Articles - Page 62

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

matt-garrepy

Nowadays there’s so much information, data and statistics in the workplace that organizing, managing and sharing it is a challenge for businesses. How do you make all that knowledge work for you? How do you make it accessible to staff? It’s true – what’s the point of having all this organizational knowledge if it’s not contributing to your business goals. Essentially, all that any company really wants is for employees to be able to access the right information at the right time. And that should be at the heart of any <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/knowledge-transfer/">knowledge transfer</a> and management system. But how do you go about achieving it? Well in this post we look at some of the ways organizations have been approaching this issue and we then go on to look at what the intranet has to offer in this context. First though let’s be clear about what knowledge management is all about.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/knowledge-transfer632x0-is.png" />
What Is Knowledge Transfer And Management? 
Advances in technology and the advent of the internet mean that there is now more information than ever in the workplace. And the terms knowledge transfer and management simply refers to the systems companies have in place for publishing, managing and sharing that organizational knowledge so that it helps in achieving business goals. And it includes both internal and external sources of knowledge.
Companies that take a strategic approach to knowledge transfer and management make better, more informed decisions. They also tend to be more productive and innovative and are able to respond to change more quickly and efficiently. The key word here though is strategic. To be effective, a company’s knowledge management system needs to be aligned to business goals rather than simply collecting data just for the sake of it. Information in itself is not knowledge. How that information is applied in the context of the workplace is the key.
Organizations’ Traditional Approach To Knowledge Transfer And Management
For some companies, knowledge management consists of a filing cabinet packed full of every policy, procedure and company report ever produced. For others it’s a combination of paper and email-based systems as well as databases. However, more often than not the information is in silos within individual teams or departments with very little sharing and collaboration across the whole organization.
What’s more, lots of businesses have come to rely on wikis as being the primary mechanism for organizational knowledge management. And so let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of wikis as a knowledge management system.
Advantages Of Wikis
A <a href="http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/wiki.html">wiki</a> is essentially a webpage or database that has been developed collaboratively by a group of users. Any user can add or edit the content. And so wikis make it quick and easy to work with others on editing information in a webpage. And because users are working collaboratively, wikis can facilitate discussion and communication within a business. Wikis tend to work best in smaller teams with limited numbers of users. You often see them in the context of software development with users sharing information and insights on common issues and the development of best practices.
Disadvantages Of Wikis
There are, however, some downsides to using wikis. Often their free-for-all nature means that they lack structure. What’s more, contributions are unmoderated and so some are more focused and helpful than others. And frequently the contributions are not aligned to any overall business goals. In addition, wikis can have limited search capabilities which makes it difficult to find the precise data that you’re looking for.
And so while there is definitely a place for wikis in modern businesses, their usefulness as a knowledge management tool may be limited. In contrast the company intranet has a number of distinct advantages when it comes to knowledge management and so let’s turn our attention to what the intranet has to offer in this context.
Advantages Of An Intranet
The intranet is the perfect starting point for developing a comprehensive, strategic knowledge management system. Why? Well, for a start the intranet is accessible to all staff who are already using it on a daily basis. What’s more, it’s intuitive and simple to use and the information and knowledge can be quickly and easily shared across the whole organization or by team and department – whatever makes sense to your business. In addition, the intranet has intuitive menu and site navigation, backed up by an advanced search capability which means that staff members can quickly and easily locate the specific piece of knowledge they’re after.
These advantages make the intranet the perfect system for organizational knowledge management. And just to illustrate this further, let’s look at a couple of practical examples of how a knowledge management system might work on the intranet.
Practical Examples Of Knowledge Transfer Management Using An Intranet 
Is your business based on sales? Use the intranet to enable your sales personnel to keep track of their sales numbers, sales leader boards, client relationship information and sales tips and tricks all on one central platform. What’s more, the intranet will be accessible to your sales team from any mobile device, even when they’re out on the road.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/lead-by-example.jpg" />Is your business service-based? Let’s say, for example, you service office photocopier machines. Your field personnel will need to have knowledge of many types of different complex machines, common issues and how to fix them. It’s impractical and unproductive to train the repairers on all machines and the way round that is to use the intranet to organize and manage the knowledge from the perspective of the employee. And so from a main menu that lists the different brands of photocopiers, the pages can naturally link off to common problems and how to resolve them. Or they could be a series of sub-pages with specific models that then branch off to detailed maintenance manuals. Whatever approach or combination of approaches you adopt, the important thing is to transfer the knowledge to the right person at the tight time.
Perhaps you have a cross-departmental project that requires collaborative working amongst staff? It may be that you are developing a digital marketing strategy, an employee wellness initiative or a new company logo. Use the intranet to facilitate joint working by setting up a project space where staff can share insights, data and best practice ideas as well as collaborating in real time on documents using an embedded Google Apps or Office 365 app. Eliminate the need for long email conversations, face-to-face meetings and the sending of documents back and forth with the far more efficient and effective intranet.
Why make life more complicated than it needs to be? There’s already too much to think about in the workplace without overcomplicating things. An intranet enables you to effectively manage your organizational knowledge alongside a range of other business improvements all within one easy to use platform. Keep it simple in your business and use the intranet for your knowledge management.
Interested in finding out more? Contact the team at MyHub for an informal discussion about knowledge management or any of the other great benefits an intranet has to offer. Better still take advantage of our no obligation demo or <a href="https://freetrial.myhubintranet.com/freetrial">14-day free trial</a>. Get in touch today.

Knowledge Transfer And Management Made Easy

mike-johnston

Do you want to improve your company culture while also getting your employees to share your content? Would you like to choose the right employee advocacy tool to help you achieve this?
Work occupies a major chunk of your employees’ lives. They spend about one-third of their days working, and on average, 89% of them are satisfied with their jobs. As it is a major part of their lives, they will chat about work life both online and offline. <a href="http://www.webershandwick.com/news/article/employee-activists-spark-a-new-social-movement-in-the-digital-age">50% of employees</a> already share content about their employers online, and many of them are always on the lookout for quality content to share.
Therefore, it is important for companies to equip employees with the right information. Employees can share this information while having conversations on social media.
An informed employee will share the latest and most flattering information about your industry and company. This can help create a positive brand impression and drive back traffic to your website, as employees can increase brands’ reach <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/249153637/Infographic-MSLGROUP-Employee-Impact">tenfold</a>.
The best way to keep employees informed is with an employee advocacy platform. Choosing the right platform can be hard, though, as there are so many options available. Two of the options you can’t go wrong with are Smarp and Dynamic Signal. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. I have compared them side by side in this article, to help you select the right one.
Check out what they offer, and pick your favourite.
Smarp
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp1132x0-is.png" />
<a href="http://www.smarp.com/">Smarp</a> is a full-featured employee advocacy tool. It has all the functionality you need to spark lively internal discussions and encourage employees to share content onto social media.
One of the best aspects of Smarp is how easily you can use it to queue up content for group sharing. You can post links, images and text messages. You can also move the content so that the most important content appears at the top and apply categories, so that your team members can work with topic-specific feeds. To save time, you can even integrate your social media accounts and RSS feeds so that content appears automatically. Posts can also be scheduled in advance to go live and be archived at set times.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp2760x0-is.png" />
Employees can access this information via their browsers – or Android and iOS devices. They can comment on this content and share it with their friends and followers on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and many more.
Smarp also integrates with apps like Slack, MailChimp, Google Analytics and Dropbox. This simplifies various tasks and makes it easy to track performance metrics, like traffic generated.
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp3666x0-is.png" />
Their advanced gamification features entice employees to share more by making sharing an enjoyable experience. One of these features is leader board that creates a contest between employees. Employees also get points for sharing. These points can either be exchanged to donate money to charities or to claim rewards.
Smarp’s messaging and communication features aren’t the best. The only way employees can communicate with each other and with the company is through comments. Of course, you can track employees with analytics, but if you are looking for more detailed written communication this isn’t the best option.
Smarp’s advanced analytics is second to none. They provide both companyanalytics for admins and personal analytics for employees. Using company analytics, you will be able to see your best performing content and most influential employees. Smarp also calculates the “estimated earned media value” of employees’ shares.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/smarp4861x0-is.png" />
The employees’ personal analytics helps them check how their shared content is performing across social media. They also have a feature called SmarpScore that makes it easy to measure their performance.
Most employee advocacy software companies get you to sit through a demo. You will only be able to sign up and get a quote after this taxing session. But not with Smarp. Here you can instantly sign up for a free 14 day trial and test drive the tool. Pricing is also available publicly. It starts at 3.5€ / user / month. If you prefer a demo they have that option too.
Smarp’s strength lies in keeping employees informed and getting them to share your content.
Dynamic Signal
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dynamic1016x0-is.png" />
<a href="http://dynamicsignal.com/">Dynamic Signal</a> isn’t as comprehensive a tool as Smarp. But it does do everything it needs to, and it also sports some great features that other employee advocacy tools do not.
Dynamic Signal has well-designed native mobile apps that make it easy for you to share latest news and other content with your employees. Delivery and readership of messages can be tracked. This helps you share content at the right time with only interested employees.
You can also alert employees about the latest content using Facebook Messenger, SMS and Slack.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dynamic2283x0-is.png" />
Employees can share content they like on to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.
Their advanced communication features help you get detailed feedback from employees through quizzes and surveys. This will help you build an engaged internal community on the app. You can also use the data to craft a work culture that will improve company performance.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dynamic3.png" />

You also have detailed analytics to track other metrics that you cannot obtain through communication only.
Sharing features aren’t very well developed, though, as Dynamic Signal is more focused on improving communication.
It is necessary for everyone to sign up for a demo. Pricing information can only be obtained after this session. You cannot sign up for a trial instantly.
Summary
As you can see above, both of these employee advocacy tools have their pros and cons. Smarp is a more well-rounded tool, but it lacks some internal communication features, while Dynamic Signal is more focused on team conversations.
You should choose the tool that satisfies all your needs. If you are looking for one to help understand your employees better, Dynamic Signal is the best option, while if you want one to help your company content’s distribution and performance, you should go with Smarp. Also, Smarp is the better choice if you want self-service onboarding.
Have you used both the above tools? Which is more useful, Smarp or Dynamic Signal? Please leave your comments below.

Smarp vs. Dynamic Signal: Which Employee Advocacy Platform Is Best for You?

New technologies will continue to change how organisations manage their content in 2018.
If you’re looking to overhaul your current web content management system or you’ve only started setting up shop, it is useful to know which trends are shaping content management systems (CMS).
CMS is always evolving and in the past ten years there has been a shift towards the needs of the end-users and the need to deliver content across different channels.
The benefits of a good CMS include an organised, updated site that delivers a seamless experience to its users.
These factors underpin the key content management trends to watch in 2018.
<ol>
<li>Artificial intelligence </li>
</ol>
Every part of the economy – and society – is being disrupted by new forms of technology like artificial intelligence. In CMS there are a few practical applications of how AI can improve the way your business stores and accesses content. AI is especially useful as the volume of content production – and the need for this content to be managed – continues to rise.
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/26/ai-will-fundamentally-change-how-we-manage-content/">According to Techcrunch</a>, the growth in the collection of content will make it easier for AI tools to organise data in 2018, with AI algorithms performing better on large sets of data.
A practical example of this is a recent partnership between Box and Google where images will be automatically tagged when they are uploaded. The image recognition tool will be able to recognise text and other information in images and store it accordingly.
Chatbots driven by AI will also be able to point users to the information they need. <a href="https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3811367">Gartner predicts that by 2021</a> more than half of enterprises will be spending more on chatbots than on mobile app developments. Using chatbots for easily automated content searches will free up employees for more meaningful customer engagement.
<ol>
<li>Personalisation</li>
</ol>
AI is also at the core of another key trend: Personalisation.
In e-commerce an Accenture <a href="http://www.evergage.com/blog/consumers-want-personalization-stats-roundup/">study</a> found that 75% of customers prefer businesses to recognise them by name, know their purchase history and suggest items based on that history.
Personalisation programmes also <a href="http://searchcontentmanagement.techtarget.com/feature/A-personalization-engine-comparison-Acquia-Evergage-and-Google">increase</a> revenue by up to 10%.
The business case for personalisation is clear and possibilities when using CMS in the right way are endless.
To effectively personalise users experience using CMS different data must be collected. This incudes search keywords, on-site browsing data and explicit user data such as the information collected in forms. From here your CMS can offer users options for suggested content to match their needs and preferences.
In the example of the retail industry, personalisation in CMS allows companies to offer targeted rewards to customers and they’re able to customise these rewards to make them location-specific, for instance.
There are a range of personalisation engines running in the cloud to choose from including <a href="https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/">Google Optimise</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-personalization-now-available/">Optimizely</a> and <a href="http://www.evergage.com/">Evergage</a>.
<ol>
<li>Headless CMS and multi-channel delivery </li>
</ol>
It’s called web content management, with a connection to the website as the platform
In 2018 content needs to be delivered to several more platforms than just your company website.
The move towards <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cloud-first-headless-cms-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-use-it/">headless CMS</a> continues in 2018. Increasingly, people are creating and consuming content on mobile devices. It is estimated that by 2018, 80% of content use will be on mobile and mobile already represents close to seven to ten minutes on digital media and this is only one new medium your content needs to be delivered on. One benefit of headless CMS is that the content management environment is separate from the content delivery environment. This gives you more flexibility to pull content from a single repository to display and publish on multiple platforms.
The growth of open-source platforms like WordPress appear to be <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/WordPress">plateauing</a> have plateaued in the past year, with some analysts linking this trend to the steady growth of new content infrastructure systems like headless CMS.
Early adopters have already moved towards headless CMS and it is expected that it will be widely used in the year ahead.
Whether you opt for a headless CMS or not, keep in mind that your CMS must make it easy for developers to integrate content across channels.
It’s important to know the latest trends in your industry as a new CMS feature can make it easier for your businesses marketers and developers to create and organise content. When you’re putting together the business case to improve your CMS – or start from scratch – consider your needs. What kind of content is your organisation creating and storing? Perhaps you don’t need a CMS with hundreds of out of the box features. It could be that you’re not producing rich media and need a simple system to allow teams to tag metadata to make it easier for users to find information.
A CMS must make it easier for marketers and developers to collaborate and update content and for customers to easily navigate your site from any location or device.
When selecting our CMS in 2018 always use these indicators as touchstones to make sure you’re moving in the right direction.

Web Content Management Trends To Watch In 2018

By 2020, the average business buyer will manage<a href="https://walkersands-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1ShaHNl6jUYNoTg6uRPFqZkHmmuOmNJfMj1XORmg2hd8-1462957689&amp;key=YAMMID-75637296&amp;link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gartner.com%2Fimagesrv%2Fsummits%2Fdocs%2Fna%2Fcustomer-360%2FC360_2011_brochure_FINAL.pdf"> </a><a href="https://walkersands-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1ShaHNl6jUYNoTg6uRPFqZkHmmuOmNJfMj1XORmg2hd8-1462957689&amp;key=YAMMID-75637296&amp;link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gartner.com%2Fimagesrv%2Fsummits%2Fdocs%2Fna%2Fcustomer-360%2FC360_2011_brochure_FINAL.pdf">85 percent</a> of his or her relationship with an enterprise without interacting with another human, according to Gartner. This is quite a shift when you consider almost all B2B purchases were conducted by phone, fax or in person just a few years ago. 
The evolution toward self-service in B2B is natural, especially when you look at the way the B2C space has progressed over time. Business buyers are also consumers, and expect the ability to make purchases on their own time and via intuitive eCommerce sites just like they do in their personal lives. 
However, B2B businesses still have room to grow when it comes to making self-service intuitive and customer-friendly. Too often, businesses rely on rigid commerce systems that are simply not equipped to enable comprehensive branded experiences customers expect today. B2B buyers are served a tasty buffet of experiences for finding and consuming marketing information. But when it comes to placing an order, checking the status of an order, or requesting a quote or configurable product, the experience is not nearly as appetizing.
With a B2B commerce platform that can easily connect with a CMS, businesses can merge the structured, transactional, back-end commerce experience and unstructured, front-end marketing experience into one fluid interface. 
Why self-service is a win-win for B2B customers and sellers
Self-service is transforming B2B industries. Customers can now enjoy the flexibility of purchasing on their own terms, while businesses reduce overhead costs per transaction and increase revenue through more strategic resource allocation. 
The beauty of self-service is that it enables customers to research and purchase intuitively, rather than browse physical catalogs and order over the phone with sales representatives. Many businesses offer mobile self-service features that allow for on-the-go ordering, enhancing buyers’ freedom to purchase wherever and whenever they want, and reducing order errors.
The combination of these benefits significantly improves customer satisfaction. A recent <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/finding-the-right-digital-balance-in-b2b-customer-experience">McKinsey</a> study found that 86 percent of B2B decision makers prefer using self-service tools for reordering rather than talking to a sales representative. When buyers have the freedom to purchase on their own through a convenient platform, they are more likely to complete purchases and less likely to turn to competitors.
For businesses, one of the larger benefits of self-service sites is the reduction of overhead costs per transaction. With a self-service commerce offering, businesses can transform the sales team/customer relationship, allowing sales reps to act as strategic advisors rather than simple order takers. By automating administrative tasks through the commerce platform, salespeople can spend more time consulting customers and proactively finding opportunities to cross-sell and upsell.
Using the Cloud to facilitate self-service
While the benefits of a self-service platform are clear, not all B2B commerce platforms enable the degree of flexibility today’s customers demand. Features of a quality self-service platform include:
<ul>
<li>Simple steps to purchase</li>
<li>Ability to purchase without using phone or fax </li>
<li>Mobile options for researching/purchasing on-the-go</li>
<li>Personalized pricing, promotions and custom catalogs</li>
<li>Useful content to help customers research</li>
<li>Robust features to facilitate complex orders (e.g. multiple orders per cart, multiple shipping destinations per order)</li>
</ul>
Some of the most successful B2B sellers enable self-service with commerce systems built on cloud platforms. These systems are flexible and can be built to include robust features that mirror a B2C buying experience. And the end product allows buyers to self-serve while giving the brand flexibility to adapt the solution based on buyer behavior and needs. 
The benefit of commerce and CMS integration
While self-service functionality is important, B2B buyer demand for sophisticated commerce experiences has grown with the improvement of B2C sites. Traditional B2B commerce tends to be rigid, clunky and require multiple steps to complete purchases. That’s because these systems were built on ERP systems – back-end platforms never designed to be customer facing. Structured content, such as detailed SKU data, pricing, support contract information and catalog management were historically meant to support manufacturing and other internal purposes rather than to help educate customers. While most eCommerce systems can help customers serve up accurate products, prices, and account servicing information, they are not intended to provide highly branded marketing experiences or to support unstructured content, such as educational or promotional materials.
The opposite is true for front-end content marketing systems. Businesses have always prioritized a user-friendly, elegant experience for customers to consume unstructured content that drives them to buy. A CMS ensures the customer experience is beautifully branded until the moment a customer decides to purchase.
But when structured commerce data is fed into the CMS through a robust API, the end-to-end customer journey can combine the beauty and elegance of the front-end content marketing experience with the functionality of the back-end experience. B2B businesses looking to improve self-service for their customers should look to cloud platforms with a powerful set of APIs to connect commerce and CMS. With the support of a partner that understands the branded experience, businesses can ensure a consistent, user-friendly experience at every touchpoint.
Self-service is the future for B2B industries. But for businesses truly dedicated to increasing revenue and improving the customer experience, a flexible, API-first digital commerce platform is necessary to meet business buyers expectations. Smart businesses will make the necessary technology investments now to meet and exceed expectations down the road
By Andy Peebler, <a href="http://www.cloudcraze.com/">CloudCraze</a>

How Self Service Can Power Improved B2B Digital Commerce Experiences

Now digital marketers can build landing pages with Google Sheets. In case you did not know – Google Sheets is part of Google Drive – Google’s productivity/ collaboration suite of products. Google Sheets is a very powerful alternative to Excel that lets you create spreadsheets online for easy sharing, collaborating, and updating by your entire team.
Starting off with a landing page template – each element of the layout can be tied back to fields within Google Sheets. The ability to create the next landing page variation is a simple copy and paste of a row.
Here is how to get started <a href="https://rallymind.com/blog/automated-landing-pages-using-google-sheets-integration/">using Google Sheets to create Landing Pages</a>:
<ol>
<li>
Authorize access to your Spreadsheet to RallyMind
</li>
<li>
Map the fields within your spreadsheet to the RallyMind API fields. Some example fields available to sync can be Landing Page URLs, Address Details, Call Tracking, Google Tag Manager IDs, Custom Fields, and More.
</li>
<li>
After this is set up, the RallyMind system takes over. RallyMind monitors for changes to your sheets and updates existing or creates new landing pages in real-time. Every landing page that is created on RallyMind is auto-tagged with event tracking tied to all the actions a visitor could take.
</li>
</ol>
All landing pages are fully integrated with Google Analytics right out of the gate, and can be used to easily facilitate click and call tracking. No more manual imports and exports. Using Google Sheets to build each new landing page allows you to push and pull information dynamically and populate directly into the specific landing page – including setting the URL path – allowing you to get campaigns live in real-time.
Note about Google <a href="https://rallymind.com/blog/landing-page-relevance-optimize-for-quality-score/">Landing Page content relevance</a> – Well, officially, Google considers the overall landing page experience, but relevance is a big part of that. Landing pages are foundational of any SEO, PPC or E-mail marketing campaign. Most marketers fail to understand the importance of landing pages at scale. Companies invest so much into driving traffic but do not know how to take these visitors and turn them into qualified leads. This is where landing pages comes into the picture – learn more about using Google Sheets to create Landing Pages.

Building Landing Pages with Google Sheets

Please tell us a bit about yourself, your background and your position within dotCMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/stefan_schinkel250x0-is.jpg" />Stefan: I’m an Electrical Engineer by training and for the last 22 years I have been working in technology-focused enterprises (TNT, MCI WorldCom, Accenture, DM Interface, BloomReach/Hippo) – starting in service delivery/Professional Services roles and moving into consulting and sales roles. Prior to joining dotCMS, I was with Hippo for eight years and part of the team that scaled the company to where it is today. At dotCMS, I’ll pick up the role as Chief Sales Officer and focus on net new business growth and help to scale the company in the next 36 months. I couldn’t be more excited to be part of this highly talented and experienced team that will create some waves in the industry shortly. 
What do you feel makes dotCMS a strong player in the open source enterprise CMS market?
Stefan: A couple things. First, the product is very rich and really stands out in a couple areas that align very well with requirements that we see in industries like Financial Services, Manufacturing and Retail. Building flexible / custom approval workflows without any coding is one of them. Compliance is another one. For both internal policies as well as up-coming legislation (GDPR and the likes) it’s important to retrieve snapshots of historic content representations. DotCMS offers this out-of-the-box. Most recently we added content preview for future date/time which is key use-case for retailers driving digital campaigns / experiences. Secondly, dotCMS is very well positioned to accelerate the roadmap due to the low technical debt, the open and decoupled architecture and the modern technology stack. Most notably is the re-designed authoring UI in Angular that we’ll continue to extend and improve for marketers and business users. The architecture and the well designed and flexible REST APIs is already ahead of the competition and we’ll continue to improve there. Lastly, our cloud offering is unprecedented with industry-unique auto-scaling of cloud resources, making dotCMS enterprise-grade and appealing for large / global enterprises who wish to build their next generation digital experience platform. We currently serve 150+ enterprise customers on four continents. 
On the topic of open source. Do you feel that there are advantages to an open source company over proprietary?
Stefan: Absolutely. Open source products in general, and CMS for sure, offer very mature and feature-rich products which means enterprises can focus on more advanced capabilities. Secondly, open source products are more secure due to the exposure they have by definition. This creates secure and hardened software products. Lastly, open source products provide higher interoperability by nature, which makes them a very solid fit for best-of-breed architectures. All these advantages put enterprises (both marketing and IT) in the driver’s seat to focus on innovation.
How do you feel the open source market has advanced in the last few years?
Stefan: More and more, Enterprise customers building business-critical applications demand transparency into the code bases and platforms they adopt. As Microsoft chief Satya Nadella says, “every business will be a software business” and no software business wants to be built on top of a platform or foundation they cannot control or modify. In the past few years, I have seen a surge in the preference for best-of-breed solutions over full blown suites and, by definition, that means INTEGRATION. Open source products and the complete Java stack provide open and flexible architectures to drive time-to-market and more importantly innovation for enterprises.
Where do you see it going?
Stefan: Again, Open source is here to stay for sure and will become even more mainstream than it is already. The Digital Enterprise will have the flexibility to build its digital experience platform using both proprietary and open source products in hybrid deployment models where I do see a strong position for the Platform-as-a-Service play and microservices-based architectures. Front-end frameworks like Angular, React and Node will become more dominant in the application / presentation layer but I do believe that have an out-of-the-box delivery tier in a DXP as well makes sense and drive more agility for business teams, and will technology teams continue to innovate in a similar pace. 
How is dotCMS ensuring it is positioned for success within it?
Stefan: dotCMS is in the process to finalize their first round of growth capital funding. We’ll make strategic investments in our product around cloud, AI/ML, engagement analytics and digital experience orchestration to drive a compelling product roadmap for our customers and partners. In addition, we’ll be focussing on expanding our partner and tech alliance ecosystem to accelerate our global product adoption. 
What is dotCMS doing to give back to the open source community?
Stefan: I have seen a lot of companies use the “open source” moniker to greenwash what is really proprietary technology. At dotCMS, we believe in a transparent development process. Our codebase is freely available on github. And we keep developing our product and accepting contributions from our community members into this core open source offering. Open source will remain an important part of our product development philosophy because we believe that it is what forward thinking companies require to drive innovation that allows enterprises to start building / proofing business-critical digital experience platforms. 
Can you tell us a bit about some of the interesting and unique implementations of dotCMS you’ve seen in the wild?
Stefan: There are a couple great examples that I want to mention here. First, the Hospital Corporation of America is using our platform to run 1500+ large scale, complete websites – not microsites – and are able to spin up complete new sites in under 30 minutes. Second, dotCMS can handle really large content and document repositories- we have a financial services company that replaced Documentum with dotCMS and have over 10 million assets under management. Finally, Gettysburg College is combining our Content-as-a-Service capabilities to <a href="https://dotcms.com/clients/dotcms-and-content-as-a-service">feed Alexa and expose content to students</a>. It’s a testament to the flexibility of the product and how organizations can build their unique digital experience platform. 
What plans does dotCMS have to extend the product line, if any?
Stefan: dotCMS is already covering a lot in the core product. Not just the core CMS capabilities but also more advanced capabilities, like workflow and compliance as well as content targeting and personalization. dotCMS is moving into a world where all of an enterprise’s content can be managed centrally and delivered globally, at scale.
What can we expect to see from dotCMS in the next 6 months or so?
Stefan: dotCMS is accelerating its roadmap and doubling down on extending its capabilities as a mature and enterprise-grade Digital Experience Platform. We’ll continue to enhance our product in some key roadmap streams, like UI/UX enhancements to drive marketing operational excellence and engagement analytics to provide a 360 degree view on touch points for customer journeys. Experience Orchestration is a key pillar in our roadmap: driving content approval / mapping for digital experiences without any coding (project #NoCode). Lastly, authenticated business-critical applications that expose personalized experiences in a secure and cloud-based environment will be trending in 2018. We offer every single piece already out-of-the-box in our most recent release and continue to drive innovation along these lines. 
Final remarks
<a href="http://www.dotcms.com" target="_blank">dotCMS</a> is a great company delivering a great product to the marketplace already. We are uniquely positioned to become a leader in the Digital Experience Platform industry with a compelling roadmap, partner network and tech alliance eco-system to drive business outcomes for the digital enterprise.

Interview with dotCMS Chief Sales Officer, Stefan Schinkel

Shopify - The global commerce platform

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

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/intranet-development.jpg" />
You’ve been chasing the client for months. Bringing on this account would mean the world to your firm, and you’d get all the glory. Countless proposals and presentations to try and get them across the line, and finally—you get the phone call. They want to start doing business.
But it’s not your usual request. They want you to build them an office intranet.
Developing a bespoke intranet can be a long and arduous process, with no guarantees at the end of your finished product. This is not your firm’s specialty—how do you select the right <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/intranet-development">intranet development</a> option to meet the client’s needs, without committing too much time and resource, or even worse, flunking the opportunity you’ve been given?
We’ve got good news. There’s another way, and it’s faster, cheaper and safer. Introducing: pre-built CMS intranet systems. Read on to learn how this can be a viable option for your customers, and the answer to all your intranet development worries.
<h2>A World Without Pre-Built CMS Intranet Systems</h2>
To truly understand the value of a pre-built CMS intranet system, it pays to first look at the other side of the coin. What does it typically take to build a bespoke intranet from scratch? Here are the standard steps:
<h3>1. Requirements Analysis</h3>
Firstly, detailed information needs to be gathered from your client around their requirements. What are they hoping to use the intranet for? Are there any particular activities they will be using it for, and any special tools they may require? What baseline requirements do they have around data and security? All of this information is gathered as a needs analysis, and typically involves staff questionnaires, workshops and focus groups. No surprises that it takes a while to complete! 
<h3>2. Documentation</h3>
Following the needs analysis comes documenting—essentially detailing all the information gathered. This involves the mapping out of the necessary business processes, data flow diagrams and information, including an initial site map. Again, a slow and labor intensive process.
<h3>3. Development</h3>
Next, a prototype must be developed to give your client a feel for the solution you’re proposing. This not only allows your client to see what the end product will look like, but enables you to move forward with confidence, knowing that your intranet will be the right fit. Creating a prototype can be a lengthy ordeal, particularly as it is an important point in the process from the customer’s point of view—show them a mediocre prototype, and they might pull the pin altogether.
<h3>4. Testing</h3>
Once your intranet is completely developed, the final step is testing. No one wants to present a solution only to find out it’s full of glitches that undermine your credibility immediately! Testing should cover functionality, ease of use, device compatibility, end user appeal, speed, reliability, user load and ongoing management. As well as this, it’s important to step back from the practical perspective, and look at the intranet’s visual appeal—after all, it’s being used by humans, not machines.
It goes without saying that developing a bespoke intranet is not a straightforward process. The potential for the process to quickly suck up time and money is very real—it’s a significant investment, not to be taken lightly. This holds a degree of risk to you as a developer. Too often the journey is embarked on optimistically, only to end in high costs due to unforeseen changes and labor intensive design. 
We’ve seen what it’s like building your own intranet. Now, let’s look at a pre-built CMS intranet. 
<h2>A Better World: Pre-Built CMS Intranet</h2>
When you need to drive to work, you don’t build the road to get there. You use a pre-built road. Why? Because it’s simpler, cheaper, faster.
Intranet is much the same—using a pre-built CMS intranet negates many of the issues we’ve seen in building a bespoke intranet. Here’s a quick look at how a pre-built intranet can save you time, money and hassle along each step of the development process.
<h3>1. Requirements Analysis</h3>
No more starting from scratch. Conducting a needs analysis looks very different with a pre-built intranet. Essentially, it involves walking your client through all of the already available functions and features within the CMS intranet software, and noting down which ones are needed for their particular business. This inverted approach is fantastic because it shifts the client’s perspective—they choose from what’s available initially, rather than dreaming up a plethora of potentially unrealistic options. Risk is also reduced for you as the developer, as the pre-set options mean you’re more likely to end up creating an intranet well suited to your client’s needs.
<h3>2. Documentation</h3>
Implementing a template approach means extensive documentation is no longer required. Your pre-built intranet comes already equipped with a site map, and modules which can easily be customized. Pre-planning becomes unnecessary, as adding or editing pages is straightforward.
<h3>3. Development</h3>
Say goodbye to tedious prototype creation, and hello to simple free trials. The majority of CMS intranet providers offer the option of ‘try before you buy’, meaning, as a developer, there’s no need to build a prototype or even go through the process of installing intranet software. Simply use the step-by-step building process, utilizing the flexible page options and design. 
<h3>4. Testing</h3>
Again—no need for any testing with a pre-built CMS intranet. All the pre-testing has been performed in advance, meaning functionality can be assured from day one. In fact, this aspect of a pre-built intranet is an easy sell to your clients—there are hundreds of users out there already using the product, who can attest to its usability. 
Clearly, pre-built CMS intranet systems offer huge benefits, with very little downside compared to bespoke intranets. As well as saving time and money in the needs analysis and documentation phases, a pre-built intranet is able to be customized to meet the requirements of the majority of companies, with all the development and testing already completed and proven. 
<h2>The Cherry On Top: Cloud Intranet Hosting</h2>
As if the benefits of saved time and money aren’t enough, cloud-hosted CMS intranets offer even more benefit for your customers. Instead of having to purchase additional servers, then hosting and maintaining the intranet themselves, customers are able to outsource it to a hosting company. What this means is:
<ul>
<li>Automatic backups</li>
<li>Fixed low monthly costs</li>
<li>Up-to-date security features</li>
<li>Unlimited users</li>
<li>Automatic updates </li>
<li>Managed storage</li>
</ul>
At MyHub, we firmly believe that configuration, as opposed to development, is the best approach when implementing a new intranet. Uncertainty is lowered and return on investment is maximized. From the developer’s perspective, this means more time to focus on what you do best: understand customers, and deliver requirements. Instead of spending the time and money necessary to become proficient in intranet development, market yourself as having a competitive edge over other developers when it comes to responsiveness and understanding.
Ultimately, CMS intranets can both meet your customers’ needs, and those of your web development agency. <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/book-demo/">Contact us at MyHub</a> for a free consultation on how a cloud intranet can make intranet development a much easier task.

Never Stress About Intranet Development Again

<a href="https://1010data.com/" target="_blank">1010data</a>, Inc., the only provider of an integrated cloud platform that combines self-service data management and analytics at scale with ready-to-use data, today announced the release of Version 11 of its 1010data Insights Platform. The platform’s new version features redesigned interfaces and tools that streamline data loading, analytics, visualization, and the scheduling and distribution of analysis – enabling users to attain new insights faster and more effortlessly than ever before. Key highlights of the 1010data Insights Platform Version 11 include the ability to:
<ul>
<li>Easily perform ad hoc data uploads with an all new drag-and-drop, wizard-like interface</li>
<li>Build calculations with an intuitive expression editor that steps the user through the completion of each argument</li>
<li>Take advantage of new data operations such as selecting data by pasting values from Excel and duplicating rows with select and expand</li>
<li>Switch between different data views with a single click, including grid, single row, macro language, visualization, and split screen</li>
<li>Allow select users to easily schedule and manage queries across the team or organization</li>
</ul>
“Having not just the most but the best information and easy-to-use tools to turn it quickly into competitive advantage is now a prerequisite for success,” said Sandy Steier, CEO of 1010data. “Version 11 of the 1010data Insights Platform provides decision-makers and their support staff with the ability to be both fastest and best in the market.” 
1010data Insights Platform Version 11 is available now.
About 1010data
Gaining actionable insight requires the best analytical tools and access to all relevant data. 1010data is a complete solution that provides both. Ours is the only out-of-the-box, self-service, cross-enterprise insights platform. More than 850 of the world’s largest companies trust 1010data to manage, share and analyze over 34 trillion rows of data because of our proven ability to deliver results more quickly, easily and accurately than any other solution. Please visit <a href="http://www.1010data.com" target="_blank">www.1010data.com</a> for more information.

1010data Debuts Next-Generation Data Analysis with Version 11

Hey Folks! With big sales happening this weekend in a variety of places, I thought I'd put together a quick list of some of the ones that apply to those of you who read this site to save you some time (and money). Here's my list of excellent deals for this Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend.
<ol>
<li>To kick things off, WP Engine has a big promotion on right now for those of you who've been on the fence about managed WordPress hosting: <a href="http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1099141&amp;u=407830&amp;m=41388&amp;urllink=&amp;afftrack=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Save 35% off your first payment with WP Engine's Cyber Weekend Special! Expires 11/30/2017</a>.	 </li>
<li>Looking for one of the best Lead Management tools in the business? OptinMonster is offering 25% off from now until November 30, 2017. Head on over to <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=407830&amp;m=49337&amp;b=514572" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">their website</a> to get this deal.	 </li>
<li>StudioPress, one of the biggest and most reputable WordPress theme companies out there is offering 25% off right now as well. Head on over to <a href="http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=386922&amp;u=407830&amp;m=28169&amp;urllink=&amp;afftrack=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">their website</a> to check out their amazing themes and get this deal.	 </li>
<li>Interested in learning Linux or Unix? The Linux Foundation is offering huge discounts right now. Save 60% + with this deal: $179 on select bundles plus a FREE t-shirt and mug at The Linux Foundation. Offer is valid 11/24 – 11/29. <a href="http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1101934&amp;u=407830&amp;m=59485&amp;urllink=&amp;afftrack=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out this deal</a>.	 </li>
<li>
phpFox is giving away 30% OFF Discount on all the license purchase from November 24 – 27, 2017 (PST). You might wanna take this chance to get your own license and start your own Social Network website.
Use the coupon code BLACKCYBER2017 on your purchase to enjoy this discount. <a href="https://clients.phpfox.com/aff.php?aff=25" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Grab this deal</a>.	 
</li>
<li>
SocialEngine is offering up 25% off their products. All you need to do is head over to their <a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-8420589-10952386" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">products page</a> and use the code “phpholiday17” to receive 25% off!
</li>
</ol>
And there you have it folks! Some excellent deals going on right now so take advantage of them while you can and have a great Thanksgiving Weekend to all of our American readers.
~Mike

6 Great Black Friday Deals You Should Take Advantage Of

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wordpress-intranet-theme638x0-is.jpg" />
We’ve all used it in some way, shape, or form. In fact, up to <a href="https://managewp.com/statistics-about-wordpress-usage">26% of websites</a> worldwide are powered by WordPress, making it one of the most popular content management systems globally. For many uses, WordPress is a fantastic choice. It’s aesthetically pleasing, easily customizable, and up and running in no time. However, it’s also easy to fall into the trap of thinking that WordPress is the best system for all your online needs—when in fact, this is not always the case. Here we to look at some of the downsides of using a WordPress intranet theme as an intranet solution and suggest a better alternative.
<h2>Lots Of Options, Lots Of Headaches</h2>
One of the big attractions to WordPress is the vast array of plugins and different themes that it offers users. It seems as though there is a plugin to serve every purpose under the sun—over 40,000 of them! When creating a blog (WordPress’s core purpose), these can be great. However, many users find that the sheer range and complexity of plugins are a real headache.
For example, imagine that you’re looking to have a document sharing center and a staff calendar as part of your WordPress intranet. These would both require plugins, which would seem like a straightforward task. The issue is, WordPress plugins are supplied by thousands of different developers, meaning that you’re likely to end up with two different plugins, run by different suppliers. What does this mean for you? Most likely different support policies, varying schedules for updates, differing mobile compatibility, and a completely different look and feel. Overall? Messy.
Having such a range of plugins to choose from may seem like an intranet heaven, but it’s far from it. They clutter and complicate your intranet, adding unnecessary third parties and creating a disjointed experience. If you’re looking for a great intranet design to engage your staff, WordPress may be the intuitive choice, but it’s not the logical one.
<h2>Using A Blogging Site… For Intranet</h2>
If you choose to use WordPress to create your intranet, what you’re doing is using a blogging website, for an intranet. As much as WordPress tries to appeal to broader purposes than its initial target market of bloggers, at the end of the day, it’s still a blogging tool.
With this in mind, WordPress has not been designed in the same way that an intranet solution will have been. Some of the typical features you may wish for your intranet to have, such as different levels of access to different pages, may actually be rather difficult to create in practice. Inevitably, the answer for everything on WordPress is plugins—but as we already know, these come with their own set of issues. Often we find that an intranet with all the necessary features takes a painfully long time to load on WordPress, purely because of the quantity of plugins that must be loaded with every new page. Contrast this to an intranet hosted on software specifically designed for intranet, and the difference is remarkable.
<h2>Support Responsiveness, What’s That?</h2>
An intranet is all about engagement. It’s designed to enhance engagement, and its success pivots around staff engagement. That’s why one of the most important features of an intranet provider is their service—their ability to dive in and fix problems immediately before staff get apathetic and begin disengaging with the platform.
Unfortunately, this level of responsiveness is simply not present in WordPress intranets. For starters, issues are more likely to occur, given the number of plugins needed to run the necessary features of an intranet. Importantly though, there’s no one provider with a service agreement. As we’ve touched on, different plugins are run by different suppliers, often individuals. If your document sharing center crashes, your staff may have reverted back to paper-based systems before Gary from Albuquerque has responded to your calls.
<h2>To Build, Or To Buy?</h2>
One of the questions that always comes up early on in a discussion about intranet implementation is “Should we build our own? Or buy one off the shelf?” It can be tempting, particularly for large companies with well-resourced IT teams and servers, to build an intranet solution to meet the bespoke needs of their company. This can come with a few pitfalls, however:
<ul>
<li>Creating your own bespoke intranet can be deceptively time and labor intensive</li>
<li>Housing a server requires a physical space</li>
<li>Ongoing management, maintenance and security the server and intranet become your sole responsibility</li>
</ul>
So, why not buy an off-the-shelf WordPress intranet solution? It’s cost effective, quick to set up and easy to manage, but beyond this, it’s not all plain sailing. Firstly, you’ll have to host the solution yourself unless you are going pay to host it in the cloud. The cost for hosting with the performance level needed for a stable intranet alone will be the same as paying for a cloud intranet that's ready to go. Secondly, you’ll have a restricted level of functionality, depending on the provider’s development schedule. Thirdly, you’ll likely find that after a couple of years, a new solution is required, if you choose a cloud intranet solution, then it will stay up to date with current trends.
To truly make the most of a <a href="http://www.myhubintranet.com/wordpress-intranet">WordPress intranet</a>, you’ll need someone on your team who has a thorough knowledge of WordPress. Technical expertise in CSS is necessary too, which is often not available in small to medium-sized organizations. Even if it is, it comes at a cost—and is building an intranet, on a blogging website, really the best use of that resource?
<h2>Security Alert!</h2>
WordPress websites are notorious for security concerns. Given the overwhelming popularity of WordPress globally for its core offerings, it’s naturally vulnerable to SQL injections, hacking, and other unwanted attention. No doubt WordPress is working hard to address these concerns in their updates, however, at the end of the day responsibility for security lies with you. That means if you want cutting-edge security features, such as SSL, you’ll need to set those up yourself.
<h2>WordPress Intranet Theme? </h2>
We love WordPress, just not for an intranet.
So, what’s the alternative? We believe it’s a cloud intranet solution. Some cloud intranets have several advantages over WordPress, such as:
<ul>
<li>No requirement for specific technical knowledge</li>
<li>Easily customizable, pre-tested templates and features</li>
<li>Easy to set up, guided site builder process</li>
<li>Mobile responsiveness</li>
<li>Secure external hosting using industry-leading online security features</li>
<li>Straightforward ongoing management for users and content</li>
<li>High availability and uptime (approx. 99.99%)</li>
<li>Fully integrated platform, and no need for plugins</li>
<li>Responsibility for updates and backups remains with the provider</li>
</ul>
Ultimately, if your business wants an intranet that doesn’t compromise on functionality or service, that your staff can be engaging with within hours, then consider a cloud intranet. Doesn’t it make sense to choose a solution that has been specifically designed for the purpose in mind, rather than a cobbled together set of plugins on a platform originally designed for an entirely different use?
Get in touch with us at MyHub if you’d like to know more about cloud intranets. MyHub is the premier cloud intranet choice for hundreds of businesses of different sizes and in different markets across the globe. Contact us today for a <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/book-demo/">free intranet demo</a> and to find out why.

WordPress Intranet Theme vs Cloud Intranet Provider?

When you build a house you make a mess of the site, you dig lots of trenches and pour tons of concrete. You spend thousands, and then you cover it all up. Nobody ever won House of the Year because of their foundations.
When you build an e-commerce site, you choose a CMS, but you never want to see it again. You just want it to do its job: To work.
<h2>Can You Have an E-Commerce Site without Blogging?</h2>
You just want an e-commerce store without any content marketing?
Not possible. Won’t work.
Check out this <a href="https://www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-infographic">Demand Centric study</a> that shows content marketing out-performing traditional push-marketing.
Blogging and other content marketing generate three times more leads per dollar spent than traditional marketing.
<figure class="align_center"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture1700x0-is.png" /></figure><figcaption>
<a href="https://www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-infographic">Screenshot source</a>
</figcaption>No company can ignore the possibility of getting thirty leads per week rather than ten. Blogging is a necessary and indispensable part of making your e-store profitable. It puts you higher in Google searches, attracts new prospects and establishes you as an industry expert. Write posts yourself, or work with a local blogger but, one way or another, you need regular content added to your blog.
And it needs to be top-notch content, not spun or illiterate, low quality $2 articles from an Upwork “writer.” Readers who see semi-literate writing judge you by it. Their opinion plummets, they hit the ‘Back’ button, and you lose a sale.
<h2>Store-Centered Blog</h2>
If your first priority is your Shopify store, and it should be, then a Shopify blog is the way to go. This is doubly true if you are driven by the need for simplicity.
Check out the Shopify site to see just how simple the CMS platform is to use. If you are concerned about SEO, you needn’t be, as this <a href="https://www.oberlo.com/blog/shopify-seo">Shopify SEO guide</a> explains. Shopify encourages you to use title tags, meta-descriptions, and alt-image tags, all of which will help Google to find your site.
Setting up a Shopify blog is as simple as pouring your coffee into a mug. It has the added advantage that you can set it up as a yourshopifysite.com/blog sub-directory on your main site. A Shopify blog is probably better for SEO purposes because any links to your blog content are more likely to enhance your e-commerce site’s standing.
This is the option to choose if you are primarily an e-commerce business owner and blogging is a secondary interest.
If you have doubts about using Shopify, then read this <a href="/shopify-review-ecommerce-only-simpler/">CMScritic review</a>. It dates back a few years, but the improvements since then make your decision even more obvious. Shopify must be the CMS choice for anyone looking for simplicity.
<h2>Blog-Centered Store</h2>
If you anticipate blogging being the core of your business, you can install a Shopify plugin on a blog.
This has two disadvantages; you may need to pay a developer to set up your blog, and your blog address will be a sub-domain, e.g., blog.yourshopifysite.com.
Having a separate WordPress.org blog does mean you will be able to customize your site to your heart’s content, but it will take time, which is the one thing you are desperately short of as a business owner.
This is the option to go for if you are primarily a blogger and your e-commerce store is a secondary interest.
<h2>The Short Version</h2>
If you don’t have a few thousand to throw around and you don’t want to see your CMS once you have set it up, then use the Shopify blog option. It isn’t all-singing and all-dancing, but it does the job and is more straightforward and quicker than setting up a separate WordPress blog.
The exception is if you already have a blog set up that has natural links directing visitors to it. In this case, keep your blog going and install a Shopify plugin. You will need a Shopify subscription anyway, so set so set up a separate Shopify site as well as your blog and interlink the two.
Your separate e-commerce store will take next to no time to set up, and minimal weekly maintenance to boot. You could even do two versions of each blog post with one for your WordPress blog and one for your Shopify blog.

Choosing the Best CMS as the Foundation for Your E-Commerce Site

SendPulse is a marketing platform that offers plenty of options such as a selection of email templates, reporting, a drag and drop builder and more but is it a good marketing platform to consider using? Read on to find out in this SendPulse Review.
It's easy to get started with SendPulse, simply sign up for free on their website and you can begin sending emails. Upon your first login, you will be greeted with the dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_-_review_-_1880x0-is.png" />First things first, you'll need to import your list or manually copy / paste the emails in. The process is pretty straight forward so I'm not going to show screenshots here as it would be unnecessary. Once complete, it's time to create your first campaign. To do so, click Create a Campaign.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_2.png" />For the purposes of this review, I'm going to send myself an email that I'll be building so I can see how the process works. As you can see, I've selected the list I created and have filled in the sender info and subject line. I now have a choice between using a basic layout structure or choosing one of their built-in templates.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_3.png" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_41082x0-is.png" />
In this instance, I'm going to use the basic layout structure and build my own email. Upon choosing it, I'm taken to the builder screen.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_51048x0-is.png" />
I have to admit, I really like the builder. I've seen quite a few but this one seems to be the cleanest looking and offer quite a few options, which I was happy to see. To use it, simply drag and drop the modules from the left wherever you want them to show up. You can then modify the email body using the options on the right or the individual element itself by clicking the tab Current Element. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_61042x0-is.png" />The one weird thing I noticed was that the editing toolbar goes outside of the edit window, which is rather unclean. I'd prefer to see it wrap or hide some of the options until needed. Otherwise, it works without issue. Once you are satisfied, it's time to send your email. You'll be given the option to customize the sending process as needed below.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_7843x0-is.png" /> Once you are done, basically click Start and off it goes. Now let's take a look at some of the other options that are available such as Automations.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_8.png" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_9.png" />For basic users, there are three types of Automations you can select from as you can see above but SendPulse does offer something called Automation360 which is basically a more advanced automation system for Pro users. In this instance, I'll go with the basic option and select Triggered Email. Upon selecting, you are taken to the automation screen where you can begin to create the automation flow.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_10762x0-is.png" /> The basic options are pretty straightforward. You can choose to automate based on three sending conditions and creating the flow is easy and fast. As I mentioned, if you need more advanced options, you'll need to sign up as a pro user.
Now let's take a look at Sign-up forms. SendPulse offers 4 types.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_11.png" />You can choose to build your own using the same builder as used with your email or select from a template.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_12.png" />Options are pretty limited when it comes to templates but for the most part, they will suffice.
That's about it folks. There are plent of options available to work with and I feel as though SendPulse is pretty much on par with most other email marketing platforms as far as how their system works. Where they differentiate themselves is in their other product offerings such as the ability to send Push Notifications to Firefox or Chrome browsers and SMS campaigns. Both are available at an extra cost but the pricing seems reasonable.
One area they did surprise me on is their email marketing plan pricing. It's very well priced as shown below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sendpulse_review_-_14-1.png" /> When I did a test email to myself, one thing I did find alarming was that the email was instantly sent to my Spam folder in Gmail. This usually is an indicator that the sending service has been flagged for sending spam emails and isn't a good sign. If your customers aren't seeing the emails, there's no use paying for the service. Your results may vary but I would recommend trying to send a sample campaign to yourself while on their free plan before upgrading, just in case.
To learn more, visit <a href="https://sendpulse.com/" target="_blank">SendPulse.com</a>

SendPulse Review - Is it Worth it?

Acquia today announced the selection of Michael Sullivan as Chief Executive Officer, effective in December 2017. Sullivan, 52, has extensive experience in building market-leading, high-growth SaaS organizations and has led the acquisition and integration of numerous companies over the course of his career. He brings to Acquia 25 years of focused experience in content management, archival solutions, electronic discovery and enterprise content governance solutions, and joins Acquia as the company marks its 10th anniversary as a pioneer in cloud-based, open source web content management.
Sullivan joins Acquia from Micro Focus, where he participated in the merger of Micro Focus with Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s software business. The combined company became the world’s seventh largest pure-play software company and the largest UK technology firm listed on the London Stock Exchange.1 Sullivan was responsible for the information management and governance product portfolio both at Micro Focus and at HP, where he was senior VP and GM for SaaS. Prior to joining HP, he led the Protect business unit at Autonomy, which delivered risk and compliance solutions to Fortune 1000 companies. He joined Autonomy through the acquisition of Zantaz, where he was senior VP of operations and services. Sullivan was the founder and CEO of Steelpoint Technologies, a pioneer in technologies for the intelligent management of unstructured information.
He will succeed Tom Erickson, as part of the succession plan announced in May. Erickson will continue as a member of the board of directors. As part of the succession plan, Acquia Co-founder Dries Buytaert will be elevated to chairman, and will serve in that capacity in addition to his duties as CTO. Buytaert is also founder and project lead of Drupal, the open source web content management system he created in 2001.
“Mike is one of the most dynamic technology leaders I have met,” Buytaert said. “Like me, he founded a company in his twenties which he has led ever since. His deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by large global enterprises aligns perfectly with Acquia’s focus on providing data-driven customer journey solutions to organizations that have ambitious digital aspirations and challenges.”
In recent months under Buytaert’s leadership, Acquia expanded the capabilities of the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products-services/acquia-platform?utm_source=pr&amp;utm_medium=newsrls" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Acquia Platform</a>, building upon its core capabilities — namely its Drupal-tuned cloud platform with multisite management and personalization solutions — to support data-driven, personalized customer journeys. The Acquia Platform now incorporates a broader set of technologies such as Node.js, journey orchestration, commerce integrations, and digital asset management, all of which dramatically improve the digital customer experience. Sullivan will lead the company into its second decade, rolling out its expanded platform to digital marketers and brand executives looking to orchestrate the customer experience across every touch point.
“Anyone with an ear to the ground of the Boston tech sector knows one of its brightest stars is Acquia. The passion of the company’s 800 employees is unmistakable, and the opportunity we have to transform the customer experience is second to none,” Sullivan said. “Dries’ founding vision to pioneer cloud-based, open source content management has been proven over and over as Acquia delivered success to some of the world’s most innovative organizations. Acquia sits in the most exciting sector of today’s tech landscape. The company’s bold moves into data-driven customer journeys is the latest demonstration of the company’s intense focus on creating cloud solutions to solve the biggest challenges global organizations are facing today.”
Sullivan added, “Acquia has built a legacy helping thousands of organizations accelerate their success with Drupal. The open source community that has powered Drupal’s development has delivered outstanding innovation for open source web content management. As we enter 2018, Acquia will continue be a strong partner to the Drupal community, as we continue to keep our focus squarely on supporting our customers and their most strategic digital initiatives.”
“Michael joins the company at a tremendous point in its evolution, and his vast experience in fueling the growth of global SaaS companies will be a vital asset as he leads Acquia into the next phase of its growth,” said Rich D’Amore, a general partner at North Bridge Venture Partners and a member of Acquia’s board of directors.
Sullivan will work from the company’s Boston headquarters. A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, he is married and has three children.
Sullivan was recognized by Ernst &amp; Young as an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in both 2000 and 2004. Earlier in his career, he was a software developer for Raytheon. He holds a degree in computer information systems from Bentley University.
About Acquia
Acquia provides a cloud platform and data-driven journey technology to build, manage and activate digital experiences at scale. Thousands of organizations rely on Acquia’s digital factory to power customer experiences at every channel and touchpoint. Acquia liberates its customers by giving them the freedom to build tomorrow on their terms.
For more information visit <a href="http://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.acquia.com</a>

Acquia Names Michael Sullivan Chief Executive Officer

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