action. So here it is:Our websites need to target 4 device types: Mobile, Tablet, Desktop, and Machine in the future. Our CMS strategy needs a solid content model that applies consistently across all platforms. This is key for targeted ads, personalized content, and campaign management. However, the current developer-driven content modeling approach must be revised and rethought. We must wrap our content semantically and stick to structured data schemas. <a target="_blank" href="https://schema.org/">Schema.org</a> is the place to start; that is the technical part. We as an industry need to evangelize and build a joint effort from designers, developers, and content creators to ensure content is built within the model and aligns with the established schema. As such, teams need to add an “AI Evangelist” to the roles.The AI Evangelist will be a pivotal figure in our organizations, driving the transformative adoption and implementation of AI technologies. This role bridges technical prowess, strategic insight, and the ability to vividly communicate AI's benefits to diverse audiences. The AI Evangelist will forge partnerships across design, development, content, and testing teams to craft a unified AI vision.Key Responsibilities of an AI Evangelist:<ul><li>Champion AI technology adoption, showcasing tangible enhancements to digital strategies and user experiences.</li><li>Spearhead AI-centric models and strategies, focusing on predictive analytics, personalized content, and AI-powered search optimization.</li><li>Facilitate AI integration into workflows with cross-functional teams, ensuring smooth transitions and peak efficiency.</li><li>Lead educational initiatives like workshops and training to build an AI-savvy culture.</li><li>Monitor and assess cutting-edge AI trends for strategic adoption.</li><li>Cultivate a network with AI vendors and thought leaders to bolster expertise.</li><li>Advise leadership on AI integration, securing necessary resources and investments.</li><li>Examine new opportunities to decrease time-to-market and increase engagement.</li></ul>Qualifications:<ul><li>Proficient in digital marketing, SEO, development, and UX design.</li><li>Exceptional communicator, adept at demystifying complex tech for varied audiences.</li><li>Proven leader and collaborator in team-driven environments.</li><li>A zeal for learning and staying at the forefront of AI advancements.</li></ul>Desired Skills:<ul><li>Background in digital analytics and personalized content strategies.</li><li>Knowledge of CMS and digital content creation.</li><li>Experience with app-based content platforms and audience engagement tactics.</li><li>Strategic thinker, ready to foster innovation and change.</li></ul><h3 id="closing">Closing</h3>CMS Kickoff 2024 was pivotal to me. As an industry, we must reconsider our content strategies in the face of AI's evolution. As we gear up for AI's continued integration into our digital spaces, adopting a structured, semantic approach to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management</a> is more crucial than ever in building cross-team strategies.  These reflections aren't set in stone but are a “call to arms” for the industry. Together, we must prepare for a significant shift in how we design, manage, and deliver content in an AI-first world. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

The AI Tipping Point: A Consultant's Takeaways from CMS Kickoff 2024

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