Articles - Page 32

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

<hr /> The <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-admissions-playbook-brings-greater-clarity-to-certification-process">MACH Alliance</a> has never been known to “sit one out.” The industry organization has always been something of a firebrand, outspoken in its fierce advocacy of <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-at-different-levels">MACH</a> (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless) principles.As MACH momentum grows – and more businesses attempt to ride the hype wave – the MACH Alliance is doubling down on its commitment to ensure buyer clarity by defending its core criteria. This means challenging organizations that openly claim to be MACH but are not certified. Today, MACH Alliance President <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">Casper Rasmussen</a> published a candid letter on the organization’s <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/insights/open-invite-to-companies-who-claim-mach">blog</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/machalliance_open-invite-to-companies-who-claim-mach-activity-7127998847359823874-Fzgh/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop">LinkedIn</a>, inviting companies to apply for MACH certification to help avoid buyer confusion. The letter was prompted after MACH Alliance members flagged several software brands as falsely advertising MACH solutions without a validated certification. Being certified by the Alliance is the simplest way for a company to verify and showcase that its products meet MACH criteria, and give buyers confidence about what is – and is not – MACH. As noted in Casper's letter, the MACH Alliance will be contacting non-certified companies that are making MACH claims and asking them to apply for certification. These companies will also be asked to remove any MACH language or association until certification is achieved. <h3>An open invitation to apply for MACH certification</h3>Here’s the letter from Casper Rasmussen in its entirety:<hr />Open invite to companies who claim MACH: please apply for certification to avoid buyer confusionThe MACH Alliance exists to propel the future of technology, which is microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. That is what MACH stands for, and our mission is to safeguard MACH standards for the clarity of buyers.Our certification criteria serve a very clear and important purpose. Providing clarity to the market of what is and what is not MACH, to help buyers build their future-proof application stacks. We guard this strict set of standards fiercely and rigorously benchmark all our members against them. As such, we are concerned to see more companies using MACH wording in their product marketing, promoting their solutions as MACH-ready when they are not MACH certified.It is a great thing that the market as a whole is quickly moving in the direction of Composable and connectivity through API’s. The MACH Alliance supports that wholeheartedly. Yet Composable is not MACH and being on a Composable track does not validate a MACH claim at all. The prerequisites for MACH Certification are very clear.We urge all vendors claiming to sell a MACH-ready solution to apply for certification. The criteria and the process are outlined here. Any company that claims to offer MACH should carry the seal.The Alliance can explicitly only guarantee the interoperability, ease of use and swapability of certified companies. MACH-labeled solutions where vendors don’t meet the certification criteria are undermining the industry standard and causing confusion for buyers at a time when they need our help. We strongly advise buyers to check theMACH Alliance website to confirm certification in case of any doubt. The MACH Alliance is contacting non-certified companies who are making MACH claims asking them to apply for certification, and to remove those claims until that is achieved.Furthermore, in some of the recent claims, specific legacy vendors suggest they are offering an enterprise version of MACH. Yet MACH was made in and for the enterprise from the start. MACH is an enterprise setup that requires a level of company maturity, and it has seen massive adoption from enterprise companies like Sephora, Costa Coffee, Mars, Boohoo, Puma, and the list goes on. MACH was made in the enterprise, let there be no misunderstanding.We will continue to take action to avoid buyer confusion and to protect the seal that we are here to guard. Prove your MACH credentials and get certified!If any vendor or buyer would like to speak with us about MACH criteria and principles, or requires clarification and support, we’re here to help.Casper Rasmussen President, MACH Alliance<hr /><h3>Why it matters</h3>Challenging the market is nothing new for the MACH Alliance. Peruse the LinkedIn profiles of its leadership board, and you’ll find epic threads and lively debates that have expanded the conversation around composable. Those ambassadorial efforts have helped enterprises gain clarity around the benefits of MACH and whether it’s a good fit for their technology and business imperatives. Key to the MACH Alliance’s success is safeguarding its core values. For its best-of-breed members, certification is a rigorous process that requires a significant investment in both time and resources. Likewise, buyers seeking MACH solutions are becoming increasingly confused by mixed messages and composable rhetoric. That’s why the organization has gone to great lengths to defend the sanctity of its platform – and the essence of the MACH movement. As Casper points out, the positive news is that the market is embracing the composable trend. This will create more opportunities for many technology vendors to offer solutions that align with the tenets of MACH. But he also clarifies that composable is not MACH, and the distinctions and prerequisites are abundantly clear. A certification is only as valuable as the organization that backs it up. This letter illuminates the lengths that the MACH Alliance is willing to go to maintain the value of MACH certification for its ecosystem of members and buyers.Many businesses have fought tooth and nail to defend their IP. Calling out false claims is a clear signal that the Alliance is doing its job to protect what it has built – and what it continues to build – for the benefit of everyone.

MACH Alliance Openly Invites Companies Claiming MACH to Apply for Certification

<h4>Snapshot:</h4><ul><li>Laura Goldberg is CMO at Constant Contact, a leading digital marketing platform.</li><li>The company is innovating to make email and integrations easier for SMBs.</li><li>Security and data privacy continue to be a core tenant of its brand promise. </li><li>Constant Contact recently added an AI Content Generator to its popular features.</li><li>On the roadmap, enhancing automation and segmentation are a key focus.</li></ul><hr /> You’ve got mail!If you’re old enough to remember that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGOgSPVBmIE">iconic soundbite</a>, you might recall the nascent exuberance of receiving “electronic mail.” Of course, that’s back when it was still (somewhat) new, a shiny beacon of possibilities and a game-changer for communication.Even if the idea of email feels the same today, a lot has changed over the last few decades. On the upside, we’ve deprecated those arduous CompuServe addresses. Firing off a message no longer requires a modem; it can all be done from a smartphone. And lest we forget, email has also become a ubiquitous component in every digital marketer's toolkit, from personalized campaigns to newsletters.On the downside, our inboxes have been Biblically flooded. Spam has reached epic proportions, and phishing attacks have become a weak link in the security chain (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/phishing-statistics/">according to Forbes</a>, there were 500 million of them last year). Add shifting policies and regulatory governance, and it becomes a challenging morass. These realities might complicate the roadmap for email. But <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/constant-contact">Constant Contact</a> sees more opportunities than challenges. Since first rolling onto the scene in 1995, the Massachusetts-born tech maven has kept a constant eye on the future. From humble beginnings in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.constantcontact.com/about">cramped attic</a> to a globally recognized brand, the online marketing platform has become an institution, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses looking to harness the power of email.What’s perhaps most impressive about Constant Contact is its raw staying power. It is a paragon for longevity in an otherwise volatile tech industry, a testament to its trust and reliability. And while the company was sold to Endurance International in 2015 <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_Contact">for $1.1 billion</a>, it has continued operating under its ubiquitous brand and stayed true to its roots – always leading with email.At the same time, the company has grown beyond its foundational focus to encompass a broader ecosystem of services. This includes a bevy of digital marketing tools like landing page and A/B testing features, lead gen and CRM capabilities, SMS and social media marketing apps, and more. I recently spoke with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-goldberg-b3913/">Laura Goldberg</a>, Constant Contact’s Chief Marketing Officer, about the irreplaceable role of email as part of an integrated marketing stack, and how her company’s focus on delivering simple yet powerful tools to SMBs is unshakeable.  Laura also shared how their new AI features are enabling users to do more with their digital and email marketing – and how Contact Contact’s approach is not about the tech, but the people and businesses it empowers. <h3>A legacy of focus on SMBs</h3>A seasoned marketer, Laura has spent the last decade working almost exclusively with SMBs, particularly at companies committed to servicing that market tier. As Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/kabbage-american-express/">Kabbage</a> – an SMB-focused financial platform under the AMEX umbrella – she helped small businesses simplify cash flow management with a portfolio of digital solutions. What Laura loves most about this segment is guiding small businesses through key challenges and helping them achieve success. This centers around demystifying complexity, so a business owner can focus on what really matters. That passion continues to drive her work at Constant Contact.“Whether it's marketing, setting up an LLC, or needing a line of credit, it's not why they got into the world of small business,” she explained. “So how do we build a product or service that can help someone who may not be an expert in a field to be really effective?”In the case of digital marketing, this has never been more apropos. Most people know how to use basic email. But scaling that into campaigns and integrated programs? That can be far more complicated for less tech-savvy entrepreneurs.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">"Whether it's marketing, setting up an LLC, or needing a line of credit, it's not why they got into the world of small business. So how do we build a product or service that can help someone who may not be an expert in a field to be really effective?”</h4><hr /> This is where Constant Contact shines: enabling small businesses to harness the potential of digital marketing with ease. Email is certainly a big part of it, but the company’s expanded ecosystem of services helps SMBs reach customers in new and exciting ways.“Constant Contact is a digital marketing platform,” she said. “We lead with email, but that's sort of the ‘entry’ point if you will, and we can we really work to combine your marketing across all channels – email, social marketing, SMS – where you can engage in building relationships with your customers.”While the focus on SMBs is crystal clear, I asked Laura about the enterprise side of the ledger. After all, many large businesses use Constant Contact as the email layer of a composable stack. In some cases, they might have “grown up” with the technology and never left – but in most cases, it’s a testament to the ease of use and effectiveness of the platform.“We absolutely have some bigger customers that are enterprise-level or mid-market,” she explained. “But we’re solely focused on [providing] SMBs a marketing platform that’s easy to use and grow with. If you're a solopreneur, or just starting out, it should be simple to send emails and texts, post on social media, and even integrate your <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/shopify">Shopify</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/woocommerce">WooCommerce</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a> – all in one place. As you get more sophisticated, we have packages that allow you to do more, like segmenting your audiences and setting up custom automations to track revenue from your emails.”<h3>Making integrations easier </h3>Going deeper around the commerce layer, I asked Laura how easy it is to connect shopping carts from third-party platforms with Constant Contact’s email capabilities. Turns out there’s a lot more functionality under the hood, including some personalization features that are simple yet slick. “It's pretty easy to integrate shopping carts,” she explained. “Customers from your e-commerce platform are populated into your email list, along with their history. So, if you only buy red sweaters, then I know I should only market red sweaters to you, or let you know when we have a sale on red sweaters. It lets you take that data.”And it is, in fact, really easy to make it all work. With over 6,000 integrations, Constant Contact offers a mega-library of connectors to a world of applications – many of which can be added with just a few clicks. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:78.18%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/11/image-1699389693858.png" alt="A screenshot of a computer

Description automatically generated" /></figure> In the case of Shopify, simple online documentation provides step-by-step instructions for getting it all flowing in no time flat.One of the biggest benefits of Constant Contact is the access to metrics and analytics. This has long been a core feature of the platform, providing users with details like delivery and open rates. But with a commerce integration like Shopify, you go beyond abandoned carts and see what an email produces in revenue and sales. As far as integrations go, commerce is just the tip of the iceberg. With a deep bench of best-of-breed tools at your disposal, there are even more opportunities for automation. “We have integrations with platforms like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/canva-button-gives-cms-users-integrated-graphic-design-tools-for-visual-content">Canva</a>,” Laura said. “So, if you have all your brand assets and design elements there, you can easily bring them into your emails or social posts. We’ve also integrated with <a target="_blank" href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>, if you’re a video-heavy brand and want to feature that kind of content. And on the B2B side, we even have integrations with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hubspot'">HubSpot</a> and other sales CRMs as well.”<h3>Security and privacy are job zero</h3>Short of sounding too macabre, the <a target="_blank" href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/third-party-cookie-phase-out">death of third-party cookies</a> is wreaking havoc on marketers. Add in <a target="_blank" href="https://gdpr-info.eu/">GDPR</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Consumer_Privacy_Act">CCPA</a>, and other regulatory redlines, and businesses are under significant pressure to ensure data security and privacy. And with so much sinister email lurking around inboxes, trust is on the tip of everyone's tongue. I asked Laura how this critical relationship with trust has shaped Constant Contact’s posture in the market, and how they’re addressing bigger ticket security challenges – so small businesses don’t have to sweat it. “I'm so happy you asked me this, because nobody ever asks me this,” she said. “It’s who we are. Yes, we have the best delivery rates in the business to the inbox, but we also have the best ways to filter spam. We keep our IPs pristine. We make sure that your emails and communications get to the right inbox. It’s one of the primary pillars of our brand, what we stand for and really care about – and we do everything we can so the customer doesn't have to think about that.”Despite its best efforts, Laura reinforced that there are always limits, and both Google and Yahoo are constantly changing the rules that govern customer data. This is where Constant Contact’s commitment to the customer relationship – to trust – really comes in.“We work with our customers to ensure they're compliant and that their emails continue to be delivered,” Laura reinforced. “It’s what we do. And if we need you to do something [on your end], we're going to walk you through it. We're going to make it as easy as possible. And we're going to make sure it's impactful to your business.”<h3>AI is an ingredient, not a feature</h3>As I relayed to Laura, I feel a bit more like an AI Critic these days. The impact of artificial intelligence on the digital experience economy is undeniable, and Constant Contact – like its peers – has been working diligently to harness its potential.Of course, generative AI has obvious applications for an email platform. After all, it’s digital marketers and content creators writing subject lines and body copy. But when you think about the average small business user, the power of AI can take on a whole new dimension of value, even if they’re unfamiliar or intimidated by tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">ChatGPT</a>.  When I finally broached everyone’s soup du jour of 2023, it was apropos to hear Laura serve up Constant Contact’s AI strategy in a perfect dish. “We try not to market it so much,” she relayed. “AI is an ingredient, not a feature. Right? It's the how, not the what. Yes, it's AI that's powering this feature or that feature, but let's talk about the feature itself and how it benefits the customer, and try and keep the lingo to the side.” As Laura described, Constant Contact is using AI in a lot of places. While the latest innovations have included tools like a content generator, she was quick to point out that this isn't the company’s first “AI rodeo.”“We have an internal spam filter that’s 100% built with AI and machine learning," she said. "We've been using AI in our own tools that the customer may never see, but it’s making them more successful.”Laura pointed out that while everyone across the digital marketing category is offering some manner of content generation, Constant Contact is leveraging a “treasure trove” of history to pull from, allowing them to determine what's most effective. This gives users more relevant ideas and suggestions for overcoming writer’s block and creating more compelling email and marketing content.  <h3>Using Constant Contact's AI Content Generator</h3>When it comes to AI features in <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">CMS</a>, DXP, and digital marketing platforms, I’ve experienced almost everything at this point – from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canva.com/magic-write/">Canva’s Magic Write</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/kontent-ai-pioneers-native-ai-in-headless-cms-interview-with-vojtech-boril">Kontent.ai’s native gen AI features</a>. Without question, Constant Contact's is one of the simplest. First and foremost, the interface is incredibly clean and lightweight. No frills, and definitely no complexity. While that might seem less robust, it's designed to be intuitive to the small business user – and as such, only prompts for basic announcements in a single input field. During a self-propelled demo, I added my own text blurb about an Italian restaurant running a special (it was lunchtime, what can I say?) and in seconds, it rendered some clever email text. It was short, and needed a bit of tweaking, but I was able to manually edit at the next step. I also tried the fully formatted email template as an option, and sure enough, I was served a basic structure ready to be customized with logos and other attributes. Once approved, I was able to add it to my email workflow and schedule my campaign. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/11/image.png" /></figure> “I think there's real power in solving that blank piece of paper problem,” she said. “Imagine a small business owner, and maybe their first job isn’t marketing. They might stare at a blank email with no direction. We just had a great quote from a customer who runs a farm stand, and they said, ‘Oh my god, you guys tell me 45 different ways to say come to my farm stand on Saturday.’ I laughed, but you know, that help is huge.”Laura shared a bit more about the roadmap and where AI is being focused now and in the future. A big part of the strategy is to continue enhancing Constant Contact’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.constantcontact.com/features/ai-marketing">automation</a> and segmentation, particularly around connection points with other ecosystems like social media. “Maybe you buy an ad on Facebook,” she explained, “and you want to send a text two minutes before and see exactly what recommended actions are the next step based on your history of what's been successful and driven the most response and revenue.”Those are smart applications for AI, all supporting the delivery of the right message at the right time to the right customer through the right channel.<h3>Constantly seeking innovation</h3>I asked Laura what’s next for Constant Contact, specifically as the digital landscape becomes more complex. It’s worth noting that the company realigned its product offerings in the middle of 2023 – which she described as a really big move.  “There's a lot of exciting things coming down the pipe,” she said. “We have new features and functionality, and it's all focused on helping our customers grow, whatever that means for them. And it’s making tools like email easier to use, and then really building on that marketing platform to get them to the next level, helping them get closer to their customers and market more effectively.”To help deliver on that mission, the company has made several strategic acquisitions to help complete its market vision. This includes <a target="_blank" href="https://sharpspring.com/">SharpSpring</a>, a provider of sales automation and CRM software. The added channel of capabilities has helped Constant Contact capture greater market share and enhance its stack of product offerings. As far as advancing its global footprint and enriching brand awareness, the company also purchased <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vision6.com/">Vision6</a> – an Australian-based email and SMS marketing platform – providing a gateway to that market. There’s no question that AI is influencing the roadmap for this long-standing brand. But as Laura described, these new technologies are simply how Constant Contact delivers success for SMBs. The why and the what is all about translating the value for the customer.“You can't turn on the news or watch a TV show without hearing about AI,” she said. “Our customers are curious, but we can't just say, ‘hey, use our AI feature’ because they don't know what that means. Small businesses are people, so we’re putting AI in context for them.”These days, we could all use a dose of AI context. Thankfully, Constant Contact is getting the right message to our collective inbox.

Constant Contact Delivers Beyond Email, Adds AI and Automation Features to Power SMB Success

<hr /> The Milwaukee <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/kentico">Kentico</a> User Group – known under the handle of “MKE KUG” – has some big plans for 2024. While the community has been dormant, two local agencies – <a target="_blank" href="https://lightburn.co/">Lightburn</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://cidesigninc.com/">CI Design</a> – are reinvigorating the group, which will assemble local members to collaborate, learn, share, and network around everything related to the Kentico ecosystem. In a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/newsroom/lightburn-cidesign-reignite-milwaukee-kentico-user-group">press release</a> from Kentico, the plan outlines that leaders will furnish guidance to members while inviting input to shape its future. Using <a target="_blank" href="https://www.meetup.com/">Meetup</a>, their teams will engage participants, sponsors, and Kentico channel partners via real-world and virtual events, plus discussion threads and resources.  “At Kentico, we actively seek ways to expand user support from the ground up," said <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/kentico-appoints-bill-cunningham-as-chief-revenue-officer">Bill Cunningham</a>, CRO at Kentico. "We are excited to invest in local tech-driven events like these with two of our partners. We are looking forward to being an active part of the MKE KUG and seeing Kentico users come together.” MKE KUG is open to all who interact with Kentico, not just agency employees. In-house corporate teams that use Kentico for their customers’ digital experiences are encouraged to join, as is anyone interested in learning more about the platform.  The new cadence of the group is designed to deliver intrinsic value for its attendees. Each month, agency group leaders will share Kentico-related news, moderate conversations, and share partner DXP info directly with group members. MKE KUG will gather downtown or in the nearby suburbs for a quarterly live meetup. <h3>A broad range of Kentico-focused content</h3>During events, front- and back-end developers can collaborate in a hands-on workshop to talk through current setup issues or discuss their best practices. Marketing professionals and administrators can learn about the latest apps, tools, and use cases impacting websites, management, personalization practices, and digital marketing ROI. Agency marketing leaders and platform developers will host and attend each event to offer real feedback and support for users and businesses who need a Kentico partner or whose in-house team could use additional guidance.  Topics may include: <ul><li>Product updates from Kentico partners </li><li>Real-world use cases (agency client interviews, Q&amp;As) </li><li>Consolidating your martech ecosystem </li><li>Setting up and using personalization strategies  </li><li>Training and certification workshops </li><li>Live technical issues/troubleshooting </li><li>Setting up and using page types and components  </li><li>How to use AI with Kentico </li><li>How to create gated content </li><li>Tips and tricks for email marketing </li><li>A deep dive into application best practices  </li><li>Where to find support with Kentico </li><li>Managing third-party integrations </li><li>Migrating from Kentico Xperience 13 to Xperience by Kentico  </li></ul><h3>Serving the Kentico community</h3>The new MKE KUG group is part of a larger Kentico initiative, one where the company delivers better service to its community of developers and non-technical users. As part of this collaboration, Kentico's channel owners and product evangelists will actively support, host, or attend in-person events. A bit of background on the partners behind the effort: CI Design is an Emmy award-winning Milwaukee marketing agency with full-service digital capabilities from website and mobile apps to brand strategy, SEM, video, and more. Lightburn is a customer experience agency that empowers organizations to reach their full digital potential to better engage, attract, and retain customers. Both CI Design and Lightburn attended the recent <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/kentico-connection-2023-nashville-focuses-on-innovation-partnerships-ai-and-the-future-of-dxp">Kentico Connection</a> conference in Nashville in October. As an additional bonus for its members, the group organizers – in conjunction with Kentico’s product evangelist, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-g-wright/">Sean Wright</a> – will host a conference recap and panel session this Wednesday, November 8, from 1 PM to 2 PM (CDT) via the Meetup group and Zoom. This discussion will feature an open conversation discussing event topics and takeaways with time for Q&amp;A. The session will also be recorded.Visit <a target="_blank" href="https://www.meetup.com/mkekug/">https://www.meetup.com/mkekug/</a> to join the MKE KUG Meetup group.

Lightburn Partners With CI Design to Reignite Milwaukee Kentico User Group

cms-critic-staff

<hr /> Today's marketers have tight schedules and a ton of complexity to wrestle with. Creating campaigns across multiple formats, geographies, channels, and languages – and managing them securely and efficiently – demands a lot of time and resources. On top of that, there are the rigors of running omnichannel marketing campaigns, where speed and agility are an absolute must for delivering fresh and relevant content. But fear not:<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/coremedia"> CoreMedia</a>, a leader in <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">Content Management (CMS)</a> and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) solutions, has a solution. Recently, the company launched what it calls <a target="_blank" href="https://www.coremedia.com/press/coremedia-campaigns-coremedia-launches-solution-for-smarter-omnichannel-campaign-management-">CoreMedia Campaigns</a>, a new cloud-native SaaS application that can deliver consistent content across a wide range of channels, all while minimizing administrative overhead and dependency on development teams."Our goal was to make the content planning processes as well as the campaign management of demanding omnichannel campaigns as simple and efficient as possible for marketing teams," says <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/soerenstamer/">Sören Stamer</a>, Co-Founder and CEO CoreMedia. “Our cloud-based solution ensures a seamless, hassle-free operation, allowing marketing teams to fully focus on creating exceptional experiences.”<h3>Simplifying the campaign experience with powerful tools </h3>There are several key benefits to CoreMedia Campaigns. First and foremost, it maximizes user-friendliness through an intuitive user interface that's easy to use. With its multi-asset planning tool, marketing teams can implement campaigns in a targeted and secure manner with less friction and greater speed.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.13%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/11/coremedia-campaigns.png" /></figure> Additionally, CoreMedia Campaigns gives creators a reliable tool that helps avoid errors when setting up campaigns while ensuring a consistent user experience. A calendar provides a holistic view of all campaigns, making management easier and more effective.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.36%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/11/coremedia-calendar.png" /></figure> A set of APIs enables communication with CoreMedia's repositories, allowing campaign managers to access all the content they want for their campaigns. This makes the application highly flexible and extensible.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:79.61%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/11/coremedia-media.png" /></figure> Finally, as part of the scheduling, users can select a target locale from a simple dropdown picker and assign content items based on the current campaign.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:78.97%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/11/coremedia-localization.png" /></figure><h3>Future-proofing with CoreMedia Campaigns</h3>Modern marketing teams expect continuous innovation from technology platforms. CoreMedia Campaigns helps meet this demand by delivering a dynamic user experience with solutions that augment the marketer's toolkit.For more than 27 years, customers worldwide have relied on CoreMedia's content management system and digital experience solutions. With decades of experience and a customized, hybrid headless approach based on a composition-enabled DXP, CoreMedia helps organizations overcome the limitations of traditional content management. Now, with CoreMedia Campaigns, global B2C and B2B brands have access to future-proof technology to deliver personalized and engaging digital experiences across multiple real-time digital channels.

CoreMedia Launches Solution for Smarter Omnichannel Campaign Management

<hr /> There's no question that <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/netlify">Netlify</a> can “amplify” how brands build, deploy, and scale their apps. Since 2014, it's been one of the leading platforms for running modern <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021">Jamstack</a> web applications in production. Developers love it because it's powerful yet simple, making it easy to integrate their choice of tools and collaborate with their teams in a more composable world.Now, the renowned cloud computing and hosting platform is partnering with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/crownpeak">Crownpeak</a> – a digital experience platform (DXP) solutions provider – to empower businesses to deliver exceptional digital experiences effortlessly.Here's how: Crownpeak and Netlify will offer an end-to-end web development and deployment solution with accessible, optimized content at its core. Leveraging Crownpeak's DXP solutions, teams will be empowered to rapidly create and distribute compliant, personalized content across digital touchpoints. Meanwhile, Netlify will effectively “supercharge” the development process to support customer engagement and conversion through lightning-fast speeds and reliable web performances."Crownpeak and Netlify are joining forces to empower businesses to deliver exceptional digital experiences that drive growth and engagement," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoph-feddersen-218388a/">Christoph Feddersen</a>, VP of Technical Product Management at Crownpeak. "Our partnership reflects our shared commitment to simplifying digital experience management and hosting while fostering a composable approach for enterprise organizations to build powerful digital experience platforms."<h3>Powering content with innovative web hosting and deployment</h3>Over the years, Crownpeak has built a strong reputation in <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">web content management</a> and digital experience solutions. A globally recognized player, the company continues to chart on the <a target="_blank" href="https://wire19.com/digital-experience-platform-vendors/">Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a> in a leading position amongst Niche players. With a focus on enabling organizations to create, manage, and optimize content across various digital channels, Crownpeak has proven itself a trusted partner for enterprises worldwide.Netlify, on the other hand, has revolutionized web hosting and deployment, offering an all-in-one solution that simplifies the process of building and delivering modern web projects. Its global content delivery network (CDN), serverless functions, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) capabilities have made it a go-to option for developers seeking efficiency and scalability.The partnership between Crownpeak and Netlify represents a convergence of strengths. Together, they aim to provide businesses with the tools and capabilities to enhance digital experiences and drive engagement across the web. From a technology integration perspective, Crownpeak's CMS – <a target="_blank" href="https://community.crownpeak.com/t5/FirstSpirit/ct-p/FirstSpirit">FirstSpirit</a> – seamlessly integrates with Netlify's hosting and deployment platform, enabling businesses to manage content, deliver personalized experiences, and deploy web projects more efficiently. Bolstered by Netlify, FirstSpirit ensures websites and applications can handle traffic spikes while maintaining fast load times and low latency. Both companies also prioritize security and compliance, providing customers with robust protection for their digital assets and customer data.In addition, the new partnership streamlines the development and deployment process, allowing users to harness the combined capabilities of Crownpeak and Netlify – resulting in faster time-to-market for digital initiatives. Businesses can also leverage Crownpeak's personalization and optimization features alongside Netlify's CDN, delivering optimized website performance and better user experiences. <h3>Future-proofing for composability</h3>Crownpeak and Netlify share a common vision for a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">composable future</a> – one where developers and marketers alike enjoy unmatched agility when bringing unique customer experiences to market. Netlify also met and exceeded several requirements Crownpeak was looking for in a progressive web app (PWA) development and deployment infrastructure.By harnessing the combined strengths of Crownpeak and Netlify, organizations can innovate at the speed of the business with unmatched flexibility rooted in its <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms">headless</a> approach. Brands can deliver consistent, high-performing experiences, no matter the customer’s channel or location. "We're excited to partner with Crownpeak to bring together our composable web platform with their content management solution," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenvlarsen/">Steven Larsen</a>, VP of Partnerships and Ecosystems at Netlify. “Together, we're enabling businesses to create, deploy, and scale their digital projects with ease, ensuring they can deliver the exceptional experiences their customers expect.”The two also provide a future-proof, scalable architecture, enabling teams to create content once and repurpose it for any channel on an infrastructure that meets your growth, traffic, and performance demands. The combined solutions unify cross-functional teams on automated workflows – with all your integrations and APIs together on one powerful, serverless platform.

Crownpeak and Netlify Partner to Combine Web Platform Features with DXP Solutions

<hr /> The number “13” gets a bad rap in superstitious circles, but <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a> might see it as a good luck charm. Today, the company announced the availability of its <a target="_blank" href="https://umbraco.com/blog/umbraco-13-release-candidate/">Umbraco 13 release candidate</a>, the next long-term supported version of its popular <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system (CMS)</a>. According to the company's blog , the package is ready for testing and can be <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nuget.org/packages/Umbraco.Cms/13.0.0-rc1">downloaded via NuGet.</a>The release candidate offers an opportunity to explore Umbraco 13 and check out its new features. This includes a major update to the platform's underlying .NET framework to .NET 8 with C# 12, along with more <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/are-headless-cms-platforms-neglecting-their-users">headless</a> capabilities.Users are generally invited to test drive the Umbraco 13 release candidate and provide feedback. All of this leads to the public release, targeted for December 14, 2023.<h3>What's new in Umbraco 13?</h3>The company's announcement provides a quick overview of version 13, which offers a bevy of enhancements. This includes more flexible scaling for better performance and more sustainable hosting. Serialization, JSON, and other components have also been optimized. C# 12 will feature upgrades to Primary Constructors, Using Declarations, Field Interpolation in String Literals, and Lambda improvements.Umbraco has also included a Minimal Hosting Model, which <a target="_blank" href="https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/">Microsoft</a> introduced in .NET 6. This model merges the previous program.cs and startup.cs into one single program.cs file and simplifies the initiation of an application. But most importantly, this model is now used for all Microsoft Tutorials and examples. The implementation is also backward compatible.As part of the company's headless initiative, Umbraco 13 contains <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webhook">Webhooks</a>, so that users can inform third-party systems about events like publishing in the CMS. There's also new UI that eases this process, enabling users to type in a URL they want to call and align it with specific events.<h3>Enhancements to APIs</h3>Along with the embellishments to the core CMS, Umbraco 13 is also better aligned with the <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.umbraco.com/umbraco-commerce/reference/storefront-api">Umbraco Commerce Storefront API</a>, introducing nested field limiting and expansion for its <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.umbraco.com/umbraco-cms/reference/content-delivery-api">Content Delivery API</a>. There's new functionality with this upgrade, including greater flexibility on where to limit and expand on multiple levels.The <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.umbraco.com/umbraco-cms/reference/content-delivery-api/media-delivery-api">Media Delivery API</a> has also received some enhancements. First introduced in version 12.2, the upgrades amend some earlier compromises the company wanted to improve upon. Umbraco 13 does this by including some class fixes along with a new public interface and some changed return values. <h3>Preparing for future functionality</h3>A few features have been introduced in Umbraco 13 as prerequisites for future capabilities. One such example is the Dynamic Root for the Multinode Treepicker, implemented as an alternative to the XPath expressions. This new approach has been introduced to prepare for lazy loaded content, where Umbraco aims to introduce more efficient caching and memory management to improve performance for sites with large amounts of content. As an added benefit, it will now also be way easier to set up a relative path for the Multinode Treepicker.<h3>New editing and UX capabilities</h3>In the version 13 release candidate, one of the UX enhancements is the introduction of Blocks in the Rich Text Editor. The company plans to add more block functionality, including global blocks as reusable content.Umbraco is also working on its next-gen backoffice (called Bellissima) where new frontend technologies will take the stage. Most of this UI is bound to a new management API but has also been applied to the CMS login screen, which sports a new visual design experience. To avoid a user accidentally logging in multiple times – and to align with security by design principles – Umbraco 13 is allowing for concurrent logins, so it's now default set to false.<h3>What’s next</h3>While the version 13 release candidate is considered “feature complete,” Umbraco anticipates more changes to come. That said, the company expects most of the issues to be minor fixes based on feedback and testing.Along with bug remediation, Umbraco will focus on making HQ packages available for Umbraco Commerce, Workflow, Forms, and Deploy, and expects additional release candidates to be available shortly after this announcement. The company is also ensuring that version 13 will be available on <a target="_blank" href="https://umbraco.com/products/umbraco-cloud/">Umbraco Cloud</a> when released, along with current documentation. As noted, the company is targeting a public release on December 14. To provide feedback on the release candidate, users can report them using the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/issues/new?assignees=&amp;labels=type%2Fbug&amp;template=01_bug_report.yml&amp;title=v13%20RC1">GitHub tracker</a> by following the link or selecting “Bug Report” when creating a new issue.

Umbraco 13 Release Candidate Now Available for Testing, Offers New CMS Features

Kentico Connection 2023 Nashville Focuses on Innovation, Partnerships, AI, and the Future of DXP

CMS Summit 26

Find out at Open Source CMS 26, October 20-21 in Utrecht, Netherlands

What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

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<hr /> As omnichannel continues to evolve digital strategies for brands, composable and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms">headless</a> solutions are finding growth opportunities across a multitude of industries. This includes the healthcare technology marketplace, where digital experiences and e-commerce are critical to the business imperative. This week, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentstack">Contentstack</a> amplified that growth in the hearing care vertical. The composable digital experience platform (DXP) provider announced the<a target="_blank" href="https://report.sonova.com/2020/en/audiological-care-business/"> </a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.sonova.com/en/audiologicalcare-us">Audiological Care division of Sonova</a> – a global leader in innovative hearing care solutions – has selected Contentstack to power its migration to a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">headless CMS</a> solution. This is part of a broader digitalization strategy for Sonova, one that positions omnichannel at the forefront. “Our digital transformation goals required a solution that allows us to get ahead of the market changes and cater to the unique needs of our customer base,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/varungupta85/">Varun Thunuguntla</a>, Digital Marketing Director for Sonova's Audiological Care business. "Contentstack gives us the flexibility to create more content with speed and deploy a number of personalized features to improve our customers' experience. At the same time, it enables us to improve internal collaboration across markets whilst providing the structure we need to scale our business, quickly integrate new and emerging tools, and future-proof our operations.” Futureproofing appears to be a key element in the decision-making for Sonova's selection of Contentstack. According to the company's press release, Contentstack will power web and digital experiences within Sonova’s Audiological Care division across its global markets. As part of its omnichannel strategy, additional touchpoints will follow in later phases. <h3>Powering omnichannel experiences with headless CMS</h3>Sonova’s Audiological Care business required a modern content management system to support content creation and improve collaboration with its new website. The company also sought a solution that enabled it to respond quickly to evolving business needs. With Contentstack’s headless CMS behind its websites, Sonova can now realize these goals. According to the press release, the move to Contentstack will help ensure consistency, improve internal workflows, and enhance content output speed and sharing across markets. By taking a composable, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">MACH-based approach</a>, Sonova's Audiological Care division will be able to accelerate the deployment of new features to its websites and deliver more personalized experiences across all channels. In addition, Contentstack’s extensive API library will enable Sonova to deploy and demote applications per their business needs with greater ease.    “Sonova Audiological Care business is a perfect example of how composable technology can empower businesses for years to come,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramonweterings/">Ramon Weterings,</a> VP Sales EMEA at Contentstack. “Through the power of MACH, businesses can benefit from the latest best-of-breed solutions to continue to innovate and accelerate growth at the speed of their imagination. Contentstack’s 'Care Without Compromise' initiative ensures the successful migration into composable whilst working closely with Sonova Audiological Care to introduce new tools to support their evolving business goals.” Sonova’s Audiological Care business chose Contentstack for its leading position in the composable digital experience space. With Contentstack, Sonova is now armed with the latest technology to manage organic growth and adapt more quickly and easily to the ever-evolving needs of its customers.

Contentstack Powers Growth in Hearing Care with Sonova

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sitecore">Sitecore</a>, a global leader in end-to-end digital experience software, recently unveiled some new offerings as part of its robust, cloud-based digital experience platform. The new solutions, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud-plus">XM Cloud Plus</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/knowledge-center/digital-marketing-resources/introducing-sitecore-accelerate">Sitecore Accelerate</a>, are designed to help brands speed up and simplify their move to the cloud by making it easier than ever before to embark on the journey to SaaS and leverage solutions with robust enterprise capabilities.According to the company's press release, cloud-based solutions deliver faster integrations, regular technology updates with little downtime, and more engaging customer experiences. Yet, there remains a perception that switching is both complex and challenging. XM Cloud Plus and Sitecore Accelerate are specifically designed to help remove these obstacles by providing the knowledge, tools, and support needed to make it easier to migrate to Sitecore’s leading cloud-based composable offerings.Both solutions were announced at the company's Sitecore DX 2023 conference in Minneapolis. <h3>XM Cloud Plus builds on SaaS success</h3>In 2022, Sitecore launched its XM Cloud, the industry’s first fully-native cloud CMS solution – and it quickly became the company’s fastest-selling SaaS product with over 100 major brand adoptions. Today, Sitecore is expanding the capabilities of XM Cloud with the launch of XM Cloud Plus: an extended digital-experience solution that brings together content management, AI-powered search, personalization, customer data management, and analytics.XM Cloud Plus is designed to answer the needs of Sitecore XP customers who have enjoyed a powerful solution in a single product and are ready to make their transition to the cloud, and for brands that want to leverage a composable technology stack but use a proven product combination to simplify deployment and accelerate time to value.“XM Cloud marked a significant moment in Sitecore’s journey when we launched it a year ago," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzikakis/">Steve Tzikakis</a>, CEO of Sitecore. "Our first-to-market experience offering a cloud-based composable solution resulted in rapid adoption and was the culmination of three years of development with extensive customer input. Today, we expand the XM Cloud offering with XM Cloud Plus, bringing together a proven set of products that gives brands broader capabilities to offer an unrivaled customer experience, while simplifying and accelerating their move to the cloud, and delivering a powerful solution for the thousands of Sitecore XP customers that want additional enterprise capabilities.”Key features of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud-plus">XM Cloud Plus</a> include:<ul><li>Content Creation and Management: User-friendly tools allow teams to efficiently produce, optimize, and deliver captivating content to the right audience at the right time.</li><li>AI-Powered Search and Content Recommendations: Includes dynamic personalization and targeting strategies, offering omnichannel personalization, intelligent search recommendations, and access to an extensive array of personalization development tools.</li><li>Omnichannel Content Center: Teams can now efficiently manage all digital customer touchpoints from a single, unified content repository that ensures brand consistency and streamlined workflows.</li><li>Seamless Integrations and Connectivity: XM Cloud Plus can be easily implemented within an existing tech stack to create connected, immersive customer experiences across all channels.</li><li>Intuitive Form Builder: Our drag-and-drop form builder for XM Cloud and XM Cloud Plus, provides customers with an easy way to add data capture forms to their pages and components.</li></ul><h3>Speeding brands to the cloud with Sitecore Accelerate</h3>Companies often retain on-premises solutions due to the perceived difficulty of moving to the cloud. To address this, Sitecore has launched Sitecore Accelerate, a dedicated program to guide Sitecore XM and Sitecore XP customers to either XM Cloud or XM Cloud Plus and XC customers to OrderCloud. Sitecore Accelerate gives teams the knowledge, resources, tools, and human support needed to unlock the full potential of a SaaS-based future.“We are at an inflection point where mature cloud technology is combining with AI computing to empower brands like never before,” added Tzikakis. “To leverage this opportunity, brands need guidance, reassurance and actual step-by-step, proven assistance from knowledgeable peers and partners to make their DXP stack operate to full capacity and capability.” By giving brands the support they need with Sitecore Accelerate, they can tap into the full power of Sitecore’s solutions simply and easily. It is such a critical moment for online experiences, and we want to be the partner brands turn to when they want to build a better proposition.”<h3>Generative AI comes to Sitecore's composable DXP</h3>At DX Minneapolis 2023, new Generative AI features were announced that enhance content creation, management, and delivery of digital experiences. “Sitecore introduced native machine learning features across our platform and composable DXP in 2019," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveof/">Dave O’Flanagan</a>, Chief Product Officer, Sitecore. "With our ongoing focus on R&amp;D, we are excited to bring the next level of AI to our customers. These additions accelerate the speed at which brands build content and experiences with Sitecore solutions, open new ways to empower marketing, and heighten the level of insight brands get from their data."With Accelerate, brand marketers can:<ul><li>Generate text and images in Content Hub One that are consistently on-brand to achieve a new level of hyper-personalization for customer-facing content</li><li>Author and edit brand content in Content Hub DAM (Digital Asset Management) to ensure it aligns with content models and brand consistency</li><li>Deploy advanced Search that understands user intent to answer queries faster</li><li>Leverage Visual Search from Content Hub to easily discover content and incorporate images into brand assets via similar image suggestions</li></ul>“This is only the first step to embed AI deep into our SaaS DXP so our customers can continue to build better experiences for their customers," O'Flanagan added. "We are actively working on new ways to improve marketer workflows through automatic improvements, and further down the line, AI will be able to optimize the digital experience with limited manual oversight.”Sitecore will begin rolling out its new AI capabilities in the coming weeks.

Sitecore's Accelerate and XM Cloud Plus Promise Brands a Faster Path to Cloud Transformation

<hr /> Over the past few years, we've steadily covered the rise of the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness">MACH Alliance</a> – an undeniable force of independent tech companies advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. The cabal of member companies has reached almost 100, all dedicated to future-proofing within the composable movement. During the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year">MACH Two event</a> this past June, I had an opportunity to engage with the organization's leadership, where they shared some of the challenges surrounding the member admissions process. These points were echoed in conversations I had with ISVs and SIs both inside and outside the MACH membership community. At the time, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">Casper Rasmussen</a>, President of the MACH Alliance, acknowledged a greater need for transparency – and expressed a commitment to deliver it.True to his word, the organization just announced the publication of a new <a target="_blank" href="https://register.machalliance.org/hubfs/Admissions%20Playbook.pdf">Admissions Playbook</a>, adding rigor to its certification and admissions process. The timing reflects the overall market maturity, which previous MACH Alliance president <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/">Kelly Goetsch</a> crystallized in a comment during MACH Two: “MACH now feels like the default.”The criteria within the guide highlight the stringency and purity of certification and how the Alliance fiercely protects it – providing greater clarity and confidence for enterprise technology buyers who are building composable solutions. It also gives applicants a clear blueprint for certification and what the evaluation process entails.“We have always maintained the highest standards for certification," said Rasmussen. "All criteria are specification and fact-based, and we will continue to evolve the evaluation process while also ensuring all applicants are held to the same bar. This is our highest goal as the industry body, to ensure customers are clear they are buying true future-proof MACH solutions. We are intentionally 100 percent open about our admissions process as we strive for complete transparency and welcome feedback and questions.” <h3>Reflecting market maturity and growth of composable </h3>Since first rolling onto the tech scene in June 2020, the MACH Alliance's assessment criteria and scoring system have evolved, reflecting the organization's accrued knowledge and experience as new companies apply for certification. The volume of member applications has grown by more than 60 percent in three years, while the rejection rate for companies that fail to meet the criteria has remained stable at around 50 percent. According to the MACH Alliance, the increase in the number of member applications reflects a maturing market. As evidenced by the Impact Awards at the MACH Two event, more complex applications are being built by companies that have reshaped their portfolio and product strategy from monolith to MACH, as well as enterprises with multiple products in their stack. “The MACH Alliance is adapting to a maturing market and being realistic and inclusive of the reality that is out there as more vendors transition their product strategies for a composable future," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/benoit-rossignol/">Benoit Rossignol</a>, Head of the MACH Alliance Admissions Panel. "MACH is expanding from front-end to back-end solutions and into new industries, touching every component of an enterprise tech stack. We need to ensure a level playing field for all assessments.” <h3>A winning playbook for certification</h3>MACH certification is the cornerstone of the organization's promise to the market. It provides buyers with greater confidence that the products and services they select from MACH-certified members will enable a future-proof technology outcome. The full criteria for certification – consolidated and described in detail within the Playbook – are solely in place to ensure enterprises get the swappable, future-fit technology they expect when committing to a MACH strategy.To prevent confusion for buyers, the criteria were recently extended to accommodate companies that still maintain legacy products for existing clients, as long as the solutions being actively sold are 100 percent MACH compliant. The playbook itself clocks in at 46 pages and is packed with details. That said, it's well-paced and easy to digest. At its core, it clarifies the complete neutrality and transparency of the certification process to reinforce market trust in the MACH-certified status. It also shows potential members exactly what’s required to achieve certification. The PDF first delves into the distinct member categories and helps establish criteria for each – including ISVs, SIs, and Enablers. This includes clarification between boutique system integrators versus standard or global, detailing the specific thresholds for company size, engineering staff, and other details. The Admissions Process section dives deep, providing a visual flowchart for the applicant lifecycle. It covers the process step by step, denoting how to apply, what the rejection process entails, and how an organization can appeal. The playbook also drills down into the evaluation process, including critical insight around criteria scoring. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:57.52%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/mach-alliance-flowchart.jpg" /></figure> The technical assessment sheds further light on the tech scoring and analysis, specifying the need for qualified headcount, cloud partnership agreements, and relevant case studies that reflect an organization's MACH focus. These tech-oriented reviews vary based on the company's category. The playbook also provides more transparency into the executive board approval, and how special cases – such as multi-product or legacy applications – are identified and assessed fairly. This includes situations where a merger or acquisition impacts an organization's posture as a MACH solution. <h3>Ensuring continued compliance with MACH standards </h3>If there's one certainty regarding governance, it's that policies will evolve over time. As such, the MACH Alliance is also working on a program to ensure all existing members are re-evaluated against the latest criteria, so they continue to meet MACH standards across the applications they are actively selling. While this evolution requires vigilance, the core principles of the MACH Alliance remain unphased – and continue to drive the overall roadmap.“The objective behind the certification process hasn’t changed,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascallagarde/">Pascal Lagarde</a>, a member of the MACH Alliance Advisory Board and Admissions Panel. “What we’re doing now is maturing and adding rigor to the process as the number of applicants grows. We’ve also grown the pool of experts involved in admissions to enable us to handle the increasing number and complexity of applications. As the market evolves, we must ensure we evaluate everyone in the same manner, and the Playbook holds us to that commitment.” You can <a target="_blank" href="https://register.machalliance.org/hubfs/Admissions%20Playbook.pdf">download</a> the MACH Alliance Admissions Playbook in a PDF format. To learn more, visit <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/">www.machalliance.org</a>

New MACH Alliance Admissions Playbook Brings Greater Clarity to Certification Process  

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/optimizely">Optimizely</a>, a digital experience platform provider, just announced a new operating system for marketing practitioners built on its industry-leading DXP: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/products/">Optimizely One</a>. Comprised of Optimizely’s seamlessly integrated, best-of-breed capabilities – all built with modern SaaS – Optimizely One offers a highly composable architecture, giving organizations the flexibility to choose exactly what they need in their marketing ecosystem. Optimizely One is enriched through a single, unified workflow accelerated by AI, making it simple for marketers to create, manage, deliver, and optimize content all in one place. Secure and scalable, Optimizely One provides teams with the future-proof stack they need to create and optimize digital experiences for their customers.“Marketing is the only remaining enterprise function that doesn’t have a go-to platform, so we designed Optimizely One to be the operating system for marketers,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aatzberger/">Alex Atzberger</a>, CEO of Optimizely. “Content is at the core of every digital experience, and Optimizely One provides exactly what marketers need to orchestrate their content, monetize experiences and experiment across all touchpoints – all enriched through smart workflows and accelerated by AI. The time is now for companies to seize the opportunity to reinvent how marketing, product and growth teams work together to create content-driven digital experiences.”The announcement was made during <a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/opticon/">Opticon 2023</a>, the company's annual conference, which is being held this week in San Diego.<h3>Creating choice in a composable world</h3>Up until now, the market has had to make a difficult choice: build a stack that caters more to developers (think open and highly customizable but complex) or practitioners. This challenge has resulted in disparate point solutions that create a lot of overhead costs and disjointed workflows. Additionally, with AI rapidly evolving and its value exponentially growing, it has never been more important to streamline the way content gets created and data gets actioned.   With Optimizely One, customers now have the ability to build a truly composable stack. The platform is fully SaaS, fully decoupled, and highly composable – empowering teams to compose what they need on their own terms. One of the new capabilities is a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/insights/blog/unveiling-optimizelys-fully-composable-solution-for-content-orchestration/">CMS SaaS Core</a> for designing entire web experiences with a low/no-code interface. Users benefit from automatic upgrades, SLAs, and managed services. Optimizely One also features <a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/insights/blog/content-graph-announcement/">Graph</a> capabilities for aggregating content from any source, managing it from a single hub, and delivering it to any channel, app, or device.Additionally, users will have access to a Visual Experience Builder, where they can apply pre-built templates and customer data to create and preview engaging experiences via an all-new, user-friendly editor. A Unified Workflow also connects teams via a fully integrated workflow – from planning to analysis – all based on a single, unified platform. This allows users to log in once and seamlessly navigate across all Optimizely applications. The new Workflow features <a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/insights/blog/announcing-experiment-collaboration/">Experiment Collaboration</a> for managing every aspect of your testing and optimization programs with a purpose-built tool, and Omnichannel Authoring for creating content once and pulling it into multiple content types and formats for delivery across channels. <h3>Accelerating digital experiences with the power of AI</h3>While AI has been weaving its way into Optimizely over the last year, it's making a big splash in Optimizely One. The platform embeds both native and external AI capabilities into the entire marketing lifecycle, helping teams work faster and make better decisions. One of the big reveals in Optimizely One is the introduction of Opal, a new identity for Optimizely's AI. By engaging with this service, users can surface insights, review recommendations, create new content, and leverage an AI co-pilot when needed. Optimizely also announced a solution partnership with <a target="_blank" href="https://writer.com/">Writer</a>, a full-stack generative AI platform for enterprises. Combined with the Optimizely Content Marketing Platform (CMP), Writer will provide customers with sophisticated language learning models (LLMs) within the context of their existing marketing workflows. With a strong AI offering that meets B2B needs, the partnership will allow joint customers of Optimizely and Writer to finally harness the power of AI by leveraging the Writer platform to develop content that is relevant, compliant, and consistent with their existing brand tone and voice. <h3>Expanding leadership in experimentation and optimization </h3>Optimizely leverages powerful experimentation capabilities, comprehensive digital commerce tools, and intuitive content management to enable exceptional customer experiences for over 10,000 of the world’s top brands. Proven by its 8 leader recognitions from analyst firms in the last 24 months, Optimizely continues to deliver the industry’s best digital experience solutions With the addition of Optimizely One – and the introduction of new AI capabilities – the company sees tremendous potential for customers across the marketing and digital lifecycle.“We’re continually reinventing the way marketers work, so they can more easily deliver exceptional digital experiences to their customers and drive maximum business impact without having to make any tradeoffs,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupali/">Rupali Jain</a>, Chief Product Officer at Optimizely. “Optimizely One is a shared operating system that gives teams unprecedented levels of transparency, flexibility, and simplicity to manage their entire marketing lifecycle. With the guidance of Opal and the power of experimentation data, every part of the lifecycle is rooted in science.”

Optimizely Debuts Industry-First Marketing Operating System At Opticon 2023

<hr /> Global business transformation agency <a target="_blank" href="https://usw2.nyl.as/t1/154/29ddxp9gsglii7j8p6mnwli8g/3/b2c82cff406369556a3108d566bce2ae32384d8263ed2551e674dfd054ba5201">Valtech</a> today announced it has developed the first connector to act as a bridge between <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/salesforce-unveils-composable-storefront-a-digital-commerce-solution-to-help-retailers-go-headless-fast">Salesforce Commerce Cloud</a> and leading experimentation and digital experience platform <a target="_blank" href="https://usw2.nyl.as/t1/154/29ddxp9gsglii7j8p6mnwli8g/4/82e0e9974cb7f5ba9f69d8830a681273ea0299dd8bdd3a46bbcd62caf449f268">Optimizely</a>. The new connector allows businesses within B2C retail commerce to easily synchronize their products, catalogs, content, and other relevant information between the two platforms. By integrating the connector, businesses eliminate the need for manual data transfers and ensure real-time data consistency, leading to faster time-to-market and the ability to deliver personalized e-commerce experiences to customers. "We’re seeing businesses in B2C retail commerce face various challenges," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/janaka-fernando-omvp/">Janaka Fernando</a>, Director of Optimizely Practice at Valtech. “They’re reaching a marketing and merchandising dead-end, hitting a wall when it comes to personalization and experimentation, and dealing with lengthy upgrades or migrations of existing Commerce Cloud implementations. The market is changing at an accelerated speed as consumer expectations rise. We launched this connector with Optimizely to help businesses maintain pace with these changes and truly elevate their customer experiences. Our partnership shows that when industry technology players work together, they enable an exciting future for experience innovation."<h3>Increased demand for personalization </h3>According to Salesforce’s <a target="_blank" href="https://usw2.nyl.as/t1/154/29ddxp9gsglii7j8p6mnwli8g/5/bdeffd47c9295c8f8febf849f84c7d733a6286340a8e3e51e1a01f13b9cc2e44">State of the Connected Customer</a> report, 52% of customers expect offers to always be personalized – up from 49% in 2019. As a result, <a target="_blank" href="https://usw2.nyl.as/t1/154/29ddxp9gsglii7j8p6mnwli8g/6/775a7837875a417c5d72d0b2766fbe85cc9b782c9badd2a8dfe93b84a727cced">most retailers</a> (56%) are prioritizing technology that enables customized experiences. With the help of the connector, businesses can leverage advanced <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">CMS</a>, experimentation, targeting, and personalization capabilities to optimize their websites or apps, drive better customer experiences, and improve business outcomes. "Valtech's Optimizely to Salesforce Commerce Connector seamlessly unifies two powerful platforms, offering our joint customers an unparalleled blend of capabilities,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anielsud/">Aniel Sud</a>, Chief Technology Officer at Optimizely. “Valtech has created an exceptional opportunity for Salesforce Commerce clients, addressing challenges related to customer data activation, personalization, experimentation, and marketing agility, while harnessing the added value of Optimizely. We’re excited to see how this new offering will streamline processes, elevate customer experiences, and drive revenue growth for our clients."  <h3>Powering commerce with CMS</h3>Interestingly, the connector was born from Valtech’s work with a global fashion footwear brand. At its core, the technology enables merchandising opportunities via the CMS by syncing the Salesforce product catalog with Optimizely. It also gives editors rich and highly flexible digital experience management by effortlessly serving Optimizely CMS content through Salesforce Commerce Cloud. All of these benefits provide businesses with the ability to personalize their engagements using real-time customer segments and achieve faster time-to-market.In terms of performance, the connector accelerates a typical project from start to dev completion within 60 days. Once deployed, it synchronizes a typical 4,500-product catalog in 5 minutes and keeps it up to date so marketers can focus on merchandising. Content from Optimizely to Salesforce Commerce Cloud can be loaded in milliseconds, providing a fast response to optimize performance. Real-time personalization can also be delivered using ODP segments to the client – without any performance costs. The development of the connector was a joint venture between Optimizely and Valtech, and has been validated by their internal SMEs. It complements other accelerators that Valtech is developing for Salesforce. While Valtech will be performing customer implementations, they are currently verifying it through Optimizely’s Marketplace.The accelerator is currently accepting early access participants and will be available for GA by the end of this year. <h3>Announced at Opticon 2023</h3>The new connector was announced today at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/opticon/">Opticon San Diego 2023</a>, where Valtech is conducting live demos. According to Fernando, the company is bullish about the connector's potential to help both existing customers and new prospects – not just in B2C, but B2B as well.“This is a tremendous opportunity for Valtech to grow its footprint in the market. It will of course be beneficial for existing customers, but will also be an excellent way to help us improve the customer experience and increase conversion and operational efficiency for new Salesforce customers.”There's also a plan to make the connector available to other CMS platforms in the future. Valtech's marketing science practice is already implementing Optimizely experimentation with other platforms. “We’re driven to continue to innovate in this space and use our learnings across all platforms,” Fernando said, “and we expect to do so with this accelerator as well.”In addition to demoing the connector at Opticon San Diego, Valtech will also be presenting at Opticon London and Opticon Stockholm. More details can be found <a target="_blank" href="https://usw2.nyl.as/t1/154/29ddxp9gsglii7j8p6mnwli8g/7/f3f26b20b817b396c425a51f43389be1a7e708a9e2a210f66856b9bef9f55ece">here</a>.

Valtech Launches First Connector to Seamlessly Integrate Salesforce Commerce Cloud with Optimizely

<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 

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