Articles - Page 24

Brightspot Illuminates the Future of CMS with Human-Controlled, AI-Powered Storytelling 

matt-garrepy

<h4>Snapshot:</h4><ul><li>Zmags has rebranded as Fastr and launched its new FastrAI service.</li><li>New AI features will power multivariate experimentation with greater speed and agility.</li><li>Generative AI provides content that is on-brand and optimized for SEO, Core Web Vitals, and more.</li><li>New Experience Canvas UI provides design tools, collaboration, and more for building no-code experiences.</li></ul><hr /> When I spoke to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanbreen/">Ryan Breen</a> last week, we traded notes about our recent meeting in Boston at the fall edition of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/boye-co/">Boye &amp; Company</a> CMS Experts Group. In passing, I described our “exotic” community as sort of a digital safari. We never know what we might spot roaming the plains of DX, or if any wayward explorers might join our expedition. This time around, we were lucky to score the legendary <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/billwilliamrogers/">Bill Rogers</a>, founder of the eponymous <a target="_blank" href="https://world.optimizely.com/products/ektron/">Ektron CMS</a>.There was no campfire in our WeWork room, but members of our CMS cabal seemed ready to chant. And while Bill spun tales of yore, he spent more time peering into the dense forests of AI and talking about his new startup, <a target="_blank" href="https://ai12z.com/">ai12z</a> – which builds copilots and next-gen AI apps, and advises on generative AI implementations. AI: A Song of Fire and Ice might have been a good title for his talk. With so much contention around the impact of AI on the digital experience landscape, it’s hard to separate the hype from the hope. But Ryan is all in. “It was really timely and fun seeing Bill come in as a ‘true believer’ of generative with copilots and the direction they're going,” he said, still dazzled by Rogers (like most of us). “I was like, yup, yup, I'm right there with you. A lot of stuff changed in December of last year that was [previously] very difficult to do, but now it’s just effortless – because you can wave that generative AI wand and things become easier.”Now, Ryan is weaving his own AI tale. His company, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/fastr">Fastr</a> (formerly Zmags) – a digital experience composition platform focused on e-commerce – just launched a new service called FastrAI. The solution streamlines e-commerce experience creation to support multivariate experimentation and fast iteration. The AI learns from tests, which helps optimize performance for brands.“Whether you’re aiming to improve conversion rates, increase average order value, or drive engagement, we can get you there disruptively faster,” Ryan said. “The traditional process for experimenting on e-commerce sites is either too limited or too slow. Brands can’t hit their aggressive targets with incremental improvements to copy or button colors. And they can’t wait for long prototyping and development handoff cycles to create experience variants to test.”That’s where Fastr comes in. Using the platform’s lightning-fast capabilities, businesses can intelligently test their e-commerce-enabled experiences – things like upsell carousels or dynamic bundle offers – all without tapping developer resources. FastrAI is also adaptive, meaning it can respond to each test and generate optimized experiences in minutes.  <h3>The evolution from Zmags to Fastr</h3>While AI is at the center of Fastr’s announcement, the company is going through another evolution around its identity – shedding its previous <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/">Zmags</a> moniker and adopting a component of its core product: Fastr.The new mantle unifies the legacy Zmags business, which was founded in 2006 and regarded for its <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/publicator">Publicator</a> digital catalog and <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/Creator-Studio">Creator Studio</a> software. It also folds in the professional services of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.beapartof.com/">Be A Part Of</a>, an award-winning BigCommerce partner agency that Zmags acquired the previous year. According to Ryan, this transition was a long time coming, as it speaks to the speed of a product that claims to deliver composable commerce in days. When he began this journey nearly three years ago as the Chief Technology Officer at Zmags, he was always thinking about the frontend experience and how acceleration was key to success.“We finally got our brains around going Fastr,” he said, “and that I can roll with.”With Fastr Frontend – the company’s core product – customers have the freedom to create the e-commerce stores they envision using digital experience composition tools. Fastr enables them to design at will, leveraging a blank canvas to import designs from Figma, Sketch, or <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a>. Fastr Frontend also removes the silos walling off e-commerce data, enabling brands to set conditions for specific details like inventory availability or pricing. Data can also come from any source via APIs, page data, or anywhere on the web. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">“A lot of stuff changed in December of last year that was [previously] very difficult to do, but now it’s just effortless – because you can wave that generative AI wand and things become easier.”</h4><hr />One of the big benefits of Fastr Frontend is the simple, elegant integration with an existing CMS. After an e-commerce journey has been built out, the platform provides a single line of code to paste into your<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms"> content management system</a>. Because it’s all architected in a lightweight fashion, the experiences load as fast or faster than most existing pages (hence the name).Orchestration is also a big part of the promise with Fastr. In addition to building composable frontend experiences that are extensible to the omnichannel, Fastr Frontend effectively “glues together” your backend applications with what’s in your API, on your website pages, or anywhere on the web.<h3>Wrestling with integrations and legacy systems</h3>It’s a fact: integrations can be a sticky wicket, particularly with legacy platforms that simply can’t be avoided. Despite what some platforms might say, not everything has an off-the-shelf connector. To that end, Fastr provides a host of professional services to help design or implement almost any kind of connection to bring experiences to life. “When we rolled out Fastr Frontend, the focus was really to bring in those integrations,” Ryan explained. “Whether you're still on a monolithic stack or you’ve gotten more composable and now have 40 different vendors, you need to orchestrate on top. We wanted to make something that any business user can look at and say, ‘We're going to grab these elements from Einstein personalization,’ or ‘I'm going to show and hide things if they're low on stock or have different CTAs.’ That's exactly how [Fastr] works.”Integrations in Fastr execute as JavaScript snippets within a browser as your experiences are rendering. They essentially act as conduits for API calls or data retrieval from a specific page, allowing data to be fetched dynamically. Ryan said that while some of the API work is handled on the customer side, this is an area where Fastr’s solution engineering team really shines. Even if it’s an integration they haven’t seen before, they can typically handle it within 24 hours. Obviously, these kinds of exotic connections tend to be the domain of large enterprises, where Fastr plays. As Ryan described, this is where the pain is most acute.“Maybe you’ve got two things you want to replatform off of, but that one ERP is still hanging out back there,” he said. “And you need to ask it some things or certain data lives over there. We help glue it all together.”<h3>Experimenting with FastrAI and Experience Canvas </h3>FastrAI is built into Fastr Frontend’s new user interface, which it calls Experience Canvas. Layered on the foundation of <a target="_blank" href="https://penpot.app/">Penpot</a> – a popular open-source design and prototyping app – Experience Canvas provides robust design tools, asset and component libraries for easy brand management, and real-time collaboration features. It also includes integrations to orchestrate your e-commerce technology ecosystem. Non-developers can easily set conditions for dynamic experiences without writing code. For teams with development resources, the platform also offers easy access to create and manage the underlying integrations for complete control of your composable ecosystem.During a brief demo, Ryan showed me how Fastr is harnessing AI to target specific elements within a digital experience and allowing an easier, more fluid way of building commerce-focused experiences and testing multi-variant options. I’ll say this: Fastr’s UI is slick and easy to navigate, conjuring a familiar Photoshop experience that speaks to my inner designer. Assembling components on the visual pasteboard is simple, and collaboration tools are intuitively baked into the flow. From there, adding variants is fairly straightforward. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:83.01%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/fastr-build-collaborate-screenshot.png" /></figure> With easily accessible AI, users can ask for recommendations on options for, say, a blog – or even a cross-sell carousel that optimizes click-through – and then request specific types of assets from the commerce system. Then, they can test what they create.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:82.66%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/fastr-ai-screenshot.jpg" /></figure> “In every product detail page under the sun, there’s some level of carousel, but people don't have control over it visually,” he explained. “But just as importantly, in terms of the business logic, what's it going to do? What products are we going to show? When we talked to our design services and e-commerce experts internally, we said, hey, rattle off the 20 different things you would like to test if you are building out a carousel – and it surprised me even after being in this business for almost three years now.”As Ryan clarified, Fastr’s customers use their platform to create things that aren’t just data-informed, but where they can control every aspect of how an experience is rendered on the front end. It's an orchestration – and the actual artifact in a CMS is one line of code targeted at whatever space a customer targets.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:82.82%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/fastrai-screenshot-2.jpg" /></figure> Building on that orchestration with AI, Fastr ensures e-commerce stakeholders that all AI-generated content is optimized for accessibility and SEO while restricting it to brand guidelines like typography, color, logo elements, and corporate content. It also supports <a target="_blank" href="https://web.dev/vitals/#core-web-vitals">Core Web Vitals</a>, ensuring optimized design and API calls for the fastest time to render. It also delivers multi-language support, providing the ability to scale to as many locales as needed.<h3>What does it cost, and when will it be available?</h3>As noted in the press release, Fastr is offering an Early Access program for its AI starting today. Ryan indicated that they expect it to be GA on December 12th. You can visit the <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/">company's website</a> to learn more or get in touch.I asked about pricing, and it sounds like we can expect more updates over the coming weeks. As Ryan pointed out, Fastr has a consumption-based, value-driven model – and that might be an indicator of what to expect when pricing the new features. “The majority of our pricing is really based on usage, like what percentage of page views you drive through us because we power those parts of your site,” he clarified. “And so anything that increases your desire to have us on more of your site, then that's a cool way for us to have a better long-term relationship with our customers. If you trust us more, you use us more.”<h3>The Takeaway</h3>For brands in retail and commerce, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms">headless</a> has been a digital game-changer. It has enabled greater freedom and flexibility to build and connect, and is a cornerstone technology for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">MACH</a> and composable. And while omnichannel still represents a smaller slice of the overall pie, it’s growing. At the same time, the lack of visualization and control for marketers has been a huge detractor. It’s also stymied testing and experimentation, which enables content creators to refine and respond with greater agility.Fastr’s use of AI looks promising – and really speaks to the need for speed. It also addresses one of the key pain points for enterprise marketers: optimization. Without the ability to test and iterate, experiences struggle to meet their potential. What’s more, the capacity to orchestrate and scale without the limitations of code is precisely what marketing teams need.If there’s one corner of the DX market where a slow day can kill you, it’s e-commerce. And moving faster is what Fastr is all about.

Fastr Accelerates E-Commerce Optimization with Adaptive AI 

<hr /> If you build it, they will come. That's always been true for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions">AWS</a>. As the world's leading provider of cloud infrastructure services, Amazon has maintained an unprecedented pace of innovation, delivering such groundbreaking technologies as <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/">Satellite Ground Station as a Service</a> (yes, it's a real thing).But Amazon has also relied on its partner ecosystem to build on top of these services and make it all marketable. These companies are leveraging AWS cloud technologies in novel ways to swing for the fences and deliver commercial products at scale. Of course, building a Field of Dreams in the AI game has proven challenging for the cloud behemoths. While <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/microsoft-openai-chatgpt.html">Microsoft doubled down on ChatGPT</a> and Google <a target="_blank" href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/08/google-ai-chatbot-bard-flunks-during-firms-highly-touted-rollout/">fumbled Bard</a> at first base, AWS stood by and studied the plays – waiting for the right moment. Some say they dragged their feet, but the long game might just be paying off. In addition to the launch of its <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/">Amazon Bedrock</a> service for building generative AI solutions, the company just invested <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/amazon-steps-up-ai-race-with-up-4-billion-deal-invest-anthropic-2023-09-25/">$1.25 billion in Anthropic</a>, a San Francisco-based AI startup that was previously being courted by Amazon's rivals.Now, AWS partners and builders are harnessing the power of Bedrock to enhance their products and services – including headless <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management</a> and digital experience platforms (DXP). Case in point: <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentstack">Contentstack</a>, a leading Composable DXP provider. Recently, the company announced the integration of Amazon Bedrock into its Automation Hub and AI Assistant. This strategic move offers customers access to Amazon’s newest AI capabilities, allowing them to select the best AI provider to match their needs."Contentstack remains committed to pushing the boundaries in AI-driven digital experiences and content management. By partnering with AWS and integrating Amazon Bedrock, we are bringing that power to our customers," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/conoregan/">Conor Egan</a>, VP of Product at Contentstack. "AI has caused a major shift in how companies market and consumers buy. This partnership means our customers will be ready to meet that challenge with a modern DXP experience."<h3>What is Amazon Bedrock, and why does it matter? </h3>Amazon Bedrock is a fully managed service that offers foundation models from Amazon and top AI startups. With this integration, Contentstack users can leverage the power of <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/">various foundation models</a> to find the one that best fits their unique use case, all within the familiar Contentstack environment. The company's press release did point out that image-generating models are not supported in the text interface at this time.With Contentstack's flexible approach, customers who prefer Amazon’s cloud solutions for scalability and security can now easily align their AI strategies with their existing operational setup.Benefits of the Amazon Bedrock integration include:<ul><li>Greater AI Diversity: Alongside existing options, users can now select from new AI offerings like AI21 Labs, Anthropic’s Claude, and Amazon’s Titan models.</li><li>Robust Security: Amazon Bedrock's secure API ensures data integrity while allowing private customization of foundational models.</li><li>Streamlined Procurement: Enterprises already using Amazon services can now easily integrate Amazon Bedrock into their Contentstack environment, simplifying the procurement process.</li><li>AI-Powered Automation: Deploy generative AI applications and workflows using the Amazon Bedrock Connector in Automation Hub.</li><li>AI-Driven Content Creation: Amazon Bedrock enriches AI Assistant, making tasks like text summarization and keyword extraction easier.</li></ul><h3>Integrated with Automation Hub and AI Assistant</h3>In a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/a-closer-look-at-contentstacks-ai-features-with-christine-masters-senior-product-manager">previous interview</a> with Christine Masters, Contentstack's AI product manager, we went in-depth on the company's AI Assistant and its full breadth of features. The new Amazon Bedrock integration applies to both its AI Assistant and Automation Hub capabilities, extending the flexibility and resources available to businesses keen on integrating AI into their operations.Contentstack’s Automation Hub, a core product within its Composable DXP, is a visual workflow builder that automates and simplifies content operations and digital experiences. It allows developers and business stakeholders to easily create and manage complex, automated workflows with trigger-and-event architecture. With an array of third-party connectors available in the Marketplace, it enables rapid integration across various digital tools, eliminating the need for costly middleware and additional technical expertise.The Contentstack AI Assistant, now generally available, is a free tool available as a one-click install from the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentstack.com/marketplace/ai-assistant">Contentstack Marketplace</a>. It simplifies the content creation process by using AI-powered explicitly by user-selected Large Language Models (LLMs). Users can generate high-quality content, SEO keywords, and translations more efficiently.

Contentstack Integrates with Amazon Bedrock AI to Power the Future of Digital Experiences

cms-critic-staff

<hr /> The category of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">headless CMS</a> is very much a developer-led technology. Visit the websites of any leading vendors, and it is clear who the primary buyer persona is. The content is targeted at technical leaders – those who understand architectures like the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021">Jamstack</a>, and how to manage APIs. In marketing terms, these are the key buyer personas and are those who need to be convinced that a switch to headless is the right move. References to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">composable architecture</a>, data lakes, and webhooks abound – the language of the main buyer, but not that of the main user.Here lies a crucial issue: the buyer and primary users are not one and the same.I should know. I’ve sat on the user side of the fence for many years, leading marketing teams responsible for “the website.”Despite websites being one of the most important areas modern marketers are responsible for, many struggle. It is, after all, a very broad function, where marketers are required to lead on everything from demand generation to brand management, field marketing to content creation. Layer on top a MarTech stack with over <a target="_blank" href="https://martech.org/scott-brinker-unveils-2023-martech-landscape/">11,000 software applications</a> vying for attention, and is it any wonder marketing teams can struggle with their CMS?But here’s the thing: a lot of the focus on websites is the initial build, with a lot less attention paid to the ongoing management. Those familiar with WordPress will recognize this inherent tension. For mature websites, it is common to have a freelancer on retainer to keep the lights on and manage updates and conflicts. As for the user experience in WordPress, I’d argue it is clunky and downright scary on occasion. Do I accept this plugin update or not? What if I press this, and it knocks the site off?<h3>The Emergence of Headless</h3>In many respects, headless created the opportunity to provide a better user experience for the actual content and marketing people responsible for the site. Decoupling the front end from the back end, in theory, should lead to a cleaner interface. However, I’d argue that the developer-centric nature of many of the leading headless CMSes means that the opportunity was missed. It is one of the key things we are trying to achieve at <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contento">Contento</a> – a modern headless CMS focused 100% on websites. It is incumbent on all of us working in the broader CMS space to elevate the needs of the junior marketer responsible for managing the website. They may not represent the commercial buyer, but making their lives a misery is one sure way to ensure when they finally reach a leadership position, they’ll be keen to adopt a CMS that does not neglect the needs of their users.<hr />Alan Gleeson is CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contento">Contento</a>, and a CMS Critic contributor.

Are Headless CMS Platforms Neglecting Their Users?

alan

<hr /> Conscia, a Digital Experience Orchestration (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=dxo&amp;highlightedUpdateUrns=urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7114915254135885825">DXO</a>) platform, announced this week that it has achieved membership in the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness">MACH Alliance</a> – a prestigious industry organization focused on open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems.As a certified MACH Alliance Startup ISV solution, Conscia.ai is now better positioned to help organizations fast-track the adoption of MACH and composable technologies into their existing DX stacks – thus accelerating digital transformation.According to a post on the company's LinkedIn, Conscia.ai is solving one of the most difficult problems brands face when going composable: the integration and orchestration of disparate backend data sources to create a unified digital experience. Claiming the role as the “brain” of the composable stack, Conscia offers a revolutionary approach that embraces both legacy and modern systems, acting as the bridge between any backend data source and any frontend framework. The solution simplifies both API and data orchestration within a DX stack and enables digital teams to deliver relevant, omnichannel experiences – regardless of where data and content reside.“We firmly believe in a future where enterprise technology stacks are inherently composable, a vision we share with the MACH Alliance,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAG6YAwBwDftoOh04VOEFAOr0FHisqOq-34">Sana Remekie</a>, CEO and Co-Founder of Conscia.ai and a previous Ambassador of the MACH Alliance. "Our [MACH] Alliance membership allows us to champion the adoption of a composable, headless tech stack, amplifying our commitment to driving innovation and transformation in the industry.”<h3>Building a composable future with MACH architectures</h3>MACH – an acronym for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless – is a set of leading design principles that are powering modern, composable enterprise technologies and strategies. MACH architectures support a “swappable” enterprise technology stack – one where every component is pluggable, scalable, replaceable, and can be continuously improved through agile development to meet evolving business requirements. Rather than facing the pain of replatforming, enterprises can continuously evolve their ecosystem piece by piece based on their goals.Built to integrate with greater ease, MACH solutions like Conscia.ai are helping companies break their monolithic dependencies and step away from their legacy tools. With modularity in mind, MACH Alliance-certified solutions give businesses the freedom to choose from modern, best-of-breed tools. They also provide a structure that makes it easier to add, replace, or remove technologies in the future.“We believe orchestration is essential to enabling the promises of MACH,” <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAhApeABdoatoXR1gchE81iiPURabk1MQ1s">Casper Aagaard Rasmussen</a>, President of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/">MACH Alliance</a>. “Orchestrating an architecture simply preserves the flexibility and agility modern enterprise businesses need to compete and win. It is becoming apparent how technologies like <a target="_blank" href="http://conscia.ai/">Conscia.ai</a> help accelerate brands through their composable journey. We're excited to welcome <a target="_blank" href="http://conscia.ai/">Conscia.ai</a> into the MACH Alliance.”<h3>Meeting the highest standards for MACH membership </h3>MACH certification is a rigorous process. Technologies that apply for membership are audited around key criteria and must meet specific requirements around technology posture and business practices. At the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year">MACH Two Conference this past June</a>, MACH Alliance leadership stated that 53% of companies first applying for ISV or SI membership are rejected, making it an incredibly challenging threshold. Despite this statistic, many re-apply – and by leveraging the rejection feedback, are able to satisfy the criteria. The MACH Alliance advocates for future-proof enterprise technology that is composable, open, and best-of-breed. By maintaining those core principles and its rigid certification process, the organization acts as a gatekeeper. This ensures that the MACH category is well-established, safeguarded, and understood – and that companies selling MACH solutions and services adhere to those principles. It also provides enterprises with greater confidence in the technologies they purchase when building composable architectures. MACH Alliance members also help to support agile, nimble businesses that are on the composable journey, and are ready to take advantage of next-generation technologies and trends.  Consia.ai already partners with multiple MACH Alliance member companies, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/contentstack/">Contentstack</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/commercetools/">commercetools</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/contentful/">Contentful</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloudinary/">Cloudinary</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/storyblok/">Storyblok</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/agilitycms/">Agility</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/kontentai/">Kontent.ai</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/valtech/">Valtech</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/applydigital/">Apply Digital</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/oriuminc/">Orium</a>, and many more.

Conscia.ai Joins MACH Alliance as a Certified Member

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/image-relay">Image Relay</a>, a digital asset management (DAM) platform, recently announced the launch of its new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imagerelay.com/digital-proofing">Digital Proofing</a> capabilities. The solution promises to streamline the collaboration, review, and approval cycles for a brand's creative assets – and is integrated into Image Relay’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imagerelay.com/marketing-delivery-features">Marketing Delivery</a> platform. According to the company's press release, Digital Proofing will enable creative teams, marketing departments, and agencies of any size and creative focus to efficiently manage projects and deliver campaign results on accelerated timelines.  “We’re excited about Digital Proofing," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-olsen-73978646/">Jeff Olsen</a>, Director of Product, Image Relay. "It offers our customers a visually collaborative environment with very streamlined processes for preparing and refining creative brand assets. With Digital Proofing, teams and brands’ external partners can communicate and collaborate like never before, sharing their exact thoughts and requirements alongside the assets themselves – and it’s all within the Marketing Delivery platform that will seamlessly deploy those completed assets to market.”<h3>A single source of truth for all digital assets and product information</h3>When it comes to communication, many teams are still relying on manual review. These processes are notoriously slow and cumbersome, often characterized by long email chains or external platforms that stifle productivity. As a result, campaigns and marketing strategies can be delayed or negatively impacted. Because Digital Proofing is integrated directly into Image Relay's Marketing Delivery and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imagerelay.com/asset-library-features">Asset Library</a>, creative asset management and proofing collaboration happens all in one place. Rather than trying to track versions and describe nuanced change requests across emails or written logs, Digital Proofing establishes a single source of truth, allowing teams to provide detailed and visual feedback directly to assets – whether it's an image, video, PDF, or other file type.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75.1%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/image-relay-screenshot.png" /></figure> In addition, teams working with the same asset can easily add comments, visual cues, and timestamps. They can also tag other editors to call attention to specific feedback. Empowered by precise and contextual communication, this enhanced project visibility results in highly efficient collaboration across both internal teams and external partners.  Digital Proofing includes a powerful versioning feature that enables team members to effortlessly compare different asset versions and review rounds, and to leverage a clear audit trail of past notes and comments. Teams can easily track changes, compare alterations, and implement revisions – enhancing control over the creative process and facilitating more effective decision-making based on accurate and up-to-date information.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75.78%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/image-relay-screenshot-versioning.png" /></figure> Digital Proofing also eliminates delays and difficulties that might arise if a decision maker misses an email or wasn’t CC'ed on a critical message chain. By providing real-time notifications, Digital Proofing helps keep stakeholders in the loop on project progress and key details. <h3>Leveraging Marketing Delivery to improve productivity</h3>Image Relay's Marketing Delivery has already proven its value with customers as a powerful tool for unifying and enhancing digital asset management. Digital Proofing expands on its mission by rendering workflows more efficient and streamlined – and giving creatives greater control and agility throughout the ideation process. “Upgrading from much more manual processes to Marketing Delivery’s modernized, streamlined digital asset management and product information management capabilities is driving our company to around $1M in cost savings and increased productivity,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-brown-7b095a9/">Caleb Brown</a>, the Creative Director at <a target="_blank" href="http://kindersmeats.com/">Kinder’s Sauces and Seasonings</a>, which makes BBQ sauces, marinades, and grilling spices. “The addition of Digital Proofing into Marketing Delivery will further improve how our teams ideate, perfect, and access creative brand assets. We’re excited about even more digital asset communication and workflow efficiency – enabling us to tell consistent and effective brand stories to the market and our brand partners.”

Image Relay Launches New Proofing Solution for Digital Asset Management

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/kentico">Kentico</a>, a leading provider of digital experience platforms (DXPs), just <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/newsroom/kentico-bill-cunningham-chief-revenue-officer?utm_source=httpswww.kentico.comdiscovernewsroomg2-grid-report-fall-2023&amp;utm_campaign=kentico_pressrelease2023&amp;utm_medium=email">announced</a> the appointment of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bfctnsfa1/">Bill Cunningham</a> as its new Chief Revenue Officer. Cunningham will play a critical role in shaping Kentico's commercial strategy, fostering growth, and strengthening the alignment between marketing and sales functions.  “I’m excited to welcome Bill to our leadership team," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-xperience-pinter/">Dominik Pinter</a>, CEO of Kentico. “His experience will help us to execute our commercial growth strategy, bringing our unique platform to the market after successful adoption among first partners and end clients. Bill proved his ability to scale similar companies and we are looking forward to leveraging his knowledge.”The hire of its new CRO signals a dynamic shift for Kentico. In the previous fiscal year, the company achieved an impressive 47% growth in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). The company is determined to build on its success, which includes the launch of its innovative new platform, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kentico.com/platforms/xperience-by-kentico">Xperience by Kentico</a> – a single-vendor composable DXP with a unique multichannel hybrid headless approach.<h3>SaaS and agency intimacy</h3>As a growth-focused sales leader, Cunningham brings a wealth of experience to Kentico. With a strong background in website experimentation and conversion optimization, he has built value through the identification, qualification, and implementation of large repeating sales channels – as well as through partnerships with enterprises and SMBs.In his previous role at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitespect.com/">SiteSpect</a> – a testing and personalization platform – Cunningham frequently engaged with Kentico's solutions in their implementations, where he recognized the platform's popularity and success.Over the course of an extensive career in B2B software, Cunningham has witnessed a significant transformation in product capabilities and delivery. He expressed excitement about the shift to a SaaS-focused world, where users expect ease of access and rapid implementation.“The opportunity in the marketplace for Kentico to expand was very interesting to me,” Cunningham said. “The move to a SaaS platform is something that is exciting to me. I come from a SaaS background, and having been through this type of growth before and seen these product transitions before, I was excited about the opportunity that it presented. And then meeting the people that I've met over the course of the process of coming onboard just made it a more attractive opportunity.”Cunningham also emphasized the importance of building strong bonds with agency partners – and where he sees the potential for Kentico.“Agency intimacy is vital for our success," he said. "Those companies in the space who are just selling the software and relying on the customer to do it themselves will be finding themselves with very high churn rates because the product itself isn't enough. You have to have the support in place, and you have to have the capabilities in place.”<h3>A vision for Kentico</h3>In addition to his core responsibilities, Cunningham will oversee Kentico's go-to-market strategy and the execution of sales and marketing playbooks, ensuring that a consistent, unified message reaches the marketplace.Regarding the synergy between sales and marketing teams, Cunningham stressed the importance of transparency and a strong feedback loop to ensure both teams work in harmony to generate leads and drive revenue with greater efficiency.Cunningham's vision for Kentico aligns with its commitment to being an easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy tool that empowers marketers and developers to achieve their goals. He also emphasized the importance of digital transformation and enabling organizations to leverage opportunities in the market more effectively.

Kentico Appoints Bill Cunningham as Chief Revenue Officer

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

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<h4>Snapshot</h4><ul><li>Contentful just launched new products and capabilities focused on digital teams.</li><li>Features include enhancements to its Contentful Platform, Contentful Studio, and Contentful Ecosystem. </li><li>The new Experience Builder provides deeper visual composition capabilities.</li><li>Generative AI has been introduced for content and image creation along with AI-powered partner integrations.</li></ul><hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sloan-213515/">Steve Sloan</a> is excited.And why shouldn’t he be? There’s a lot of cool stuff happening under his watch. As CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentful">Contentful</a>, he’s manning the helm at a leading content platform, deftly navigating the choppy waters of composable and staring down the waves of change with innovative solutions.“We’ve seen a lot of evolution in the past five or six years,” he said in our recent chat. “This space is pretty different than it was in 2017 or 2018. And honestly, there's a lot going on, but I think it's an incredibly exciting time.”Steve took the wheel in 2019, just as the composable threshold was being breached in earnest (and the pandemic was still on the horizon). As he observed, a lot has changed – but Contentful has been a steady engine of headless innovation through this modern era of transformation.That trend line is about to get longer. Today, the company <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/livestream/">announced</a> the launch of several new products and capabilities to its composable platform – including AI-powered advancements – that effectively unlock all digital content across an organization to deliver impactful experiences at scale. There are three key components to the company’s announcement: high-utility enhancements to its Contentful Platform, the new Experience Builder in its Content Studio, and the expansion of partnerships and technologies in its Contentful Ecosystem. Contentful has also incorporated a variety of generative AI-driven capabilities within each leg of the tripod.I spoke to Steve about the new products and capabilities, which will be the central topic of discussion at the company’s last two stops of its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/">Storylines Tour</a> in Silicon Valley and Berlin later this month. I was also treated to a demo preview from Contentful’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maireado/">Mairead O'Donovan</a>, Chief Product Officer, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyak/">Satya Krishnaswamy</a>, VP of Product Management.<h3>Delivering meaningful AI to Contentful users</h3>As indicated, AI is intricately woven through each of the three areas included in the announcement, providing new capabilities that solve problems for digital teams. Steve shared a bit on the genesis of the investment, and how AI is providing some of the connective tissue across its new offerings.“In the last 18 months, it became clear that we need to help the entirety of the digital team, not just the developers,” he shared. “And so we're endeavoring to do that. That's number one. But number two has been the emergence of generative AI. For content and experience creators, the opportunity to use these tools to create more variants for personalization was an obvious story, and a lot of people have talked about it. The piece that I think was less obvious, we realized coming out of an experiment we did.” As Steve described it, they compared <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">ChatGPT</a> with several other emerging generative AI platforms, giving them all the exact same task with a standard rubric for quality. What they discovered is that their accuracy was anywhere between 60% and 80%. “In my job, being right 60% of the time? That’s not good enough,” he remarked. “Particularly if there's anything at stake – including our reputation. The models are great in terms of being predictive, but they’re frequently based on a broad set of contexts. The biggest challenge is how do you train your model on the content that is most trusted? Your bots will only be as good as the content or the data on which they have been trained.”<hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">In the last 18 months, it became clear that we need to help the entirety of the digital team, not just the developers. And so we're endeavoring to do that.”</h4><hr />Here's where Contentful saw an opportunity to thread the needle. By helping customers increase access to their most trusted content – from CMS to CDP to DAM – they could further scale the creation of rich, omnichannel experiences. This led to the evolution of orchestration across systems, but it also allowed AI to be focused on the right content to train models for maximum accuracy and efficacy.  “As an API-first platform, [our users] store lots of trusted content directly in Contentful,” Steve said. “But then you also have important content that lives in other systems that can be trusted. In Contentful, we can make it easy to include content you use across any device or experience. But it's also used as the place in which you can train your models.”As Steve noted in the company’s press release, generative AI has ushered in a new era – one where we all can accelerate creativity by leveraging the power of machines to improve speed, experimentation, and collaboration. This will have a significant impact on how we create, deliver, and interact with content.“At Contentful, our vision is unlocking the power of digital content for our customers, and we are already enabling this power through our latest composable content capabilities, infused with the power of AI, with more planned on our product roadmap to help digital teams reach their full potential.” <h3>Orchestrating everything in the Content Platform</h3>The enhancements to the Contentful Platform are plentiful. At their core, they enable developers to break down content silos and orchestrate content from any source across an organization. The net effect: teams create and deliver digital experiences at a faster clip but with brand governance, consistency, and scale.Contentful’s references and cross-space references effectively “unlock” content from different systems – think DAMs, PIMs, and commerce platforms – as well as within Contentful itself. This helps teams efficiently leverage all their content for reuse in any digital experience across brands, regions, and use cases.“As you know all too well, work happens in silos,” Steve emphasized. “A lot of stuff gets handed off via email, and all these other very, very clunky ways of working. And going back to grumpy customers, they get really frustrated with it taking too long because different teams work in different ways. So, the ability to bring that together? We think that’s really compelling.”The embellishments to the Content Platform also include enhanced enterprise governance and security, including an expanded EU data residency footprint to help address data protection and compliance needs. From an AI perspective, the platform also features an AI Content Type Generator, which was previously announced. It streamlines the content model creation process so developers can accelerate time to market. As Steve noted, this is a useful attribute for a marketer, but also a tool that improves how people work together. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:82.87%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contentful-content-modeler.jpg" /></figure>Another great enhancement is the generative AI-based Visual Content Modeler, which creates the baseline for someone who isn’t as technical to set up the structure at the beginning of the process. This enables marketers to start the process and reduce the burden on developers.  “One of the things we also saw was that creating content models – thinking about content in a structured way – it's just not something that everybody knows how to do. But it's essential to be able to be able to scale your experiences over time and make them consistent.” <h3>Visually composing with the new Experience Builder in Contentful Studio</h3>In my demo with Mairead O'Donovan and Satya Krishnaswamy, I was blown away by some of the new features in the Contentful Studio – namely, the new Experience Builder. <img style="width:54.31%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contentful-mairead-satya.jpg" />Contentful Studio already empowers digital teams – including marketers, designers, and content creators – to manage and even visually assemble digital experiences for any channel, all without developer support. The Experience Builder takes composition to the next level. It provides a familiar, easy-to-use visual canvas that allows users to create on-brand experiences using their own design system components with a structured content foundation. This enables teams to combine creativity with governance to ensure consistency and scalability across every experience.As Satya walked me through the demo, I was immediately impressed by its elegance and simplicity. The UI was clean and compact, providing quick access to component libraries and content elements. It all felt very easy. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.01%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contenful-experience_builder.png" /></figure> With Contentful’s enhancements around external reference consolidation – and the use of its GraphQL API – all of the assets being used are complete with detailed information from their source system. For example, if a product originates in commercetools, Contentful delivers all of the relevant product information in JSON. Marketers no longer have a blind spot with just a product ID or have to go back to an outside system. Contentful delivers it all in a single call. Pretty slick. AI is also present throughout the Studio experience. Users can access the improved Content Generator to quickly create or recommend content, translations, and SEO keywords. The built-in AI Image Generator can also be used to render or manipulate images on the fly. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.35%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contentful-ai-image_generator.jpg" /></figure> “This new set of products is really directed at non-technical marketers,” Steve said. “And because it's built directly on top of Contentful, they still have all the benefits of structured content, which allows them to store, manage, and scale any type of content delivered to any device anywhere in the world in milliseconds. So you get all the benefits of the platform, but you have a purpose-built tool for non-developers.”<h3>Expanded partnerships and integrations in the Contentful Ecosystem</h3>According to the press release, the Contentful Ecosystem includes a growing portfolio of solution and technology partners, all with the goal of helping customers get to market faster with impactful digital experiences – the kind of experiences that meet customer expectations and drive business value. As part of the announcement, Contentful has added <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/newsroom/">new partnerships and enhanced integrations</a> from a deeper bench of best-in-class enterprise solutions. This includes <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions">AWS</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/salesforce-unveils-composable-storefront-a-digital-commerce-solution-to-help-retailers-go-headless-fast">Salesforce</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sap.com/index.html">SAP</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://segment.com/">Twilio Segment</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce">commercetools</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/bigcommerce-review-an-easy-to-use-choice-for-ecommerce-shops">BigCommerce</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/">Cloudinary</a>, and WPP – enabling digital teams to improve accessibility, analytics, and performance, simplify front-end dev, and streamline content operations to bring differentiated experiences to life quickly. This adds to the 80 partners that are already building on Contentful. As Steve pointed out, the growth in the ecosystem is being driven by composability – and choice. “Earlier on, there was this notion that we want to create great experiences on top of a cohesive platform,” he reinforced. “But customers demanded choice, right? And so giving them the opportunity to use the tools they need, not just the tools you happen to have – I think it's a very, very different orientation than the DSPs that are monolithic."AI is also present in the ecosystem, largely due to the focus on artificial intelligence by other technologies and solution providers. Advancements from partners include the new AI Content Detector from <a target="_blank" href="https://writer.com/ai-content-detector/">Writer</a>, which enables users to assess content that might be generated by AI so that they can maintain transparency and integrity. Additionally, the <a target="_blank" href="https://surferseo.com/">Surfer SEO</a> app delivers AI-driven search engine optimization, helping digital teams drive website traffic more effectively. <h3>What’s the availability and cost of the new features?</h3>Most of the new products and features are generally available and will begin rolling out in a limited, early-access program. Customers can expect additional announcements and updates to follow, particularly on AI. Contentful is finalizing the pricing and packaging details, which it plans to announce at a later date. For more info, you can visit <a target="_blank" href="http://contentful.com/whats-new">contentful.com/whats-new</a>.<h3>The Takeaway</h3>It’s hard not to be impressed with the scope of new features that Contentful has introduced, particularly its new Experience Builder. That said, on the AI side of the ledger, the market is drowning in noise – and it’s become exceedingly difficult to communicate real differentiation when many features swimming in a sea of sameness. What I really appreciate about Contentful’s approach is its focus on the customer. While others rushed to add AI, they took their time experimenting – but also breaking down the voice of the user to understand what’s at stake. They also doubled down on their efforts to solve real problems with orchestration, which unified content in new and impactful ways while providing the added benefit of training AI more effectively. And all their innovation was amplified by a deeper investment in their partner community. It looks like a win-win-win. As Steve mentioned, the word “trust” is going to be at the top of our collective AI vocabulary list. That’s a human construct, by the way – something AI can’t grasp. That means we need to focus on the right training, governance, and guardrails to deliver something that can truly be trusted. “A big part of it comes back these grumpy customers and understanding what their pain points were,” he conveyed. “They're really the inspiration for everything we're building, and our solution partners helped us discover those moments of pain and possible ways to solve it. We have a very active Partner Advisory Board, where we work with CTOs who are very close to our shared customers and their challenges. And we spend a lot of time getting input from them, finding creative ways to solve this next generation of problems.”

Contentful Unveils New Features and AI-Powered Capabilities to Accelerate Creativity for Digital Teams 

<hr /> If there's a bright spot in the CMS world, we have an idea where it's coming from. Earlier today, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/87074530-61f0-11ee-bdb2-5ba82a5c1cef?preview=true">Brightspot</a>, a leading provider of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management</a> solutions, announced a new version of its flagship product.With the launch of Brightspot CMS 4.7, businesses will be able to create, manage, and optimize content more quickly than ever using Brightspot’s “connect and create” integrations. These include a bevy of industry-leading connectors for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/shopify">Shopify</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/microsoft-sharepoint">SharePoint</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage">Microsoft OneDrive</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Drive">Google Drive</a>. The upgrade also introduces a host of new and noteworthy features, such as enhanced search and collaboration tools, a new site health framework, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3689973/what-is-generative-ai-artificial-intelligence-that-creates.html">generative AI</a> capabilities powered by <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">OpenAI.</a>“Brightspot aims to stand out as a content management system that empowers customers to easily shape their digital experiences and deliver great experiences to their users,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgang/">David Gang</a>, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Brightspot. “We are thrilled to launch version 4.7 of Brightspot, and to make Brightspot’s unparalleled CMS technology available to businesses looking to get on the fast track to effective content creation, optimization, and distribution." <h3>Capitalizing on continued market growth and demand</h3>Brightspot has carved a solid niche in the enterprise CMS market as a customer-focused partner. This makes sense, as the product was originally developed as part of Perfect Sense, a professional services agency founded in 2008. In August 2020, the firm fully embraced the Brightspot mantle, rebranding around the name of its core product. Now, with over 200 employees, the legacy of customer experience continues to be a key to its success. Brightspot's CMS offers extensive workflow, search, website development, and editing/publishing capabilities. The technology is designed to empower customers with simple or complex use cases to build amazing digital experiences with enterprise-grade capabilities. The new 4.7 release reflects a legacy of customer-focused features that are designed with users in mind. “Our latest innovations put flexibility and ease of use at the center of our platform,” said Gang, "and are part of our goals to continue to be leaders in redefining content management for an increasing number of use cases for our product and services.”In December 2021, Brightspot <a target="_blank" href="https://www.brightspot.com/about-us/news/brightspot-tailwind-capital-partnership">partnered with Tailwind Capital</a> to accelerate the next phase of its growth strategy. This included the continued expansion of its developer community and partner network to expand the reach and accessibility of its CMS.<h3>Lighting the way for content creators with a new design system</h3>One of the key updates in the 4.7 release is Brightspot’s enhanced design system. The new experience provides an easy, flexible tableau for modifying, extending, and fully customizing a pre-built presentation layer. This allows digital experiences to perfectly fit a company's brand while making them easy to change over time. The design system offers users multiple options for no-code, low-code, or fully custom front-end templates to make branded digital experiences possible – regardless of development resourcing or timeline requirements. It also boasts ready-to-use pages, modules and component templates, behaviors, interactions, and comprehensive styling options. For all content types in Brightspot CMS, there's also a complementary front-end version within the design system.<h3>Leveraging AI to auto-tag and structure content</h3>Brightspot CMS 4.7 builds on a highly extensible content management platform, enabling businesses to seamlessly integrate with their existing infrastructure based on their specific needs. The new integrations with Shopify, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and SharePoint enable customers to enrich their existing infrastructure investments with Brightspot. Additionally, users can access externally created content while working within the platform, fostering a more streamlined and efficient content creation process. Additionally, AI-driven auto-tagging and taxonomy capabilities reduce the manual burden of content categorization, ensuring that content is appropriately tagged and organized for enhanced discoverability and user experiences.<h3>Creating content faster with generative AI</h3>One of the centerpieces of 4.7 is the new OpenAI-assisted content capabilities, enabling users to craft high-quality content more rapidly and efficiently than ever before. The new feature leverages artificial intelligence to assist content creators, helping them generate engaging and relevant content ideas, drafts, and even complete articles with just a few simple prompts. With the introduction of generative AI, Brightspot is assisting content creators to overcome the challenges of writer's block and empower businesses with a new era of creative freedom and productivity. All of the new AI tools are offered as optional features in the new 4.7 release that can be enabled by customers.<h3>Managing content with robust search and collaboration tools</h3>Brightspot’s search functionality is a powerful way for customers to manage an abundance of content within the platform. With its enhanced search features, users can quickly identify the content they’re looking for via a preview of their asset – directly from the search panel.With the addition of “watcher tools,” users can also set up personalized content monitoring, ensuring they stay updated on specific content components as they move through the workflow.<h3>Easily optimize site performance with alerts and guides</h3>Brightspot CMS 4.7’s latest features help users optimize their website’s performance with an improved alert system, which promptly notifies administrators of potential issues that might impact SEO. This includes broken links, missing metadata, or content inconsistencies – empowering them to address these concerns proactively. Moreover, the inclusion of in-system guides offers field- and widget-level assistance for various features, allowing users to navigate the platform with ease and confidence.<h3>When is the new version available?</h3>Brightspot CMS 4.7 is now shipping to all current and new customers. To learn more about the latest features, visit <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.brightspot.com%2Fbrightspot-cms%2Fbrightspot-4-7&amp;esheet=53568134&amp;newsitemid=20231003760002&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.brightspot.com%2Fbrightspot-cms%2Fbrightspot-4-7&amp;index=1&amp;md5=1a64757ba8f332f09ce7f1ad51cedb4c">https://www.brightspot.com/brightspot-cms/brightspot-4-7</a>

Brightspot Launches Next-Generation CMS, Promises Seamless Content Creation and AI Features

Uniform’s Enterprise Visual Workspace Unifies Content, Data, AI and Technology in a Single Cloud for Marketers

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/consciaai">Conscia.ai</a> continues to orchestrate its growth in Europe by hiring top talent in the sales department.According to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7112396316755861504/">recent post</a>, the digital experience orchestration (DXO) platform has acquired the talents of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAADzNjEB4H18sFonShX1lqbOTGka-pRy6e4">Martin Sandvad</a>, appointing him as Sales Director for the Nordics region. Sandvad, a seasoned professional with a track record of success in the tech industry, brings extensive expertise to Conscia.ai as the company continues its expansion and innovation in the Digital Experience sector."We are thrilled to welcome Martin Sandvad to the Conscia.ai team," said <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/sana-remekie">Sana Remekie</a> CEO at Conscia.ai. "His impressive track record, industry expertise, and passion for driving innovation align perfectly with our company's mission to empower businesses with cutting-edge DXO solutions. We are confident that Martin will play a pivotal role in expanding our presence in the Nordics and delivering value to our customers."Sandvad's appointment comes at a time of significant growth for Conscia.ai as it continues to expand its portfolio of DXO products and services. According to the company, his leadership will be instrumental in driving Conscia.ai's mission to empower businesses with DXO solutions that enhance efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness in the composable software space.<h3>A proven track record in digital experience </h3>Sandvad is a well-known figure in the tech industry, having previously served as the CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/ucommerce">Ucommerce,</a> a prominent e-commerce platform, and CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://ka-ching.dk/en/">Ka-ching</a>, a leading Omnichannel POS provider. He is also the owner of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/ssaas-it/">SSaaS.IT</a>, a Software Sales as a Service company. Sandvad has deep knowledge and experience in the Scandinavian and Nordic markets. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/conscia/">Conscia.ai</a>'s sales and business development efforts across this market region, working closely with the company's leadership team to develop and execute strategies for growth, forge strategic partnerships, and ensure Conscia continues to deliver AI solutions that meet the unique needs of businesses in the region. "I am excited to join <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/conscia/">Conscia.ai</a> and be part of a team that is at the forefront of Digital Experience innovation," said Sandvad. "The potential for Composable orchestration to transform industries and drive value is enormous. I look forward to leveraging my experience and working with the talented <a target="_blank" href="http://conscia.ai/">Conscia.ai</a> team to help businesses in the Nordics harness the power of Digital Experience Orchestration.”<h3>Targeting growth with key leadership in sales</h3>Sandvad's news follows the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/conscia-ai-appoints-bart-omlo-to-global-head-of-sales">hiring of Bart Omlo</a> as Head of Global Sales last May. Omlo brings nearly two decades of experience in enterprise content management to his leadership role at Conscia.ai. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Sales at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kentico.com/">Kentico</a> and later as CEO at <a target="_blank" href="https://kontent.ai/">Kontent.ai</a> – where he was integral to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-ai-raises-40-million-to-bring-the-power-of-ai-to-content-management/">raising $40 million</a> in Series A funding for the startup.Omlo expressed his excitement about Sandvad's appointment, stating, “Martin's arrival at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/conscia/">Conscia.ai</a> signifies a significant milestone in our growth journey. His deep industry knowledge and leadership experience will further strengthen our commitment to providing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=dxo&amp;highlightedUpdateUrns=urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7112396316755861504">#DXO</a> solutions that drive real business impact for our clients.”

Conscia.ai Appoints Martin Sandvad as Sales Director for Nordics Region, Charts New Growth

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.acquia.com%2F&amp;esheet=53562233&amp;newsitemid=20230926081541&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Acquia&amp;index=1&amp;md5=46b436eac75e045c3943e4b32780e2c2&amp;_gl=1*gg94ok*_ga*MTYzMDUzNjQ4Ni4xNjk1NzYxODcz*_ga_ZQWF70T3FK*MTY5NTc2MTg3My4xLjAuMTY5NTc2MTg3My42MC4wLjA.">Acquia</a>, a leading digital experience platform (DXP), just announced the launch of its new integration hub, <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.acquia.com%2Fintegrations&amp;esheet=53562233&amp;newsitemid=20230926081541&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Acquia+Exchange&amp;index=2&amp;md5=ac3e2ee75d2d4bbb36f68483690c60c0">Acquia Exchange</a> – a solution aimed at enhancing the flexibility and extensibility of its digital experience platform. Acquia Exchange offers customers a single destination to discover integrations, connectors, and modules that enhance Acquia solutions and connect them to those of other technology providers. This intuitive hub makes it easier for organizations to extend the power of their DXP using proven technology from Acquia’s ecosystem of SaaS partners.“Acquia’s DXP provides a platform that can easily integrate with products from other providers, so customers can create the solutions that best meet their needs,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannaballew/">Deanna Ballew</a>, Senior Vice President of DXP Products at Acquia. “With Acquia Exchange, customers can take their Acquia products further, expand on the foundations of their martech stack, and connect those tools within their preferred digital ecosystem. Because Acquia solutions are open and connections already exist with leading martech products, our customers can maximize use of their data and content across their own digital experience platforms.”<h3>Leading the evolution in the composable era of DXPs</h3>As an open and composable DXP, Acquia allows for integrations with a wide range of third-party marketing, sales, and digital technologies. This enables customers to build the most productive digital experiences that meet the precise requirements of their own audiences. Now, with Acquia Exchange, customers can explore integrations by company name, technology category, or Acquia product.Acquia Exchange helps customers discover three different types of integrations:<ul><li>Native: Developed and supported by Acquia. For example, customers may tap into a native integration to connect multiple affiliated Brightcove accounts with the Acquia digital asset management platform (Acquia DAM) to better manage video content.</li><li>Partner: Developed and supported by an Acquia technology partner or a solution partner. For instance, customers who want to use Yext with Acquia Open DXP can sync core entity types such as articles, places, events, people, and pages from Drupal into Yext using connectors.</li><li>Community: Developed and supported by a third-party vendor. For example, customers can deploy analytics from a web-based user interface to collect data about their Drupal website’s traffic and activity, and then send it to the Google Analytics platform.</li></ul><h3>Tapping the power of partners</h3>Acquia Exchange is an enhancement to the Acquia Technology Alliance Partner program, allowing an easier way for partners to promote their solutions and connect with customers.“As a technology vendor, I hear ‘partnering’ everywhere these days; the word has become so overused it almost has no meaning,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fulmeric/">Eric Fulmer</a>, CEO of ShotFlow and Acquia Technology Alliance Program partner. “The difference when partnering with Acquia is a true commitment to [solving] client problems. Partnering is a long-term strategy to create better solutions for our mutual clients, and it’s baked into the Acquia culture.”

Acquia Launches Acquia Exchange, Adding an Integration Hub to its Open and Composable DXP

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/kentico">Kentico</a> is kicking things up on the headless hybrid field.The award-winning provider of digital experience and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management</a> software just announced that Mainz 05, a renowned German football club, has successfully launched its new website using <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kentico.com/platforms/xperience-by-kentico">Xperience by Kentico</a>, the cutting-edge hybrid headless digital experience platform (DXP).<a target="_blank" href="https://www.mainz05.de/">Mainz 05</a>, a prestigious German football club with more than 100 years of rich history, has captured the hearts of sports enthusiasts worldwide with captivating performances and dedication to the game. Renowned for its passionate fan base and unwavering support, Mainz 05 has established a strong reputation within the football community, both domestically and internationally. With a drive to succeed, Mainz 05 continues to leave an indelible mark on the world of football.<h3>Scoring a digital triumph: Kentico passes to Mainz 05 for a goal</h3>Mainz 05 united with Kentico partners <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kuehlhaus.com/">kuehlhaus AG</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://bluesoft.com/">Bluesoft</a> to launch a new website built on the new hybrid headless platform Xperience by Kentico. The Bundesliga club’s progressive digital team was looking for an innovative digital experience platform to put at the center of its complex digital ecosystem. They wanted to reduce the size of their technology stack and replace several technologies with one multi-functional DXP. The goal was to get all the needed capabilities for less effort, lower cost, and with fewer products.Mainz 05 developed the website in phases aligned with the roadmap of the DXP. After the initial launch of the website on July 14, 2023, the project will continue with the implementation of digital marketing features such as Contact Management, Audience Segmentation, Email Marketing and Marketing Automation, and Cross-site Activity Tracking. Eventually, multiple channels – the website, an app, and social channels, will be managed from the single DXP.Given the specific needs of the football club, the solution had to be highly customized. And Xperience by Kentico was the perfect fit, thanks to its flexibility. The platform is being rapidly developed, aiming to help customers drive better business outcomes with fewer resources by minimizing overhead and maximizing ROI. It offers built-in ready-to-use capabilities to meet the company’s needs today but can be scaled and extended with integrations in the future. Although Xperience by Kentico can be implemented as SaaS (software as a service), Mainz 05 decided to deploy it on-premises, in a way that suits its specific needs better.“Xperience by Kentico’s architecture allows us to modernize and focus on the capabilities our customers really need," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-xperience-pinter/">Dominik Pinter,</a> CEO, Kentico. "It will help them build the right set of channels for their target markets and provide the tools they need as they grow and evolve.” <h3>The winning play: Kentico's Customer Success services</h3>Kentico also provides tailored Customer Success services that Mainz 05 and the implementation partners leveraged. To ensure the success of this project, Kentico’s Customer Success Managers and technical support team consulted during every step of the implementation and suggested possible solutions for challenges that arose during the process. Kentico also helped Mainz 05 with editor training.“Our collaboration with Mainz 05 was based on an agile and iterative project approach. This iterative approach enabled us to react quickly to change requests, to introduce new ideas, and to continuously improve the quality of the solution,” says <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianreschke/">Christian Reschke</a>, CEO of the digital agency kuehlhaus AG. “Xperience by Kentico allowed us to hit all of Mainz 05’s project requirements, and the support from the Kentico team complemented our agile and iterative approach, which allowed us to implement the DXP at speed. With a phased approach, Mainz 05 has successfully released its website, and future plans include implementing digital marketing features and managing multiple channels from the centralized DXP. With its flexibility and scalability, the customized solution provided by Kentico perfectly aligns with Mainz 05's unique requirements. As Mainz 05 continues to excel on the field, its partnership with Kentico ensures it delivers exceptional digital experiences to fans and stakeholders alike.“The decision to relaunch our website on Xperience by Kentico marks a milestone in our digital transformation journey. Working with Kentico and partners kuehlhaus AG and Bluesoft has enabled us to map and further develop our complex digital ecosystem on a single powerful platform”, says <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-sparwasser-231ba3220/">Tobias Sparwasser</a>, Director of Communication and Media at Mainz 05.  “Xperience by Kentico will sustainably improve the digital fan journey and optimize our internal processes.”

Mainz 05 Football Club Scores with New Website on Xperience by Kentico, the Hybrid Headless DXP

<hr /> It's a regular Wednesday eve, and you are rushing against the clock to update the material on your website. A product launch is approaching, and every second matters. While you're methodically fine-tuning the pages of your website, you're bombarded with consumer questions, each begging for your attention. It appears like the digital world never sleeps.A friendly AI-powered <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatbot">chatbot</a> on your <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">Content Management System (CMS)</a> is here to improve your website. It's not a human intern or an overwhelmed support person; it's designed to help.The deployment of chatbots has revolutionized AI-driven conversational interfaces in CMS. In this article, we'll delve into the evolution of chatbots and their crucial role in Content Management Systems. <h3>Defining the significance of chatbots in Content Management Systems (CMS)</h3>Chatbots are AI-powered virtual assistants designed to engage users in natural language conversations. Think of them as the digital world's Swiss Army knives – capable of autonomously handling customer inquiries, providing product information, and processing orders. Chatbots have become indispensable companions for website owners and businesses of all sizes in Content Management Systems. They assume the role of intelligent gatekeepers, enabling efficient web content management while ensuring your customers' voices are heard and their needs met. Whether you're a budding software unicorn or an e-commerce startup, integrating chatbots into your CMS can yield transformative results.<h3>Advancements in technology</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence">Artificial Intelligence (AI)</a> has traversed a considerable distance, transcending its initial status as a mere buzzword to emerge as a catalytic force driving transformation across diverse industries. Within the domain of chatbots, AI's relentless progress stands as the chief catalyst propelling their evolution.Keeping this in mind, let’s have a look at some innovations in AI technology:<ul><li>Natural language processing: AI has evolved to grasp human language remarkably akin to our comprehension. NLP algorithms empower chatbots to discern context, tone, and even sentiment within the text, adding user interactions with a heightened sense of humanity and empathy.  </li><li>Machine learning: Chatbots have transcended the confines of rule-based responses. Machine learning algorithms enable them to glean insights from every conversation, progressively enhancing their intelligence with each interaction. They adeptly tailor recommendations and solutions based on user behavior and preferences.  </li><li>Voice and visual recognition: The future of chatbots extends well beyond text-based interactions. Voice and visual recognition technologies empower chatbots to communicate through speech and images, expanding their applications within CMS and across diverse domains.  </li><li>Integration with CMS platforms: Contemporary CMS platforms embrace chatbot integration with open arms, furnishing APIs and plugins that simplify the process. This mutually beneficial relationship between CMS and AI chatbots streamlines content management and augments the quality of customer interactions.</li></ul><h3>Benefits of AI chatbots in CMS</h3>Integrating chatbots into CMS platforms is transformative. Here's how it could revolutionize content management:<ul><li>Simplified content updates: Content updates and revisions are part and parcel of managing a website or application. Content marketers may additionally expedite these processes via integrating chatbots into CMS. Chatbots might also assist with content material identity, recommend pertinent updates, or even make minor modifications, releasing up human sources for extra tough obligations.   </li><li>Content recommendations: Chatbots can also examine consumer interactions with website content and provide content material writers with important information. They can propose subjects currently trending or in excessive demand, helping content managers create more relevant and pleasing content.   </li><li>Real-time analytics: Understanding user behavior is critical for developing a powerful content strategy. This is when chatbots come in handy! Chatbots utilize actual-time analytics to reap insights into personal behavior and preferences, which may be used to enhance content, layout, and the general user experience.  </li><li>SEO Optimization: <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization">Search Engine Optimization (SEO)</a> is critical for driving organic website traffic. Chatbots can assist in SEO optimization by analyzing keyword trends, suggesting relevant keywords for content material, and tracking the internet site's search engine ranking. This guarantees that the content stays visible to the target market. </li></ul><h3>Crucial challenges in AI integration to CMS</h3>While the integration of AI-driven chatbots into CMS brings significant benefits, it also presents some challenges:<ul><li>Data quality and availability: AI algorithms require outstanding and relevant data to function correctly. Many corporations seek to acquire and keep the necessary data for AI integration, and CMS systems might not usually offer clean admission to the required data resources.   </li><li>User acceptance and training: Users, including content material creators and administrators, might also withstand AI integration due to worry of activity displacement or the accuracy of AI-driven decisions. Providing good enough training and demonstrating the advantages of AI can be tricky.   </li><li>Ethical and regulatory compliance: Ensuring that AI-powered CMS solutions adhere to ethical standards and comply with relevant regulations, such as data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR), can be complex. Organizations must be vigilant in handling sensitive information and averting bias in AI algorithms.   </li><li>Scalability: Scalability is essential as organizations grow and produce more content. Maintaining the performance and responsiveness of AI-driven CMS features as the content volume and user interactions increase can be a significant technical challenge.</li></ul>Addressing these challenges requires careful planning, resources, and a clear strategy for integrating AI into CMS effectively. It also involves monitoring and adapting to evolving technologies and user needs<h3>What lies ahead for generative AI and Chatbots?</h3>The next step in generative AI for chatbots involves creating more advanced conversational agents that naturally understand and respond to human language. This includes integrating generative AI with deep learning, neural networks, and natural language processing technologies.One potential advancement is enabling chatbots to recognize and respond to human emotions by integrating emotional recognition technology. For instance, a chatbot could detect when a customer is frustrated and respond empathetically.Another area of improvement is enabling chatbots to have more complex conversations. This involves integrating generative AI with advanced natural language processing to understand and respond to intricate sentence structures, idiomatic expressions, and context.<h3>Conclusion</h3>The future of chatbots in CMS involves AI and human-machine interaction. As technology advances, businesses and website owners must adapt, harnessing AI-driven chatbots to enhance user experiences and streamline operations. Don't lag; let AI-driven chatbots guide you into a future where your website thrives, and your customers always feel heard and valued!

The Future of Chatbots: AI-Driven Conversational Interfaces in CMS

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