Articles - Page 97

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

Movable Type have announced the arrival of a new, cloud-based hosted &amp; managed version of their powerhouse publishing and blogging software.
The CMS giants came into being in 2001, and have grown into a widely popular social publishing platform, supporting thousands of organizations, some of which make up the world's Fortune 100 companies.
<a href="http://www.movabletype.com/" target="_blank"> Movable Type </a>  now provides its users with bespoke cloud computing and managed hosting solutions which allow their customers to deploy their sites to the cloud with just a single click. All this, has been as a result of Movable Types partnership with <a href="http://www.arckcloud.com/" target="_blank"> ArckCloud </a> .
<h2>Teaming Up With ArckCloud</h2>
To make the cloud-based hosting possible, Movable Type have teamed up with ArckCloud. The founder and director of ArckCloud, had this to say about the partnership:
<blockquote>
“Having been long-time users of Movable Type, we couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with the company. Everybody in America loves a comeback, and we want to be part of that and help make Movable Type easier to use and better than ever.”
</blockquote>
ArckCloud aims to aid Movable Type's customers by getting their publications and blogs on a stable, secure cloud server, whilst offering OS/application updates, patches, support for critical application issues, infrastructure consulting, performance reporting and automagic application scaling, in line with the growth of each specific website.
<h2>Up In The Clouds</h2>
When it came to making the decision regarding cloud-based hosting and management services, general manager of Movable Type North America, Robert Minton, gave the following statement:
<blockquote>
“Our research, ranging in scope from enterprise customers down to the small business owner and individual blogger, indicated we needed to introduce a simpler, streamlined version of Movable Type in the marketplace. We engaged customers, listened to their feedback and now offer a solution that makes it easy to get up and running on Movable Type in a cost-effective manner for the growing business.”
</blockquote>
Naturally, the one-click cloud server setup resulting from Movable Type's union with ArckCloud, allows organizations and individuals to focus more of their time, energy and money on other parts of their publication.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1700x0.png" alt="Moveable Type" />
Movable Type Pro – which will also be available in the Amazon Market place this fall, has been designed from the ground up for bloggers, design and development firms, and small to medium-sized businesses. What's more is, Movable Type Pro and has all of the usual Movable Type features, plus extra social networking options, custom fields and new professional templates.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.png" alt="Moveable Type" />
To showcase all of these new enhancements, Movable Type will host the Movable Type Idea Exchange, in conjunction with the 2013 Pivot Conference at Social Week in New York City, on October 15th and 16th, 2013. 
During the event, developers, bloggers and company representatives alike will have the opportunity to interact and engage with the latest version of the Movable Type platform.
If you're interested in attending the Movable Type Idea Exchange conference in New York City, you can find all the relevant details, along with information on how to register for attendance, <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/7757704503" target="_blank"> right here </a> .

Hosted & Managed Version of Movable Type Announced

mike-johnston

<a href="http://www.websitebox.com/" target="_blank">WebsiteBox</a>, a Toronto-based startup that provides real estate professionals with a professional website for a one-time fee of $99, has announced a print-marketing tool called Prints App. 
Focusing on providing a powerful online presence for real estate agents, WebsiteBox serves up a hundreds of responsive templates, customization options, and options between different types of real estate websites. 
Prints App is WebsiteBox's way of giving realtors the ability to print real-estate marketing materials quickly and easily. Here's an introductory video:
http://vimeo.com/108529744
<h2>Branding Made Easy  </h2>
WebsiteBox CEO Peyman Aleagha sees Prints App as a way for Realtors to stramline their branding and marketing efforts:
<blockquote>
“Real estate agents rely on print marketing for branding, to connect with former clients, and to attract new client. While much of the real estate world is moving online, a creative and consistent print marketing campaign is still essential to increasing a Realtor’s visibility within the community.  What’s more, quick, clean messages on brochures, flyers, and other literature can ultimately drive traffic to a real estate website.
Prints App provides Realtors with a straightforward and inexpensive way to share news, tell a success story, or invite buyers to a new listing – all from one simple platform.”
</blockquote>
The best part of Prints App, is that it automatically integrates with existing WebsiteBox websites, enabling it to pull information from listings for use in print materials.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logowebsitebox_light_background700x0.jpg" alt="WebsiteBox" />
Agents can use the app to create vibrant business cards, newsletters, flyers, postcards, letterheads, property sheets, and other materials in three simple steps:
<ol>
<li>Agents select the type of print piece and layout they want to create. The prints wizard helps users customize the piece with intuitive drag-and-drop editing tools.</li>
<li>Next, the app automatically loads data from the multiple listing service. No manual data entry is needed.</li>
<li>In the final step, the app turns the marketing collateral into a high-resolution PDF file that agents can print immediately. Or, for jobs that require expertise, users can email the file to <a href="http://www.printchomp.com/" target="_blank">PrintChomp</a>, a WebsiteBox partner that will help users choose a local printer who’ll complete the job for the required budget, quality and deadline.</li>
</ol>
The Prints App is avaialble via the <a href="http://www.websitebox.com/realtors/apps-extras.php" target="_blank">WebsiteBox Apps &amp; Extras market</a>, for $99.
To find out more about WebsiteBox, <a href="http://www.websitebox.com" target="_blank">check out their website</a>.

WebsiteBox Unveils Print-Marketing Tool for Realtors

<img style="user-select:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/t7a10501150x0-is.jpg" />
In this brave, new digital world, there are countless awards and accolades that celebrate the efforts of technology companies. But there are few competitions that highlight the true impact of innovative thinking for the customer.
Last week, government and tech titans from across the world converged in Washington D.C. for the annual Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit. The purpose was the discussion and display of how government organizations and technology companies can continue to innovate in collaboration with one another – and how Amazon Web Services can help various government entities be more efficient, secure, and cost-effective.
But there was also a palpable vibe in the air. Who would go home with the coveted ‘City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge’ award for 2017?
If you’re not familiar with this competition, here’s the low-down: every year, Amazon Web Services recognizes institutions and AWS Partners that have gone above and beyond to innovate in their respective public sector fields. Despite tens of thousands of applicants, only three winners are named in each of three main categories. I’m proud to announce that last week, Solodev CMS clinched the win for ‘Best Practices’ in the Large City category with Seminole County Public Schools (SCPS) for their newly launched website. The project was created using the Solodev Web Experience platform, which is the only true CMS built from the ground up for Amazon Web Services.
Aside from the instant and vast global recognition and the strengthening of our partnership with Amazon Web Services, there’s a monetary prize of $50,000 – all of which SCPS will reinvest in their online strategy. This includes the rollout of 57 new school websites across the district, all built on the Solodev platform. As a result, each school will have greater control over their individual web presence while saving the county thousands of dollars in management and hosting costs.
Making an impact in both the education and public sector fields isn’t new for us. In fact, just days before winning the award for ‘Best Practices’, Solodev was officially named as one of the first AWS Partners to obtain the newly announced AWS Education Competency. This was a hard-earned validation, demonstrating our deep commitment to the Amazon Web Services Platform while focusing our efforts on the education community.
In recent months, Solodev has experienced tremendous growth with federal, state, and local government agencies, public academic institutions across the globe, and Fortune 500 companies working on a wide variety of projects leveraging AWS. This got us thinking: what is Solodev doing differently than the rest of the CMS pack to have grown from a small <a href="https://www.solodev.com/" target="_blank">content management software</a> company to a true disrupter – and the “go-to” Web Experience Platform for Amazon Web Services?
If I may be so bold as to borrow from Apple, then it’s simple: we started thinking differently. 
Our story began in 2014 with a plan to move from typical on-premise CMS deployments to the Amazon Web Services Cloud. It took a few years of blood and sweat, but within weeks of launching on the AWS Marketplace, Solodev was named the ‘Best Cloud CMS of 2016’ and one of a select number of AWS partners to join their new SaaS Subscriptions Program.
The catalyst for rebuilding Solodev for AWS was fairly simple: we wanted to disrupt the CMS market and create more value. It had been in a period of stasis with little to no change in product development or business model. While almost every other enterprise software vertical had moved to the cloud, the CMS industry just kept adding features or acquiring companies. Wasn’t it time to evolve the modern CMS to a SaaS delivery model – built on the world’s most advanced infrastructure? And what if we could deliver it all on-demand at a fraction of the average cost?
It would all be a game changer.
So we embarked on rebuilding Solodev layer by layer to fully leverage the power of AWS. After nearly four years of engineering, testing, re-engineering, re-testing, and turning our code base over to AWS for review, we were finally seeing our dream come to life. But the big moment came when we decided to deliver a new kind of CMS – one that empowers users to craft unique web experiences with total <a href="https://www.solodev.com/blog/" target="_blank">web design</a> freedom, based on different customer segments. This completely changed the game not only for the CMS industry, but also for the entire digital world. CMS touches everything on the Web; every website, every mobile interaction, every digital experience. What we discovered was the value of the complete experience, and thus we dubbed our new innovation the Web Experience Platform (WXP).
Knowledge is the bedrock of humanity. So what better place to start our new endeavor than with education? While there are many challenges in the public realm, K-12 schools have increasingly struggled to compete with well-funded private institutions. The root of the problem wasn’t actually the difference in quality of education; it was the perception of quality. And where is that perception shaped and influenced with the greatest energy? Websites.
The SCPS project was an opportunity to challenge myths, to trail blaze a new model for a public school’s digital strategy. Despite the disparity in budget between public and private institutions, the Solodev Web Experience Platform made it possible for a district to enhance their digital brand presence and compete more efficiently and effectively. The entire project was a collaboration of creative, development, and marketing minds at both Solodev and SCPS, and the result has hence been dubbed the ‘K-12 Website of the Future.’ It’s beyond gratifying to know that our innovation has resulted in their success – and helped an invaluable community resource secure its digital future.
So why did Solodev win the ‘City on a Cloud’ Innovation Challenge?
Because everything we did was about helping <a href="https://www.scps.k12.fl.us/" target="_blank">Seminole County Public Schools</a> win with the Web. Because of our unshakable belief that websites are more than just websites – they’re experiences that connect us, from across a classroom to the far end of the globe. Yes, we’ve worked tirelessly to raise the bar for the industry, but with the goal of making CMS a more valuable and reliable asset for every company. We must always find new ways to innovate and improve. The world depends on all of us.
Whether you are a technology executive, web developer or designer, marketing professional, or dreamer, we have built the platform of your dreams – one where you can finally unlock your full potential, and build your own city on the cloud.
Are you still skeptical? Visit <a href="http://www.solodev.com" target="_blank">www.solodev.com</a> today and get started with the next step in the evolution of web content management.

Why Solodev CMS Won Amazon Web Services 'City on a Cloud' Innovation Challenge

WonderCMS, a database-free flat file CMS developed to be quick and efficient saw it's first non-beta release after 9 years of development back in March. I thought now would be a good time to take a look at it in now that it's had some time to iron out any potential bugs. That being said, here's my WonderCMS review.
Oh, side note for those who are currently running WonderCMS, they've also just put out a new bugfix release, <a href="https://www.wondercms.com/whatsnew" target="_blank">details here</a>.
<h2>The Preamble</h2>
For those of you who have never heard of or seen WonderCMS before, you can try out a free demo of it on their website here: <a href="https://www.wondercms.com/" target="_blank">https://www.wondercms.com/</a>
WonderCMS touts itself as a free website builder which I suppose in some instances is true. I'd consider it more of a flat file CMS than a website builder as I tend to attribute the term “website builder” to systems that include hosting and everything all in one package, such as <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> or Wix for instance.
Having said that, it's definitely lean and mean. WonderCMS is secure, does not need a database, runs on 5 files (incredibly) and they don't even ask for a link back to their website.
There are plugins and themes for the system which you can find on github or linked to from the main website.<a href="https://github.com/robiso/wondercms-themes#themestemplates-for-wondercms-200-and-higher-versions" target="_blank">Here's a link to their themes</a> (all of these by the way can be previewed in the demo easily). <a href="https://github.com/robiso/wondercms-plugins#plugins-for-wondercms-200-and-higher-versions" target="_blank">Here is a link</a> to currently available plugins and info on how to create them.
<h2>The Review</h2>
WonderCMS is a fairly simple CMS that, once setup, provides you with a single basic drop down menu while activating inline editing controls on your pages. Here's how the menu looks when logged in as an administrator:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_1560x0-is.png" /> Logging in also activates the inline editing which is how you work with content within WonderCMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_2643x0-is.png" />
Clicking within an editable content area enables a menu which you can use to upload images, documents, link to videos on YouTube and a whole lot more. I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with the features they managed to cram into their editor.
Clicking on the image icon enables a file manager allowing you to select existing images or upload / link to your own:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_3638x0-is.png" />
There are some obvious spacing issues (shown above) preventing users from properly reading the titles but overall functionality is still fine. 
Clicking the video icon brings up the following dialog box:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wondercms_review_-_4643x0-is.png" />
I have no idea why the word “gray” is prepopulated but functionally, it works. I plugged in a url for a Daily Motion video just as a test and it worked and embedded properly. It did not, however, accept short urls which are displayed by default so keep that in mind. 
One quirk I did notice is that in order to show the toolbar for the WYSIWYG editor within a content area, I had to either click on some text or a double click but it doesn't appear to always work. Numerous times I added a new line and gave it a shot and it worked some of the time but not all. This is likely to get pretty annoying for new users and is something the devs should take a look at. I'm on a Macbook Pro with the Chrome browser so it's a fairly common set-up.
Adding pages is done by opening the drop down admin menu and clicking the + sign in the pages area to add a new one. You can then click on the “eye” icon to publish or unpublish any areas that you want to work on.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Overall, I found the system to be quick and responsive. For the average user, it works well (aside from the toolbar bug I mentioned above). It's a very simple system but I'm a fan of simplicity so it's nice to see a simple and easy solution for those who need to just get a website up quickly and easily with little bother.
If you've never used WonderCMS before, I'd recommend <a href="https://www.wondercms.com/" target="_blank">trying out the demo</a> before downloading to see if it suits your needs.

WonderCMS Review - An Easy Flat File CMS for those who value simplicity

This year, we had a huge amount of competition for Best Free CMS and lots of communities were vying to get their favorites to the top.
The list of free content management systems is a huge one and with the number of products in the market, the list to filter during the nominations stage was very lengthy but it came down to 5 very impressive CMS platforms.
Let's review who was nominated for this year's People's Choice award for Best Free CMS.
Here are the nominees for those who were unaware:
<ol>
<li><a href="/products/processwire/">Processwire</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/tiki-wiki-cms-groupware/">Tiki</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/concrete5/">Concrete5</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/wordpress/">WordPress</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/umbraco/">Umbraco</a></li>
</ol>
And the winner is…
WordPress!
<img style="max-width:150px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-free-cms150x0.png" />
As you can see, this year, WordPress was nominated and as such, it didn't take long for the community to rally behind it. We all know how huge the WordPress community is and once they chose to back their platform of choice, it was pretty clear that WordPress would end up the winner of the 2013 People's Choice Award for Best Free CMS.
Congratulations to the WordPress development team and to all those CMS that were nominated this year.
<a href="/products/wordpress/">Learn more about WordPress</a> or visit them <a href="https://wordpress.org/">on the web</a>.
Don't forget, we have the Critic's Choice portion underway now, where a panel of judges select the winner of the Critics Choice awards so check back to see who gets picked as the cream of the crop by the Critics.

2013 People's Choice Winner for Best Free CMS

TechCrunch Disrupt Europe is currently taking place in London, and <a href="http://cloudcannon.com/" target="_blank">CloudCannon</a>, a platform which, “streamlines the process of deploying a simple website”, is one of the products in the spotlight.
In less than a year, CloudCannon has evolved from bedroom project to global venture, having just landed $500,000 worth of funding, along with a partnership with Rightside Group, Ltd – one of the world’s largest domain name registries. This news was revealed at the TechCrunch event, marking CloudCannon's entry into the global CMS market. 
Labelling itself as a CMS for static websites, CloudCannon aims to combine the most appealing aspects of all website creation routes, into one, simple platform. Primarily, these aspects include; complete creative freedom, a low technical skill overhead and simple visual editing. Here's a quick video.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ii7Ba7s5qTg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Lifting the Bar on Current Web Design</h2>
In a nutshell, using CloudCannon, you can create new websites, or link the comprehensive editor to an existing website, before selecting editable regions. These editable regions can then be edited live on the page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2700x0.png" alt="CloudCannon" />
When it comes to building a site from scratch with CloudCannon, you can choose a template to get things moving, upload files and even connect with a number of cloud-based storage solutions like Dropbox and Google Drive. 
In short, CloudCannon offers a streamlined solution to building websites for those who have limited coding skills, yet it also gives users the freedom to get as technical as they want in a simple fashion. You can code everything yourself, or you can opt for a template before editing things right there on the page in front of you.  
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.png" alt="CloudCannon" />
Mike Neumegen, CloudCannon CEO, had this to say about the ethos behind the product:
<blockquote>
“We built CloudCannon because, as designers ourselves, we saw a need that no other product was solving. We wanted to lift the bar on current website design, by taking out time intensive technical tasks and focusing on the creative aspects.” 
</blockquote>
Furthermore, the partnership with Rightside Group, Ltd has naturally been the boost CloudCannon needed to launch globally after such a short time in existence. On a technical level, the partnership also allows CloudCannon to streamline one of the trickiest parts of setting up a website – domain name and DNS settings – making it a seamless experience.
Dwayne Walker, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Rightside, made these comments:
<blockquote>
“Designers from around the world will be able to design, build and deploy world-class websites using CloudCannon and Rightside domain branding extensions such as .social, .rocks, .ninja, .dance, .reviews, .lawyer and other Rightside new domain extensions. These new domain branding extensions coupled with CloudCannon website services offer a powerful and unique platform for web and creative designers around the world” 
</blockquote>
To find out more about CloudCannon, <a href="http://cloudcannon.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a>.

CloudCannon Goes Global at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe

Users of the <a href="https://www.wazala.com/" target="_blank">Wazala!</a> ecommerce platform have been treated this week to some major updates coming in the form of Wazala! 2.0.
Those unfamiliar with the online store builder should know that Wazala! is a uniquely straight-forward platform which can help you to <a href="/build-an-online-store-using-wazala/" target="_blank">overlay a store on top of existing websites and pages in minutes </a> .
Now, with the launch of Wazala! 2.0, users will be getting a number of enhancements and additions which will impact design, marketing and general usability.
<h2>A New Look</h2>
As well as a brand new slick user interface, you can now enjoy Wazala!'s new store designer dashboard which allows you to pick a ready-to-use theme – all of which are free, or even build an entire online store from scratch.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" />
If you're opting for one of Wazala's free themes, you can add your own finishing touches via the Wazala Designer page, where colours, fonts, headers, footers and more can all be customized.
These enhanced design options mean that your store can now be tweaked to match your existing website, making the shopping process even more seamless and free flowing for your customers.
<h2>A Deeper Infrastructure</h2>
To go with Wazala!'s shiny new looks and design features, Wazala! 2.0 also brings about some behind the scenes updates to help with marketing and general store analysis.
For example, the new sales &amp; stats dashboard lets you easily view sales, average order totals, average number of products per order, and so forth. The dashboard can also calculate conversions by a specific date or time period.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-31.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" />
Wazala! 2.0 also introduces a more detailed approach to search engine optimization. Without you having to lift a finger, your Wazala! store will come fully optimized “out of the box”, in line with the highest SEO standards.
Every page, product or item you add to your store, will be automatically accompanied by keyword-rich URL’s, meta titles, descriptions and keywords. Naturally, these can all be tweaked at a later stage if necessary.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" />
Also, Wazala! have implemented three new payment gateways; Stripe, PayMill and PayPal Advanced. These new options come in to accompany existing Wazala! payment methods including PayPal and Google Checkout.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2700x0.png" alt="Wazala! 2.0" /> 
On top of all these great additions Wazala! announced that digital product selling is now available to all users, whilst social media sharing options have also been improved. To get a better understanding of these Wazala! 2.0 features, and the other enhancements mentioned above, check out the <a href="https://www.wazala.com/" target="_blank">official Wazala! 2.0 release notes</a>.
Additionally, you can find out more about <a href="/products/wazala/" target="_blank">Wazala! via our CMS directory</a>.

Wazala! 2.0 Launched

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

#ffffff

This week was full of surprises from some big DXP players. A couple of days ago, Sitecore <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-embarks-on-1-2b-investment-plan-to-accelerate-growth/">announced</a> that it received $1.2 billion in capital investment to accelerate growth. Now, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> dropped another bomb by announcing <a href="https://www.acquia.com/why-acquia/acquia-digital-commerce">Acquia Digital Commerce</a>, which brings together Lucidworks' advanced AI-Driven personalization and recommendations with commercetools' headless commerce. Using Acquia Digital Commerce with Acquia Open Digital Experience Platform (DXP), marketers can drive real-time, personalized, shoppable experiences at every customer touchpoint.
After <a href="https://www.acquia.com/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-announces-majority-investment-vista-equity-partners">receiving a significant investment from Vista Equity Partners</a> last year, Acquia had recently <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-launches-new-open-digital-experience-platform/">launched its Acquia Open Digital Experience Platform</a> in July. With its new DXP, Acquia further leveraged the power of open-source Drupal CMS capabilities. The Acquia Open DXP comprises both the Acquia Marketing Cloud and Acquia Drupal Cloud and integrates their acquired technologies – including AgilOne, Mautic, and Cohesion – with their existing core. This integration aimed to bring marketers and developers together with an easy-to-use platform.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/acquia-dxp.png" alt="Image of diagrams of Acquia Drupal Cloud and Acquia Marketing Cloud" />
Now, together with partners <a href="https://commercetools.com/">commercetools</a> and <a href="http://lucidworks.com/">Lucidworks</a>, Acquia has built Acquia Digital Commerce, creating yet another successful integration. While Acquia Open Digital Platform brought marketers and developers together, Acquia Digital Commerce seeks to make the commerce experience more personalized and user-friendly.
According to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-great-consumer-shift-ten-charts-that-show-how-us-shopping-behavior-is-changing">McKinsey</a>, over 75% of U.S. consumers have changed shopping behavior and switched to new brands during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have shifted to digital channels permanently. Using Acquia CDP's customer data profiles and advanced segmentation, retailers can gain a deeper understanding of new and existing customers – and serve up personalized, shoppable, content-driven commerce experiences with Acquia Digital Commerce. These experiences, combined with intelligent promotions, increase conversions and improve customer lifetime value (LTV).
"As retailers adjust to a hybrid of in-person and online commerce shopping behaviors, solutions like Acquia Digital Commerce become even more valuable," said Kevin Cochrane, SVP of product marketing at Acquia. "By understanding customer segments and serving the right content and products at the right time on the right channel, retailers can reach customers with personal experiences that drive revenue.”
<h3>Acquia Digital Commerce</h3>
Acquia Digital Commerce is a solution that enables marketers to unify data, content, commerce, and digital merchandising into a single data layer to deliver a seamless omnichannel experience across the customer lifecycle.
Teams can maximize their commerce investments by integrating this headless, cloud-native shopping platform with Acquia Open DXP. commercetools provides an omnichannel shopping platform, and the Lucidworks AI-powered product discovery solution delivers personally relevant products and content to customers.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/acquia-lucidworks-commercetools.jpg" alt="Image of Acquia features" />
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"></figure>
One of the most valuable features Lucidworks brings to the Acquia DX Alliance is its advanced machine learning capabilities. <a href="https://lucidworks.com/cxc/">Lucidworks CXC</a> utilizes one of the broadest combinations of machine learning techniques in the industry, including NLP, Named Entity Recognition, Deep Learning Sentiment Analysis, self-learning, and relevancy tuning. This allows them to deliver extremely relevant results to users and ensure the system continuously improves based on usage.
According to a <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/01/a-study-of-46000-shoppers-shows-that-omnichannel-retailing-works">study</a> of 46,000 shoppers, 73% of consumers use multiple channels during their shopping journey. To provide a successful omnichannel experience for customers, brands need an API-first headless CMS. commercetools' headless commerce platform and API-first framework will give brands flexibility and scalability.
"By leveraging the market-leading solutions offered by commercetools, Acquia, and Lucidworks, retailers can quickly and effectively engage with end-consumers by composing relevant shopping experiences to meet customers on their own terms," said Kelly Goetsch, chief product officer at commercetools. "It's more important than ever to be able to pivot quickly, and our joint solution offers exactly that."
"Omnichannel personalization remains a top priority for brands; however, most companies lack the ability to optimize digital experiences in real-time, leading to missed revenue or loss of potential new customers," said Peter Curran, general manager of digital commerce at Lucidworks. "We're excited to be part of this best-of-breed solution to provide merchandisers and marketers with a single-layer view of all the information they need to make more informed decisions that serve their unique customer base. The value of Lucidworks advanced machine learning capabilities is compounded by Acquia Open DXP and commercetools Commerce Engine, ensuring that customers are maximizing their investments in the digital experience.”
<h3>Creating a community with Acquia DX Alliance</h3>
Along with Acquia Digital Commerce's launch, Acquia also unveiled the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-dx-alliance-elevating-customer-value-through-open-technology-partnerships">Acquia DX Alliance</a>, the company's open technology partner community, to drive collaboration through an ecosystem of leading technology vendors providing choice and jointly delivering interoperable solutions that extend Acquia Open DXP. Building a robust technology partner community enables Acquia and its partners to best support rapidly evolving customer needs.
<h3>About Acquia</h3>
<a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> is an open Digital Experience Platform designed to give enterprise companies the ability to build, operate, and optimize websites, apps, and other digital experiences. Acquia produces better business outcomes for CX leaders by enabling organizations to build, host, analyze and communicate with their customers at scale through websites and digital applications.
<h3>About commercetools</h3>
commercetools is the world's leading platform for next-generation B2C and B2B commerce. To break the market out of being restrained by legacy suites, commercetools invented a headless, API-first, multi-tenant SaaS commerce platform that is cloud-native and uses flexible microservices. Using modern development building blocks in a true cloud platform provided by commercetools, customers can deliver the best commerce experiences across every touchpoint on a large scale. commercetools has offices across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific, with headquarters in Germany. Since its founding in 2006, commercetools software has been implemented by Fortune 500 companies across industries, from retail to manufacturing and from telecommunications to fashion. More information at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2812013-1&amp;h=3676190503&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcommercetools.com%2F&amp;a=commercetools.com">commercetools.com</a>.
<h3>About Lucidworks</h3>
Lucidworks offers the Connected Experience Cloud (CXC) that captures user signals from every action and applies them to omnichannel digital experiences everywhere. CXC combines the power of search and machine learning to personalize experiences that meet employees' and customers' unique intent. The world’s largest brands, including Lenovo, Morgan Stanley, Red Hat, Reddit, and Cisco Systems rely on Lucidworks’ suite of products to power product discovery, customer service, and knowledge management applications that delight customers and empower employees. Learn more at <a href="http://lucidworks.com/">Lucidworks.com</a>.

Acquia Digital Commerce Unifies Data, Content, Commerce, and Digital Merchandising

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DreamHost® has announced that its popular website builder, Remixer, has introduced a new tiered pricing structure that gets small businesses and individuals online quickly with engaging, professional-grade websites for just a few dollars per month. DreamHost is also debuting Remixer’s newly available support for multi-page website creation – a highly requested feature among Remixer users – as well as a set of key new upgrades to the platform’s capabilities.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/remixer_multi-page_feature791x0-is.png" /> DreamHost users are now able to quickly and easily build multi-page websites for as little as $4.95 per month with Remixer. The new “Remixer All Access” plan, starting at $7.95/month, delivers Remixer’s intuitive platform and also includes a full DreamHost managed web hosting account, domain email accounts, mail forwarding, and the ability to use other applications like WordPress. When billed annually, both plans include a free domain registration.
“It doesn’t stop there,” said Ralph Castro, DreamHost’s VP of Product for Remixer. “We’ve added a host (no pun intended) of other improvements based on direct customer feedback. These include everything from the ability to conveniently select a website’s domain from within the page manager, to one-click access for creating a new page that’s pre-set with an established theme, to drag-and-drop page layout, to a streamlined navigation menu, to…well, plenty more. Nowhere else can you create a website this easily that looks as sharp as those made with Remixer.”
Both Remixer plans come loaded with additional features designed to make website personalization and creation as straightforward as possible for small businesses, bloggers, and anyone else with something to say or sell online:
— Easy publishing to custom domains (no matter where the site is hosted) — 70+ pre-designed themes and layouts to match your website’s content — Website hosting — Seamlessly import images from an existing website or direct from social media — A pre-populated, high-quality royalty-free image gallery — Google Analytics integration to monitor website performance — Video embedding from YouTube and Vimeo — Audio embedding from SoundCloud — No storage or bandwidth limits — No ads, ever — 24/7 email support — Live chat support
“After ten minutes playing with Remixer, I created a brand new website for a hunting and fishing resort,” said Mike Judge, <a href="http://troutntrack.com/" target="_blank">troutntrack.com</a>. “From start to (beautiful) finish, the build and publish process took less than half an hour. Remixer is as powerful as it is simple to use.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/remixer_themes_page791x0-is.png" /> “Remixer’s platform helped me quickly create a new, professional-grade website in just a few clicks,” said Martha Lenio, <a href="http://marsgreen.ca/" target="_blank">marsgreen.ca</a>. “Uploading my own content and photos was intuitive, and customer support was fast and helpful when I had questions. Using DreamHost’s Remixer has given me one less thing to worry about running my small business.”
To learn more or to begin building your website with Remixer, visit <a href="http://dreamhost.com/website-builder/" target="_blank">dreamhost.com/website-builder/</a>.

Remixer – the Powerful Website Builder from DreamHost – Makes Creating Customized Websites Very, Very Inexpensive

After a new $2M investment and 55,000 hours of development, <a href="http://www.terminalfour.com/" target="_blank">TERMINALFOUR</a>, has evolved their product beyond its web content management roots to a <a href="http://www.terminalfour.com/pr/terminalfour-delivers-new-higher-education-digital-engagement-platform-after-2m-investment.html" target="_blank">full digital engagement platform for higher education institutes</a>. 
Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, TERMINALFOUR is a CMS focused on improving the online presence of universities, colleges and school districts across the world.
TERMINALFOUR commited to this evolution by expanding their Research &amp; Development team by 40%, all to ensure that the end result was in line with what the world of higher education requires and desires. 
<h2>150 New Feature Enhancements</h2>
In the past year, TERMINALFOUR's flagship product has undergone an extensive re-architecture. This re-architecture has seen the introduction of new structured frameworks and 150 new feature enhancements, resulting in the arrival of the TERMINALFOUR Digital Engagement Platform. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/terminalfour.jpg" alt="TerminalFour" /> Furthermore, TERMINALFOUR's solution is now available in two editions: TERMINALFOUR Site Manager 8, the core web content management product, and TerminalFour Engage.edu, the full digital engagement and web content management product.
Along with the core web content management product, TERMINALFOUR's Engage.edu solution has been augmented with a host of measurement and engagement capabilities.  These developments have all had a positive impact on user experience, performance, analytics and social media integration in conjunction with a complete redesign to the user interface.
The direction of this product is in recognition that universities and colleges are no longer only concerned with managing content across their online real-estate.  With increased demands for transparency in terms of performance, results and student involvement there is a greater need to measure online effectiveness, engage with and create personalized experiences for every visitor. Here's an overview of how that all comes together:
Manage: Significant enhancements have been made to the core web content management solution all with a view to improving the user experience.  These include a redeveloped inline editing environment called “Direct Edit”, a fully tablet and smart phone enabled responsive product interface, stronger asset management features, editing and publishing performance improvements and more.
Measure: To reflect the need for greater performance visibility and accountability, TERMINALFOUR is now equipped with a full performance and KPI dashboard, which includes for example Google Analytics, Social, CRM and ERP data.  This can allow universities and colleges to evaluate the performance of online marketing activities even at an individual course level.
Engage: To foster greater engagement between institutions and multiple target audiences TERMINALFOUR has placed a huge emphasis on developing a platform that enables universities and colleges to build unique experiences through content targeting, personalization, improved social integration and A/B and multivariant testing. TERMINALFOUR is also releasing three new higher education modules: a prospectus and course catalog builder for prospective students, an improved campus events calendar and a course search and comparison solution.
Transact: TERMINALFOUR works within a broader ecosystem of technologies and platforms in universities and colleges.  Reflecting this it has relaunched its online forms feature allowing for universities and colleges to more closely integrate with key third party systems such as CRM and higher education ERP solutions.
<h2>A Game-changer</h2>
Piero Tintori the CEO and Founder of TERMINALFOUR, made these comments upon the announcement of his product's enhancements:
<blockquote>
“This new platform has been the absolute number one priority for TERMINALFOUR for the past year. We challenged our teams, specifically R&amp;D, to think outside the confines of traditional web content management.
To visualize a platform that genuinely addressed the content, digital marketing and online optimization needs of higher education. Then they had to deliver it.We're absolutely convinced that this latest release is a game-changer in the marketplace.
This is a strong statement but universities and colleges are rightfully demanding a solution that maximizes their content, unifies their communication and online brand and contributes to business performance. We've delivered with this release and have ensured the product can continue to meet these evolving expectations”
</blockquote>
To find out more about TERMINALFOUR's latest higher education digital engagement solution, <a href="http://www.terminalfour.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a>.

TERMINALFOUR Releases New Higher Education Digital Engagement Platform

As the name aptly implies, <a href="/products/bigcommerce" target="_blank">Bigcommerce</a> has had a big role to play in the eCommerce industry over the last few years, and it's just undergone a massive rebranding process that pushed it to new, highly professional heights.
Bigcommerce covers all the bases by offering an inclusive range of price plans, as well as a 15-day free trial. Their user base consists of small businesses, enterprise-grade companies, and everything in between.
According to a Bigcommerce statement, their new brand, “reﬂects our long-term commitment to powering growth, removing complexity and supporting businesses around the world.”
<h2>Bigcommerce's Big Makeover</h2>
Bigcommerce now sports a new (and very slick) logo, which sends out a far more executive vibe than its predecessor. Their website has undergone a total makeover too, with new fonts, colors, shapes, and messaging.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15857x0-is.png" />
Here's what Bigcommerce had to say on the matter:
<blockquote>“This new brand helps better convey our story, and the story of our merchants. Just as with the businesses that rely on our platform, design plays a vital role in how customers interact with and experience our brand.
The changes to our website and control panel were informed directly by our customers and partners, and are designed to make interacting with and discovering information easier and more efficient. This is represented in our new logo — an ode to the “growth chart” used in boardrooms and offices around the world to quantify progress.
At its core, our logo is a dramatically simple composition of elements that convey our brand’s promise to help merchants grow “up and to the right”.”</blockquote>
Although this “update” is primarily aesthetic, I feel it's a big milestone in Bigcommerce's history. And I think it will shape the way it approaches its future, too. As far as I can see, this rebranding event seems to be an attempt to push Bigcommerce in the direction of higher-end clients.
The previous branding was welcoming and happy-go-lucky. But now, Bigcommerce looks like it means serious business.
It may not directly impact user experience, but I'm sure it will help attract more large and enterprise-scale companies (which Bigcommerce seems to be chasing more ardently than ever) towards the platform.
More details can be found on the <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/bigcommerce-rebrand/" target="_blank">Bigcommerce blog</a>.
Additionally, you can explore more of <a href="/products/bigcommerce/" target="_blank">Bigcommerce via our CMS Directory</a>.

Bigcommerce Undergoes Rebranding, And Now They Mean Serious Business

The <a href="/squarespace-releases-squarespace-7/" target="_blank">recently announced Squarespace 7 beta</a> is still being rolled out, but I've managed to put together an up-to-date <a href="http://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/squarespace-review/" target="_blank">Squarespace 7 review</a> to give you a peek at what it's like.
More than anything else, Squarespace 7 is mainly an upgrade for your eyes to enjoy. A revamped admin interface that looks more professional is accompanied by 15 brand new templates, each one as shiny and Squarespace-esque as the last. 
Although, there has been functional enhancements too. Live editing is now a key part of the Squarespace experience, managing a Squarespace blog has become a little easier, Getty images are now easily accessible, and Google Apps for Business fans can enjoy simple integration.
<a href="http://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/squarespace-review/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.png" alt="Squarespace 7 Review" /></a> All in all, it's pretty much the same old Squarespace, but it now looks even better than before. Which is some achivement. 
The review has been published over at <a href="http://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/" target="_blank">Website Builders Critic</a>. Here's an excerpt:
<blockquote>
“Sure, Squarespace 7 should have brought more flexibility in terms of eCommerce payment options, and it could have introduced some more blog management features, too. But overall, Squarespace was, and still is, a fantastic website building tool that's easy to use.
It has an air of professionalism that other website builders lack (even more so than before). This, along with a policy of premium-only plans, places Squarespace into a rather unique place within the website builder industry. It's quick, easy and cheap, but the end product would make anybody think the exact opposite.”
</blockquote>
Check out the full review here: <a href="http://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/squarespace-review/" target="_blank">Squarespace 7 Review: Just How Good Is It?</a>

Squarespace 7 Review

Open Source software, by definition, is freely available to the public. Anybody and everbody can use it, add to it and create extensions for it.
In contrast, closed source, or proprietary software, is a model that restricts public access to the source code of the product in question. Only the owners of the software can tinker with it.
Both of these models are well represented within the CMS industry and beyond, and both have their merits. Unsurprisingly though, the world of open source is the busier one, with the public contributing to it as much as any one company could ever imagine.
And yet, <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">PrestaShop</a> – one of the world’s most popular eCommerce solutions – has played an interesting and notable role in the open source eCommerce industry.
Here’s a look at what they’ve done to further the open source cause.
<img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/download.jpg" />
<h2>Community Service</h2>
Since its launch in 2007, PrestaShop has grown into one of the world's most popular eCommerc solutions, powering over 200,000 online stores world-wide. How, you ask? The PrestaShop team probably said it best:
<blockquote>
“Each merchant and community member carries out projects large and small that contribute to not only their personal growth, but also the growth of PrestaShop. We continue to work hand-in-hand with the community and are passionate about creating features, modules, and templates according to their needs. The success of our software is thanks to countless hours by numerous contributors from around the world.”
</blockquote>
That same community, which is reportedly 700,000 strong, along with PrestaShop's own contributions, has come together to make PrestaShop what it is. Together, they improve their software, fix bugs, create extensions, build themes and so forth.
Plus, PrestaShop's community have their own headquarters, otherwise known as the PrestaShop forums. With over 620,000 registered members, the forum is a multi-lingual hive of all things PrestaShop. In essence then, they have fostered an eCommerce-focused open source community within the larger open source community.
It would be appropriate to say that PrestaShop's inclusion in two categories for the People's Choice CMS Awards 2014, is thanks to their hardworking community.
<h2>An Oncoming Cloud</h2>
There’s a cloud coming, but it’s not dark and gloomy. Quite the contraary, actually.
Recently, PrestaShop announced PrestaShop Cloud. It has everything PrestaShop users have come to know and love, but it’s hosted entirely in the cloud. For free.
That’s right. PrestaShop are on the brink of delivering a world class free, open source and cloud hosted eCommerce solution.
PrestaShop Cloud is currently still in closed beta, and everybody has been invited to <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/en/beta" target="_blank">sign up</a> for their chance to test it out before its official launch.
A hosted version of PrestaShop is no minor step. It’s a chance to bring the open source project even closer to those aspiring online merchants who simply don’t know how or where to begin their journey. Once again, it;s a service to the community, and a massive one at that.
So, with a thriving open source centric community, and a fully cloud hosted solution on the horizon, it’s fair to say that PrestaShop is doing a fine job of flying the open source flag for the eCommerce industry.

A Look at PrestaShop’s Contribution to The World of Open Source

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