Articles - Page 44

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

matt-garrepy

Although the platform is still in beta, <a href="http://microweber.com/" target="_blank"> Microweber CMS</a> is attracting a fair amount of interest. 
 Focused on stripping away the complexities of most other content management systems, Microweber has hundreds of registered users, a growing online community and a platform which boasts some simple yet effective features, none of which require any technical ability to use.
 To get a taste for what Microweber has to offer, check out their quick demonstration video below.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eajCiD0ha2s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>The Microweber Story</h2>
It's always nice to get a feel for how a CMS came into being, and it just so happens that Microweber have a rather pleasant tale worth reading.  
 After working in the web design sector for some time, Bulgaria based Microweber co-founders Boris and Peter decided to try something new. They felt that the CMS sector lacked a truly easy to use service for the end-user lacking technical knowledge. Thus, the idea of Microweber was born.
Following a failed attempt to raise funds via Kickstarter, they made a bold move. A video was recorded and posted on their small YouTube channel in late January 2012, where Boris and Peter asked for financial support from whoever saw the video and liked their idea.
Less than a month later this move yielded a result, as investor Nicholas Gerber from the USA decided to help the duo. For almost two years though, Nicholas never met Peter or Boris, communicating solely via occasional e-mails. This means that between early 2012 and late 2013, all investments from Gerber relied completely on the sole trust that Boris and Peter were honest men who were focused at creating something innovative. 
However, during Christmas 2013, all parties met for the very first time in Istanbul, Turkey.
Since then, Microweber has quickly been advancing through its Beta phase, accumulating several hundred registered users, scores of orders from websites and a helpful community. The latter resulted in the purely voluntary translation of Microweber in six languages: English, German, Spanish, Russian, Slovenian, and Greek. Some users even wanted to teach about Microweber in their academic institutions. Thanks to this exponential growth, the project got its third developer – Alexander, who is responsible for front-end development.
With 2014 now underway, the trio decided that it was time for Microweber to go live and unleash its full potential. Their aim is to deliver an easy, free product that is rich on customization for end-users and that is open source so the designer/developer community can benefit.
<h2>A Superbly Simple CMS</h2>
Now that you know the Microweber story, let's delve into their digital offerings. 
Microweber is a CMS that lets you Drag &amp; Drop modules alongside its “Live Edit” feature. This means that websites can be drastically modified and tweaked via live preview, so that you can experience the end result as you edit.
<a href="http://microweber.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.jpg" alt="Microweber CMS Dashboard" /></a>
The free and open source platform is aimed at delivering an optimal user experience, with simplicity always in mnd. It is also customization friendly, so developers and designers can have a take on it and create their ideas using the platform. 
Using Microweber, you can create a website, blog, or online store using the default theme of Microweber. The Microweber development team is also currently preparing a whole load of new templates so users can customize their sites according to their needs and wants. 
You can also make use of Microweber's Drag &amp; Drop technology when creating content, uploading images, embedding videos and a range of other tasks. Users can arrange elements with just a click of the mouse, dragging and dropping them across the screen before clicking them in order to modify them further.
<a href="http://microweber.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/5700x0.jpg" alt="Microweber CMS Live Editing" /></a>
The highlight feature of the CMS is the real time text writing &amp; editing function. With it, you can manage the site content without any use of admin panel, going “live” on the site interface instead. As an addition, there are different modules and layouts that offer rich customization in the pursuit of crafting the most suitable website.
Furthermore, Microweber can also be used as an ecommerce platform. The platform allows you to upload products, pictures and videos, set pricing &amp; shipping costs, customize products using custom fields (size, colours, everything needed) and track orders and payments.
<a href="http://microweber.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4700x0.jpg" alt="Microweber CMS ecommerce" /></a>
The developers and designers can benefit from the fact that Microweber is open source. They can create and share themes, modules or plug-ins and either distribute them freely or sell them. A Marketplace is in the making so the process can become more coordinated.
For more information on Microweber CMS, visit their <a href="http://microweber.com/" target="_blank">official website</a>, or better yet, <a href="http://demo.microweber.org/" target="_blank">test out a demo</a>.

Microweber: A CMS Stripped of Complexity

mike-johnston

Today I'm going to announce the winner of the Critics' Choice Award for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS.
<img style="max-width:188px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bestsmbnetcms2014.png" />
When it comes to the small to midsize market, one CMS stands out from the rest of the crowd in both popularity and capability. This was an easy pick for the judges this year. The winner of the 2014 award for Best SMB .NET CMS is…
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dnn_fullcolor_pos400x0.jpg" />
Congratulations to the team at DNN Corporation on their win. Check them out in our directory here: <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/">DNN Evoq Content</a>

2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner - Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS

The Agility Team is excited to announce that the rebuilt and redesigned content manger is now officially out of beta and in production status, a release that has been penned “The Gold Release.”
Over the last handful of months, the Agility Team has been tweaking and optimizing the Beta iteration of the content manager, which was slowly rolled out to all users. New features and updates were released every month during beta, and we gathered user feedback throughout the entire process to ensure that the content manager met all of their needs and requirements.
The Gold Release marks a huge milestone for the Agility Team, and with it comes a slew of new features and updates, including design improvements and performance optimizations. Details of the Gold Release can be found <a href="http://agilitycms.com/ui/rebuilt-and-redesigned/gold-release">here</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/beta-vs-gold1-1024x512.png" alt="beta-vs-gold1" />
When the Agility Team first decided to rebuild and redesign the platform, they decided that it was essential to provide its users will a revamped interface, robust workflow improvements and powerful performance updates – and this has remained the goal all the way from beta to Gold.
<h2>The Brand New Interface</h2>
The Agility interface has been revamped to provide an increasingly intuitive and visually attractive experience for all users. A responsive framework and touch-friendly elements modernize the platform and enable users to update their website from anywhere, at any time.
The redesigned and rebuilt Agility includes robust workflow improvements and performance updates in order to provide marketing and development teams with the ability and flexibility to deliver the very best in dynamic digital experiences – quickly and with ease. Now users can complete tasks in fewer clicks.
<h2>The Introduction of Dashboards</h2>
One major Agility CMS update is the introduction of Dashboards, which provide improved insights to users on overall website performance, as well as user activity and recent changes made within the platform.
The Homepage Dashboard, for example, includes integration with Google Analytics, and pulls in metrics like weekly page views and average session duration. In addition to the Homepage, other Agility CMS Sections now include unique dashboards that consolidate information specific to their functionality. The Pages Section, for example, displays information about each webpage’s performance and activity, including a website’s top-viewed pages and top entry pages.
<h2>Rebuilt with Speed in Mind</h2>
Agility CMS's redesign includes performance fine-tuning that makes the platform smoother, more responsive and faster than ever. Agility CMS now utilizes a next generation routing and templating framework, ASP.NET MVC, which makes the platform more flexible and robust.
In addition, the amount of overhead database calls that accompany every request has been scaled back by up to five times. As a result, some Agility CMS workflows and tasks can be completed substantially quicker than in the legacy content manager.
“This is a huge step forward for Agility CMS. The legacy content manager served us and our customers well. The new upgraded iteration provides the same user-friendly experience – but it's sleeker, faster and provides more value to all Agility users,” Jon Voigt, CEO of Agility, said.
<a href="http://agilitycms.com/ui/rebuilt-and-redesigned/gold-release">Learn more about the rebuilt and redesigned Agility CMS.</a>

The Rebuilt and Redesigned Agility CMS is Officially in Production Status

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_4096-e1465425906661.jpg" alt="IMG_4096" />
It was a humid day in Basel, Switzerland, and there was a pre-conference buzz in the lobby of Pathe Küchlin Theatre. As the coffees flowed, the time soon came for that buzz to simmer down for the welcoming keynote of <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/">Magnolia’s</a> Co-Founder, Pascal Mangold.
Mangold kicked off the event by taking us through Magnolia's impressive yearly revenue totals, as well as their projected totals up until 2018 (a year which they predict will bring in over $26M).
He also revealed some new high profile clients, including the likes of; Maserati, The New York Times, Tesco, Verizon, and American Express.
Boris Kraft soon took over, and the Chief Visionary Officer picked up where Mangold left off. 

 Both of their presentations were filled with highly professional videos, interesting factoids, and a few jokes to wake the crowd up, too. I found myself genuinely enjoying each section, particularly because they were discussing something pretty big, and pretty new. Speaking of which…
<h2>Magnolia Now Announced</h2>
Day one of the Magnolia Conference 2016 was marked with the official announcement of <a href="https://www.magnolia-now.com/">Magnolia Now</a>, a cloud-hosted enterprise CMS solution.


To put it simply, Magnolia Now has been released to help companies shorten their time to market. And of course, it will bring with it the traditional benefits of a cloud-based enterprise CMS, including; updates, backups, and premium support.
Mangold and Kraft both leaned on the metaphor of a car to describe their new product. In the analogy, Magnolia CMS itself is the engine, while the extra moving parts that make it easy for a driver to get in and drive, are the parts that make up Magnolia Now.


The release date is set for November 15th 2016, although the cheapest Magnolia Now plan for small-to-medium sized businesses (which comes at a fee of $999 per month) won't be available until 2017.
Following the announcement of Magnolia Now, I had the chance to converse with Magnolia’s new CMO, Lars Boeddener and IBM’s <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deleatanda?authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=E2V7&amp;locale=en_US&amp;trk=tyah&amp;trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A16712203%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-1-1%2CtarId%3A1465425102497%2Ctas%3Adele%20atan">Dele Atanda</a> – who was due to give a presentation of his own towards the end of the day. 
We had a light-hearted discussion about the motivations behind – as well as the objectives of – the release of Magnolia Now. We all agreed that it was indeed an exciting move from Magnolia. 
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/preseetha?authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=IDEh&amp;locale=en_US&amp;trk=tyah&amp;trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A6400579%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-1-1%2CtarId%3A1465425081183%2Ctas%3APreseetha%20Kollamthodi">Preseetha Kollamthodi’s</a> presentation was another highlight of the day. The EMEA Channel Leader from IBM Marketing Cloud served up some genuinely useful insights for the marketers who were in attendance.


Dele Atanda’s presentation also impressed me. As the Chief Digital Innovation Officer at IBM Interactive Experience. Atanda’s focus was on IoT (Internet of Things). 


He touched on the types of technology that was already in production – like this <a href="http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/oscar-mayer-bacon-alarm-clock-wafts-meat-odors-from-your-iphone/">Bacon scent emitting iPhone accessory</a> – and dropped some interesting statistics about the future of IoT.
Atanda also gave us a glimpse into how IBM Watson was Working with a company called Cognitoy to change the way children learn by adding personalization into the mix. 
<h2>Success Stories</h2>
Magnolia showcased some of their client's success stories today, too.
<a href="http://moo.co.uk/">Moo</a>, the UK-based printing company demonstrated how they pulled off a migration to Magnolia, while <a href="https://www.migros.ch/de.html">Migros</a> – a huge Swiss retailer – showed off their Magnolia-driven omni-channel powers.
<a href="https://www.migros.ch/de.html">Migros.ch</a> and all its associated websites boast over 5,500 pages, which are available in three different languages. They presented the ways in which Magnolia facilitated a complete re-design of their digital presence, as well as how it continues to help them personalize customer experiences across different channels.


<h2>Day One Take Aways</h2>
I'll level with you. I attended the Magnolia Conference in 2014, and although I enjoyed it, it doesn't compare to what I experienced today.
Mangold and Kraft delivered honed and entertaining keynotes, Magnolia Now was announced, the IBM duo of Kollamthodi and Atanda impressed, and the atmosphere was splendid.
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_0036-295x220.jpg" alt="The snacks weren't bad, either." /><figcaption>The snacks weren't bad, either.</figcaption></figure>
Furthermore, Magnolia went to the trouble of creating an iOS, Android, and Windows app specifically for the event. It provided maps, schedules, and even made use of bluetooth beacons around the Theatre to alert you about what was happening in the room you were standing next to.
As you may be able to tell, I thoroughly enjoyed day one of the Magnolia Conference 2016. And the best part is, day two is just a few hours away.
Follow CMS Critic on Twitter for more <a href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic">live tweets from me using the #MConf16 hasthtag</a>, and stay tuned for tomorrows coverage of Magnolia Conference 2016 Day Two.
Also, be sure to explore the <a href="/magnolia-cms/">Magnolia CMS hub on our CMS Directory</a>.
Looking for Day Two coverage? <a href="/magnolia-conference-2016-day-two/">Here you go</a>.

Magnolia Conference 2016 Day One: Magnolia Now, Success Stories & IoT

Today, I'm going to announce the winner of the 2014 Critics Choice CMS Award for Best PHP CMS for Small to Midsize Business.
<img style="max-width:188px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bestsmbphpcms2014.png" />
After much deliberation, the judges have chosen the winner of this year should be none other than…
<a href="https://buildwithcraft.com/"><img style="max-width:201px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/craft.jpeg" /></a>
Flexibility, simplicity, control. You’ve never seen them come together in a CMS like this before. At last, you can deliver a content management experience that is precisely tailored to meet the site’s unique content needs, with a workflow that is incredibly simple and straightforward, all while maintaining complete control over your markup and styles.
Congratulations to the team at Craft CMS on their win. Check them out in our CMS directory here: <a href="/products/craft-cms/">Craft CMS</a>.

2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner - Best PHP CMS for Small to Midsize Business

Netrunner 18.03 is now available for download. This new release, based on Debian testing and featuring the KDE Plasma desktop environment, focuses on providing the latest packages from the Debian testing snapshop repository.
<img style="max-width:696" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/screenshot_20180224_215726_yoeipr.jpg" alt="Netrunner 18.03" />
Some of the updates included in this release are:
<ul>
<li>KDE Plasma 5.12.2</li>
<li>KDE Frameworks 5.42</li>
<li>KDE Applications 17.08.3</li>
<li>Qt 5.9.2</li>
<li>Linux Kernel 4.14</li>
<li>Firefox Quantum 58.0.1</li>
<li>Thunderbird 52.6.0</li>
<li>LibreOffice 6.0.2</li>
</ul>
For a full breakdown on the changes and new features, visit <a href="https://www.netrunner.com/netrunner-18-03-idolon-released/" target="_blank">the Netrunner blog</a> or you can <a href="https://www.netrunner.com/download/">download the latest release</a>.

Netrunner 18.03 - Based on Debian Testing - Released

Previously, I managed to derive some important lessons regarding <a href="/how-to-avoid-the-prevalent-pitfalls-of-deploying-an-enterprise-website/#.UwJGvfl_vhM" target="_blank"> enterprise website deployment via a Magnolia CMS Whitepaper</a>.
 But Magnolia CMS has far more to offer than mere advice. 
Magnolia's powerful platform enables customers to create their own bespoke suites with all the benefits of Magnolia's enterprise-grade Java foundation – otherwise known as <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/campaigns/open-suite-cms-critic.html" target="_blank">Magnolia's “Open Suite Approach”</a>. 
 The Open Suite approach keeps companies agile, enabling them to use state-of-the-art customer and communications management as the digital world continues to evolve. 
This is all thanks to Magnolia's open architecture, which allows organizations to connect existing and future tools into an integrated platform for digital marketing, commerce and services. By allowing organizations to combine the best available tools for the job without any vendor restrictions, Magnolia helps to maximizing choice and future-proof digital investments.
<h2>The Importance of a Modern &amp; Flexible CMS</h2>
With new technologies constantly changing the way everybody experiences digital content, flexibility is key to marketing technology.
Your analytics, social sharing features and customer relationship management (CRM) system, not to mention your other existing tools, all have to work together for the benefit of both your organisation and its customers.
This is no easy task, but a solid and open content management system (CMS) at the core of your digital presence is by far the most effective way to meet such a challenge.
Let's take the online retail sector as an example. With mobile devices becoming pervasive, it is no surprise that smartphones are a common starting point for multi-channel shopping experiences. According to Google Insights, 65% of such experiences (known as sequential shopping) are started on a smartphone and 67% of shoppers start shopping on one device before continuing on another. Companies must therefore strive to offer optimal customer experience across all types of devices.
To deal with these constantly shifting trends, your CMS must now enable you to deliver compelling and personalized customer experiences that are assembled from a range of content sources, data sets and services. Social media, device information, customer-generated content and back-ofﬁce services must all be brought together across a wide range of devices to provide customers with a service worth their time. 
<h2>Magnolia's Open Suite Approach</h2>
Throughout the last decade, Magnolia has worked with forward-thinking organizations to develop an open, agile CMS that is able to integrate with marketing technology tools, third-party services and back-ofﬁce systems. Magnolia's Open Suite approach enables its customers to build their own suite of tools and services, precisely targeted to their current needs and requirements. 
Thanks to the Open Suite approach, you can build your digital presence step- by-step, and at each step, benefit from what you have already invested. 
For example, you can begin by using Magnolia CMS to build your main website. You can then add micro-sites, mobile sites or country-specific sites as you need them, all from within Magnolia CMS so that you have less systems to manage and can easily reuse website assets. Later, you can integrate the CRM you already use, add a commerce engine and plug in analytics. You can also integrate it with existing bespoke back-office systems or with third-party services.
<a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/campaigns/open-suite-cms-critic.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/magnolia_open_suite.png" alt="Magnolia Open Suite Approach" /></a>
This approach enables you to gradually build your online infrastructure and focus on the most promising next step, while adapting to change by replacing outdated components with best-of-breed innovations as they come to market. 
Magnolia's Open Suite approach stands in stark contrast to the “closed suites” offered by many vendors. A “closed suite” is one that comes pre-integrated with many tools which have to be adopted by an organization, increasing the complexity of transitions. In addition, such pre-configured suites are inherently less agile, because these types of software are not designed to easily integrate with new tools.
<h2>Wide Ranging Benefits, Enterprise Integration &amp; More</h2>
Magnolia's Open Suite approach allows you to create a complete enterprise solution built with multiple tools. These tools span various categories, including ecommerce platforms, analytics, marketing automation, social media, document management and on-site search.
On the Web, persuasive content and personalized experience are key to repeat business. Magnolia CMS lets you collect information from across mobile, social and in-store channels and integrate it with world-class ecommerce platforms, to ensure that your customers always have the best possible shopping experience. 
Below is a quick overview of the integrations on offer:
<a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/campaigns/open-suite-cms-critic.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/magsuite.png" alt="Magnolia Open Suite Integrations" /></a>
It's not just about integrating a number of external tools and services though. Magnolia's Open Suite approach allows you to enjoy a range of benefits. 
Below is a list of just some of the benefits brough about by Magnolia's Open Suite approach.
<ul>
<li>Choice: Magnolia's Open Suite approach enables you to integrate your choice of best-of-breed tools in each category, instead of being locked into the tools a closed-suite vendor thinks are best (or happens to have acquired by the vendor and bolted together over time). This ensures that business needs will dictate technology and not the other way around. </li>
<li>Value: Competitive marketplaces combined with diverse user needs, force vendors of most closed suites to offer all-in-one solutions encompassing a broad range of tools – at a high cost. When organizations purchase such a suite, they typically end up paying for components they don't want, need or plan to use. With Magnolia's Open Suite approach, users always only pay for what they need right now.</li>
<li>High Interoperability: For the Open Suite approach to be successful, there must exist the possibility of interoperability. Magnolia CMS supports many open standards for data exchange, including standards like Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS), a speciﬁcation for improving interoperability between enterprise content management systems. </li>
<li>Dynamism: With Magnolia's Open Suite approach, you can keep evolving parts of the suite as your needs change, while keeping the rest of your tools as they are. The promise of our Open Suite approach is that it allows you to upgrade different parts of the digital marketing mix at different speeds depending on your current priorities. If your business priorities change, our Open Suite approach gives you the ﬂexibility to change your technology to keep pace. </li>
<li>Efﬁciency: With Magnolia's Open Suite approach, different products and systems optimization, analytics, CRM, ecommerce and more – work toether around the core publishing tools of the CMS. This helps create efﬁiencies within teams, departments and companies. For organizations, it’s easier to react, by quickly launching new campaign microsites and landing pages. By using Magnolia CMS' built-in Apps provisioning to enforce access policies for staff and customers, regardless of how and where they log in from. </li>
<li>Flexibility: Think of Magnolia's Open Suite approach as an option on future technology: it gives you maximum ﬂexibility to move to different technologies and toolkits if existing ones aren't meeting your needs. Want to swap out your marketing automation tool for a better one when it comes along, or add new ecommerce functionality as your online store grows? With a closed suite, you'd need to start afresh, draining time and money. With Magnolia at the core of your Open Suite, on the other hand, your suite evolves with your needs.</li>
<li>User Experience: When other applications are integrated with Magnolia, it's done with a small, single-purpose App that behaves like the other Apps within Magnolia CMS. It runs across all browsers, users go to one place to ﬁnd it, and data can be accessed in a consistent fashion. On the administration side, too, controls for integrated applications can be managed within Magnolia, allowing disparate systems to be part of the same workﬂow system. By providing a consistent user experience across platforms, Magnolia's Open Suite approach reduces the learning curve, raises productivity and fosters higher adoption.</li>
</ul>
All of these qualities are essential to deploying and running a smooth digital operation, where the needs of both an enterprise, and all of its clients or customers are met.  Magnolia don't just understand these needs, but they cater for them too. It's no wonder then, that Magnolia CMS is the choice of a range of enterprises around the world. 
In fact, leading organisations such as aviation corporation Airbus Group, news outlet Al Arabiya and media company Foxtel all boast Magnolia's services, and all reap the assorted rewards and benefits listed above.
To explore the benefits of Magnolia's tried and tested open suite approach further, check out their highly detailed white paper, <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/campaigns/open-suite-cms-critic.html" target="_blank">The Magnolia Open Suite Approach</a>.

Magnolia's Open Suite Approach: Maximizing Choice & Future-proofing Digital Investments

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

Today, I'm going to announce the winner of the 2014 Critics Choice CMS Award for Best JAVA CMS for Small to Midsize Business CMS.
<img style="max-width:188px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bestsmbjavacms2014-1.png" />
The importance of content management systems to business is obvious, they are a critical piece of the infrastructure and part of what holds things together. Choosing the one that should be crowned as best of the best is a challenging task but the judges have made their decision.
The winner for this year is Jahia Digital Factory.
<a href="http://www.jahia.com"><img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/digitalfactory400x0.png" /></a>
Congratulations to the team at Jahia on their win. Learn more about them in our directory here: <a href="/products/jahia/"> Jahia Digital Factory </a>

2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner - Best JAVA CMS for Small to Midsize Business

Today, I'm going to announce the winner of the 2014 Critics Choice CMS Award for Best Open Source .NET CMS.
<img style="max-width:188px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bestopensourcenetcms2014-1.png" />
After much deliberation, the judges have chosen to give this year's award to the popular open-source .NET CMS…
<a href="http://www.umbraco.com"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/umbraco-logo.gif" /></a>
Umbraco is a fully-featured open source content management system with the flexibility to run anything from small campaign or brochure sites right through to complex applications for Fortune 500's and some of the largest media sites in the world….Oh, and did we mention that it's free?
Congratulations to the team at Umbraco on their win. To learn more, visit them in our CMS directory here: <a href="/products/umbraco/">Umbraco</a>

2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner - Best Open Source NET CMS

Salesforce CMS Review: Evolving a CRM Powerhouse into a DXP Challenger

paris-tuzun

Desktop, tablet, and mobile Interface images of Salesforce CMS

Some exciting news for those of you who love to play with open source content management systems and for anyone running previous version of SilverStripe CMS.
With this new release of version 3.0, SilverStripe has been graced with a beautiful new admin interface for the CMS. Take a look at some of these SilverStripe 3 Screenshots to see what I mean:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dragdrop-620x438.png" alt="silverstripe 3" /> silverStripe 3 – Drag and Drop
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gridfield-list-620x617.png" alt="silverstripe 3" /> SilverStripe 3 – Grid field List
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/media-editor1-620x617.png" alt="silverstripe 3" /> SilverStripe 3 – Media Editor
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/media-popup-620x617.png" alt="silverstripe 3" /> SilverStripe 3 – Media Popup
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/page-list-620x617.png" alt="silverstripe 3" /> SilverStripe 3 – Page List
Pretty impressive looking isn't it? I'm certainly eager to get my hands on it and do some testing / fiddling. According to the SilverStripe team, this new UI is the result of usability testing that was performed and judging from the end result, they've definitely made some excellent improvements (at least visually, functionality remains to be seen but expect a review soon).
A couple of other interesting changes cited in the release announcement:
<ul>
<li>List-view for page editing helps to structure site parts that have a lot of content and sub sites, such as the blog, in a user friendly way without rearranging the site tree.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>To embed media from YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo and many other sites, the administrator simply inserts the item's URL and the CMS will import it automatically.</li>
</ul>
Of course, we love videos and here's a good one that really gives you a good idea as to how the new system works:
To learn more about this release, visit <a href="http://www.silverstripe.org/" target="_blank">SilverStripe</a>.

New Stable Release of SilverStripe CMS & Framework Available

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/social-intranet.jpg" />
Look at any successful business and you’ll find one thing in common—unmistakable clarity around what the organization exists to achieve. Whether it be providing the best service experience in the world, or eradicating poverty, high-achieving organizations are on the same page about their mission, from the front-line staff through to the CEO.
How? Open internal communication. It’s that simple.
When everyone knows what is expected of them, where they stand, and where they’re going—the results are incredible.
<h2>Internal Communications: The Perks</h2>
Beyond providing a clear, unifying purpose for all of your employees, strong internal communication provides a plethora of other business benefits. Here’s a quick look at a few:
<ol>
<li>
Communication defeats crises. Things go wrong. Staff quit, machines break, customers leave. That’s OK—that’s just business sometimes. What’s not OK is failing to navigate these crises successfully due to a lack of internal communication. More often that not, when the heat gets put on, managers shrink into their shells and hide away trying to fix the problem. This is the last thing they should be doing! In times of crisis, communication is your best friend. Cast vision, draw your team’s attention towards the positives and the future, and alleviate the feelings of uncertainty. Do this through a robust internal communication system or <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/social-intranets/">social intranet</a>, and regardless of how bad your organization’s crisis is, your team will rally around their shared purpose and overcome the issue at hand.
</li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li>
Gain ownership of your message. Today, information is incredibly free-flowing. Social media, digital news, not to mention good old word of mouth—all lubricate the movement of information, meaning that if something is happening in your organization, your staff will find out about it. The reason why having open, proactive <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/category/internal-communications/">internal communications</a> is vital is because in doing so, you gain control of the narrative your people are buying in to. Rather than hearing through the grapevine or reading in the news, you can front-foot any issues and communicate them to your team first hand, in the manner you deem most appropriate. Words have power, and by communicating openly, you seize that power.
</li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li>
Eliminate rumors through transparency. In an age of ‘truthiness’, today’s generation is more skeptical than ever. The easiest way to combat this is through transparency. If managers are constantly communicating with their teams, and senior leadership is opening up about future plans and targets, then there’s little space for rumors or distortion of truth to exist. Such toxic behavior really only creeps in when it’s necessary—and it’s only necessary, when there’s a void to be filled. Ensure there’s no void by communicating openly and honestly, and your organization will be one built on truth and transparency, not undermined by toxic rumors.
</li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li>
Purpose equals engagement. As humans, we are born with an innate desire to know ‘why?’. Growing up and moving into business doesn’t change any of this—when staff are working on the front-lines in your organization, they still want to know why the organization exists, why they do what they do on a daily basis, and why certain decisions are made. This creates a double-edged sword—neglect to answer these questions, and risk creating a workforce detached from any sense of meaning, barely putting in the minimum effort required; communicate with your staff, give them an insight into your organization’s purpose, and you’ll reap the rewards of high employee engagement levels and discretionary effort.
</li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li>
Support your leaders. For those who have been in any form of leadership or management position, you’ll understand how frustrating it is to not have complete information. Your team come to you, asking more about the purpose behind the most recent wellness initiative; you want to support your business’s upper management, but this is the first time you’ve heard about the wellness initiative! Nothing undermines credibility for middle managers more than being kept out of the loop. On the other hand, having an entire organization’s leadership team, from supervisors through to executives, all reinforcing the same messages is immensely powerful. By sharpening up your internal communication and having a reliable system of passing information down hierarchies within your organization, you ensure that leaders feel more supported and engaged.
</li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li>
Create an enjoyable environment. There’s a waiting list of over 100 applicants interested in working for your organization, and no one has voluntarily left for over two years. For many businesses, this sounds like a dream come true—and it can be, if the right environment is created within your organization. A big contributing factor to such an environment is how comfortable staff feel interacting with leadership. Do they feel like the organization’s leadership team is aloof, holding them at arm’s length with a shroud of mystery, or do they know the leadership team on a personal level? The key to overcoming these barriers is communication—often something as simple as your CEO writing a personal address to the whole company on a weekly basis can go a long way.
</li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li>
Strengthen your brand. Building a strong brand for your organization starts internally, with communication. Ultimately, your frontline staff are the biggest brand ambassadors for your business, and they need to be treated that way. For them to provide the best customer experience possible, they themselves need to be fully engaged and on the same page with your brand. By communicating clearly and frequently internally, you ensure frontline staff are singing from the same song sheet when it comes to the brand of your organization. Internal communication can mean the difference between staff answering customers with one, coherent answer, or hundreds of conflicting answers.
</li>
</ol>
The Need For A Central Communication Platform
Clearly, building an organization based on strong internal communication has massive advantages. However, this is often easier said than done. Between emails, memos, in-person drop bys, and random conversations between people, the likelihood of mixed messages, confusion, or missed information is high. The key is to base your internal communication strategy around one central platform, rather than dozens of disjointed strands.
We propose that that central platform should be a social intranet.
Think of an intranet as your office’s lunchroom, only with way more features. It’s a communal, informal place, easily accessible for everyone to visit and mingle with others around the company. You have the ability to communicate with the entire company at once, create private group pages, share celebrations, upload documents, share the company calendar and much more. Rather than spamming your team with emails every time you want to reinforce organizational purpose, you can simply fire an update into the company newsfeed highlighting a certain aspect of the company mission, or remind staff of the great intro documents already uploaded.
In an age where internal communication can be the difference between an organization being mediocre, or incredibly high performing, we can’t afford to leave it up to chance. Create a central platform for communication, treat it as vitally important, and you’ll reap the benefits. Sounding pretty great? <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/">Get in touch</a> if you think so too.

Here's Why Open Internal Communications Is Vital In Your Business

Last week, CMS Critic were in Paris, attending Jahia's first ever international conference, <a href="http://www.jahiaone.com/home" target="_blank"> Jahia One</a>.
 I previously covered <a href="/jahia-one-day-one-jahia-7-glowing-feedback-and-more/#.Uv5Mu_l_vhM" target="_blank"> day one of the conference</a>, along with <a href="/jahia-one-day-two-jahia-7-release-date-demos-surprises/#.Uv6OQPl_vhM" target="_blank"> day two</a>, detailing some of the biggest Jahia news of the year so far, including Jahia 7, Portal Factory and eCommerce Factory. 
 Today however, I wanted to delve into other aspects of Jahia One – away from keynote quotes and product announcements. 
I'd like to take you through the experience of a typical Jahia One attendee, exploring the smaller details which usually go unreported at such events. 
<h2>The Venue</h2>
Jahia One was held at the <a href="http://www.pan-piper.com/corporate/" target="_blank"> Pan Piper conference and events centre </a> , deep in the heart of Paris. 
Spread out over two floors, with multiple conference rooms being used at once, the Jahia conference was well housed, allowing attendees to freely roam between talks, or sit and enjoy presentations within a comfortable setting. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/conferencedayone5.jpg" alt="Pan Piper Venue Jahia One" />
The Pan Piper
The modern design of Pan Piper suited Jahia perfectly. Seating was comfortable, and the well-lit main stage created the perfect setting for Jahia executives to talk everybody through what was to come for the company.
<h2>The Food</h2>
A menu can say a lot about an event organiser, and when it comes to conferences hosted by companies such as Jahia, the same rule applies. Thankfully, the food was absolutely fantastic.
Soups, salads, Salmon, assorted breads and even miniature hot dogs were on offer, all beautifully presented, and pleasing to the taste buds.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/conferencedayone2.jpg" alt="Jahia One Food" />
Presentation Goes a Long Way
However, it wasn't just the quality of the food which was impressive, but the way in which the entire lunch break was set up. 
Not only was there a large table being constantly re-stocked with food, but waiters and waitresses were also on hand to take dishes to attendees, who were standing around in conversation. A small task, but one which helps keep a talkative room alive.
Courses were also changed periodically, with starters turning into fuller meals, and eventually into delicious deserts.
<h2>The Atmosphere</h2>
A pleasant atmosphere is made up of more than just polite greetings at the door of an event. A great atmosphere also needs bubbling attendees who are excited to be a part of the conference. Additionally, conference organisers and speakers need to be amongst the crowd, answering questions and making connections. 
 As mentioned in my <a href="/jahia-one-day-one-jahia-7-glowing-feedback-and-more/#.Uv5Mu_l_vhM" target="_blank"> day one coverage</a>, Anne de Forsan was active during the lunch break on day one of the event, interacting with attendees with a microphone and a cameraman in tow.  She was capturing attendees on camera answering questions about their experiences so far, sharing their views and airing their observations. It was all good fun.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/conferencedayone1_2.jpg" alt="Anne de Forsan Jahia One" />
Anne de Forsan
Overall, the lunch session embodied the event, with a bubbly atmosphere full of professionalism, but not without a hint of fun and friendliness.  
 Another noteworthy aspect of the conference, was it's size. 
 With around 170 attendees, Jahia One can be considered as a relatively small conference – which worked brilliantly in its favour. The smaller, cosier feeling on the conference grew as it went on, allowing attendees to meet and build relationships throughout the day, instead of losing sight of each other within minutes of greeting. 
 The Gala Dinner on day one helped solidify these relationships further, allowing attendees to relax more around those they had already met. Essentially, thanks to its smaller size, the conference was able to have its very own mini-community by the end of day two.
<h2>A Roaring Success</h2>
As an attendee, I feel it's fair to say that the Jahia One conference was a roaring success. 
All Jahia executives and guest speakers were easy to listen to as they presented on stage, whilst CEO Elie Auvray kept both days flowing nicely with some light humour peppered throughout his own presentations.  
 The Gala Dinner capped off day one off perfectly, and allowed attendees to mingle just a little further in preparation for a smooth, yet exciting day two.  
All in all, this may have been Jahia's first ever international conference, but they pulled it off with perfection anyway.

Jahia One: Observations of an Attendee

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