Articles - Page 46

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

janus-boye

<a href="https://www.usertesting.com/">UserTesting</a>, the leading on-demand Human Insight Platform, today announced it has entered an agreement to acquire UserMuse, a market research service designed for businesses that target corporate customers and institutions. The acquisition creates the largest and highest quality global testing panels for Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) companies and further strengthens UserTesting’s position in customer experience management.
Creating a strong customer experience is a competitive business requirement. Leading brands continue to raise the bar on expectations, making winning and retaining customers more challenging for the companies that don’t have a good pulse on customer empathy and user experience. With this acquisition, UserTesting customers now have more options to engage with their key audiences, from consumers and industry experts to custom panels, all through a single Human Insight Platform.
<blockquote>
“In today’s digital economy there is a correlation between the experience customers have with a brand and the company’s financial performance – it is paramount for companies to put themselves in the shoes of their customers to empathize and understand what delights and challenges them,” said Andy MacMillan, CEO of UserTesting. “This acquisition allows us to help more companies connect with more people across specialties, expertise and background to ensure they get the most valuable feedback to build products and services that customers want and love.”
</blockquote>
“We started UserMuse to connect people with businesses that recognized the value of their thoughts and perspectives,” said Christian Bonilla, CEO of UserMuse. “We are excited to join forces with UserTesting who shares that vision and can extend the reach of our panel of B2B industry experts to more companies looking to deliver unified product, brand and customer experiences.”
To create great customer experiences that meet today’s ever increasing expectations, brands must incorporate human insights into all stages of the product and experience lifecycle. This can be addressed by adopting UserTesting to implement a continuous customer feedback loop that streamlines how an organization can learn, understand and share user sentiment and preference.
The acquisition of UserMuse further underscores UserTesting’s commitment to helping companies of all sizes and across all industry verticals empathize with their customers to deliver more meaningful experiences.
<h3 id="about-usertesting">About UserTesting</h3>
UserTesting enables every organization to deliver the best customer experience powered by human insight. With UserTesting’s on-demand <a href="https://www.usertesting.com/platform/capabilities">Human Insight Platform</a>, companies across industries make accurate customer-first decisions at every level, at the speed business demands. With UserTesting, product teams, marketers, digital and customer experience executives confidently and quickly create the right experiences for all target audiences, increasing brand loyalty and revenue. UserTesting has over 1,200 subscription customers, including 48 of the top 100 brands in the world, and has delivered human insights to over 35,000 companies to-date. Backed by Accel and OpenView, UserTesting is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. To learn more, visit <a href="https://www.usertesting.com/">www.usertesting.com</a>.

UserTesting Acquires Market Research Company UserMuse

mike-johnston

A new version of mooSocial, the popular social networking software, has been released to the public. This new release brings with it a host of new features and bug fixes. See below for a partial list.
Bug fixes and improvements:
<ul>
<li>All of paid plugins are compatible with 3.1.0 version. For GIF comment plugin and Business plugin, please download latest version to upgrade them after upgrading to 3.1 version.</li>
<li>Mobile apps: this version requires app 1.2+ version. If you upgraded web to 3.1.0 version the apps will work well but some new improvements like reply to comment, pin post, close comment …will be not available on apps. We’re updating our apps now and will keep you posted.</li>
<li>If you’re using custom theme or paid theme or site has been customized. You should test it with new version at development site first before upgrading. The reply to comment feature option does not work well with paid theme. We will upgrade all themes and will keep you guy posted.</li>
<li>DO NOT upgrade your live site until you have a full backup of your site’s files, database and have successfully performed a test upgrade on your development (test) site first.</li>
</ul>
For a full and complete list of all of the changes in this release, see <a href="https://community.moosocial.com/topics/view/1877">their forum post.</a>

mooSocial 3.1.0 Released

Tangem, the producer of blockchain smart card wallets, raises US$15M from SBI Crypto Investment Ltd. for a breakthrough in mass adoption of blockchain technology.
Tangem pioneered in making crypto currencies look like cash and easy to use as cash, and now attracts additional investment to accelerate the deployment of its technology in other industries where the secure storage and circulation of blockchain assets has the highest potential:
<ul>
<li>Cryptocurrencies and stable coins</li>
<li>ICO / TAO token distribution</li>
<li>Ticketing</li>
<li>Anti-counterfeit</li>
<li>Digital identity</li>
<li>Retail loyalty and promotions</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
“We take the next big step on our mission to bring blockchain to people's everyday life,” says Andrey Kurennykh, co-founder of Tangem. “In 2018, our technology was proven by the markets after we launched the mass production of Tangem cards for crypto currencies and tokens. With this additional investment in 2019, we will be able to extend our product offering in other industries and provide better support to companies which embrace the idea of physical distribution of blockchain assets”.
</blockquote>
SBI Crypto Investment Ltd. is a digital asset venture investment company wholly owned by SBI Holdings Inc. ( “SBI”, HQ in Tokyo, Japan, Representative Director, President &amp; CEO Mr. Yoshitaka Kitao), SBI has built an internet-based financial ecosystem and is expanding their existing partnerships and investments to digital asset-related venture companies to strengthen their technological supremacy.
“The Tangem hardware wallet, which is highly secure and affordable, is an important tool to promote mass adoption of digital assets and blockchain. We believe utilizing Tangem will help stipulate the demand for other blockchain services provided by SBI,” said Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, President &amp; CEO of SBI Holdings Inc.

Tangem raises $15M from SBI for the industrial adoption of blockchain-enabled smart cards

Dragonchain Inc. is announcing its partnership with Hurify Digital Markets to revolutionize global, decentralized IoT and blockchain development.Dragonchain will provide Hurify with the flexibility and security necessary to build and sustain its dynamic global ecosystem. Using Dragonchain Smart Contracts, Hurify can provide a secure, blockchain-enabled global community of IoT developers to connect and collaborate on projects.“We're looking forward to working with Hurify on our Dragonchain platform,” said Filip Hantson, Vice President of Business Development at Dragonchain. “Like blockchain, IoT is a young technology that has a massive potential to take the market by storm.”The launch of the Hurify blockchain platform represents a first-of-its-kind IoT services marketplace, built on Dragonchain. The team believes that the Hurify blockchain-enabled platform will disrupt existing service models currently blocking the real scalability of IoT.“Dragonchain will enable Hurify to take advanced, multi-level private and public blockchains to the IoT community,” said Mouli Srini, CEO and President of Hurify Digital Markets. “We now have a versatile solution for a range of IoT operational challenges, such as access control, securing data, and scalability; which Dragonchain overcomes with remarkable ease of use for developers.”About DragonchainDragonchain is a technology leader in the blockchain space with operations in four business segments: enterprise services, entertainment, education, and project incubation/acceleration. A US company, Dragonchain’s goal is to empower businesses with an enterprise-grade blockchain solution. Learn more at www.dragonchain.com.About HurifyThe Hurify Digital Markets IoT project development platform uses smart contracts to support the IoT project development and deployment supply chain. By bringing together into one place access to talent, hardware and services, the platform directly addresses the skill gap and project management challenges that create barriers to IoT project implementations for SMEs. Hurify is a global ecosystem for developer communities, entrepreneurs, and IoT solution vendors with members from across the globe. Learn more at https://hurify.co/.

Dragonchain and Hurify Partner to Accelerate IoT and Blockchain Adoption

Ethereum’s price will “continue to soar” throughout 2019 – and a main driver of the continued rally will be this week’s hard fork.
The comments from influential tech expert Ian McLeod of Thomas Crown Art, the world’s leading art-tech agency, come as the second largest cryptocurrency has secured an impressive rally over the last month.
Mr McLeod observes: “Ethereum has made a bullish move and broke the $125.00 resistance – giving the crypto naysayers and doom-mongers a robust signal that this digital currency is on the upward trajectory once again.
“Ethereum’s rally is part of a wider cryptocurrency rally since the beginning of the year, with other major coins, including Bitcoin and XRP, also securing important gains.
“The bulls are back in town.”
He continues: “Whilst we can expect 2019 to be dominated by a considerably more bullish sentiment than in 2018 across the major digital assets, I think it is likely that Ethereum will be the standout winner this year for three key reasons.
“First, the hard fork set to take place on 16 January.  The hard fork will mean Ethereum miner rewards fall from three ether to two and decrease the block time, resulting in a faster network. This is a key part of a major Ethereum upgrade and the markets are excited.
“There’s a possibility the date of the hard fork might be pushed back a little, but traders are managing this into expectations.”
“Second, oracles. Oracles – data feeds that deliver information into the smart contract from third parties – will inevitably drive adoption of Ethereum smart contracts.
“This is because smart contracts using decision-making on real-world metrics can be expected to find relevant use cases among consumers, firms, and organizations, amongst others. And, of course, as adoption and utility of Ethereum smart contracts increase, so will Ethereum’s price.”
Thomas Crown Art is already a global pioneer in using Ethereum smart contracts.
Ian McLeod comments: “We’ve created a groundbreaking solution for artists and art collectors and galleries by giving the capability to use new works of art as a literal ‘store of value’ and serve as a cryptocurrency wallet for owners whilst providing an independent method to conclusively prove the provenance of artwork quickly and easily, and to view an immutable chain of ownership.
“Using an Ethereum blockchain to authenticate artwork is an ideal use-case for distributed ledger technology. It provides the ability to store a permanent, immutable record of artwork at the point of creation which can be used to authenticate registered works by any third party independently.”
Thomas Crown Art’s tech expert concludes: “The sentiment data and technical analysis suggests that Ethereum’s rally, to be fuelled further by the hard fork, will continue in the short to medium term.
“It is likely that this will positively impact on the rest of the cryptocurrency sector.”

Ethereum’s upcoming hard fork to further fuel wider cryptocurrency rally

<a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">Kinsta</a> is a popular hosting provider that provides managed WordPress hosting to the public. Today, I'm going to review their system and hosting setup to see whether it's a good option for those of you looking for a solid, trustworthy provider with a good set of tools for your WordPress website.What makes Kinsta a unique beast is that their entire infrastructure uses <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cloud_Platform">Google Cloud Platform</a> which differs from the traditional shared, VPS, or dedicated infrastructures you see with most providers.Kinsta was kind enough to provide me with a test account for the purposes of this review so I'll be using that for the screenshots and to take a look through everything.<h2>The Dashboard</h2>Once you've <a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">signed up for an account with Kinsta</a>, you'll be given access to your Kinsta Dashboard which is where you'll manage your sites, migrations and a whole lot more.Your dashboard, once you get access and sign-up, will look like this:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-1_ws7yhd.png" />Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting DashboardThere are numerous graphs on the Dashboard for you to review such as Resource Usage, Data Transfer and Unique Visits. You can also see a full list of your sites from one location (if you have multiple).<h2>Sites</h2>To add new sites and manage existing ones, you'll use the Sites tab. When you move a site over to Kinsta, you are given the option to choose from one of their <a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/google-cloud-data-center-locations/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">18 data centers</a> for your site. Each of your sites can have a different data center as Kinsta uses multi-regional deployments.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-2_qmmhyx.png" />The Sites TabIn the Info section, you can see everything you need to know about your site from your IP information to your Data Center location, sFTP and SSH details and more.Most of the other sections are pretty self explanatory and I won't go through all of them because that would likely bore you to tears but what I will tell you is that there is plenty of information and functionality here. One of the sections I especially found useful is the Tools section. Here you can clear site cache, restart PHP and do a database Search and Replace quickly and easily.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-9_v1tcl7.png" />The Tools Section<h2>Migrations</h2>The Migrations tab is where you'll initiate any migrations from your previous hosting provider to Kinsta. As you can see in the screenshot below, I've got 1 free migration that I haven't used yet so to kick off a site move, I'd do so here.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-4_lspgkw.png" />The Migration Tab<h2>Kinsta DNS</h2>Kinsta also offers a service called Kinsta DNS which allows you to manage your own zone records and use Amazon Route 53 to speed up DNS resolution for faster domain name resolving.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-5_fz2pm7.png" />Kinsta DNS<h2>Analytics</h2>The  tab is exactly what it claims to be, analytics for your site. While it does offer you a quick peek into how your site is performing, most of you should make sure you also have Google Analytics as that's what everyone uses and it provides far more in-depth detail. Having said that, this doesn't mean this section is useless as it does provide quick insight without having to leave the dashboard so I can appreciate that.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-6_ecfwrv.png" />Analytics<h2>Activity</h2>Skipping now to the Activity tab now, this is where you'll find a log of all activity that has happened within your Dashboard such as adding new sites, making changes and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-7_vbeols.png" />ActivityThat about does it for the Dashboard tour but does all of this mean Kinsta is the right managed WordPress hosting provider for you?<h2>My Thoughts</h2>Kinsta provides some pretty amazing features / services that go along with each and every plan so they are definitely good bang for your buck. One of the most interesting ones is the Free hack fix meaning that if your website gets hacked (which is always a fear for every website owner) they will fix it with immediate priority.Additional features include:<ul><li>Free CDN, free Letsencrypt SSL, staging environments, automatic daily backups and the option to create manual backup points anytime.</li><li>Full page caching at the server-level to deliver content almost instantaneously to visitors. We also pair that with our Kinsta MU plugin, developed in-house, to provide even more granular control over caching.</li><li>PHP 7, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3.</li><li>Server-level rules and optimizations for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download sites to ensure a smoother checkout experience for customers.</li><li>Multi-user access with fine-grained permissions. Add any number of users to your team. Give them access to all your sites, just billing or add them as developers or administrators to a subset of your sites.</li><li>SSH access, Git, and WP-CLI.</li><li>At least one free migration, completed by our expert support team. There are a certain number of migrations included depending on which plan you choose.</li></ul>There's another good reason I'd consider Kinsta that most people aren't aware of. AdThrive, one of the largest ad networks in the world for bloggers, recently recommended Kinsta in an email sent out to their publishers (I know this because my wife's site is with them). This nod from a company that takes things into deep consideration before making recommendations is a good sign for those thinking of choosing Kinsta for their own websites.<a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">You can learn more or sign up with Kinsta here.</a>

Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review

<a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/">Elastic Path</a>, the pioneer of enterprise API-first commerce solutions, today announced the launch of Commerce Cloud, the company’s future-looking, flexible cloud subscription product. Commerce Cloud empowers companies to leverage the scalability, reliability and performance of the cloud with the flexibility and performance they’ve come to expect from Elastic Path’s API-oriented commerce architecture.
“Elastic Path Commerce Cloud powers the business needs of today and tomorrow. Our customers are innovators who are looking for solutions to quickly launch new brands or stores to solve current needs while at the same time powering their commerce aspirations into the future. Commerce Cloud allows you to keep up and exceed customers’ expectations,” said Senior Vice President of Products Peter Lukomskyj.
Elastic Path Commerce Cloud empowers unmatched flexibility for digital commerce, be it products or services:
<ul>
<li>Support for multiple business models: Commerce Clouddelivers B2B, B2C, B2B2C, and B2B2B capabilities on a single platform.</li>
<li>Support for multiple touchpoints:This tool can handle today’s commerce use cases such as website and progressive web apps as well as the emerging customer touchpoints, e.g. voice technology and IoT devices — and it’s ready for the next buying channel that has not yet been invented.</li>
<li>Seamless migration capability:Commerce Cloud lets companies switch from legacy commerce platforms over time by leveraging an API-first architecture. Start with a shopping cart and migrate as needed with no need to rip and replace.</li>
<li>Business-friendly deployment:Commerce Cloud offers brands the opportunity to switch to a managed hosted or on-premise deployment without losing any functionality or customizations. It also allows them to switch between models as business needs change over time. Commerce Cloud can also be implemented and customized internally by an enterprise’s IT team or by an Elastic Path partner depending on the brand’s preference.</li>
<li>Unified selling engine:Commerce Cloud enables a single view of the customer and how they interact with the brand across touchpoints.  It provides the omnichannel shopping cart brands have sought for years and empowers them to understand and delight the customer at every point in the buying journey.</li>
</ul>
In addition to traditional use cases, Commerce Cloud allows brands to power buying experiences through IoT, Facebook chatbots, Alexa skills, and other opportunities beyond traditional touchpoints. Building on the success of the core Elastic Path offering, Commerce Cloud delivers hosting, maintenance, system and database administration, and compliance — allowing brands to focus on taking care of their customers and growing their businesses while driving innovation and growth for their business.
“Elastic Path Commerce Cloud is for innovators and dreamers who want to push the boundaries of commerce,” said Harry Chemko, CEO of Elastic Path. “This new offering builds on Elastic Path’s legacy of supercharging the world’s premier brands to deliver unified commerce experiences across brands, lines of business, geographies, and channels. Commerce Cloud adds another level of flexibility to our battle-tested, proven Elastic Path Commerce platform — now with a SaaS option.”
Commerce Cloud is already in use by established brands, including long-term Elastic Path customers who are leveraging the brand’s innovative commerce platform while also gaining the scalability, reliability and cost effectiveness of the cloud. Elastic Path announces Commerce Cloud during the first day of the National Retail Federation Big Show &amp; Expo in New York City. Attendees can visit Booth #1817 in Hall 1A for a demo of Commerce Cloud and more information.

Elastic Path Announces the Launch of Commerce Cloud

With a new year comes a fresh look at what’s working for your content management system and what’s not. For enterprise businesses, any changes to a digital infrastructure can impact the entire company, especially changing their Content Management System (CMS).
Last year, companies witnessed a distinctive shift in the role Enterprise CMS platforms play. Rather than being a one-stop shop for all features a company would need, effective CMS platforms became the glue holding enterprise martech stacks together.
In 2019, any successful Enterprise CMS platform should give more than an updated look. It has to be a future-proofed investment in a company’s marketing strategy. Here are 9 forward-thinking essentials your Enterprise CMS should deliver this year:
1.Cloud-first integration
If 2018 was the year of the cloud, then 2019 is the year the cloud infiltrates every part of an organization’s digital presence. The Cloud helps organizations trade CAPEX for OPEX, breaking the 3-5 year cycle of hardware replacement and eliminating the responsibility over managing infrastructure. There are fewer limits, and enterprises pay as they go only for what they need.
How a CMS would interact with a Cloud hosting solution is the foundation of the rest of a
website’s success. A CMS should ideally work hand-in-hand with any Cloud hosting solution. That intimate connection gives a team more control over server performance and scaling.
Cloud resources within the CMS gives companies the power to grow capacity for their websites instantly, quickly react to spikes in traffic, or autoscale whenever needed. A Cloud system baked into a CMS lets your team manage these capabilities in a variety of areas, with fewer pieces to juggle.
What does the future look like? In a word: choice. Some CMS platforms are now being deployed with containers – allowing you to launch a CMS in minutes and start building your website or application with continuous deployment and no long-term contracts.
2. Solid security 
Last year saw some of the biggest online presences get slammed with several massive security breaches. From Marriott to Twitter, major enterprise names struggled to keep user information secure. It resulted in damaged brand trust, PR nightmares, and (many times) a drop in profit.
No one can afford to have security compromised, but especially not enterprise organizations.
More information online means more data for hackers to crack. Popular open source platforms like WordPress are notorious for having the most frequently compromised websites of any CMS. They often need extra third-party plugins to stave off attacks, and it’s only a matter of time before those are cracked. An enterprise CMS should uphold the integrity of your data. While any website can be hacked, some platforms are more secure than others. Do your research to ensure the source code is sound, that testing and patching are part of the support plan. Consider platforms that warranty their code and services. And ask what protocols are in place in the event of a hack, from 24/7/365 critical care to SLAs.
3. <a href="https://www.solodev.com/resources/case-studies/miami-beach-visitor-and-convention-authority.stml">API integration</a> 
Your enterprise organization needs features native to the CMS. However, there’s also something critical about having a CMS that seamlessly connects your organization to
technologies your team is already using—Marketo, MailChimp, Tableau, analytics
tracking and more.
Today’s digital experience landscape includes thousands of technologies. Understanding which ones to pick is hard enough; but how do you get them to work together? The CMS is a cornerstone of your digital stack, and it should help orchestrate data across different channels. That means seamlessly integrating with the most advanced applications on the planet like Salesforce CRM, Microsoft Dynamics ERP, even exotic platforms like Humanetics to manage blood donation data. The possibilities are endless – and your CMS should be the hub for it all.
When considering the API capabilities of a CMS, find out if it has documented out-of-the-box integrations. Are they committing their APIs to libraries like Swagger UI? How easy is it to build your own integrations in the future?
4. <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/web-design/should-your-website-risk-not-being-ada-compliant.stml">Compliance </a>
The Internet might feel like the Wild West, but there are a bevy of regulations that every website should follow. From ADA Accessibility, WCAG 2.0 compliance, GDPR, HIPPA, and more, your new CMS should take important governance and compliance rules into consideration.
Arguably one of the most important regulatory requirements of any website is accessibility. Every web experience should deliver “digital equality” to its visitors, regardless of their disability. Unfortunately, the realm of ADA compliance remains largely misunderstood. Accessibility isn't a “set it and forget it” endeavor; it requires both achieving and vigilantly maintaining the standards.
As the Department of Justice issues more legal suits against public and private institutions, it's critical for all organizations to monitor their ADA posture and develop the best practices for managing compliance. Even <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/blind-woman-sues-beyonces-entertainment-company-discrimination/story?id=60188354">Beyonce</a> recently fell victim to an ADA compliance publicity nightmare.
A good CMS should leverage a structured data foundation, enabling pages to be easily scanned by screen readers. Additionally, it should integrate seamlessly with best-of-breed platforms like SiteImprove to scan for violations on a regular basis.
5. <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/tags/mobile.stml">Mobile-first readiness</a> 
It's no longer enough to be “mobile responsive.” With increasingly more users browsing
websites on their smartphones and tablets, you must adopt a true “mobile first” strategy –
where the mobile experience is thoughtfully designed from day one. Likewise, you need a
CMS that understands this shift, and provides a foundation for building, testing and
launching world-class mobile experiences.
6. 
For enterprise organizations, permissioning remains a critical requirement for any CMS platform. Only a handful of people within such large organizations should have access to an enterprise website’s content. Granular permissions give CIOs and CTOs the peace of mind they need when it comes to internal content. User permissions help make sure those with editorial capabilities are approved by administrators. However, effective enterprise CMS platforms still provides the common workflows that enable sharing and teamwork.
7. Native Multisite
Enterprise companies have hundreds or even thousands of pages under their care. It’s important to have a CMS capable of handling the needs of those sites rather than having multiple sites managed on multiple platforms.
Having all your websites on a single platform means your entire team can work from a single
interface to develop and manage content. This means more efficient training and better use
adoption. It leads to smarter hardware use and ultimately lower hosting fees.
A single CMS platform also makes it easy to spin up new sites by making clones of an existing site. Users can share the same piece of content or other assets across all your sites. This
promotes consistent template governance across your sites and ensures an enterprise brand is presented the way you want it to be no matter how many websites you have.
8. Headless capabilities
Organizations wanting to move information across different platforms might find consistency a struggle without some sort of headless solution. The promise of decoupled CMS is that the function isn’t limited to or defined by frameworks that represent the frontend of a website. A headless or decoupled CMS gives you the freedom to share data or access analytics across channels, and connect everything with the power of a RESTful API.
Imagine giving visitors the same experience online as you would a mobile app. This could include customers ordering your services through Alexa or voice-driven gadgets. Headless gives your website the ability to exist today while preparing for the devices of tomorrow – everything from wearable tech like smart watches to screen readers for the visually impaired. At the same time, you want to have the ability to host the templates and frameworks for your website right alongside your data-driven apps.
Hybrid CMS platforms put one foot in the freedom of headless and the other in the stability of the templates and frameworks your website needs. Many CMS solutions are either one or the other – traditional or truly headless—but why choose? If a goal is to be future proof, then select a cloud-based hybrid solution that gives an enterprise the best of both worlds.
9. Training and support
Know who will be there after a website goes live. Not all CMS platforms come with support options. For example, many open-source applications don’t offer direct access to support teams. Typically they develop security patches and software upgrades you have to download and install yourself. While plenty of enterprise organizations have an IT infrastructure to handle manual updates, there’s still a learning curve that comes with any new enterprise CMS.
And while you might go to sleep, your enterprise website won’t—particularly if it generates global traffic. Know any potential CMS’s support response time and the availability of those support options.
About Solodev
Solodev is a leading enterprise website Content Management System (CMS) that empowers organizations to create amazing websites and engaging digital experiences in the cloud – all with total design freedom and control. Built from the ground up for Amazon Web Services (AWS), Solodev provides unparalleled security, scalability, and redundancy with 24/7/365 U.S. based support. Solodev has been listed as one of Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies for the last three years and recognized as a High Performing leader on the user-driven G2 Crowd Grid. Winners of the 2017 AWS “City on a Cloud” Innovation Challenge, Solodev is an AWS Advanced Technology Partner with competencies in Education, Government, and Marketing &amp; Commerce. Solodev’s self-service CMS can be purchased on demand in the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/seller-profile?id=8e11c912-6253-41b8-b065-bf32bd27911b&amp;ref=_ptnr_solodev_cmscritic-content_9critical">AWS Marketplace</a> or through the GSA Contract. Learn more at <a href="http://www.solodev.com/">www.solodev.com</a>.

9 Essentials Your Enterprise CMS Should Deliver in 2019

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

Be an SEO hero with Semrush

#ffffff

A new minor release of PrestaShop is available. This new release, while minor, does bring a few new features that users have been waiting for. Let's take a look at what you can expect from this update.
With each release, the PrestaShop community is involved in providing feedback to further expand the product by adding features, fixing bugs and more. In this release, a package of optimizations that will allow merchants to make considerable time savings in their recurring store management tasks has been incorporated.
<ul>
<li>SEO optimizations have been made to the pages for categories, brands &amp; suppliers, content (CMS); this brings an added advantage in terms of SEO rankings for stores as they are better recognized by search engines;</li>
<li>A dynamic preview (on Google) of product meta tags is now featured, which is useful for ensuring that tags are completed and positioned correctly; <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1_25_v88qxr.png" /></li>
<li>Editing of specific prices: no need to edit and then delete specific prices for each promotion! From now on, and with just a few clicks, merchants will be free to modify the specific prices created for their products (including dates, countries, combinations, etc.), which will make it easier to set up promotional activities throughout the year;</li>
<li>Physical stock management: it is possible to add a reference on customer order pages to indicate the physical location of the products in storage (shelf, aisle, warehouse, etc.). This storage location is specified on the product pages in the merchants' back office. An essential tool for facilitating order processing and preparation;</li>
<li>Now more intuitive, the new categorization for installed modules will make it easier to access these modules by using more precise terms and a sort by last use feature;</li>
<li>A different menu structure suited to Mobile browsing will add more user comfort and offer a more seamless experience;</li>
<li>Optimized page loading times (chiefly the homepage, categories, products, order history pages) will lend greater responsiveness and performance: loading time will be between 15% and ten times quicker depending on the pages and usage scenarios.</li>
</ul>
– Updates to receive notifications for the functions that need to be updated to their latest version.
– Alerts to receive notifications about any alerts requiring rapid response (e.g. if a module needs to be configured or, more rarely, if it is corrupt).
This purpose of this new configuration is to make this page more legible with a direct view of pending actions with varying degrees of urgency;
<ul>
<li>For new merchants, tips and advice on configuring SEO for the homepage is available on the SEO &amp; URLs page. This provides better guidance on SEO for on-line stores in line with the criteria set out by the various search engines;</li>
</ul>
For a full list of addons, features and fixes, visit the announcement: https://www.prestashop.com/en/blog/features-prestashop-1-7-5-0

PrestaShop 1.7.5.0 Now Available - Brings New Features to Users

dotCMS, a key player in content management and digital experience software, together with Myplanet, a software studio headquartered in Toronto, are hosting an <a href="https://dotcms.com/webinar/digital-accessibility">in-depth webinar</a> to show how forward-thinking brands are using IoT devices to bring their digital accessibility experiences above and beyond pure compliance.
From smart speakers to wearable technology, new touch points are now constantly emerging–bringing fresh touch points to the customer journey on a regular basis. While this constantly evolving environment gives brands the opportunity to innovate and delight their audiences with cutting-edge digital experiences, it also poses problems to those brands that still struggle with basic website accessibility. For those companies, the prospect of making their entire digital offering accessible to those with disabilities and impairments may seem impossible.
“We’re excited to present alongside the folks at Myplanet who have hands-on expertise using content management platforms, like dotCMS, to create accessible experiences for their customers on IoT devices,” said Stefan Schinkel, Enterprise Sales, dotCMS. “They’ve got a unique take on smart interface design and development and how it can be leveraged to address accessibility in the IoT era.”
Join dotCMS and Myplanet for this informative webinar, Thursday, January 31st at 11am EST / 8am PST. Register here: <a href="https://dotcms.com/webinar/digital-accessibility">https://dotcms.com/webinar/digital-accessibility</a>
About dotCMS
<a href="https://dotcms.com/">dotCMS</a> is a leading, open source content and customer experience management platform for companies that want innovation and performance driving their websites and other content-driven applications. Extensible and massively scalable, both small and large organizations can rapidly deliver personalized and engaging content across browsers, mobile devices, channels, second screens and endpoints — all from a single system.
Founded in 2003, dotCMS is a privately owned US company with offices in Miami, Florida, Boston, Massachusetts, and San Jose, Costa Rica. With a global network of certified development partners and an active open source community, dotCMS has generated more than a half-million downloads and thousands of implementations and integration projects worldwide. Notable dotCMS customers include: Telus, Standard &amp; Poors, Hospital Corporation of America, Royal Bank of Canada, DirecTV, Thomson Reuters, China Mobile, and DriveTest Ontario.
About Myplanet
<a href="https://www.myplanet.com/">Myplanet</a> is a software studio. We’re an integrated team of designers and developers making smarter interfaces to empower your employees and engage your customers.

The IoT Era is Bringing Digital Accessibility Beyond Pure Compliance

Ternio has announced their first product for the general public called <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2339221-1&amp;h=3648828587&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fgetblockcard.com%2F&amp;a=BlockCard%E2%84%A2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">BlockCard™</a>. BlockCard is a debit card that enables the card holder to spend the value of their cryptocurrency with the same ease as traditional credit cards. BlockCard can be used online or in physical store locations, anywhere in the world major credit cards are accepted.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zOJtdPT86QI?start=2&amp;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“Ternio's goal is to accelerate the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency into everyday life,” said Ian Kane, COO &amp; Founder of Ternio. “BlockCard enables the card holder to gain real utility from their cryptocurrency and removes the notion that crypto is only a speculative asset.”
BlockCard currently supports four cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Ternio (TERN). Consumers who hold any of those cryptocurrencies can deposit them to their <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2339221-1&amp;h=696672769&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fdashboard.getblockcard.com%2Fauth%2Fregister&amp;a=BlockCard+account+after+signing+up" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">BlockCard account after signing up</a>. Additional currencies will be added throughout the year. BlockCard™ users have the option to select between a virtual or physical card. Those who want a physical BlockCard™ can also select between a plastic or a metal version of the card.
Ternio's BlockCard is one of only three approved crypto debit cards in the United States and is the only card to support multiple cryptocurrencies – giving card holders the option on how they fund their BlockCard. It is also the only card that enables real time spending of cryptocurrency by processing transactions via a crypto exchange. Ternio registered over 1,000 people during their soft launch. Those interested in having a BlockCard account can signup now at: <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2339221-1&amp;h=1504439539&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fgetblockcard.com%2F&amp;a=https%3A%2F%2Fgetblockcard.com." target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://getblockcard.com.</a>
“We want to give consumers the option on which digital asset they use to fund their BlockCard account,” said Daniel Gouldman, CEO and Founder of Ternio. “Card holders decide if they want to buy a bagel with their Bitcoin or a <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2339221-1&amp;h=462056155&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzOJtdPT86QI&amp;a=latte+with+their+Stellar+Lumens" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">latte with their Stellar Lumens</a>. Most importantly, these transactions occur on digital asset exchanges, which helps to propel the crypto community.”
Ternio BlockCard™:
Ternio is a leading blockchain company driving the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency into everyday life with its Lexicon framework and BlockCard™. The BlockCard™ is a physical debit card created by Ternio. With BlockCard™, card holders are empowered to spend their BTC, ETH, XLM, and TERN anywhere in the world major credit cards are accepted. Learn more at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2339221-1&amp;h=1198581509&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fgetblockcard.com%2F&amp;a=https%3A%2F%2Fgetblockcard.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://getblockcard.com</a>

Ternio Introduces CryptoCurrency BlockCard™ Enabling Users to Spend Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar Lumens Anywhere Credit Cards Accepted.

If you’ve been considering opting for a headless CMS recently, you’ve most likely come across <a href="https://buttercms.com/">ButterCMS</a> as a suggestion and not without good reason. With more content customization abilities and the entire set up process taking less than a few minutes, it’s no surprise that more teams are making the switch to go the headless CMS route. It comes with many benefits that a more traditional CMS like WordPress lacks and is rapidly <a href="/content-delivery-in-the-modern-era-headless-cms/">becoming a dominant tool in modern content delivery</a>. ButterCMS, in particular, has recently made some impressive product updates that have led to productivity enhancements for their users, both content editors as well as developers. A major contributor to these new changes made by Butter is feedback they receive from their clients as they consistently strive towards improving their user experience.
<h1>Pages Dashboard</h1>
With a completely redesigned Pages Dashboard, Butter offers a lot more capability to easily edit and manage pages for your website including filtering your content and easier localization.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/buttercms1_lhjnfk.png" alt="buttercms1" />
The Dashboard now also provides a bulk edit and bulk publish feature which allows users to select and set several pages live at the same time. Not a complex feature but will come in handy for content editors using Butter to publish more to their site much faster.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/buttercms2_kfgy10.gif" alt="buttercms2" />
If you use different languages to set up your site content, you’ll appreciate ButterCMS’s recently added localization capability that filters down the pages that need to be translated.
<h1><a name="_uh9oeqkhqrlp"></a>Media Library</h1>
Another productivity boost for ButterCMS users comes in the form of the upgrade to the media library based on popular demand to upload multiple images at the same time. This can be accessed directly on the media library page or if you need to use it for your blog posts or pages on ButterCMS, you can access the media library from the WYSIWYG editor.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/buttercms3_zzqqy4.gif" alt="buttercms3" />
I’ve also noticed they’ve made minor workflow improvements by getting rid of additional steps in the process, allowing you to manage your content much easier.
<h1><a name="_iyvhnz8i9jgk"></a>ButterCMS CLI Tool</h1>
ButterCMS recently <a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/building-a-command-line-interface-in-javascript-with-oclif">built their own CLI </a><a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/building-a-command-line-interface-in-javascript-with-oclif">tool</a>, which stands for Command Line Interface and is essentially their own custom tool that’s going to allow developers to release new projects that fully integrate with their system. This tool can be consistently modified to perform new commands and improve older ones according to your customization requirements.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/buttercms4_hvh4ak.png" alt="buttercms4" />
Check out the new ButterCMS CLI on <a href="https://github.com/ButterCMS/buttercms-cli">GitHub</a>.
<h1><a name="_82a0ldhpm7e"></a>ButterCMS Blog</h1>
ButterCMS offers two solutions, a complete content management system as well as a blog engine that integrates with any tech stack and great SEO. They also have their own <a href="https://buttercms.com/blog/">blog</a> with great tips for developers and CTOs as well as a “New to Butter” section with in-depth tutorials on setting up your blog on ButterCMS and getting the most out of the features they offer.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/buttercms5_qcftl8.gif" alt="buttercms5" />
Choosing to go with a headless CMS takes some initial getting used to but the long-term advantages and possibilities it offers are worth making the switch. It takes away the complications of navigating through the website and empowers marketers to easily make changes to the blog pages without the constant need of a developer’s help. 
<h1>Wrap Up</h1>
Headless CMS is on the rise and provides a solid alternative to traditional CMS’s like WordPress. <a href="https://buttercms.com/">ButterCMS</a> positions itself as a developer friendly alternative to WordPress and with enhancements like it’s revamped content dashboards and Media Library, marketers will enjoy it even more as well. It provides localization, multi-site support, search engine optimization and works with all tech stacks. If you’re wondering if a headless CMS is a right fit for your project, they offer a 30-day free trial for you to try out and provide content migration support if you’re moving from an existing CMS.

ButterCMS - Productivity Enhancements for Content Editors and Developers

Upland Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPLD), a leader in cloud-based Enterprise Work Management software, today announced it has acquired Adestra Ltd., a leading provider of enterprise-grade email marketing, transaction and automation software. Adestra's cloud solution enables over 400 leading brands to understand and engage individual customers with relevant, timely, and effective communications. Adestra will be combined with Upland's mobile messaging, customer engagement, and knowledge management solutions to create a powerful product suite serving the $5.9 billion CXM market which is forecast to grow 23% per year to $16.9 billion by 2022.1 The acquisition adds approximately $18 million in annualized revenues and will be immediately accretive to Upland's Adjusted EBITDA per share.
The acquisition of Adestra adds a fundamental component to Upland's CXM Solution Suite, which now includes multi-channel messaging and email, automated mobile conversations via SMS, MMS, and RCS, mobile wallet functionality, Voice of Customer (VOC) and Voice of Employee (VOE) solutions, advanced knowledge management, and marketing automation and personalization. Upland will continue to buy, build, and integrate additional components to this CXM offering in order to enable more personalized customer experience, enhanced multi-channel engagement across the customer journey, deeper process automation, sophisticated analytics and reporting, and coordinated services delivery with CXM expertise.
“Adestra broadens Upland's product portfolio, strengthens our CXM solution suite, and builds our sales capacity and footprint,” said Jack McDonald, chairman and CEO of Upland Software. “Moreover, the transaction is immediately and meaningfully accretive to Adjusted EBITDA per share and takes Upland to an approximate $190 million annualized revenue run rate,” he added. “As this transaction demonstrates, our acquisition pipeline is robust, and we are actively pursuing additional opportunities.”
“Sophisticated enterprises need multiple intelligent, inter-connected communications channels that integrate with key platforms to meaningfully engage across the entire customer journey at scale,” said Jed Alpert, SVP of Customer Experience Management Solutions at Upland Software. “Adestra's established presence in restaurant and retail, travel, media and publishing, and nonprofits, enhances our existing strengths in these industries, and the addition of their technology to Upland's Customer Experience Management suite will enable our customers to deliver consistently personalized, multi-channel experiences across their entire customer lifecycle.”
The purchase price paid for Adestra was $56.0 million in cash at closing, net of cash acquired, and a $4.2 million cash holdback payable in 12 months (subject to indemnification claims). Upland expects the acquisition to generate annual revenue of approximately $18 million, of which approximately $16.7 million is recurring, subject to reductions for a deferred revenue discount as a result of GAAP purchase accounting, estimated at $0.1 million for the remaining half of December 2018. The acquisition is within Upland's target range of 5-8x pro forma Adjusted EBITDA and will generate at least $8.0 million in Adjusted EBITDA annually once fully integrated. The acquisition will be immediately accretive to Upland's Adjusted EBITDA per share.
In connection with the acquisition of Adestra, Upland amended and expanded its credit facility from $358.9 million to $400 million. Specifically, $61.1 million of new term debt was drawn, taking Upland's gross debt outstanding from $223.9 million to $285.0 million with debt, net of cash on hand, now at approximately $265 million at a maximum interest rate of LIBOR + 400 basis points (currently at approximately 6.3%). Further details regarding the transaction can be obtained in the Form 8-K filed on December 13, 2018.
Business Outlook
Upland today also announced that it has raised its full year 2018 guidance to reflect the Adestra acquisition, raising revenue, recurring revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges. The increase in 2018 revenue guidance below is net of an estimated $0.1 million reduction for a deferred revenue discount as a result of GAAP purchase accounting and all guidance adjustments are prorated for a closing date of December 12, 2018.
For the quarter ending December 31, 2018, Upland expects reported total revenue to be between $42.5 and $44.5 million, including subscription and support revenue between $39.4 and $40.6 million, for growth in recurring revenue of 62% at the mid-point over the quarter-ended December 31, 2017. Fourth quarter 2018 Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $15.6 and $16.4 million, for an Adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 37% at the mid-point, representing growth of 64% at the mid-point over the quarter-ended December 31, 2017
For the full year ending December 31, 2018, Upland expects reported total revenue to be between $147.2 and $149.2 million, including subscription and support revenue between $134.2 and $135.4 million, for growth in recurring revenue of 58% at the mid-point over the year ended December 31, 2017. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $52.0 and $52.8 million, representing growth of 73% at the mid-point over the year ended December 31, 2017. The transaction will be immediately accretive to Upland's Adjusted EBITDA per share.
About Upland Software
Upland Software (Nasdaq: UPLD) is a leading provider of cloud-based Enterprise Work Management software. Our family of applications enables users to manage their projects, professional workforce and IT investments; automate document-intensive business processes; and effectively engage with their customers, prospects and community via the web and mobile technologies. With more than 4,000 customers and over 450,000 users around the world, Upland Software solutions help customers run their operations smoothly, adapt to change quickly, and achieve better results every day. To learn more, visit <a href="http://www.uplandsoftware.com/" target="_blank">www.uplandsoftware.com</a>.

Upland Software Acquires Adestra

CMS Summit 25

Find out at CMS Connect 25, August 5 - 6 in Montreal, Canada. Seats are limited.

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