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Contentful Article

<h4>Snapshot</h4><ul><li>Contentful just launched new products and capabilities focused on digital teams.</li><li>Features include enhancements to its Contentful Platform, Contentful Studio, and Contentful Ecosystem. </li><li>The new Experience Builder provides deeper visual composition capabilities.</li><li>Generative AI has been introduced for content and image creation along with AI-powered partner integrations.</li></ul><hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sloan-213515/">Steve Sloan</a> is excited.And why shouldn’t he be? There’s a lot of cool stuff happening under his watch. As CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentful">Contentful</a>, he’s manning the helm at a leading content platform, deftly navigating the choppy waters of composable and staring down the waves of change with innovative solutions.“We’ve seen a lot of evolution in the past five or six years,” he said in our recent chat. “This space is pretty different than it was in 2017 or 2018. And honestly, there's a lot going on, but I think it's an incredibly exciting time.”Steve took the wheel in 2019, just as the composable threshold was being breached in earnest (and the pandemic was still on the horizon). As he observed, a lot has changed – but Contentful has been a steady engine of headless innovation through this modern era of transformation.That trend line is about to get longer. Today, the company <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/livestream/">announced</a> the launch of several new products and capabilities to its composable platform – including AI-powered advancements – that effectively unlock all digital content across an organization to deliver impactful experiences at scale. There are three key components to the company’s announcement: high-utility enhancements to its Contentful Platform, the new Experience Builder in its Content Studio, and the expansion of partnerships and technologies in its Contentful Ecosystem. Contentful has also incorporated a variety of generative AI-driven capabilities within each leg of the tripod.I spoke to Steve about the new products and capabilities, which will be the central topic of discussion at the company’s last two stops of its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/">Storylines Tour</a> in Silicon Valley and Berlin later this month. I was also treated to a demo preview from Contentful’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maireado/">Mairead O'Donovan</a>, Chief Product Officer, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyak/">Satya Krishnaswamy</a>, VP of Product Management.<h3>Delivering meaningful AI to Contentful users</h3>As indicated, AI is intricately woven through each of the three areas included in the announcement, providing new capabilities that solve problems for digital teams. Steve shared a bit on the genesis of the investment, and how AI is providing some of the connective tissue across its new offerings.“In the last 18 months, it became clear that we need to help the entirety of the digital team, not just the developers,” he shared. “And so we're endeavoring to do that. That's number one. But number two has been the emergence of generative AI. For content and experience creators, the opportunity to use these tools to create more variants for personalization was an obvious story, and a lot of people have talked about it. The piece that I think was less obvious, we realized coming out of an experiment we did.” As Steve described it, they compared <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/">ChatGPT</a> with several other emerging generative AI platforms, giving them all the exact same task with a standard rubric for quality. What they discovered is that their accuracy was anywhere between 60% and 80%. “In my job, being right 60% of the time? That’s not good enough,” he remarked. “Particularly if there's anything at stake – including our reputation. The models are great in terms of being predictive, but they’re frequently based on a broad set of contexts. The biggest challenge is how do you train your model on the content that is most trusted? Your bots will only be as good as the content or the data on which they have been trained.”<hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">In the last 18 months, it became clear that we need to help the entirety of the digital team, not just the developers. And so we're endeavoring to do that.”</h4><hr />Here's where Contentful saw an opportunity to thread the needle. By helping customers increase access to their most trusted content – from CMS to CDP to DAM – they could further scale the creation of rich, omnichannel experiences. This led to the evolution of orchestration across systems, but it also allowed AI to be focused on the right content to train models for maximum accuracy and efficacy.  “As an API-first platform, [our users] store lots of trusted content directly in Contentful,” Steve said. “But then you also have important content that lives in other systems that can be trusted. In Contentful, we can make it easy to include content you use across any device or experience. But it's also used as the place in which you can train your models.”As Steve noted in the company’s press release, generative AI has ushered in a new era – one where we all can accelerate creativity by leveraging the power of machines to improve speed, experimentation, and collaboration. This will have a significant impact on how we create, deliver, and interact with content.“At Contentful, our vision is unlocking the power of digital content for our customers, and we are already enabling this power through our latest composable content capabilities, infused with the power of AI, with more planned on our product roadmap to help digital teams reach their full potential.” <h3>Orchestrating everything in the Content Platform</h3>The enhancements to the Contentful Platform are plentiful. At their core, they enable developers to break down content silos and orchestrate content from any source across an organization. The net effect: teams create and deliver digital experiences at a faster clip but with brand governance, consistency, and scale.Contentful’s references and cross-space references effectively “unlock” content from different systems – think DAMs, PIMs, and commerce platforms – as well as within Contentful itself. This helps teams efficiently leverage all their content for reuse in any digital experience across brands, regions, and use cases.“As you know all too well, work happens in silos,” Steve emphasized. “A lot of stuff gets handed off via email, and all these other very, very clunky ways of working. And going back to grumpy customers, they get really frustrated with it taking too long because different teams work in different ways. So, the ability to bring that together? We think that’s really compelling.”The embellishments to the Content Platform also include enhanced enterprise governance and security, including an expanded EU data residency footprint to help address data protection and compliance needs. From an AI perspective, the platform also features an AI Content Type Generator, which was previously announced. It streamlines the content model creation process so developers can accelerate time to market. As Steve noted, this is a useful attribute for a marketer, but also a tool that improves how people work together. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:82.87%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contentful-content-modeler.jpg" /></figure>Another great enhancement is the generative AI-based Visual Content Modeler, which creates the baseline for someone who isn’t as technical to set up the structure at the beginning of the process. This enables marketers to start the process and reduce the burden on developers.  “One of the things we also saw was that creating content models – thinking about content in a structured way – it's just not something that everybody knows how to do. But it's essential to be able to be able to scale your experiences over time and make them consistent.” <h3>Visually composing with the new Experience Builder in Contentful Studio</h3>In my demo with Mairead O'Donovan and Satya Krishnaswamy, I was blown away by some of the new features in the Contentful Studio – namely, the new Experience Builder. <img style="width:54.31%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contentful-mairead-satya.jpg" />Contentful Studio already empowers digital teams – including marketers, designers, and content creators – to manage and even visually assemble digital experiences for any channel, all without developer support. The Experience Builder takes composition to the next level. It provides a familiar, easy-to-use visual canvas that allows users to create on-brand experiences using their own design system components with a structured content foundation. This enables teams to combine creativity with governance to ensure consistency and scalability across every experience.As Satya walked me through the demo, I was immediately impressed by its elegance and simplicity. The UI was clean and compact, providing quick access to component libraries and content elements. It all felt very easy. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.01%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contenful-experience_builder.png" /></figure> With Contentful’s enhancements around external reference consolidation – and the use of its GraphQL API – all of the assets being used are complete with detailed information from their source system. For example, if a product originates in commercetools, Contentful delivers all of the relevant product information in JSON. Marketers no longer have a blind spot with just a product ID or have to go back to an outside system. Contentful delivers it all in a single call. Pretty slick. AI is also present throughout the Studio experience. Users can access the improved Content Generator to quickly create or recommend content, translations, and SEO keywords. The built-in AI Image Generator can also be used to render or manipulate images on the fly. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.35%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/contentful-ai-image_generator.jpg" /></figure> “This new set of products is really directed at non-technical marketers,” Steve said. “And because it's built directly on top of Contentful, they still have all the benefits of structured content, which allows them to store, manage, and scale any type of content delivered to any device anywhere in the world in milliseconds. So you get all the benefits of the platform, but you have a purpose-built tool for non-developers.”<h3>Expanded partnerships and integrations in the Contentful Ecosystem</h3>According to the press release, the Contentful Ecosystem includes a growing portfolio of solution and technology partners, all with the goal of helping customers get to market faster with impactful digital experiences – the kind of experiences that meet customer expectations and drive business value. As part of the announcement, Contentful has added <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/newsroom/">new partnerships and enhanced integrations</a> from a deeper bench of best-in-class enterprise solutions. This includes <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions">AWS</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/salesforce-unveils-composable-storefront-a-digital-commerce-solution-to-help-retailers-go-headless-fast">Salesforce</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sap.com/index.html">SAP</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://segment.com/">Twilio Segment</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce">commercetools</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/bigcommerce-review-an-easy-to-use-choice-for-ecommerce-shops">BigCommerce</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/">Cloudinary</a>, and WPP – enabling digital teams to improve accessibility, analytics, and performance, simplify front-end dev, and streamline content operations to bring differentiated experiences to life quickly. This adds to the 80 partners that are already building on Contentful. As Steve pointed out, the growth in the ecosystem is being driven by composability – and choice. “Earlier on, there was this notion that we want to create great experiences on top of a cohesive platform,” he reinforced. “But customers demanded choice, right? And so giving them the opportunity to use the tools they need, not just the tools you happen to have – I think it's a very, very different orientation than the DSPs that are monolithic."AI is also present in the ecosystem, largely due to the focus on artificial intelligence by other technologies and solution providers. Advancements from partners include the new AI Content Detector from <a target="_blank" href="https://writer.com/ai-content-detector/">Writer</a>, which enables users to assess content that might be generated by AI so that they can maintain transparency and integrity. Additionally, the <a target="_blank" href="https://surferseo.com/">Surfer SEO</a> app delivers AI-driven search engine optimization, helping digital teams drive website traffic more effectively. <h3>What’s the availability and cost of the new features?</h3>Most of the new products and features are generally available and will begin rolling out in a limited, early-access program. Customers can expect additional announcements and updates to follow, particularly on AI. Contentful is finalizing the pricing and packaging details, which it plans to announce at a later date. For more info, you can visit <a target="_blank" href="http://contentful.com/whats-new">contentful.com/whats-new</a>.<h3>The Takeaway</h3>It’s hard not to be impressed with the scope of new features that Contentful has introduced, particularly its new Experience Builder. That said, on the AI side of the ledger, the market is drowning in noise – and it’s become exceedingly difficult to communicate real differentiation when many features swimming in a sea of sameness. What I really appreciate about Contentful’s approach is its focus on the customer. While others rushed to add AI, they took their time experimenting – but also breaking down the voice of the user to understand what’s at stake. They also doubled down on their efforts to solve real problems with orchestration, which unified content in new and impactful ways while providing the added benefit of training AI more effectively. And all their innovation was amplified by a deeper investment in their partner community. It looks like a win-win-win. As Steve mentioned, the word “trust” is going to be at the top of our collective AI vocabulary list. That’s a human construct, by the way – something AI can’t grasp. That means we need to focus on the right training, governance, and guardrails to deliver something that can truly be trusted. “A big part of it comes back these grumpy customers and understanding what their pain points were,” he conveyed. “They're really the inspiration for everything we're building, and our solution partners helped us discover those moments of pain and possible ways to solve it. We have a very active Partner Advisory Board, where we work with CTOs who are very close to our shared customers and their challenges. And we spend a lot of time getting input from them, finding creative ways to solve this next generation of problems.”

Contentful Unveils New Features and AI-Powered Capabilities to Accelerate Creativity for Digital Teams 

matt-garrepy

No More Kicking the CMS Tires: As Salesforce Acquires Contentful, Can it Keep the Wheels on the AI Road?

Is ‘evidence-based creativity’ the must-have marketing skill for the age of AI? Contentful’s research says yes

Contentful Rolls Out New AI and Personalization Capabilities, Ramps Up R&D for its DXP

<hr /> Data is, without question, the most valuable currency to any business. That said, digital analytics have taken on a pronounced role in making data actionable and impactful to an enterprise – particularly when it comes to its products and experiences.<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/amplitude">Amplitude</a> has long established itself as a leading platform in the digital analytics space, due in no small part to its scope and range. It enables organizations to build better products by tracking and translating user behavior, allowing stakeholders to gain deeper insights into critical facets like engagement, retention, and revenue. One thing that sets Amplitude apart is its elegant, event-based analytics capabilities, which transmit in-product interactions and behaviors in real time. This is especially valuable for organizations mapping the user journey across digital experiences powered by CMS or marketing automation tools. To that end, Amplitude recently launched a set of new and expanded integrations that will make it easier for businesses to understand customer activity and leverage analytics to maximize the potential and performance of their experiences. Among the new tools is a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentful">Contentful</a> plug-in for marketers that provides no-code testing features, as well as an enhanced <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hubspot">HubSpot</a> integration designed to improve email campaign results and analysis. There’s also a new <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a> plug-in that ingests website data into Amplitude with just one click – powering faster, data-driven website decisions. The company also announced the availability of a new <a target="_blank" href="https://amplitude.com/docs/partners/integration-portal">Integration Portal</a>, designed to speed up and simplify integration development. Now, technology partners will have access to a range of tools and resources – including documentation, code samples, and best practices – to enable their teams throughout the integration process.“We want to provide our customers with the most flexible platform on the market. This means meeting them where they are so they can get the most out of their existing investments,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoisajenstat/">Francois Ajenstat</a>, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude. “Our expanded partner ecosystem gives customers even more choice to integrate and extend Amplitude to meet their unique needs. Our new integration portal provides the resources teams need to easily and seamlessly build on top of our platform.”<h3 id="enhancing-data-based-decisions-with-contentful">Enhancing data-based decisions with Contentful</h3>With personalization becoming a key objective for marketing teams, having nimble tools that allow for rapid, iterative testing and analysis is paramount. The new <a target="_blank" href="https://amplitude.com/blog/experiment-contentful-integration">Contentful integration</a> is a great example of how a headless CMS and content platform can leverage Amplitude’s analytics to enhance the personalization of digital content – and ultimately improve customer experiences. One major benefit of a composable platform like Contentful is the capacity to build world-class omnichannel strategies. Juicing this with customer data gives marketing and growth teams access to all their content so they can easily build variants for their A/B tests. This also makes it simple to organize and reuse content, which means they have a nearly inexhaustible supply of options for each test variant. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:83.25%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/06/amplitude-contentful-1.png" alt="" /></figure>Creating a new experiment in Amplitude for a homepage hero banner in Contentful Using Amplitude, a company’s web, growth, and marketing teams can run no-code tests using <a target="_blank" href="https://streaklinks.com/B__ewgkSEs1pVgGBMAmfaPnh/https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Famplitude-experiment">Amplitude Experiment</a> and Contentful. With Amplitude Experiment, teams get the guidance they need to set up tests accurately. Meanwhile, Contentful can build out new messaging and page layouts with just a few simple clicks.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:81.96%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/06/amplitude-contentful-2.png" alt="" /></figure>Analytics results from a new Contentful hero banner test in Amplitude Amplitude's rich analytics provide a much deeper review of an experiment's performance. Unlocking no-code experimentation also empowers teams can drive growth and ROI faster by executing more tests – and directly impacting their acquisition, monetization, and retention results."A growing number of our customers want to build personalized experiences. But to pull this off, they need to be able to quickly A/B test different headlines, CTAs, page layouts, and more,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/krrau/">Karthik Rau</a>, CEO at Contentful. “Our integration with Amplitude makes this process so much easier. Without any help from engineering, our customers can set up an experiment in Amplitude using content they already have in Contentful. Once the test is complete, they can roll out the right experience to the right group of users. It not only helps teams move faster, it empowers them to make more informed, data-based decisions." <h3 id="an-expanding-ecosystem-of-integrations">An expanding ecosystem of integrations</h3>Amplitude has been doubling down on its integration strategy and enriching its breadth of offerings. With more than 130 integrations currently available, including the recently announced <a target="_blank" href="https://streaklinks.com/B__ewhR3t-oOryrAPwbtjQ1x/https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Fpress%2Fsnowflake-native-amplitude-GA">warehouse-native offering with Snowflake</a>, Amplitude provides customers with a wide range of choices for getting data into – and insights out of – its platform. Along with the Contentful features, Amplitude also launched an enhanced, two-way integration for HubSpot. The plug-in allows companies to bring user cohort data from Amplitude into HubSpot to easily tailor email campaigns or bring HubSpot data into Amplitude for deeper analysis of campaign performance.  From an open source perspective, Amplitude now offers a <a target="_blank" href="https://streaklinks.com/B__ewgsiYg3R8Qy_owjA9zC9/http%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2Fblog%2Fwordpress-plugin">new free plug-in</a> for WordPress – the world’s most popular <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system</a> that powers over 400 million websites. With the new integration, customers can bring website data from any WordPress page into Amplitude in just one click, allowing marketing teams to quickly gain insights into user behavior to boost engagement and increase conversion rates.Additionally, Amplitude now offers integrations for:<ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://movableink.com/">Movable Ink</a>: Using artificial intelligence, Movable Ink develops creative content for every customer touchpoint. With the new integration, users can send data from Amplitude to Moveable Ink and automatically generate custom marketing content tailored to each user's preferences.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.humanic.ai/">Humanic.ai</a>: A marketing automation platform that utilizes AI to unlock growth for product-led companies, Humanic.ai leverages data from Amplitude to give teams the ability to deliver hyper-personalized content that drives higher activation and adoption.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.unitq.com/">unitQ</a>: Using the AI solutions in unitQ, companies can better understand and take action on user feedback, enabling teams to uncover behavioral insights alongside customer feedback channels to improve onboarding, A/B testing, feature road mapping, and more.</li></ul><h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Data's true potential is realized when it's made actionable. Deeper insights are essential to every modern data strategy, and leveraging a secure, trusted resource for meaningful and relevant analytics is a mandate for any modern enterprise.Amplitude continues to prove itself a leader and an innovator in the analytics space. Expanding its scope of available integrations and its capabilities for building custom integrations via its new portal makes it more extensible than ever. Given the other analytics tools on the market, few deliver this kind of control, flexibility, and customization.From a CMS perspective, Amplitude’s new plug-ins for Contentful and WordPress provide an indispensable asset for delivering more personalized content at scale. It further supports the enterprise charter to optimize processes, improve conversions, and enhance the value of one-to-one experiences.Also, by providing both Contentful and WordPress options (and presumably more in the future), Amplitude is delivering greater choice for organizations leveraging best-of-breed enterprise or open source CMS platforms.The more you know, the more you grow. It might sound cliché, but that's the promise of good analytics. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Amplitude Launches New Analytics Integrations for Contentful, HubSpot, WordPress and More

Introducing the Winners of the 2021 CMS Critic's Choice Awards

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Featured image of the 2021 CMS Critic Critic's Choice Awards badge with text that reads "2021 WInners"

April brought Spring to many of us. While Covid-19 continues to cast a shadow of uncertainty over the world, it’s safe to say that the digital field is in full bloom.Last month was full of new announcements about upgrades and updates, primarily focused on content teams. Adobe, Contentful, Strapi, and Kentico Kontent all released new features that are designed to break down silos and deliver greater efficiency to users.Here are some of the highlights from the stories we’ve been tracking: <h2>Adobe Introduces Adobe Experience Manager Assets Essentials, Announces New Solutions to Improve E-commerce Experience for Adobe Commerce</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/05/36391-benefits-media-library-essentials2xpngimg_.png" alt="Adobe media library essentials" />Adobe introduced its new <a target="_blank" href="https://business.adobe.com/products/experience-manager/assets/assets-essentials.html">Adobe Experience Manager Assets Essentials</a> – a lightweight edition of <a target="_blank" href="https://business.adobe.com/products/experience-manager/assets/aem-assets.html">Adobe Experience Manager Assets</a>. It offers a simplified user experience for marketing and creative pros to store, discover, and distribute digital assets across their teams. Assets Essentials will serve as the default asset management experience across Experience Cloud apps, starting with the new Adobe Journey Optimizer and later this year with Adobe Workfront.The new Assets Essentials provides a centralized workspace for the asset repository to store, share, and manage images, videos, documents, and other assets. It allows teams to create, assign, track, review, and approve tasks in a collaborative workspace. And of course, being an Adobe product, it supports all file types including full-sized Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, XD, and more.On the same day, Adobe also announced new capabilities for <a target="_blank" href="https://business.adobe.com/products/magento/magento-commerce.html">Adobe Commerce powered by Magento</a> (formerly Magento Commerce) that extend the intelligence of features like Product Recommendations and Live Search. An upcoming integration with <a target="_blank" href="https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/sign.html">Adobe Sign</a> means a more seamless commerce experience for any transactions that require e-signatures as part of the checkout process. <h2>The Digital World Mourns the Passing of Chuck Geschke, Co-found of Adobe and Father of the PDF</h2>There are many icons in the computer and software world, and some of the earliest pioneers have made significant contributions that we take for granted every day. One such notable creation: the ubiquitous Portable Document Format, otherwise known as the PDF.Today, we pay homage to Charles “Chuck” Geschke, the co-founder of Adobe, who died on April 16th at the age of 81. Not only did he help develop the PDF, but he drove innovation across desktop publishing, turning Photoshop into a cultural Webster’s reference – and Adobe into a powerhouse. Chuck radically changed the way people create, view, and share documents and images, and his impact cannot be overstated.Farewell to the Father of the PDF, and one of the great digital innovators of all time. <h2>Contentful Unveils New Features and Partner Apps at Second Annual Blueprints Conference</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/05/contentful-logo-dark.png" alt="Contentful logo - dark" /><a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/">Contentful</a>, a leading enterprise headless CMS provider, <a target="_blank" href="https://press.contentful.com/197449-contentful-unveils-new-features-and-partner-apps-at-second-annual-blueprints-conference">announced</a> the release of new features and partner-built apps at its second annual <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/blueprints-2021/">Blueprints</a> user conference.The new features include <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/blog/2021/04/08/governance-tagging-metadata/">tags and permissions</a> that provide content teams greater flexibility and control over how they organize, find, and edit content – and manage permissions across the organization.These platform enhancements build on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/blog/2021/03/16/launch-compose-release/">the recent release of Compose + Launch</a> – two new Contentful apps that allow content authors, editors, and planners to adapt and publish content independently without having to rely on developer resources.Contentful also announced the release of several partner-built apps in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/marketplace/">Contentful Marketplace</a>, including an app built by digital services provider <a target="_blank" href="https://portaltech.reply.com/portaltech/en/">Portaltech Reply</a> that connects Contentful with SAP Commerce Cloud – enabling businesses to adapt quickly to changing market conditions to deliver direct-to-consumer and omnichannel experiences.Other recently released partner-built apps for Contentful extend the platform's capabilities across personalization, e-commerce, translations, and video, including Uniform Optimize, Saleor Commerce, GlobalLink Connect by Translations.com, and Qencode Video Transcoding.Contentful recently earned the highest score possible in the partner ecosystem criterion – along with five other criteria – in the recent <a target="_blank" href="https://www.contentful.com/resources/forrester-wave-agile-cms-2021-report/">Forrester Wave™ Report for Agile Content Management Systems (CMSes)</a>. <h2>Crownpeak and ilumino Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance Digital Accessibility</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/crownpeak_ilumino.jpg" alt="Crownpeak and ilumino logos in lockup format." /><a target="_blank" href="https://www.crownpeak.com/">Crownpeak</a>, a digital experience platform (DXP), <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/crownpeak-and-ilumino-announce-strategic-partnership-to-advance-digital-accessibility/">has announced</a> a strategic partnership with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ilumino.co/">ilumino</a>, a digital accessibility services and consulting firm. The two companies will offer an integrated solution that helps improve digital experiences for users with disabilities while evolving accessibility strategies for organizations.Together, Crownpeak and ilumino offer a single, integrated approach that evolves the accessibility model. The solution combines Crownpeak’s DQM technology, providing automated and ongoing scanning and auditing against WCAG guidelines, with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ilumino.co/solutions/">ilumino’s expert services</a> – which focuses on nurturing a company’s “culture of accessibility.”Some noteworthy highlights of the Crownpeak + ilumino solution include:<ul><li>Accessibility and compliance dashboard – providing a “single source of truth” for automated and manual accessibility monitoring</li><li>Automated site scanning (enriched by manual testing) – enterprise-grade, multi-site scanning technology</li><li>Manual testing and consulting – performed by certified accessibility experts</li><li>In-house or guided remediation – tailored to each organization’s unique design and development workflows</li><li>Ongoing support – ensuring sustained compliance through a proactive approach</li><li>Accessibility pattern library – simplifying remediation and establishing long-term organizational assets</li><li>Litigation support – with expert review and consulting on any accessibility-related legal actions received</li><li>Accessibility statement – drafted to demonstrate an organization’s commitment to digital inclusion</li><li>Enterprise strategy – assisting with a prioritized roadmap and risk management</li></ul> <h2>Strapi Headless CMS Announces v3.6 with Free Content Internationalization</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/i18n-2.png" alt="content internalization" />Strapi, a leading open-source headless CMS, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/strapi-headless-cms-announces-v3-6-with-free-content-internationalization/">has announced</a> the release of Strapi v3.6, which includes a highly anticipated content internationalization (i18n) feature as part of their Community Edition. Now, Strapi users will have the ability to create and manage content in multiple languages and locales for free and without limitations – and personalize messages delivered to target audiences based on language and geographic data.Leveraging integrations with Strapi’s draft and publish system and role-based access control, users will be able to manage their editing and publishing permissions based on specific locales. With Strapi’s internationalization, content is displayed for each locale based on content types. For example, if a company has an e-commerce website, they can select which product pages are displayed in French, Portuguese, or Mandarin. This level of localization is what enables a global digital strategy to work across borders and languages.In our exclusive discussion with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorcoisne/">Victor Coisne</a>, Strapi’s Vice President of Marketing, it’s clear that internationalization was a big part of the CMS vendor’s roadmap, and of significant importance to their growing base of global users. <h2>Kentico Kontent Gets a Fresh New User Interface, Adds Features to Streamline Enterprise Content Operations</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/kentico-new-ui-1.png" alt="The new Kentico content UI" />Kentico Kontent, a headless CMS, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kentico-kontents-new-user-interface-streamlines-enterprise-content-operations/">announced</a> the launch of their new user interface, designed to help enterprise content teams execute their content operations faster.The new UI has a fresh, modern design approach that fuses an array of vibrant colors with plenty of contrast to emphasize important elements.Kentico Kontent also unveiled new upgrades in their latest release, including the Collections feature – which lets enterprises manage all their content in a single repository, allowing the content to be shared across teams and channels without losing any control.With the Collections feature, teams can share content items across departments, websites, and experiences to ensure consistency and eliminate error-prone duplication. The goal is to improve efficiency and minimize the frustration that many enterprise content teams experience.

CMS Monthly Recap: Adobe Experience Manager Assets Essentials, Contentful Unveils New Features, Crownpeak Announces Partnership, and More

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Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

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While COVID-19 continues to impact markets globally, the CMS world has been on a binge of buying, partnering, and releasing new features.
In case you’ve been distracted over the last few weeks by a chaotic news cycle and a U.S. presidential election, here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening in the content management and digital experience world.
<h3>Hyland Completes Acquisition of Alfresco</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/hyland-alfresco-acquisition.jpeg 1200w" /></figure>
Recently, <a href="https://www.hyland.com/">Hyland</a> the enterprise content management (ECM) provider <a href="/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/">announced</a> that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire <a href="https://www.alfresco.com/">Alfresco Software</a> – an open-source content services platform.
Last week, Hyland <a href="https://news.hyland.com/hyland-completes-acquisition-of-alfresco/">completed</a> the transaction, bringing the entire Alfresco business, including all technology and products, under the Hyland umbrella.
“At Hyland, the Alfresco platform will continue to grow and to serve customers’ evolving business needs,” said Bill Priemer, Hyland’s President and Chief Executive Office. “Alfresco customers can confidently continue to use and expand their Alfresco solutions, whether deployed on-premises or in the cloud.”
Future Alfresco versions will enable customers to seamlessly leverage other areas of the Hyland portfolio. These include the Hyland Experience Platform (HxP) — the recently launched, next-generation, cloud-based platform — and newly developed HxP components, such as <a href="https://www.hyland.com/en/platform/product-suite/HxC">Hyland Experience Capture</a>.
<h3>Episerver Completes Acquisition of Optimizely</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/episerver-optimizely.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/episerver-optimizely.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/episerver-optimizely.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/episerver-optimizely.png 1280w" /></figure>
In a big move to evolve their personalization strategy, <a href="https://www.episerver.com/">Episerver</a>, the customer-centric digital experience platform, recently <a href="/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform/">announced</a> its plans to buy <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/">Optimizely</a> – a leading A/B and multivariate testing platform. A few weeks ago, Episerver <a href="https://www.episerver.com/company/press-room/episerver-completes-acquisition-of-optimizely">completed</a> the acquisition.
“With its acquisition of Optimizely, as with its acquisitions of Idio and Insite in 2019, Episerver substantially increases the value proposition that the company offers to enterprise brands,” said Jacob Groshek, research manager, Digital Experience Management, at IDC. “The Optimizely acquisition adds AI-based experimentation and optimization to the Episerver portfolio. The purchase of Optimizely not only augments Episerver's capacity to automatically deliver personalized content as a central component of users' digital experiences, it also adds another layer of behavioral intelligence for organizations.”
Following the close, Episerver now serves approximately 9,000 customers and more than 900 partners globally in segments including retail, manufacturing &amp; distribution, financial services, insurance, healthcare, media, and technology, among others.
As part of Episerver, the Optimizely progressive delivery and experimentation platform will continue to support customers as a standalone solution, but will also be available as part of Episerver’s offerings immediately.
<h3>Acquia Announces Major Updates to Open Digital Experience Platform (DXP)</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1600/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 1600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/drupal_9_dxp_0-1.jpg 1920w" /></figure>
After <a href="/acquia-launches-new-open-digital-experience-platform/">launching</a> its new Acquia Open Digital Experience Platform (DXP) this July, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> has accelerated their innovation by leaps and bounds. In fact, they recently <a href="https://www.acquia.com/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-announces-major-updates-open-digital-experience-platform">announced</a> major upgrades to their Drupal Cloud and Marketing Cloud.
So, what are these major upgrades? For starters, on the Drupal Cloud side, they <a href="https://www.acquia.com/drupal9">transitioned from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9</a>. For developers, these enhancements focus on decreasing the time to build, design, and run sites and applications.
Following the successful launch of Drupal 9 in June, the new <a href="https://www.acquia.com/drupal9/accelerate-your-migration">Acquia Migration Accelerator</a> tool significantly reduces the effort tied to a transition from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9. Currently in beta, the tool reduces time to value for Drupal 9 by providing a user-friendly interface to streamline analysis and planning, DevOps, data imports, and content auditing for migrations.
Once organizations are migrated, the new <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/drupal-cloud/cloud-ide">Acquia Cloud IDE</a> makes it faster than ever to build Drupal sites and applications, with one-click access to a cloud-hosted development and testing environment. Acquia Cloud IDE integrates with existing Acquia command line and automated build tools for Drupal, making it faster and easier for developers to build and test their code – even in remote or hybrid work setups.
On the Marketing Cloud side, the major updates include new real-time 360-degree profiles, identity resolution, and unified segment capabilities within the Acquia Customer Data Platform (CDP). These capabilities aggregate data from various sources, eliminate redundancy, and unify data into a single source of the truth for real-time customer segmentation.
Finally, Acquia also added a COVID-19 dashboard that helps marketers understand their customers’ shifts from offline to online channels, as well as changes in channel preferences throughout the pandemic. The dashboard also helps marketers identify changes in product preferences, as well as opportunities for growth in their marketing campaigns.
<h3>Fabric Launches Headless Commerce Platform with $9.5 Million in Seed Funding</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/fabric-logo.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/fabric-logo.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/fabric-logo.png 855w" /></figure>
<a href="https://fabric.inc/">Fabric</a>, a headless commerce platform, launched its cloud-native experience and commerce product suite and <a href="https://resources.fabric.inc/blog/seed">announced</a> $9.5 million in seed funding led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from Sierra Ventures and Expa. In addition, e-commerce executive Faisal Masud, who led multi-billion-dollar commerce businesses at Amazon, eBay, Groupon and Staples, has joined the company as CEO.
Brands struggle to compete with Amazon’s continued market dominance in the e-commerce and digital retail space. While big retailers can afford to invest heavily in their own proprietary systems, widening their advantage in data, speed, pricing and convenience, many D2C and B2B brands are challenged by the cost and complexity of modernizing their outdated commerce platforms. COVID-19 has further raised the stakes: during the pandemic, e-commerce sales have grown as much as 55% year-over-year.
“Unlike Amazon, which wins on selection, price and availability, emerging and growing D2C and B2B companies need to win on brand and experience,” said Faisal Masud, CEO at Fabric.
Fabric’s headless commerce platform enables marketers and merchants to deliver world-class commerce experiences without the engineering burden. Its modular API-first platform enables brands to utilize tools that address their specific needs, rather than re-platforming. Fabric gives brands sophisticated capabilities with its Experience Platform Manager (XPM), Product Information Manager (PIM), pricing and offers and Order Management (OMS).
The Fabric platform offers a suite of commerce APIs that allow brands to orchestrate their offerings across all channels, enabling them to support the entire lifecycle of each customer. In addition, Fabric runs on a completely serverless infrastructure to effectively scale during high-traffic retail peaks.
<h3>Cloudinary and Contentful Partner to Help Brands Create “Visual-First” Experiences More Efficiently</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/apps-cloudinary-dialog.png 1340w" /></figure>
<a href="https://cloudinary.com/">Cloudinary</a>, the media experience platform, announced a partnership with <a href="https://www.contentful.com/">Contentful</a>, a headless content management system (CMS). The new partnership offers Contentful users seamless access to Cloudinary’s award-winning media experience solutions, including its headless digital asset management (DAM) within Contentful’s CMS – allowing Contentful users to more easily upload, optimize and deliver engaging visual-first experiences at scale.
"In today's visual economy, fast and flawless rich media experiences are no longer a nice to have, they are critical components to any company’s success,” said Scott Doughman, vice president of Business Development at Cloudinary. “Equally critical is the ability to deliver the right, high-performant content as efficiently as possible to eliminate the challenges that often keep experiences from reaching their true engagement potential. The Contentful-Cloudinary integration eliminates these challenges and we’re pleased to be bringing our media management expertise to the Contentful ecosystem."
With the API-first approach of Cloudinary and Contentful, you can now build a seamlessly-integrated, future-proof stack with your preferred development frameworks and platforms.
<h3>Microsoft Announces Clarity, a Free Visitor Behavior Analytics Platform</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/microsoft-clarity-heatmaps.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/microsoft-clarity-heatmaps.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/microsoft-clarity-heatmaps.png 626w" /></figure>
The elder statesman of the digital realm, <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/">Microsoft</a> continues to shock and awe the experience and development fiefdoms with bold moves – including their acquisitions of both <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://github.com/">GitHub</a>.
Now, Microsoft has announced a resource that will have an impact on digital experience in the usability, governance, and analytics categories. With <a href="https://clarity.microsoft.com/">Microsoft Clarity</a>, website and content owners will now have access to a GDPR compliant, free-to-use analytics tool to help improve their website experiences by better understanding their visitors' behaviors.
Microsoft Clarity has three main features: heatmaps, session playbacks, and an insights dashboard. Because of their unique delivery, Clarity’s tools won’t negatively impact a website's latency, and can handle variable traffic without incurring additional costs.
Clarity’s heatmaps come in two forms: clickmaps and scrollmaps. The combination will allow users to qualify behavior and trends, and make it easy to provide data-driven justifications for design decisions. The session playbacks allow site managers to record page visits and track where visitors clicked and scrolled, and the insights dashboard provides an overall understanding of the traffic to your site.
<h3>Contentsquare Acquires Dareboost And Launches Find &amp; Fix Product to Solve Revenue-Killing Errors</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/contentsquare-dareboost.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1600/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 1600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/contentsquare-dareboost.png 1755w" /></figure>
<a href="https://contentsquare.com/">Contentsquare</a>, the Digital Experience Analytics (DXP Analytics) company, <a href="https://contentsquare.com/blog/contentsquare-acquires-dareboost-and-launches-find-fix-product-to-solve-revenue-killing-errors/">announced</a> its acquisition of <a href="https://www.dareboost.com/en">Dareboost</a>, an online tool to test, analyze and monitor websites. Dareboost has been a Find &amp; Fix product for Contentsquare. The integration breaks silos between marketing and IT teams, as well as the rest of a business.
The core capabilities of the new Contentsquare Find &amp; Fix product include web performance monitoring and scoring, error reporting and impact quantification, advanced retroactive search, advanced APM integrations, and comparison and benchmarking capabilities.
<h3>Mediafly Acquires Presentify to Transform Marketing and Sales Content</h3>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sap_mediafly_cloud_diagram.png" srcset="/wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w600/2020/11/SAP_Mediafly_Cloud_Diagram.png 600w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/size/w1000/2020/11/SAP_Mediafly_Cloud_Diagram.png 1000w, /wp-content/themes/cmscritic/img/cmscritic/content/images/2020/11/SAP_Mediafly_Cloud_Diagram.png 1280w" /></figure>
<a href="https://www.mediafly.com/">Mediafly</a> – a provider of sales enablement technology, content management, and advisory services that create interactive, value-based selling experiences – <a href="https://www.mediafly.com/mediafly-acquires-presentify/">announced</a> its acquisition of <a href="https://www.presentify.co.uk/">Presentify</a>, a global visual communication solution.
By adding Presentify’s capabilities, Mediafly users can now build “selling stories” using sophisticated visual communication capabilities all through the Mediafly app – which natively supports the most advanced content formats, animations and modularized assets for elevated sales storytelling.
“More companies are recognizing the need for digital sales transformation, and the importance of using a modern sales enablement platform. But all too often they don’t want to take their antiquated, boring sales content and put it into a sophisticated sales app for fear of garbage in, garbage out,” said Carson Conant, CEO and founder of Mediafly. “With Presentify, Mediafly now tears down the barrier of entry for these companies, allowing them to quickly refresh their sales stories with interactive, animated content — and learn the ‘Presentification’ techniques to create and maintain sales collateral that is a league above their competition.”
And that’s a wrap. Stay tuned for another installment next month.

CMS Monthly Recap: Acquia Gets Feature Boosts, Cloudinary and Contentful Partner, Big Acquisition Updates and More

Top Free Headless CMS Platforms

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Let's be honest: there's nothing quite like Awards Season. Just ask Moira Rose.
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<div class="tenor-gif-embed"><a href="https://tenor.com/view/moira-rose-schitts-creek-awards-favorite-season-gif-16223893">Moira Rose Schitts Creek GIF</a>from <a href="https://tenor.com/search/moira+rose-gifs">Moira Rose GIFs</a></div>
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And it's not because of the glitz, the glamour, or even the drama (although last year's Oscars did deliver the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/entertainment/oscars-crisis-will-smith/index.html" target="_blank">slap heard 'round the world</a>).
No, we love Awards Season because it's a celebration. An opportunity to cheer for the things we love. From film to music, actors to performers. Heck, even our favorite technologies.
Each year, CMS Critic is proud to feature our People's Choice Awards: a unique, one-of-a-kind platform for celebrating our industry. Since 2012, the People's Choice Awards have provided an opportunity for you – our community of digital professionals and stack fanatics – to tell us which platforms you love the most.
The People's Choice Awards are always fun and engaging, and the results never fail to surprise us. We put the power in your hands to nominate and vote, so it reflects your community participation. No matter how you feel about the outcomes, this is a win for every platform involved and your passionate users and fans.
This year, we had record participation from around the globe for both the nominations and final voting, and we're thrilled to share the winners you selected!
<h2>And the Oscar goes to...</h2>
But first, a quick reminder about the contest and how it worked:
<ul>
<li>In <a href="/nominate-your-favorite-platforms-for-the-2022-cms-critic-peoples-choice-awards/">December 2022</a>, we invited readers to nominate platforms across a set of categories on our website.</li>
<li>Nominations closed at the end of January.</li>
<li>The top five nominees (in the case of a few ties, the top six) were selected for voting in each category.</li>
<li>General voting began in early February and closed on February 20.</li>
<li>Participants could vote only once, and companies that offered incentives of any kind were disqualified.</li>
</ul>
And that's it! Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2022 People’s Choice Award winners:
<h4>Best Enterprise CMS: Contensis</h4>
<a href="https://www.contensis.com/" target="_blank"><img style="width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/03/contensis-logo.jpg" alt="Contensis Logo" /></a>
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<h4>Best DXP: Adobe Experience Cloud</h4>
<a href="https://business.adobe.com/" target="_blank"><img style="width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/adobe-edited.jpg" alt="Adobe Experience Cloud Logo" /></a>
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<h4>Best Free CMS: Joomla!</h4>
<a href="https://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank"><img style="width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/joomla-edited.png" alt="Joomla! Logo" /></a>
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<h4>Best Flat File CMS: Statamic</h4>
<a href="https://statamic.com/" target="_blank"><img style="width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/statamic-edited.jpg" alt="Statamic Logo" /></a>
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<h4>Best Open Source CMS: Umbraco</h4>
<a href="https://umbraco.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiAr4GgBhBFEiwAgwORrRdPATQsqJ5M2tqVIMIHVlkjBnO2Cl29dGTXI9dhb9_BNa9pqdulIhoCK40QAvD_BwE" target="_blank"><img style="width:120px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/umbraco-edited.png" alt="Umbraco Logo" /></a>
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<h4>Best ECM (Enterprise Content Management): Microsoft SharePoint</h4>
<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration" target="_blank"><img style="width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/sharepoint-edited.png" alt="Microsoft SharePoint Logo" /></a>
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<h4>Best E-Commerce Solution: Shopify</h4>
<a href="https://www.shopify.com/free-trial?term=shopify&amp;adid=565872334073&amp;campaignid=15436644439&amp;branded_enterprise=1&amp;BOID=brand&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAr4GgBhBFEiwAgwORrQTcMx9LwHQNvRFM6fN3NdS4GIn0wcvVgK3LdPDmBWiVFRhMOA64HxoCZEQQAvD_BwE&amp;cmadid=516586854;cmadvertiserid=10730501;cmcampaignid=26990768;cmplacementid=324494812;cmcreativeid=163722649;cmsiteid=5500011" target="_blank"><img style="width:250px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/shopify-edited.png" alt="Shopify Logo" /></a>
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<h4>Best Headless Commerce Solution: commercetools</h4>
<a href="https://commercetools.com/resources/booklet/microservices?utm_source=Paid%20Search&amp;utm_medium=Google%20Search&amp;utm_content=microservices-bookle-CA&amp;utm_campaign=MACH&amp;utm_term=commercetools&amp;utm_campaign=MACH%20retargeting%20AMER&amp;utm_source=adwords&amp;utm_medium=ppc&amp;hsa_acc=9131799125&amp;hsa_cam=19415290532&amp;hsa_grp=145609670540&amp;hsa_ad=643141341485&amp;hsa_src=g&amp;hsa_tgt=aud-1945381266863:kwd-366236213007&amp;hsa_kw=commercetools&amp;hsa_mt=p&amp;hsa_net=adwords&amp;hsa_ver=3&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAr4GgBhBFEiwAgwORrbE7RUL47caWM3RyFkC6b649F5PR5Z6DHNnToZTeBOWkTjGjxOL6IBoCGAMQAvD_BwE" target="_blank"><img style="width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/commercetools-edited.png" alt="Commercetools Logo" /></a>
<hr />
<h4>Best Headless CMS: Contentful </h4>
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank"><img style="width:260px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/contentful-edited.jpg" alt="Contentful Logo" /></a>
<hr />
<h4>Best Website Builder: YOOtheme</h4>
<a href="https://yootheme.com/" target="_blank"><img style="width:250px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/yootheme-edited.png" alt="YOOtheme Logo" /></a>
<hr />
<h4>Best Static Site Generator: Next.js</h4>
<a href="https://nextjs.org/" target="_blank"><img style="width:200px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/next-js-edited.png" alt="Next.js Logo" /></a>
<hr />
<h4>Best Composable System: Uniform</h4>
<a href="https://uniform.dev/" target="_blank"><img style="width:250px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/uniform-edited.jpg" alt="Uniform Logo" /></a>
<hr />
<h4>Best Digital Experience Composition (DXC): Occtoo</h4>
<a href="https://www.occtoo.com/" target="_blank"><img style="width:250px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/02/occtoo-edited.png" alt="Occtoo Logo" /></a>
<h2> </h2>
<h2>Congratulations to our People's Choice Winners!</h2>
There you have it, folks! Thank you again for participating in our Awards this year, and always, we welcome your feedback and your votes for next season!

Let's Celebrate the Winners of the 2022 CMS Critic People’s Choice Awards

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/shock-and-awe-adobe-to-acquire-ui-design-platform-figma-for-20-billion/">Adobe</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Acquia</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-integrates-b2b-commerce-cloud-and-content-cloud-combines-headless-commerce-with-cms/">Optimizely</a> are Leaders in the latest <a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/the-forrester-wave-tm-content-management-systems-q3-2023/RES178520" target="_blank">Forrester Wave: Content Management Systems, Q3 2023</a> – a quarterly report published by one of the most prestigious and respected analyst firms in the technology industry.
The report, published today, provides a glimpse of where CMS platforms are positioned. Forrester ranks companies on a visual graph across several concentric strata: Challengers, Contenders, Strong Performers, and Leaders. A CMS platform’s position is then determined based on criteria reflecting its offering strength, strategy, and market presence.
<h2>Leading the CMS category </h2>
According to a <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230822212172/en/Acquia-Named-a-Leader-in-Content-Management-Systems-Report-by-Independent-Research-Firm" target="_blank">press release from Acquia </a>– one of the three platforms in the Leader category – the Q3 Forrester Wave report evaluated 10 CMS providers based on 26 criteria, focusing on the aforementioned criteria.
The report cited that “Acquia performs the strongest in low-code/no-code, translations for global content deliveries, and back-end extensibility – all supported by strong practitioner and developer programs.” The company earned the highest possible scores in the architecture (extensibility and configuration), practitioner and developer communities, partner ecosystem, and global delivery strategy criteria.
Optimizely, another Leader, also <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/optimizely-named-a-leader-in-content-management-systems-by-industry-research-firm-301908245.html" target="_blank">issued a press release</a> about its position. The Forrester report stated that the platform "performs very well in personalization, A/B testing, and translation and localizations."
Additionally, the report indicated Optimizely's CMS "excels at depth of content and audience analytics off the shelf (no additional licensing) and a strong ability to scale content delivery through its partnership with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-offers-microsoft-azure-becomes-only-multi-cloud-saas-cms-qa-with-cto-nishant-patel/">Microsoft Azure</a> and its cloud-native architecture."
<h2>Contentstack drives strong performance</h2>
While the Leader category remains the domain of large enterprise DXPs, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a> CMS players are gaining ground. Case in point: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-57-5-million-in-series-b-round-qa-with-ceo-neha-sampat/">Contentstack</a>.
Buoyed by its <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness/">MACH</a> (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless) focus and composable approach – along with best-in-class, turnkey, no-code integrations – the company is leading the Strong Performer category in the Forrester Wave report.
According to an article on the <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/report/forrester-wave-report-2023?utm_medium=email-newsletter&amp;utm_source=marketo&amp;utm_campaign=2023-23-08-august-monthly-newsletter&amp;mkt_tok=NDg5LVdOSS0zODMAAAGNwg2flcZin6FEq-r-0_FcJUMeWdg_wzl49C_gzpN1gvxH7TnAnUakU4Mp4aFsa52WTa2dI1bZs97lBpqwBgmvq3Ivq1I0p0AUV9BkNOClolY" target="_blank">Contentstack website</a>, the report stated that “Contentstack performs well in several categories but shines in its ease of back-end extensibility through turnkey integrations, coupled with global deployments.”
Along with its MACH posture, the report also noted that “as a founding member of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance,</a> it excels in innovation, global delivery, and a straightforward pricing model.”
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, another headless platform, also scored as a Strong Performer in the report.
<h2>A broad CMS field from headless to open source</h2>
While a presumed crop of DXPs dominated the top of the mountain, headless players and managed open source platforms like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-monthly-recap-wordpress-acquires-parse-ly-siteimprove-releases-upgraded-accessibility-product-twilio-segment-releases-2021-cdp-report-and-more/">WordPress VIP</a> provided some variance in the landscape.
As the downstream vendors look to contend and challenge the market, it’s clear that composable is becoming a more important part of the mix – and helping to propel those CMSes to the front of the line.

Adobe, Acquia, Optimizely Top Latest Forrester Wave for Content Management Systems

What's the story, morning glory? It's a Magical Mystery Tour... 
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank">Contentful</a> is joining with customers, partners, and other composable evangelists and advocates to inform and educate on the power of composable content.
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/" target="_blank">The Storylines Tour</a> will be making stops in five major cities, beginning in May and continuing through October. The first stop was Thursday in New York City.
<h2>What to expect from the Storylines Tour</h2>
More than just a crash course on composable technology, Contentful is paving the way for learning through the power of storytelling. Major brands like Google, Audible, Kraft Heinz, KFC (and many more) are sharing the ways they have used digital experiences to enhance their brands and delight and inspire customers.
Contentful customers and partners have been invited to speak and present on the wins they’ve seen by embracing composable content, with different tracks available for attendees to make the most of this one full-day conference.  
Each stop on the tour will include a keynote, workshops, and a networking happy hour. Headlining the first stop in New York is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/videogamesprof/" target="_blank">Dr. Kris Alexander</a>, a TED Conferences speaker and professor of video games at Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as the Director of the Red Bull Gaming Hub. An agenda has also been posted for the first event. Contentful will provide updates and additional information on speakers and the agenda for later stops the dates draw closer.
<h2>Composable is going global</h2>
Interested in attending a stop on the Storylines tour? Chances are it’s coming to a city near you – or better yet, one you’d really like to visit.
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/new-york/" target="_blank">New York City</a> – May 4
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/paris/" target="_blank">Paris</a> – May 25
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/london/" target="_blank">London</a> – June 29
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/silicon-valley/" target="_blank">Silicon Valley</a> – October 5
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/silicon-valley/" target="_blank">Berlin</a> – October 19
Questions? Email <a href="mailto:storylines@contentful.com">storylines@contentful.com</a>.
<h2>About Contentful</h2>
The Contentful® Composable Content Platform brings the building blocks of content together to create once and reuse for any digital experience. The API-first platform integrates easily with data sources and new functionality as digital experiences and technology evolve. With built-in <a href="https://www.contentful.com/help/orchestration/" target="_blank">orchestration</a>, a robust app ecosystem, and <a href="https://www.contentful.com/platform/extensibility/app-framework/" target="_blank">app framework</a> to easily extend the platform, Contentful frees teams across the business to work together to connect, create, and extend content more efficiently. Contentful helps companies unlock the power of digital content so they can build faster and deliver at scale, making their content a strategic business asset. Nearly 30% of the Fortune 500 and thousands of companies around the world rely on Contentful to help them bring their best ideas to life. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank">www.contentful.com</a>.

Contentful Announces Storylines Tour in Five Major Cities

mk-patterson

“We all enjoy a good story. And we keep coming back to really good stories, regardless of whether or not we know how they end.”
In the first minute of the documentary-style film <a href="https://www.contentful.com/the-new-art-of-storytelling/" target="_blank">“The New Art of Storytelling: A Look at the Future of Content,”</a> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodie-whelan-b8726470/" target="_blank">Dr. Jodie Whelan</a>, Associate Professor of Marketing at York University, sets an undeniable tone with these words. It’s an observation that resonates throughout the masterful 15-minute production released by <a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank">Contentful</a>, a leading composable content platform.
Launched in conjunction with the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentful-announces-storylines-tour-in-five-major-cities/">Contentful Storylines Tour</a>, “The New Art of Storytelling” illuminates the connections between technology, content, and the humans that create and consume it. While the central theme is that stories matter, the film explores how stories are told and the ways audiences interact with them.
In the film, members of Contentful – along with industry thought leaders and global agencies such as <a href="https://www.valtech.com/" target="_blank">Valtech</a> – are interviewed about key trends, citing examples of transformation across the content space. Through their voices, the film projects its own narrative about the future of content – and how that future is composable.
<h2>Omnichannel is now omnipresent</h2>
In the film, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-maglio-254128bb/" target="_blank">Dr. Sam Maglio</a>, Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Toronto, conjured the late great media philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan" target="_blank">Marshall McLuhan</a> with this famous quote:
“The medium is the message.”
Indeed. Maglio reinforces how pertinent this is in an omnichannel world. Gone are the days when brands could craft one version of content to be used in most traditional media settings. Whether a brand is attempting to reach an audience through a quippy tweet or to unlock the Web3 marketplace in a major metaverse launch, the limits of reaching a consumer are growing larger – and the stakes are higher. 
“Content has come a very long way in a very short period of time because there [are] so very many ways that consumers access content nowadays,” Maglio said.
So what does that mean for brands? Everything.
Along with his peers, Maglio’s commentary in the film zeroes in on the evolution of consumer behavior and how brands are changing to meet consumers across multiple channels. Touching the customer cannot happen once or twice through ad interruptions or a sponsored Facebook post – the touch points must feel organic, and they must come often. It’s a fantastic account of where things are heading.
<h2>Why composable content?</h2>
The term “composable” is driving significant interest across the digital experience space. Many enterprises are looking to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH</a> (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-first SaaS, Headless) and composable as key activators for reaching markets faster and responding quickly to change. It also mitigates the challenges of vendor lock-in and painful “rip and replace” upgrades or migrations.
On the content side, composable is enabling omnichannel strategies with structured components that can be used consistently across multiple frontends or endpoints, from web to digital signage to IoT devices. 
“Composable content seems like a win-win for everyone involved,” Maglio said in the film. “On the brand side, it makes sure they are delivering a consistent message across all platforms. They can author something once, create the content, and make sure they can have a consistent message delivered to all potential customers through all potential channels.”
In a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/contentful-launches-new-capabilities-to-simplify-and-accelerate-delivery-of-digital-experiences-at-scale-301816101.html" target="_blank">news release</a> earlier this month, Contentful announced new capabilities to simplify and accelerate the delivery of digital experiences at scale. Some of the features mentioned include new pre-built integrations, a Live Preview feature that offers enhanced content visualization and optimization, and an AI Content Generator.
In the film, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lnicolefrance/" target="_blank">Nicole France</a>, Director of Content at Contentful, discussed how this use of composable technology influences developers, marketers, and ultimately consumers.
“There’s another really important aspect to composable content as well,” she said. “It’s as much about how we are using and structuring content to be reused and recomposed across any variety of channels and any number of permutations and combinations. But the flip side of the coin is it’s also about how we create the work environment in which the job of doing that actually takes place.”
With brand new features recently announced, a stellar lineup of speakers and workshops at the ongoing Storylines Tour, and now a beautifully executed documentary film showcasing exactly how Contentful and their partners are telling stories in new and compelling ways, the “future of content” looks robust.
Content-full, even.
You can check out the film at <a href="https://www.contentful.com/the-new-art-of-storytelling/" target="_blank">https://www.contentful.com/the-new-art-of-storytelling/.</a>
<h2>About Contentful 
</h2>
The Contentful® Composable Content Platform brings the building blocks of content together to create once and reuse for any digital experience. The API-first platform integrates easily with data sources and new functionality as digital experiences and technology evolve. With built-in orchestration, a robust app ecosystem, and app framework to easily extend the platform, Contentful frees teams across the business to work together to connect, create, and extend content more efficiently. Contentful helps companies unlock the power of digital content so they can build faster and deliver at scale, making their content a strategic business asset. Nearly 30% of the Fortune 500 and thousands of companies around the world rely on Contentful to help them bring their best ideas to life. For more information, visit <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3856597-1&amp;h=511813223&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.contentful.com%2F&amp;a=www.contentful.com" target="_blank">www.contentful.com</a>.

Lights, Camera, Action: Contentful’s Film “The New Art of Storytelling” Focuses on the Composable Future

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