Articles - Page 26

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Here's Why CMS Is Your 'Unsung Hero' in 2025

janus-boye

The "Muskavation" of <a href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> continues, and the social media giant's newly anointed King is forcing many tech companies to reassess their remote work strategies.
Could this mean the end of <a href="https://zoom.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoom</a> calls in pajamas and board meetings interrupted by cats?
And who, exactly, is resuming their commute back to the office?
While the remote work phenomenon might be in the rearview for many employees, it seems that developers will continue to drive the trend – and even shape its future. This is according to a recent survey published by <a href="https://www.netlify.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Netlify</a>, a buzzworthy platform that's powering modern web development.
The company announced the findings last week from its third annual <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3700082-1&amp;h=3410126094&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fjamstack.org%2Fsurvey%2F2022%2F&amp;a=%C2%A0Jamstack+Community+Survey" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Jamstack Community Survey</a>, the definitive pulse on global trends across the Jamstack web developer ecosystem. An acronym for Javascript, APIs, and Microservices (the "JAM"), <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Jamstack</a> is an architectural model that decouples the web experience layer from the data and business logic – improving the flexibility, scalability, performance, and maintainability of modern apps. 
"The Jamstack Community Survey is created by the community, for the community," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-biilmann-christensen-a5a3805/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Biilmann</a>, co-founder and CEO of Netlify. "The findings will not only help developers learn from their peers but also help business leaders better understand how developers can be change makers within their organizations. They can learn about what tools and processes they need to be most impactful."
Along with prognosticating the future of remote work, the survey also revealed interesting data from developers about Web3, the growth of serverless and edge computing, and where content management systems fit in the mix.
<h2>For developers, remote work isn't going away </h2>
As Covid-19 lockdowns become a footnote in recent history, the impact of remote work is undeniable. In the last two years, it has cemented itself as "the new normal." 83% of developers claim to be working more than half the time remotely, while 76% say they've maintained or increased their frequency of working remotely in the last year.
What's clear in the survey results is that remote has become the preferred way of working for developers. In fact, 87% say they enjoy remote work – and an astounding 55% said they would quit their jobs if forced to return to an office. Someone should send Musk the memo. 
According to the survey, 33% of respondents have already changed jobs in the last year, increasing the likelihood that developers will not hesitate to "job-hop" if they need to. It's worth noting that remote work flexibility and career growth opportunities were the most frequently cited reasons for leaving a job, followed by compensation.
Clearly, developers value freedom a little more than finances. At least right now. 
<h2>Web3 hope... or hype?</h2>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web3</a> has captured the tech zeitgeist throughout 2022, with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-18/bitcoin-responds-to-ftx-contagion-by-heading-for-a-weekly-gain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bitcoin</a> starting the year at around $50,000 to the beleaguered <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/15/ftx-says-could-have-over-1-million-creditors-in-new-bankruptcy-filing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FTX exchange just declaring bankruptcy</a>. 
While the concept of a new web composed of decentralized blockchains (DeFi) is intriguing, Web3 has also been the target of mistrust and skepticism. According to the survey, 7% to 10% of developers have tried technologies like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but only 3% report using them regularly.
To help gauge the hope and the hype for the future, Netlify also asked developers to share their general attitudes toward Web3. The findings were mixed: 42% of developers either don't know what Web3 is (or don't care), while 31% had negative feelings about it.
Bottom line: the survey shows that Web3 is still a long way from mass adoption, and developers continue to be slow and cautious about embracing it. 
<h2>Building better web experiences with serverless and edge </h2>
Jamstack is continuing to evolve the modern web by helping developers build more dynamic websites. Developers are relying on cutting-edge cloud technologies to achieve this, including <a href="https://goserverless.solodev.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">serverless computing</a>.
To that end, Netlify's 2022 Jamstack report found that serverless is now officially mainstream: 70% of developers report using it, up from 46% last year – a jaw-dropping adoption rate. Meanwhile, some 47% of developers are experimenting with edge dynamic sites, a sign of the continued innovation happening at the network edge.
Serverless technology is enabling Jamstack websites to grow their capabilities while maintaining the simplicity of development and deployment that is the hallmark of the platform.
<h2>Web frameworks and programming languages </h2>
To build dynamic web apps, developers require flexibility. They want to choose whichever web framework best suits their needs, and they now have plenty to choose from.
Among the landscape of options, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uxpin-merge-review-sync-react-components-with-prototypes/">React</a> continues to be the overwhelming favorite, with 71% of developers reporting they build with it – 3% more than last year.
Riding React's popularity is <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Next.js</a>, which uses React and is the overall most popular web framework. In fact, 1 in 2 developers (47%) say they have built sites using Next.js in the last year. However, competition remains strong: newer entrants like Astro (11%) and SolidJS (6%) have had promising starts, and Remix (10%) and Sveltekit (15%) have grown steadily year over year. Vite saw an 18% increase since 2021, with a third (32%) of developers using it.
"We're thrilled that a third of the Jamstack community is embracing Vite as they build for the modern web," said Matias Capeletto (aka Patak), from the Vite Core Team. "Vite's usage more than doubled in a year, thanks to being adopted by many modern app frameworks and web tools. The pace of innovation continues to accelerate. Vite's Rollup-based Plugin API allows the ecosystem to share solutions and collaborate in ways we haven't seen before."
Regarding programming language preferences, the great <a href="https://www.typescriptlang.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TypeScript</a> migration continues, with usage growing 110% in the last two years. 21% of developers now call TypeScript their primary programming language, while the number of developers who say the same about JavaScript has dropped from 63% to 53% in the same timeframe. However, JavaScript isn't going anywhere soon: 96% of developers say they use it, even if it isn't their primary choice.
<h2>The CMS of choice is still WordPress, but... </h2>
In the world of Content Management Systems (CMS), things continue to evolve. <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wordpress-keeps-classical-editor-alive-acquires-frontity-to-expand-headless-capabilities/">WordPress</a> is still by far the biggest winner, with 37% of devs saying they use it – even though their reported satisfaction with it is lower than many alternatives.
Interestingly, WordPress as a stand-alone CMS is losing share. At the same time, 22% of respondents said that they're using WordPress as a headless API to power a Jamstack website – and that number is growing.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/storybloks-cms-report-shows-enterprises-are-still-scared-of-omnichannel-content-experiences/">Storyblok</a>, a newcomer to the survey, reached 9% usage amongst respondents, a strong showing for the up-and-coming <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a>. 
"More and more developers realize the potential of headless architecture in building and deploying better web experiences," said Dominik Angerer, CEO and founder of Storyblok. "At the same time, we believe that the content team utilizing the power of Jamstack with a headless CMS like Storyblok gets the content tools they need and love for creating great experiences on the frontend."
To explore the findings in more detail, you can view the <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3700082-1&amp;h=4098052836&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fjamstack.org%2Fsurvey%2F2022%2F&amp;a=full+methodology+of+the+survey" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">full methodology of the survey</a>.
<h2 class="wcag-arialevel-3">About Netlify</h2>
Netlify is the platform your developers love for building highly-performant and dynamic websites, e-commerce stores and web apps. By uniting an extensive ecosystem of technologies, services and APIs into one workflow, Netlify unlocks new levels of team productivity, while saving time and money. As pioneers of the Jamstack movement, Netlify brings together all modern web frameworks, serverless functions and edge computing into one platform to deliver unmatched user experiences. Millions of developers and businesses build with Netlify, from Fortune 500 companies like Unilever and Verizon to companies changing our digital experiences like Peloton and Twilio. Get started for free at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3700082-1&amp;h=2291442546&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netlify.com%2F&amp;a=netlify.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">netlify.com</a>.

Netlify Publishes Jamstack Community Survey, Shows Developers are Driving the Future of Remote Work

cms-critic-staff

Image of the Netlify logo with the icon and text against a dark blue background.

When the MACH Alliance first arrived on the scene in June of 2020, the composable movement was still gestating. While monoliths and industry watchers pondered its fierce, no-exceptions-allowed membership requirement to be 100 percent focused on MACH, it's now clear that many vendors and agencies are adopting this posture – a clear signal that composability is shaping business strategy.
To that end, the <a href="http://www.machalliance.org/">MACH Alliance</a> announced this week that three new member companies have joined its ranks: <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en">Bloomreach</a>, <a href="https://www.emporix.com/">Emporix</a>, and <a href="https://kontent.ai/">Kontent.ai</a>. These additions bring the group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems to more than 70. Worth noting: two of these vendors have recently adapted their models to become hyperfocused on MACH principles to meet the horizon of composable opportunities. 
“As with all new members that join the Alliance, we feel tremendous pride in continuing to attract such a reputable group of global leaders who believe in our mission,” said Casper Rasmussen, MACH Alliance president. “The fact we’re seeing companies like Bloomreach and Kontent.ai reshape their portfolio and product strategy sends a strong message to the market that MACH is not only the future standard for enterprise technology best practice, it’s the standard now."
<h2>Expanding the MACH movement and evolving the ecosystem</h2>
The embracing of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH</a> – an acronym for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless – is no mystery. Composable architectures are giving companies a deeper level of agility, allowing them to deliver new features to customers at greater speed. But there are other considerations influencing the move to MACH, including the palpable presence of softening IT budgets and the specter of a global recession. 
"At a time when economic factors have forced many organizations to cut back spending on technology and innovation, we’re seeing that businesses who’ve embraced MACH are faring better by being able to adapt and respond faster,” said Rasmussen. 
To be certain, MACH is requiring a new philosophical mindset to embrace its foundational principles successfully. But based on the rapid scale of its membership community – which includes individual ambassadors that are champions for the cause – it's evident that more platforms and integrators are willing to make the shift and realize the benefits.
As previously noted, all members of the MACH Alliance must meet a stringent set of <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence">certification standards</a> and pass muster with the Alliance's unbiased panel of reviewers. To carry the coveted "MACH Certified" seal, a company must be in full compliance with the organization's standards at all times. As we've covered in past interviews and articles, the Alliance has dismissed members based on acquisitions or other circumstances that have altered their posture.  
<h2>Welcoming Bloomreach, Emporix, and Kontent.ai to the MACH Alliance</h2>
According to the Alliance's press release, the three new members announced this week will join a cadre of leading platform and solution providers, including some of the biggest names in global tech. They will also be in the company of advanced "MACH enablers" that provide cloud infrastructure services and solution ecosystems, including <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions/">AWS</a>.
The three new certified members of the MACH Alliance include:
Bloomreach: Launched in 2009 as an algorithm-powered platform for improving online experiences, Bloomreach has fully transformed into a composable commerce experience cloud, delivering industry-leading personalization and digital commerce growth. The company has undergone a major shift in product strategy over the past 18 months and is now 100 percent focused on MACH – enabling it to achieve Alliance certification. Bloomreach offers a range of composable solutions including AI-driven search and merchandising, a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a>, a leading CDP, and marketing automation capabilities.
Emporix: A composable commerce platform that enables bigger, more engaged, and more efficient B2B and B2C, Emporix enables organizations to digitize and run their businesses with a cloud-native technology for building channels. Its open, modular, API-first ecosystem and easy-to-use, no-code interface are some of the many attributes that earned Empoix its MACH Alliance certification.
Kontent.ai: A modular content platform that enables global content and engineering teams to plan, create, and deliver experiences across channels, Kontent.ai was previously a business unit within the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kentico-cloud-whats-it-all-about/">Kentico</a> software portfolio. Spun off as a standalone entity in July of 2022, the cloud-native service is now purely focused on MACH – and positioned for membership in the Alliance.
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members, or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website. The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. Learn more at<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fmachalliance.org%2F&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=machalliance.org&amp;index=5&amp;md5=db9d7bdff8c8646152c1923d3ff4adc2"> machalliance.org</a>, read here about<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fmachalliance.org%2Fblogdetail%2Fbltfc0a3afbca44303e&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=MACH+certification&amp;index=6&amp;md5=ba1c5d6e1bf42963a3a8bb59771d09da"> MACH certification</a> and follow us on<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fmachalliance&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Twitter&amp;index=7&amp;md5=dfeea3f8422d14d51b860d90329a6837"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fmachalliance&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=LinkedIn&amp;index=8&amp;md5=a1db2958e174d041221c1705e694b6f0"> LinkedIn</a>.

Bloomreach, Emporix, and Kontent.ai Join MACH Alliance, Pushing Member Total Over 70

matt-garrepy

Composite of the MACH Alliance logo above icons for Bloomreach, Emporix, and Kontent.ai

<a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia's</a> putting the pedal to the metal in the headless race. 
Recently, the digital experience platform provider released an open source headless starter kit within the company’s <a href="https://www.acquia.com/platform/content-management-systems">content management system, Acquia CMS</a>. The kit expands existing Acquia CMS offerings, which empower organizations to accelerate the building of traditional Drupal-based applications.
Dubbed the "Acquia CMS Headless Starter Kit," the new solution gives developers a powerful set of tools to speed time to market, reduce operational costs, and gain flexibility in launching new digital initiatives quickly. Acquia introduced the new kit to developers at its customer and partner event, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/engage">Acquia Engage</a>.
<h2>Building on the growth of headless and hybrid Drupal apps</h2>
According to the company's press release, Acquia has many customers who have already built <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a> and hybrid Drupal applications to create innovative digital experiences. Headless and hybrid architecture makes it possible for organizations to deliver content to more than just a traditional web browser. With a headless CMS architecture, organizations can deliver content to digital signage, wearable devices, chatbots, mobile applications, kiosks, and more.
The Acquia CMS Headless Starter Kit gives organizations the tools they need to build a modern headless or hybrid application up to 50% faster, with Drupal as the backend that powers one or more frontends. Existing Drupal users can also leverage the Headless Starter Kit to extend their existing Drupal application. 
“Managing content across current and emerging channels and devices is a major challenge for many organizations,” said Dries Buytaert, creator of Drupal and co-founder and CTO of Acquia. “As an accelerator for developing hybrid and headless applications, the Acquia CMS Headless Starter Kit offers out-of-the-box optimizations to reduce time to market with new and innovative digital experiences. This flexibility makes it possible for developers to use the components of Acquia CMS and Drupal that they need most—with the ultimate goal of getting the right content to the right user in the right channel at the right time.”
A headless approach works well for organizations that want to provide content through multiple API endpoints and modern JavaScript frontends. Others may prefer a hybrid approach, which provides similar API access for developers while empowering business users with low-code and no-code tools for application building. Acquia CMS provides the best of both worlds, giving organizations the freedom to choose the right path for their needs.
<h2>Leveraging Next.js to power frontend experiences</h2>
As headless strategies power more of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">JAMstack</a>, companies are turning to static site generators to deliver faster websites that are decoupled from a traditional CMS. To complement the Acquia CMS Headless Starter Kit, Acquia has also released a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Next.js</a> Starter Kit to help accelerate the build of frontend applications that display content created in the headless CMS. This combo gives organizations the ability to support both the front and backend of their digital content experiences. 
"Headless and hybrid CMSes give organizations the freedom to use the newest frontend technology, while retaining their investment in their legacy systems and content backend,” said Marci Maddox, Research Vice President, Digital Experience Strategies, IDC. “This could be particularly attractive for commerce users, such as retailers, CPG companies, and others where brand managers require full control over the content that appears across multiple sites, or want the flexibility to change things such as site navigation or product categorization over time. The Acquia CMS headless starter kit can help organizations experience the benefits of a headless CMS; bringing together developers and content creators in a modern environment."
<h2>Key features of the Acquia CMS Headless Starter Kit</h2>
Here are a few of the noteworthy features in the Acquia CMS Headless Starter Kit:
<ul>
<li>Specialized Headless Developer Role: Frontend developers have a dedicated role inside the CMS for accessing API docs and managing access for frontend applications connecting to the CMS.</li>
<li>Marketer-friendly Content Preview: Users can preview content through their Next.js application from inside the CMS.</li>
<li>Omni-channel Made Easy: Connect content to multiple frontends that communicate across multiple channels.</li>
<li>Robust API Dashboard: A dedicated dashboard for frontend developers to manage all headless integration aspects with the CMS.</li>
<li>Flexible Headless and Hybrid UI Modes: Users can operate in a pure headless mode or in hybrid mode where Drupal is still used to render a frontend.</li>
<li>Simplified Data Modeling: Revamped admin navigation brings all the data modeling controls under a single menu that makes sense in a purely headless CMS.</li>
</ul>
The open source Acquia CMS Headless Starter Kit is freely available for download. To learn more about Acquia CMS, visit <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/drupal-cloud/acquia-cms">https://www.acquia.com/products/drupal-cloud/acquia-cms</a>.
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that engage customers, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">https://acquia.com</a>.

Acquia DXP Releases Open Source Headless CMS Accelerator

If you’ve ever used <a href="https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Lighthouse</a> (or a similar tool), you’ve probably experienced that sobering moment when the results surface… and you realize your website is slow.
Or, at the very least, slower than you thought.
Website performance testing is an elemental function. It’s core to delivering and maintaining a positive user experience for any business or organization. And speed is just one dimension: brands need to be concerned about quality, accessibility, and a host of other variables that impact UX.
Of course, the most important part of any website testing regimen is what you do with the results to optimize and improve – so future tests look better. 
As it turns out, your specific industry might reveal a lot about your sensitivity to customer needs relative to your website performance. That’s what the team at <a href="https://www.contensis.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Contensis</a>, an enterprise content management system, discovered in its recent analysis of all FTSE 100 and 250 homepages.
Contensis <a href="https://www.contensis.com/community/blog/ftse-website-performance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published its research</a> in the beginning of August, but we finally got a chance to sit down with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-chivers-34a36b11/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richard Chivers</a>, the key man behind the platform, to talk about the report's goals and what Contensis has been doing to help organizations build better-performing websites.
<h2>A legacy of CMS innovation </h2>
One might say that Rich Chivers is Contensis. During his 23 -year tenure at <a href="https://www.zengenti.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zengenti</a>, the parent company of the CMS platform, he has served as head of development, CTO, and now CEO. Within that stretch, Chivers helped grow Contensis within the UK market where the company is based, with international customers in regions like Canada and Italy.
In his current role, Chivers is helping to guide the strategic direction of the core Contensis product as it enters its next chapter. “Seeing the rise of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a>, it’s massive,” he said. That’s underscored by the platform’s hybrid capabilities to serve both traditional and headless roles in an omnichannel strategy. The platform's focus on easy-to-use CMS features like content modeling with fast, adaptable, and reusable content types have put wind in its sails, allowing it to compete head-to-head with other modern platforms designed for content operations. 
We also discussed the nature of being composable as a modern digital experience tool. “The composable way of thinking is how we’ve been since the beginning,” he said. “Contensis has always tried to provide the basics to keep things simple. For 90% of cases, that works. But if they want something specialized, we recommend other resources to integrate with.”
Since 2001, Zengenti has been “crafting and refining” Contensis, providing a stream of improvements. Now, the Zengenti practice seems focused on providing expanded services that include hosting, design, UX, project management, and other web-related disciplines. They have a team of 30 people dedicated to custom development and implementation, and 40% of their customers choose Contensis for these optional services.
“We have agency partners, and we provide training and resources,” said Chivers. “We try to remain agnostic and let the customer design it [the project] how they want to.”
<h2>Big players, slow webpages: unpacking the FTSE 100 and 250 research</h2>
According to Chivers, Contensis has always focused on higher education, where accessibility is an essential baseline requirement. As he noted, they “know the space” and were building with accessibility in mind before much of the web and digital experience industry.
When asked about the research and what prompted it, Chivers said that they saw an opportunity to focus on a larger portion of the market and reveal what was happening around readability and content governance. This led to the testing engagement – which was quite revealing.
When a second can mean the difference between a buy and a bounce, it’s fair to say that performance measurement has become critical for every online business. But as Contensis discovered in the study, it’s companies in the media and publishing industry that are optimizing for success. Contensis provided a table of industry sectors and their respective Lighthouse scores, which illustrates how sectors like retail and travel – businesses that rely heavily on digital performance – are lagging. Interestingly, areas like manufacturing and logistics are doing very well, perhaps for a myriad of reasons such as fewer digital commerce requirements. 
Contensis used three dimensions of Google Lighthouse measurements – performance, accessibility, and homepage speed – to develop its scoring rubric. Chivers noted that the biggest eye-opener was around accessibility and the disparity between categories like travel and hospitality. With 22 percent of UK citizens living with some manner of disability, Chivers noted that improving accessibility would be a “win-win for the sector and their customers.”
<h2>Increased competition and economic challenges</h2>
As CMS becomes an increasingly commoditized layer of the digital stack, legacy platforms must find new ways to enhance their features while energizing their user base. As Chivers noted, much has changed across the CMS landscape in the last decade, particularly with how organizations select platforms.
“Everyone was handing the problem of a website to a monolith provider,” he said. “That’s how we used to be ten years ago. Where we [Contensis] sit today is that we offer a completely headless CMS with everything you would expect from the content side – and more.” This includes APIs, a deployment platform, hosting, and even the freedom for developers to build in any language they prefer.
“With Contensis, you have one house under which all things sit,” said Chivers. “You don’t have to have a big DevOps team to create CI flows – like a large organization using AWS and other tools that need three or four people just to deliver.”
As the enterprise software market faces the growing specter of a global economic recession, we asked Chivers how Contensis and the CMS category might be challenged by the headwinds. He took it in stride, noting that he successfully navigated his company through the previous recession and they're buoyed by customers in the public sector, including local government and higher education. These organizations, he noted, tend to "tighten procurement" versus eliminating it.
Despite the economic realities, Chivers says that Zengenti and Contensis are in a “position that many would love to have” with long-standing customers that continue to stay and evolve with the platform. The company is stable, self-funded, and currently not reliant on VC investment.
“[Our customers] have no reason to jump because we’re always ahead of where they want to be,” he said.
<h2>What’s ahead for Contensis?</h2>
We asked Chivers about any new product features on the Contensis roadmap that readers would be interested in learning about, and he immediately mentioned two things: first, some new advancements to the platform's blocks functionality, which should start releasing in the next month or two. The other is a new concept that will enable developers and site owners to release code and features faster – and roll back in a split second. Chivers described it as a more “agile-esque” approach that will impact coders while infusing more low-code capabilities. 
The gauntlet of personalization came up (as it always does), and Chivers said that it’s critical but needs to give customers the insight to see what users are doing on a site. This in turn provides more actionable information about what needs to be personalized. He also noted that personalization can be a struggle for organizations using multiple platforms, even if there are clear benefits.
“If we look at what everyone is trying to do with [personalization] right now, like Contentful and others that have been marketed heavily, there’s a place where composable solutions make sense – and others where they don’t.”
As Contensis looks ahead into the unknown of 2023, they have the unique advantage of hindsight. With over two decades of constant innovation and dedicated leadership, it’s no wonder their community of customers remains loyal and stalwart. It’s a rare position built on relationships – and one that continues to serve them well under Chiver’s leadership.
<h2>About Contensis</h2>
Contensis provides a single place to create, maintain and deliver your content. Its content modeling, authoring, and governance features help your teams to create and keep on top of well-structured content. A flexible set of APIs makes it easy to use your content in any way you like. Learn more at <a href="https://www.contensis.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.contensis.com/ </a>

Contensis CMS Looks Ahead with Headless, Focuses on Performance: Interview with CEO Richard Chivers

Image of the Contensis logo icon - a hexagon with a leaf in the center in aqua - next to an orange hexagon with the headshot of Richard Chivers in a monochromatic tone.

<a href="https://uniform.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Uniform</a> has been anything but uniform. And that's a good thing. Since the company's inception, it has frequently challenged conventional industry thinking and elevated the conversation around composability.
As a certified member of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a>, Uniform has been trumpeting its vision for integrating modern composable systems with legacy monoliths, allowing customers to smooth out the rough patches with delivery and update their architectures "through evolution, not revolution."
Along with an array of platform products that include personalization, Uniform has been carving a new niche that has DXPs and analysts rethinking the digital experience landscape. It's the kind of bold thinking that helped the company <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">raise $28 million</a> in Series A funding last December, just 15 months after breaking ground. 
Now, Uniform is launching a new kind of industry event that focuses on digital experience composition – or DXC (add it to your list of three-lettered acronyms to remember).
The virtual conference, dubbed <a href="https://uniform.dev/dxc-assembly?utm_campaign=marketing&amp;utm_source=uniform-blog&amp;utm_medium=DXCA-web-banner-link-for-uniform-page" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DXC Assembly</a>, will be held on November 15th and promises a unique mix of speakers that are leading the charge in the emerging field of digital experience composition. The conference will also feature breakout sessions, AMAs, and demos that will be announced in the coming weeks.
<h2 class="text-lg sm:text-2xl font-semibold text-blue-ribbon mb-4 md:mb-8">Building the future for developers and business teams</h2>
According to Uniform, DXC offers fast, robust, and highly adaptable tools that allow businesses to build lightning-fast experiences that are engaging and immersive. DXC-powered experiences are also designed to respond to changing business needs, customer behaviors, and market conditions. 
The DXC Assembly will feature a mix of speakers and attendees from across the development and business tracks. This includes engineers, architects, and marketers that work extensively in the digital experience arena.
While the agenda continues to evolve, the festivities will begin at 9 AM Eastern with a keynote from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-birkholm-petersen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lars Birkholm Petersen</a>, cofounder and CEO of Uniform. Immediately following, Uniform's CTO and cofounder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexshyba/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alex Shyba</a> will demonstrate how to build a composable solution by taking a project from early development and quickly delivering it to business teams. 
In addition to the Uniform leadership, attendees will hear from a panel of speakers including <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-burgy-88671673/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pierre Burgy</a> of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/strapi-releases-v4-of-headless-cms-enhances-plugins-and-api-performance/">Strapi</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciakunth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patricia Kunth</a> of Cobham Satcom, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-orum-andersen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lars Ørum Andersen</a> of Kruso, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/workingmom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beth Torrie</a> of Tercera. 
If you're interested in attending DXC Assembly, you can get a free ticket for access to all workshops, live streams, and expos <a href="https://hopin.com/events/dxc-assembly-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. 
<h2>About Uniform</h2>
Uniform is the world's first composable DXP, built for today's performance and scalability demands. A frictionless, pre-integrated composable digital experience platform gives companies the choice to continuously adopt traditional and headless best-of-breed technologies without ever replatforming, allowing businesses to deliver omnichannel orchestration with built-in high-performance testing and personalization – regardless of how their tech stacks evolve over time. Several top brands use Uniform to power their digital experiences, including Cirque du Soleil, Life Extension, Sunweb and Trimble. Visit <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3376641-1&amp;h=192194015&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3344227-1%26h%3D2537620590%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Funiform.dev%252F%26a%3Duniform.dev&amp;a=uniform.dev" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">uniform.dev</a> for more.

Uniform to Host DXC Assembly, Offers First Virtual Conference on Digital Experience Composition

Image of DXC Assembly artwork - a series of geometric shapes that form the letters "DXC" against a solid colored blue background.

<a href="https://www.storyblok.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Storyblok</a>, a content management system (CMS) category leader for 2022 that empowers developers and content teams to create better content experiences across all digital channels, just announced its expansion into the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region.
In its press release, the company noted that across APAC, brands such as Pizza Hut Australia, FC Sydney, Liberty Finance Australia, Vicinity Centres, Treasury Wine Estates, Crimson Education, Octopus Deploy, and Akasa Air already use Storyblok as the content engine for their digital experiences. 
In recognition of the massive growth potential throughout APAC, Storyblok has hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/markgpaterson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marcus Paterson</a> as its APAC Sales Manager. Marcus has held leadership roles at National Australia Bank, Fuji Xerox, and Leidos Australia. Now based in Thailand, Paterson will support customers across the region and while being tasked with growing a sales team and related support roles.
“After working throughout APAC for over 20 years, I’ve come to understand the unique challenges that companies face in this part of the world,” said Paterson. “Agile and secure content management continues to be something that all sorts of businesses struggle with. With Storyblok, your marketing and content teams have a future-proof CMS that enhances content experiences at any scale.”
<h2>Surveying APAC professionals about CMS</h2>
To understand more about content management in APAC, Storyblok surveyed 301 professionals who use a CMS in both Australia and Singapore. The survey revealed the following key insights:
<ul>
<li>Only 13% of APAC companies are happy with their monolithic CMSs</li>
<li>46% are considering moving to a headless CMS</li>
<li>The CMS features that are most important: #1 Security, #2 Website speed, #3 Easy to use for content creators</li>
<li>61% are worried about the security of their CMS</li>
<li>67% use 2 or more CMSs</li>
<li>68% deliver content in more than one language</li>
<li>12% are using their CMS to deliver content in virtual reality, and 9% in augmented reality</li>
</ul>
“Based on our great success so far in APAC, we knew now was the right time to invest more heavily in the region,” said Sascha Ploebst, VP of Sales at Storyblok. “The data shows us that local companies are ready to move to headless CMS solutions to improve their digital storytelling.”
“Our expansion into APAC is an important milestone in the global growth of Storyblok,” said Dominik Angerer, Co-Founder and CEO of Storyblok. “Audiences all over the world demand better content experiences that traditional CMS platforms were never built for. Storyblok already offers a cloud-native CMS to manage all content in one place with data centers in the US, Europe, and a dedicated instance in China. I’m also proud to announce that we are planning to offer a locally hosted option in Australia soon for organizations that need this.”
To see the full survey results, you can download The State of Content Management in APAC report: <a href="https://www.storyblok.com/lp/state-of-cms-apac" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.storyblok.com/lp/state-of-cms-apac</a>
<h2 style="font-weight:400">About Storyblok 
</h2>
Storyblok, a content management system (CMS) category leader for 2022, empowers both developers and content teams to create better content experiences across any digital channel. Storyblok enhances audience experiences with best-in-breed performance, security, optimized omnichannel storytelling, and robust personalization. Storyblok enables content teams to create and manage content intuitively and independently with drag-and-drop visual editing, custom collaboration workflows, and a world-class digital asset manager – and empowers developers to build anything, integrate with everything, and publish everywhere with Storyblok’s headless CMS architecture.

Storyblok Expands to APAC to Transform Digital Storytelling Across Region

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

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<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-updates-experience-platform-and-experience-commerce-releases-new-sitecore-content-hub/">Sitecore</a> is holding its popular <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/company/news-events/events/2022/11/ldn/symposium-takeaway-sessions-2022" target="_blank">Symposium Takeaway Sessions</a> in Europe as a follow-up to its <a href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/" target="_blank">Sitecore Symposium 2022</a> in Chicago – with a keen focus on the topic of composability.
The sessions look promising, as they include live networking, customer presentations, and lively discussions with Sitecore leadership. 
The digital experience platform (DXP) leader is welcoming back live audiences in three locations next month:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.sitecore.com/company/news-events/events/2022/11/ldn/symposium-takeaway-sessions-2022" target="_blank">November 3 – London, UK</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.sitecore.com/company/news-events/events/2022/11/dk/symposium-takeaway-sessions-2022" target="_blank">November 15 – Copenhagen, Denmark</a></li>
<li>November 17 – Stockholm, Sweden</li>
</ul>
<h2>From the Sitecore DXP roadmap to customer success stories</h2>
While each of the Symposium Takeaway Sessions offers something unique (aside from the locale), each will feature a mix of Sitecore's thought leaders. The core presentations will be led by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-baxter/" target="_blank">Jaqueline Baxter</a>, Senior Digital Strategist at Sitecore, who will provide practical key learnings, informative tips, and takeaways from Symposium 2022 – which will be held in Chicago from October 17-20.
The UK session will feature a presentation by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-tidmarsh-7b3871/" target="_blank">Michael Tidmarsh</a>, Olgilvy's Global CTO, as he shares the agency's experience with emerging technologies. He will touch on blockchain, NFTs, AR, and other "fringe" innovations that are making the transition to be business-ready – and the goldmine that awaits. 
In Copenhagen, attendees will have a chance to hear from LB Insurance about its use of composable architectures and automated DevOps with the Sitecore platform, allowing the firm to orchestrate and evolve business value and technology at different speeds to meet demands. 
Stockholm will feature a presentation by leading global agency <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Valtech</a>, which is pioneering innovation in the composable space. 
<h2>About Sitecore</h2>
Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform that empowers the world's smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers. A highly decorated industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies, including American Express, ASOS, Kimberly-Clark, L'Oréal, and Volvo Cars, rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalized experiences for their customers. Learn more at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3311724-1&amp;h=2070543467&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sitecore.com%2F&amp;a=Sitecore.com" target="_blank">Sitecore.com</a>.

Sitecore Symposium Takeaway Sessions 2022 Coming to London, Copenhagen, Stockholm

Sitecore Symposium 2022 logo overlaying an image of a young woman holding her arm up in joy against a background of parallel neon lights.

The "October Surprise" is a mantra that's usually reserved for American politics and baseball. But as <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.optimizely.com%2F&amp;esheet=52803934&amp;newsitemid=20220805005464&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Optimizely&amp;index=1&amp;md5=784a397f009218960542f4a438e88ca7" target="_blank">Optimizely's</a> <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.optimizely.com%2Fopticon&amp;esheet=52803934&amp;newsitemid=20220805005464&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Opticon+2022&amp;index=2&amp;md5=d31b19e7d025b660a5defea28a05b5e6" target="_blank">Opticon 2022</a> wraps in San Diego this week, there might be an exception for digital experience conferences – particularly from a company that's focused on winning the DXP pennant. 
Held from October 3-5, Opticon was born from the exponential growth of digital transformation over the last few years, a period when companies like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-rebrands-as-optimizely-following-acquisition/">Episerver and Optimizely combined</a> their technologies to offer a more complete vision for shaping the future of digital experiences. The event showcased how customers and partners are continuously optimizing these experiences across all channels to drive customer intimacy and realize business growth.
Throughout the event, attendees learned about innovative tools and real-world strategies for reducing customer churn while making more informed, data-driven decisions to meet their goals. The conference offered 45 breakout sessions and 20 short theater sessions that featured speakers from across technology, media, business, and brands – including marketing leaders from Venmo, Zoom, and others. 
Optimizely also provided a series of certification trainings for attendees, designed to help improve skills around the company's full stack of digital marketing and experimentation capabilities. This also included an exam for its <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/products/content/" target="_blank">Content Cloud</a> certification. 
<h2>Optimizing solutions for digital leaders, marketers, and developers</h2>
The stakes have never been higher when it comes to competing for customer attention. Businesses need sound strategies to navigate evolving market complexities, advance their digital journeys, and elevate future-forward solutions to inspire teams and supercharge growth – resulting in strong, lasting customer relationships. 
Opticon 2022 was designed to meet these goals and challenges head-on by arming digital leaders, marketers, and developers with powerful experimentation and frictionless creativity to drive better brand experiences and accelerate revenue growth.
"To be competitive today, marketers need to do more than 'business as usual.' In a rapidly changing world, complexity is the enemy of digital marketing and great digital experiences," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aatzberger/" target="_blank">Alex Atzberger</a>, CEO at Optimizely. "To meet your customers every day and adapt, you need data and knowledge about your audience, what resonates with them, when they want to engage, and how they want to be marketed to. Great digital experiences, backed by experimentation and data-driven insights, is what enables continuous possibilities and leads to long-term growth. At Opticon 2022, we're excited to bring leading innovators, marketers and entrepreneurs to the stage to showcase how applying a scientific method allows you to stay ahead of the curve, amidst an ever-evolving state of customer expectations."
<h2>A towering keynote from Magic Johnson </h2>
While the "October Surprise" may be the domain of baseball, it was basketball that scored the real inspiration at Opticon. As billed in promotions for the event, attendees were treated to a dynamic keynote from Earvin "Magic" Johnson, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers. Often regarded as the greatest point guard of all time, Johnson shared his experiences on what it takes to succeed in a digital-first, customer-centric business landscape. 
As an NBA legend and advocate for Black entrepreneurship, Johnson explored how his lifelong commitment to dreaming big has pushed his off-court endeavors to new heights — and how leaders in digital, marketing, and growth can meet this pivotal moment with similar courage to unlock boundless innovation.
<h2>Taking Opticon on tour to London and Stockholm</h2>
While the San Diego flagship event has ended, global fans of Optimizely will have an opportunity to experience the conference at Opticon London on November 4 and <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/insights/opticon-stockholm" target="_blank">Opticon Stockholm</a> on November 8. According to the company's website, attendees will learn not only how to "ride the wave" of growth and evolution in the industry, but how to create truly exceptional, differentiated, and optimized experiences for customers.
You can visit either of the conference websites to register and learn more about the session line-up, certification programs, and general agenda. 
<h2>About Optimizely</h2>
Optimizely is a leading digital experience platform (DXP) that equips teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely's 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands. Learn more at optimizely.com.

Optimizely Brings Real Magic to Opticon 2022 in San Diego, Kicks Off Tour in London and Stockholm

Image of Optimizely CEO Alex Atzberger with Earvin "Magic" Johnson at Opticon 2022

<a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-are-keywords-simple-keyword-definition/" target="_blank">Keywords</a> are the lifeblood of SEO. When used properly, they can juice the search performance of any website and drive more traffic. Of course, they've become somewhat of a precious commodity when utilized for Google Ads campaigns, fluctuating like the price of gold based on their volume metrics.
For most website builder platforms, the fundamentals of technical SEO (search engine optimization) are often engineered into the platform on an architectural level. This might be in the form of structured data on a website template that governs the use of an H1, H2, aria-label, and so on. But there hasn't been as much direct integration with rich keyword tools, leaving marketers to run separate reports and seed keywords in their CMS.
That's about to change for <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wix-to-host-first-ever-developers-conference-wix-devcon-2022/">Wix</a>, a leading SaaS website builder for creating, managing, and growing websites. The company just announced a partnership with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/semrush-and-yoast-partner-to-enhance-wordpress-seo-and-digital-marketing/">Semrush</a>, a leading online visibility management platform, that will enable Wix users to access Semrush’s SEO keyword data directly through the Wix Platform. The integration will help users identify the right keywords for their website to help improve their rankings in search results.
<h2>Semrush brings industry-leading SEO keyword optimization to Wix websites</h2>
Powered by Semrush’s global database of more than 21 billion keywords, the new integration enables users to easily find the most relevant and effective keywords for their website without leaving the Wix platform. This includes access to critical metrics like search intent and keyword difficulty generated from Semrush’s rich SEO toolkit. 
The integration is available through <a href="https://support.wix.com/en/article/wix-seo-wiz-creating-your-seo-checklist-in-the-wix-seo-wiz" target="_blank">Wix’s SEO Setup Checklist</a>, a tool that guides Wix users on how to optimize their website for SEO and get it indexed on Google – with actionable steps and educational resources.
In addition to performance, reliability, and security improvements, Wix has recently augmented its suite of SEO tools. This includes adding 25 new SEO features and products over the past year, as well as hundreds of SEO-related enhancements. As a result of this focused investment, the SEO community has begun embracing Wix. 
The Semrush integration will live inside the Wix dashboard in the SEO Tools section:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/wix-semrush-seo-tools.jpg" alt="Wix SEO Tools screen" />
The keyword insights from Semrush provide useful metrics such as:
<ul>
<li>keyword volume</li>
<li>keyword trends showing how popular the keyword is and how popular the keyword has been over time</li>
<li>keyword difficulty, which shows how competitive that particular keyword is, and search intent (i.e. commercial, informational)</li>
</ul>
You can also select and add your favorite keywords and save them to your SEO setup checklist:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/wix-keyword-insights-screenshot.jpg" alt="Wix EMRush SEO Tools dashboard" />
<h2>A partnership aligned around website experience and organic SEO</h2>
The new integration with Semrush is available to all Wix users in English. Users will need to have a Semrush account to leverage the integration; the usage quota available will depend on the account connected to their website, starting at a daily limit of 10 words for free Semrush accounts.
“It’s always been our mission to help businesses and search professionals have one unified platform to grow their site’s visibility in search engines,” said Nati Elimelech, Head of SEO at Wix. “With this integration, we’re taking another notable step in democratizing SEO by enabling our users to conduct better research and choose the right keywords and topics to focus on in their content strategy, right from within their dashboard. We are dedicated to making SEO more accessible to everyone and helping our users to make better decisions that will impact their organic growth.”
Both companies appear bullish about the value of the integration. For Wix, arming its users with advanced SEO marketing features may differentiate the platform in a dense market of competitors like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/squarespace-a-diy-website-builder-1/">Squarespace</a> – and enhancing its portfolio with foundational tools like Semrush will help amplify its perceived value, improve loyalty across its community, and attract new users.
For Semrush, Wix presents a broad channel of access to website owners who might now be thinking about the importance of keywords but now have easy access to an industry-leading toolset. 
“By leveraging Semrush’s keyword databases and metrics, Wix is giving users the necessary tools to find smart opportunities and improve their ranking on Google. As Organic Search traffic is incredibly valuable, the new integration in Wix can help to grow their businesses,” said Marcus Tober, SVP of Enterprise Solutions at Semrush. “Now is the time for business owners to take website and online marketing management into their own hands, and platforms like Wix and Semrush can help them do it.”
Want to learn how to conduct keyword research with Wix's Semrush integration? Visit <a href="https://www.wix.com/seo/learn" target="_blank">Wix's SEO Hub</a> and explore this great <a href="https://www.wix.com/seo/learn/resource/keyword-research-wix-semrush-integration" target="_blank">tutorial.</a>
<h2>About Semrush</h2>
Semrush is a leading online visibility management SaaS platform that enables businesses globally to run search engine optimization, pay-per-click, content, social media and competitive research campaigns and get measurable results from online marketing. Semrush offers insights and solutions for companies to build, manage, and measure campaigns across various marketing channels. Semrush, with over 91,000 paying customers, is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Philadelphia, Trevose, Austin, Dallas, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Limassol, Prague, Warsaw, and Yerevan.
<h2>About Wix</h2>
Wix is a leading platform for creating, managing and growing a digital presence. What began as a website builder in 2006 is now a complete platform providing users with enterprise-grade performance, security and reliable infrastructure. Offering a wide range of commerce and business solutions, and advanced SEO and marketing tools, Wix enables users to have full ownership of their brand, their data, and their relationships with their customers. With a focus on continuous innovation and the delivery of new features and products, anyone can build a powerful digital presence to fulfill their dreams on Wix.

Wix and Semrush Partner to Provide Users with Valuable Keyword Data to Help Grow Online Visibility

Image of Wix and Semrush logos against a purple background

The <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a> continues to reinforce its position as a forward-thinking organization in the composable space. While technology is at the heart of its mission, people and experiences represent the soul – and that was illustrated in the publishing of a first-of-its-kind “<a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-publishes-women-in-mach-manifesto-for-gender-equality-" target="_blank">Women in MACH Manifesto for Gender Equality.</a>”
Collectively developed by over 100 women in tech (and a select few male allies), the MACH Manifesto was developed by an international contingent of attendees at the inaugural Women in MACH event and awards ceremony, organized by <a href="https://mindcurv.com/en/" target="_blank">Mindcurv</a>.
The event, which was held 22nd and 23rd of September in Madrid, brought together advocates for gender equality from across the MACH technology community to network and deliver inspiring sessions about technology, leadership, and diversity &amp; inclusion (D&amp;I).
<h2>Advocating for Equality through the MACH Movement</h2>
The manifesto is a document that calls on technology companies to take further steps to advance equal opportunities for everyone. Businesses are invited to sign the document, signaling their commitment to taking action toward this goal. Some of the topics included equal pay, equality in hiring, promotions based on merit, culture, representation in leadership, and more. 
One sobering data point: a live poll at the conference found that an overwhelming majority of attendees – 90% – said they had felt discriminated against at some point in their careers due to their gender.
“MACH is a modern category, and the companies we work for are driving forward a new era in enterprise technology,” said Holly Hall, Managing Director at the MACH Alliance. “In parallel, we feel obligated to urge companies in our ecosystem to do more when it comes to nurturing the success of women. We want to help the sector become more active contributors on the subject of gender equality not simply because we know it’s right, but because we know women already play a crucial role at many of these enterprises. Our goal is to elevate their contributions and pave the way for others to succeed in this space.”
<h2>Supporting Meaningful Outcomes by Signing the Manifesto</h2>
According to the MACH Alliance, all companies are welcome to sign <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/women-in-mach-manifesto-for-gender-equality" target="_self">the manifesto</a>, and participants will receive a badge to promote their commitment to the vision. By signing, an organization is also agreeing to take steps outlined in the manifesto to create meaningful space for women in MACH.
In addition to providing ongoing resources that align with the manifesto’s mission, the Alliance will publish bi-annual reports to chronicle how participating organizations are moving the needle on D&amp;I metrics and other measurable data points related to women in MACH.
“Our Women in MACH event showed the strength of female leadership in what is still a male dominated industry,” said Markus Tillman, EVP at Mindcurv. “By coming together we can help advance each other, the workplace for current and future generations, the MACH category and the tech sector as a whole. We want the manifesto to become a guiding star for everyone who is active in the rapidly growing MACH community, with the goal to carry the manifesto into the world to drive change.”
Mindcurv, the company that hosted the event, is a system integrator headquartered in Germany. The company is a member of MACH Alliance, the group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems.
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website. The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. Learn more at machalliance.org, read here about MACH certification and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/machalliance" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

MACH Alliance Publishes Women in MACH Manifesto for Gender Equality

Image of MACH Alliance Women's conference

Myplanet is colonizing a new world – and it's called <a href="http://orium.com/?utm_source=PR&amp;utm_medium=news&amp;utm_campaign=A_Broad_Open_Press_Release____rename-cision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Orium</a>.
The composable commerce specialist recently announced that it is taking on a new moniker as it targets growth in the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">MACH</a> (Microservices, API, Cloud-first, Headless) sector. 
As its website now proclaims, Orium aspires to be the premier composable commerce consultancy and systems integrator for <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/omnichannel-retail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">omnichannel retail</a> – or "omniretail" – working with best-in-class technology partners to set strong composable commerce foundations that support how brands serve customers across channels.
The rebrand comes on the heels of an $11 million investment from <a href="https://www.orium.com/article-myplanet-secures-investment-funding-to-expand-its-composable-commerce-retail-consulting-in-north-america/?utm_source=PR&amp;utm_medium=news&amp;utm_campaign=A_Broad_Open_Press_Release____rename-cision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tercera announced last month</a>, and is part of the company’s accelerated growth plan and shifted focus on the rapidly evolving composable commerce space. 
<h2>From enterprise commerce to composable commerce</h2>
Founded in 2009, Myplanet has been a leading voice in enterprise commerce. In 2019, the company began specializing exclusively in composable commerce, customer data, and retail data platforms. Under the new Orium mantle, it plans to expand its offerings in these same areas and extend its partnerships with best-of-breed solutions providers – including <a href="https://commercetools.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commercetools</a> and <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elastic Path.</a>
“We saw a paradigm shift coming – one that was rooted in the idea of change,” said CEO &amp; Founder Jason Cottrell. “So we took what was, at the time, a bit of a risk and made the shift to composable. It was the right decision, but that shift happened a lot faster than anyone could’ve predicted.”
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent need for retailers to overhaul their digital operations, the company transitioned the business “in a matter of about three months” according to Cottrell. “Our core values are the same, but in a few crucial ways, we’re not the same company we used to be. We’ve changed, the industry has changed, and our name needed to reflect that.”
<h2>Early members of the MACH Alliance</h2>
Orium (as Myplanet) was part of the first wave of <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MACH Alliance</a> members. This makes sense, as the company had already built one of the largest portfolios of composable commerce implementations in North America. 
With the success of its <a href="https://composable.com/composable-accelerator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Composable.com Accelerators</a> supporting award-winning work – and its team moving past 200 people – Orium sees continued opportunities for helping brands adopt MACH architectures and use them to engage customers more effectively. With the pace of industry growth accelerating, the new name will help usher in the next era of the business. 
“Our work is inherently dynamic. We’re always evolving,” says Cottrell. “The name Orium reflects the combination of innovation and implementation that’s at the heart of our work philosophy: we don’t just trade in ideas, we make them real.”
<h2>What's in a name? Understanding "Orium" as a brand</h2>
While Myplanet was natively intuitive, the word Orium is less so. In its press release, the company shed some light on the decision and provided some context for its meaning.
“We’ve talked about changing the name of the organization before, but the timing was never right,” says Leigh Bryant, Orium’s Director of Brand. “With the investment funding from Tercera and the changes we’ve seen in the last few years – both within our company and within the industry – the timing felt right to rebrand to something that reflects who we are today, and that can grow with us into the future.”
The name of the company is drawn from the suffix -orium, which means a place for a particular function. “An -orium is where things happen, and that’s how we view ourselves,” says Bryant. “We are where industry-leading technology partners and world-class clients come together to make things happen, pushing the boundaries of what the movement for composable commerce can be. As Orium, we bring the elements of a custom retail solution to life.” 
As the field of composable commerce continues to explode, Orium appears focused on meeting the demand.

Myplanet Rebrands to Orium After $11M Investment, Targets Growth in Composable Commerce

Image of Myplanet logo transforming to Orium logo

No. It's not just a "figma" of your imagination. 
<a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/a-new-collaboration-with-adobe/" target="_blank">Adobe has agreed to spend $20 billion</a> – that's billion, with a "b" – to buy <a href="https://www.figma.com/" target="_blank">Figma</a>, the popular web-based collaboration and UI design platform. 
We'll give you a minute to pick your jaw up off the ground. 
Adobe said it expects the transaction to close sometime in 2023. That said, the deal has not yet been approved by Figma stockholders and must proceed through customary closing. The dollars are a mix: about half the total will be paid in Adobe stock, with the balance paid in cash. 
If you're not familiar with Figma, you will be now – but it's worth noting how awesome a platform it really is. It offers a deep set of collaboration options for joint software development, as well as its popular FigJam collaborative whiteboarding environment. If you haven't used that wipeboarding feature before, we highly recommend it. 
By now, we’re accustomed to Adobe spending big bucks to expand its copious monolith. These tasty acquisitions have bolstered its stronghold on the digital experience category – and while there may not be an Iron Throne to claim, it has certainly earned the crown as the King of the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3995917" target="_blank">Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>.
But forget all that. Forget the fact that <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3673934/adobes-20b-figma-acquisition-highlights-web-based-collaboration-trends.html#:~:text=The%20%2420%20billion%20figure%20is,a%20dedicated%20following%20among%20developers." target="_blank">Figma was valued at around $10 billion</a> at its last funding round in 2021 (meaning this purchase doubled the bounty). And let's not overlook that the market has been in a bout of turmoil lately, especially for tech stocks.
No – what's been really interesting is how this acquisition triggered such an emotional response from the market. Despite Adobe's enthusiasm about the deal, the Figma fanbase seemed a little less enthusiastic…
<img style="max-width:800px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/luke-skywalker-meme-no.jpg" alt="Luke Skywalker meme" />
And just like that, the Empire Strikes Back.
<h2>Why Figma? And why the pushback from fans?</h2>
The Figma acquisition speaks volumes about the growth of web collaboration software and the central role of design. But for its users, Figma represented everything Adobe wasn’t. In fact, Figma was a sort of the anti-Adobe. 
The fanbase has reason to be concerned: Adobe could bring Figma aboard the mothership under its expensive subscription model. There could be some poor integration or uncomfortable bloat. Even worse, it could become the kind of bolted-on utility that's prone to crashing – kind of like the Millennium Falcon with a broken hyperdrive.
Or, Adobe could do wonders with this amazing platform, building deeper functionality that expands the frontier for web-based collaboration within its toolsets. Figma's flexibility could be a game changer for the company and removes one of its digital experience rivals from the chessboard. 
One thing both companies have in common is the commitment to design. Founded by Dylan Field in 2016, Figma has held to the mantra that design should be collaborative, web-based, and real-time – with the mission to “open up” and move from the solitary design process. Figma has crystallized the concepts of sharing ideas and working collaboratively, something that Adobe’s UI design products like Photoshop have struggled to embrace. 
As for the fans, that's a product of Figma's heavy emphasis on community, which they have nurtured and grown over the years. This was likely a big driver of <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/figma/company_financials" target="_blank">Figma’s unicorn valuation</a>, which skyrocketed from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/software-design-startup-figma-is-now-worth-10-billion" target="_blank">$2 billion to $10 billion</a> in just a year. With more than 4 million users, including giants such as Microsoft, Slack, Google, Dropbox, and Twitter, the company has achieved the kind of presence and loyalty that are the envy of the tech world.
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/09/nothing-great-is-made-alone.jpg" alt="Figma - Nothing Great is Made Alone" />
<h2> </h2>
<h2>Adobe XD vs. Figma</h2>
So let's get down to brass tacks: Adobe XD and Figma are currently the most popular design tools on the market, both with similar features. For the past 5 years, Figma has been the biggest rival and competitor to Adobe XD, but Figma has managed to with the hearts of the design community. 
Figma believes the acquisition will help the Figma platform benefit from Adobe’s technology, expertise, and resources in the creative space. Figma has big ambitions for its products, with plans to improve its <a href="https://www.figma.com/design/" target="_blank">Figma Design</a>, <a href="https://www.figma.com/figjam/" target="_blank">FigJam</a>, and the <a href="https://www.figma.com/community/" target="_blank">Figma community</a> platforms while expanding into new areas.
“We will have the opportunity to incorporate their expertise in imaging, photography, illustration, video, 3D, and font technology to the Figma platform," said <a href="https://twitter.com/zoink" target="_blank">Dylan Field</a>, Co-founder &amp; CEO of Figma. "Additionally, we will have the opportunity to reimagine what the best creative tools could look like within the Figma technology stack.”
Top-down leadership is key in these kinds of earth-shattering transitions. Taking designers’ concerns into account, Field reassured the Figma community that he will remain CEO and that Figma will keep operating autonomously – without compromising its culture, the way it runs its business, and (perhaps most importantly) its pricing. 
<h2>Growth by Acquisition</h2>
The news from Adobe is huge – but maybe not that surprising. Adobe has been driving growth by investing in tools and products to execute complex workflows across teams. As part of this evolution, it <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2020/Adobe-to-Acquire-Workfront/default.aspx" target="_blank">acquired Workflow</a> – a leading work management platform for marketers – for $1.50 billion in 2020. Last year, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-acquires-video-collaboration-platform-frame-io/" target="_blank">Adobe also acquired Frame.io</a>, an industry-leading collaboration platform, for $1.275 billion. 
In its <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2022/Adobe-to-Acquire-Figma/default.aspx" target="_blank">press release</a>, Adobe stated that Figma’s web-based, multi-player capabilities will accelerate the delivery of Adobe’s Creative Cloud technologies on the web, making the creative process more productive and accessible to more people.
With this acquisition, Adobe once more solidified its position in the creative industry. With responsive design taking over about a decade ago, other apps such as <a href="https://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle/" target="_blank">Omnigraffle</a> and later <a href="https://www.sketch.com/" target="_blank">Sketch App</a> were born – and embraced by designers by offering a better solution for creating wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes suited for the responsive web. This was a huge departure from Photoshop and Illustrator and their respectively rigid structures. 
Figma is not alone in the web-based collaboration and UI design space. Platforms like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uxpin-merge-review-sync-react-components-with-prototypes/">UXPin</a>, another subscription-based wireframing and prototyping tool, are effectively <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uxpin-merge-review-sync-react-components-with-prototypes/" target="_blank">bridging the gap between designers and developers</a>. 
As Figma zeroes in on $400 million in revenues at the end of 2022, it's safe to say that there's ample potential in this growing market space – and we'll have to see how Adobe's mindboggling acquisition brings imagination to life. 
<h2>About Figma</h2>
Figma is the open design company founded in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace. With Figma’s cloud-based screen design tool, teams achieve a shared understanding around design without worrying about syncing, exporting, or installing software. Anyone involved in the product development process can always share up-to-date files with a link. That makes it easy to collaborate on the latest designs and prototypes and see their code attributes. Figma has simplified collaboration across the entire design process for thousands of companies like Microsoft, Slack, and Uber and millions of users, including designers, developers, product managers, marketers, and others.

Shock and Awe: Adobe to Acquire UI Design Platform Figma for $20 Billion

paris-tuzun

<a href="https://www.storyblok.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Storyblok</a>, a leading headless content management system (CMS), is back with another interesting study – this time, releasing its findings from a new survey of 208 retail and e-commerce professionals who directly manage enterprise CMS systems. 
The survey, released today, reveals the results of the latest digital retail trends happening around the Metaverse, CMS proliferation, and increasing website security attacks.
<h2>Content Management Systems Gone Wild</h2>
By now, we know that consumers use a combination of devices, platforms, and channels to access digital experiences – and the buyer's journey is becoming more non-linear. While mobile will likely continue to be a key orchestrator, brands are still motivated to understand these diverse channels so they can connect with audiences whenever, wherever, and however they choose. According to Storyblok's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/storybloks-cms-report-shows-enterprises-are-still-scared-of-omnichannel-content-experiences/">previous research</a>, enterprises are still scared of investing in omnichannel experiences.
And yet...
Retailers' customer touchpoints have gone omnichannel, and the number of CMS systems deployed by enterprises is broadening as a result. 76 percent of enterprises surveyed have already deployed more than one CMS, and just over 10 percent have deployed five or more CMSs. Gone are the days when one monolithic CMS could handle it all. 
"Because of the increasing variety of channels that customers now use to interact with brands, retailers are having trouble delivering the experience that customers expect," said Dominik Angerer, CEO &amp; Co-founder of Storyblok. "Managing multiple CMSs adds another layer of management burden. Moving to a headless CMS architecture can help streamline channel management by replacing custom integrations with standard APIs." 
<h2>Metaverse E-commerce Experiences Are Increasing</h2>
While many brands are still discussing what the Metaverse even is, retailers and e-commerce companies are already taking action. 
Slightly more than 20 percent of retailers and e-commerce companies are already extending their CMS to display content into Metaverse environments to showcase their branded images and products. 
Enterprises are reporting that their CMS currently delivers content into alternative digital channels, including: 
<ul>
<li>16 percent into Virtual Reality environments </li>
<li>11 percent into Augmented Reality</li>
<li>17 percent to Smart Speakers</li>
</ul>
"These survey findings speak to the curiosity among consumers to try out interesting new digital environments, and the need for retailers and e-commerce sites to keep pace," said Thomas Peham, Storyblok's Vice President of Marketing. "A headless CMS architecture is by far the easiest way to deploy content to new channels as quickly as they arise, via simple APIs."
<h2>Cyber Hackers Find New Attack Vector</h2>
Malicious cyber attacks on retail enterprises have found a new point of entry: the Content Management System (CMS). 1 in 5 enterprises surveyed (20.6 percent) are seeing an increased number of attacks coming in via their CMS.
"As websites become more vital to business operations and host a wider variety of digital asset types, web-based attacks become critical vectors, and securing the CMS is now essential," said Sebastian Gierlinger, VP of Engineering at Storyblok. "In response to these risks, modern CMS architectures are often 'headless,' meaning that the back-end repository is not directly coupled to the front-end presentation layer, so if one end is attacked, the other end is not also compromised." 
Enterprises should also be verifying that their current CMS platform is certified to the latest ISO 27001 Information Security Management standard. In addition, the APIs used by the CMS platform should be protected with a <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/tls-1-2-to-become-the-minimum-for-all-aws-fips-endpoints/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TLS v1.2 (or higher)</a> encryption protocol. 
<h2>Survey Methodology </h2>
The findings above are from a survey of 781 US-based retail and e-commerce-related enterprises fielded on SurveyMonkey during August 2022, of which 208 respondents were further qualified as directly managing or working closely with the website Content Management System (CMS) at their company. The results cited in this document are based on the 208 qualified respondents and have a margin of error of +/-6% at a 90 percent confidence level. 
Additional results from the survey can be requested by contacting <a href="mailto:rich.mullikin@rocketscience.com">rich.mullikin@rocketscience.com</a>. 
<h2>About Storyblok</h2>
Storyblok, the content management system (CMS) category leader for 2022, empowers both developers and content teams to create better content experiences across any digital channel. Storyblok enhances audience experiences with best-in-breed performance, optimized omnichannel storytelling, and robust personalization. Enable content teams to create and manage content intuitively and independently with drag-and-drop visual editing, custom collaboration workflows, and a world-class digital asset manager. Empower developers to build anything, integrate with everything, and publish everywhere with Storyblok's headless CMS architecture. Leading brands such as Adidas, T-Mobile, Harvard Business School, Renault, and Marc O'Polo use Storyblok to shape their digital storytelling. See why Storyblok was named the #1 CMS for 2022 by G2 at <a href="http://www.storyblok.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.storyblok.com</a> and follow Storyblok on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/storyblok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://www.twitter.com/storyblok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a>.

Storyblok Releases Results from Survey of US Retail Professionals; Reveals Trends in Headless CMS, Metaverse & VR E-commerce, and Website Security Attacks

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