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<p><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 <em>Leaders</em> 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.</p>
<p>The report, published today, provides a glimpse of where CMS platforms are positioned. Forrester ranks companies on a visual graph across several concentric strata: <em>Challengers</em>, <em>Contenders</em>, <em>Strong Performers</em>, and <em>Leaders</em>. A CMS platform’s position is then determined based on criteria reflecting its offering strength, strategy, and market presence.</p>
<h2><strong>Leading the CMS category </strong></h2>
<p>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 <em>Leader</em> category – the Q3 Forrester Wave report evaluated 10 CMS providers based on 26 criteria, focusing on the aforementioned criteria.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Optimizely, another <em>Leader</em>, 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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<h2><strong>Contentstack drives strong performance</strong></h2>
<p>While the <em>Leader</em> 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>.</p>
<p>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 <em>Strong Performer</em> category in the Forrester Wave report.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p><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 <em>Strong Performer</em> in the report.</p>
<h2><strong>A broad CMS field from headless to open source</strong></h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>


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

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<p><a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a> – a leading composable content platform for digital-first businesses – recently announced that its <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=844066638&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.sap.com%2Fdcp%2Fen%2Fproduct%2Fdisplay-0000061320_live_v1&amp;a=Contentful+Composable+Content+Platform" target="_blank">Contentful Composable Content Platform</a> for SAP Commerce Cloud is now an <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sap-drops-8-billion-to-buy-qualtrics/">SAP</a> Endorsed App. </p>
<p>With Contentful’s Composable Content Platform, SAP customers can easily transition to a modern composable content approach without having to re-platform. Marketing and content teams can also make changes in minutes rather than days, leading to faster commerce experiences that increase conversions and profit. </p>
<p>SAP Endorsed Apps are a category of solutions from SAP's partner ecosystem that help customers become best-run, intelligent enterprises. Endorsed apps are meant to deliver value with desired outcomes.</p>
<p>In its press release, the company stated that the app is now available online on the <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=829085887&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.sap.com%2F&amp;a=SAP" target="_blank">SAP</a><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=756995666&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.sap.com%2F&amp;a=%C2%A0Store" target="_blank"> Store</a>.</p>
<h2>Composing the perfect partnership</h2>
<p>Contentful's app endorsement builds on the Contentful/SAP partnership, which was <a href="https://martech.org/sap-moves-to-a-composable-commerce-offering/" target="_blank">announced in March</a> of this year. Contentful was selected as the content management partner for <a href="https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_COMMERCE_COMPOSABLE_STOREFRONT" target="_blank">SAP’s Composable Commerce Cloud</a>, allowing customers to build commerce experiences that best suit their individual needs easily.</p>
<p>"We are thrilled to bring the power of a modern, composable content platform to businesses that use SAP Commerce Cloud through our SAP Endorsed App," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sloan-213515/" target="_blank"><span class="xn-person">Steve Sloan</span></a>, CEO of Contentful. "This is a natural next step in Contentful's partnership with SAP, and we look forward to empowering customers to create lightning-fast commerce experiences on any channel to help increase sales and maximize their investment in SAP Commerce Cloud."</p>
<h2>Joining a premium portfolio of SAP Endorsed Apps </h2>
<p>SAP Endorsed Apps are premium certified by SAP with added security, in-depth testing, and measurements against benchmark results. With Contentstack, customers can now maximize their SAP Commerce investments by building a rich, integrated set of customer experiences without a costly re-platform, driving incremental revenue, and building customer loyalty through consistent, personalized content across the entire marketing and transaction experience.</p>
<p>"Ecosystem innovations are essential to SAP's vision and delivery of the intelligent enterprise for SAP customers," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrylwgray/" target="_blank"><span class="xn-person">Darryl Gray</span></a>, Global Vice President, Software Partner Solution Monetization &amp; Success at SAP. "We applaud Contentful on achieving SAP-endorsed app status for its composable content solution for SAP Commerce Cloud. Partners like Contentful are positioned to help us deliver a cloud-first strategy with integrated innovations, proven to provide value while solving key business challenges."</p>
<p>The Contentful Composable Content Platform is available for digital discovery and purchase on SAP Store – the digital marketplace for solutions from SAP and its partners. SAP Store provides customers with real-time access to more than 2,000 innovative solutions from SAP and partner solutions that complement and extend their SAP applications, enabling digital transformation of their business.</p>
<p>For more information about Contentful's partnership with SAP, visit <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3935553-1&amp;h=4167297217&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.contentful.com%2Fpartners%2Ftechnology%2Fsap%2F&amp;a=www.contentful.com%2Fpartners%2Ftechnology%2Fsap%2F" target="_blank">www.contentful.com/partners/technology/sap/</a>.</p>
<h2><b>About Contentful</b></h2>
<p><b></b>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 worldwide rely on Contentful to help them bring their best ideas to life. </p>


Contentful Composable Content Platform for SAP Commerce Cloud Now an SAP Endorsed App

<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2><strong>Omnichannel is now omnipresent</strong></h2>
<p>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:</p>
<p>“The medium is the message.”</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>So what does that mean for brands? <em>Everything</em>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2><strong>Why composable content?</strong></h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Content-full, even.</p>
<p>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></p>
<h2><strong>About Contentful<br />
</strong></h2>
<p>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>.</p>


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

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<p>What's the story, morning glory? It's a Magical Mystery Tour... </p>
<p><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.</p>
<p><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.</p>
<h2><strong>What to expect from the Storylines Tour</strong></h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.  </p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2><strong>Composable is going global</strong></h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/new-york/" target="_blank">New York City</a> – May 4</p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/paris/" target="_blank">Paris</a> – May 25</p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/london/" target="_blank">London</a> – June 29</p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/silicon-valley/" target="_blank">Silicon Valley</a> – October 5</p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentful.com/storylines/silicon-valley/" target="_blank">Berlin</a> – October 19</p>
<p>Questions? Email <a href="mailto:storylines@contentful.com">storylines@contentful.com</a>.</p>
<h2><strong>About Contentful</strong></h2>
<p>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>.</p>


Contentful Announces Storylines Tour in Five Major Cities

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<p>Let's be honest: there's nothing quite like <strong>Awards Season. </strong>Just ask Moira Rose.</p>
<div style="height:auto;width:500px">
<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>
</div>
<p></p>
<p>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>).</p>
<p>No, we love Awards Season because it's a <em>celebration.</em> An opportunity to cheer for the things we love. From film to music, actors to performers. Heck, even our favorite technologies.</p>
<p>Each year, CMS Critic is proud to feature our <strong>People's Choice Awards</strong>: a unique, one-of-a-kind platform for celebrating our industry. Since 2012, the People's Choice Awards have provided an opportunity for <em>you</em> – our community of digital professionals and stack fanatics – to tell us which platforms you love the most.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <em>you</em> selected!</p>
<h2>And the Oscar goes to...</h2>
<p>But first, a quick reminder about the contest and how it worked:</p>
<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>
<p>And that's it! Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2022 People’s Choice Award winners:</p>
<h4>Best Enterprise CMS: Contensis</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best DXP: Adobe Experience Cloud</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best Free CMS: Joomla!</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best Flat File CMS: Statamic</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best Open Source CMS: Umbraco</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best ECM (Enterprise Content Management): Microsoft SharePoint</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best E-Commerce Solution: Shopify</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best Headless Commerce Solution: commercetools</h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best Headless CMS: Contentful </h4>
<p><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></p>
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<h4>Best Website Builder: YOOtheme</h4>
<p><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></p>
<hr />
<h4>Best Static Site Generator: Next.js</h4>
<p><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></p>
<hr />
<h4>Best Composable System: Uniform</h4>
<p><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></p>
<hr />
<h4>Best Digital Experience Composition (DXC): Occtoo</h4>
<p><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></p>
<h2> </h2>
<h2>Congratulations to our People's Choice Winners!</h2>
<p>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!</p>


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

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

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

<p>In the CMS and DXP lexicon, "composable" has become foundational terminology. For more robust digital experience platforms, this typically translates into reusable components that enhance the building and personalization of websites and apps. But on the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> side of the ledger, composable architectures are evolving omnichannel capabilities in some innovative ways.</p>
<p><span>To that end, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, a headless content management platform, has announced a partnership with <a href="https://conscia.ai/">Conscia</a> – a Toronto-based Content Intelligence Platform – to launch an app called Unify. Purpose-built for new and existing Contentful customers, Unify joins together content from multiple Contentful spaces and other applications and provides a "unified" API response for frontends to consume, thereby enabling a composable architecture for all digital channels. </span></p>
<p><span>Unify is of particular relevance to brands that are looking to expand their headless commerce strategies with more personalized experiences. As shoppers continue to embrace digital, organizations are relying on omnichannel to deliver the right experience at the right time, regardless of the endpoint or device. Contentful and Conscia are helping brands orchestrate these experiences by breaking down silos and harmonizing their content ecosystem. </span></p>
<p><span>"Contentful is a leader in evangelizing the headless approach of delivering content to digital applications," said Sana Remekie, Conscia's Chief Executive Officer. "We're proud to partner with Contentful to offer multi-space and multi-source content orchestration to its customers and are really excited to bring Unify to market."</span></p>
<h2><span>Creating a Unified Payload</span></h2>
<p><span>It's true that m</span><span>any existing platforms allow you to "stitch" together content from multiple sources. However, there are inherent challenges and limitations with the status quo approach. </span></p>
<p><span>First and foremost, there are often too many inputs such as CDP, PIM, third-party data sources, and other APIs. Further, the standard model for weaving together content from multiple sources tends to be based on JSON, REST, GraphQL, or Next – all of which are very code-heavy. This requires the ability to reconcile a lot of complex queries that can lead to long payload times and significant performance issues. </span></p>
<p><span>To address these problems, Contentful and Conscia created Unify, which sits on top of Contentful's multi-space architecture. It provides an intuitive, flexible, no-code method for assembling localized and personalized experiences for all channels and accelerating the digital supply chain. </span></p>
<p><span>Unify's ability to federate content from legacy and siloed enterprise applications into Contentful's global delivery infrastructure results in faster, more reliable delivery to all digital channels – including web, mobile, voice, chatbots, call centers, and more.</span></p>
<p><span>"Unify is very much in line with Contentful's vision of breaking down organizational silos and serving as a centralized content platform to power continuous and connected experiences across channels," said Kevin Zellmer, VP of Partnerships at Contentful. "We are very impressed with Conscia's ability to simplify and democratize a process that typically requires significant cost and time." </span></p>
<p><span>To learn more about the Unify solution, you can visit </span><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3319163-1&amp;h=2301233572&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.conscia.ai%2Funify&amp;a=www.conscia.ai%2Funify" target="_blank"><span>www.conscia.ai/unify</span></a><span>.</span></p>
<h2><span>About Conscia</span></h2>
<p><span>Conscia</span><span> is a knowledge graph that has the ability to unify customer data and content from disparate systems through a schema-agnostic data pipeline, enrich, relate, tag, and classify the data, and finally distribute this knowledge through APIs. With Customer and Content Intelligence so deeply interconnected in a central knowledge graph, Conscia empowers digital and marketing teams to compose meaningful, consistent, and personalized content experiences across all channels at scale. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.</span></p>
<h2><span>About Contentful</span></h2>
<p><span>Contentful, a leading content platform for digital-first business, helps over 30% of the Fortune 500 and thousands of brands around the world create and manage digital experiences for their customers across any channel. It enables greater speed and scale than traditional CMS solutions. Contentful unifies content in a single hub, structures it for use in any digital channel, and integrates seamlessly with hundreds of other tools through open APIs. Companies such as Gucci, Plaid, Goodrx, Intercom, Notion, Staples and many others rely on Contentful's platform. </span></p>


Contentful and Conscia Launch Unify, a Multi-Space Orchestration App for Personalization and Headless Commerce

paris-tuzun

<p>Another week, another unicorn makes its way across the windswept landscape of CMS...</p>
<p>OK, enough melodrama. The dust has been settling for a few days since <a href="http://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank"><span>Contentful's</span></a><span> $175 million Series F funding round, and it's time for a little reflection. No question: this is a big deal for the Berlin-based headless CMS platform, which is now </span><span>sporting a valuation of around $3 billion. </span></p>
<p>As they say in the pizza industry, that's a lotta dough.</p>
<p>Clearly, <a href="https://www.tigerglobal.com/">Tiger Global</a> – who led the round – sees a lot of promise in Contentful's strategic "recipe" for growth (with perhaps the promise of a public offering on the map one day?) <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/tidemarkcap/" target="_blank"><span>Tidemark</span></a><span> and </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/base10-partners/" target="_blank"><span>Base10 Partners</span></a><span> also joined Contentful's robust investment ticket, which is over twice their previous <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/17/contentful-raises-80m-series-e-round-for-its-headless-cms/">Series E round of $80 million</a>.</span></p>
<p>It goes without saying that we've seen a lot of investment activity in the CMS category over the last year. But it's the <em>headless</em> variety that seems to be building more traction in recent months as brands and organizations expand their content channels beyond the website layer. In early June, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/">Contentstack</a> – another headless provider – announced a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-57-5-million-in-series-b-round-qa-with-ceo-neha-sampat/">$57.5 million Series B</a> infusion.</p>
<p>Again, a lotta dough. And a big opportunity for these growth-stage challengers in the CMS and DXP markets.</p>
<p>So what does this all mean for the future of CMS?</p>
<p>In a word: <em>transformation</em>.</p>
<h2>Building on a Headless Legacy</h2>
<p>There's no question that Contentful had a banner 2020; Tiger wouldn't have invested at a 9-figure level without some confidence around performance. But more importantly, investors bank on the <em>vision</em> – something that Contentful is already laying out for the market. They no longer view themselves simply as a "headless CMS" for creating omnichannel experiences, but as a content platform that thinks beyond the limitations of networks and bandwidth.</p>
<p>Sure, this is still grounded in the world of APIs, where apps "talk" to one another and integrate around key capabilities. As digital experiences have evolved to include a wider range of endpoints (think IoT devices, voice assistants, and more), the landscape has become more complex and disjointed.</p>
<p>This is where Contentful is focusing its transformation. They want to simplify the complexity and harmonize organizations by helping them deliver their digital content faster – and personalize it for the right target at the right moment.</p>
<p><span>As the name implies, Contentful’s focus has always been on content. And while building apps has often been the domain of developers, Contentful has made its product much more approachable for marketers and content strategists. As the role of the "builder" expands, their tools are becoming even more accessible to a wider range of users within an organization, from sales to customer support. </span>This is yet another way that Contentful is transforming its value and charting a new course for CMS.</p>
<h2>Funding the Future of Digital Experiences</h2>
<p><span>According to Steve Sloan, Contentful's CEO, the latest round of financing will enable the company to accelerate its investment in both its team and technology, helping to support its growing ecosystem of customers and partners. Contentful is already trusted by over 30% of the Fortune 500, with leading brands such as Shopify, Staples, Atlassian, Electronic Arts, Chanel, Roche, and Vodafone relying on the platform to deliver content experiences.</span></p>
<p><span>Along with increased market penetration and a growing customer base, Contentful has gained ground with analysts – a critical indicator for success, particularly with enterprise software. Most recently, the company earned the highest score possible in the </span><a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentful-responds-to-market-shift-with-new-partner-program/" target="_blank"><span>partner ecosystem criterion</span></a><span> (along with five other criteria) in the </span><a href="https://www.contentful.com/resources/forrester-wave-agile-cms-2021-report/" target="_blank"><span>Forrester Wave™ Report for Agile Content Management Systems (CMSes)</span></a><span>. </span></p>
<p><span>As companies re-platform to modern software stacks, they are turning to agencies and system integrators such as Accenture, Publicis Sapient, Huge, Valtech, and others to define a new generation of digital experiences. Contentful is doubling down on relationships with these leading authorities and has now built a channel ecosystem with over 300 partners. This strategy is yet another signal of their overall market maturity – and the potential to scale globally. </span></p>
<h2>What's next for Contentful – and CMS?</h2>
<p>It's nearly impossible to read the tea leaves these days.</p>
<p>When Covid-19 first emerged, every economic indicator called for a long winter. But the increased demand for technology in a remote and contactless world created unprecedented opportunities across the digital industry.</p>
<p><span><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/mckinsey%20digital/our%20insights/how%20six%20companies%20are%20using%20technology%20and%20data%20to%20transform%20themselves/the-next-normal-the-recovery-will-be-digital.pdf">According to McKinsey</a>, more than half (58%) of all global customer interactions are happening in a digital environment. Brands that intend to survive and thrive need to be able to not only deliver engaging content – but do it quickly and at scale.</span></p>
<p>While the pandemic appeared to be dissipating just two months ago, the more <a href="https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210726/breakthrough-cases-rising-with-delta-heres-what-that-means">recent rise of the Covid Delta variant and breakthrough cases</a> has again changed the calculus. The prolonged crisis also means the demand for digital content, from streaming services to eCommerce, will continue to grow.</p>
<p>Contentful's focus on both the mid-market and enterprise gives it a lot of room for growth in multiple directions. As companies continue to digitally transform and adapt to a new world, Contentful is well-positioned for whatever comes next - particularly as the role of the "builder" becomes more expansive within organizations.</p>
<p>At the same time, there are <em>many</em> headless CMS platforms entering the market – particularly around the flourishing <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">JAMstack</a> – which is creating both competition and confusion. Additionally, many traditional CMS and DXP platforms have adopted an API strategy, creating greater commoditization and putting pressure on price. And of course, one of the most persistent challenges facing all headless CMS platforms is what <a href="https://preston.so/writing/digital-experience-orchestration-and-the-problem-of-headless-cms-preview/">Preston So</a> has written about extensively: the inability to preview content.</p>
<p>But Contentful might be breaking away from these limitations. By broadening their view and thinking beyond the confines of the "headless" moniker, Contentful is doing precisely what leaders do by transforming the narrative. They're laying out a vision – and if they can muster $175 million to invest in that vision, they might just deserve that unicorn status.</p>
<p>"W<span>e are living in a digital-first era where content makes digital experiences come alive," said Sloan.</span></p>
<p>Let's see what they can bring to life with a whole lotta dough.</p>
<p> </p>


What Contentful's $175M Investment Round Means for the Future of CMS

Top Free Headless CMS Platforms

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<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Here are some of the highlights from the stories we’ve been tracking:</p><p> </p><h2>Adobe Introduces Adobe Experience Manager Assets Essentials, Announces New Solutions to Improve E-commerce Experience for Adobe Commerce</h2><p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/05/36391-benefits-media-library-essentials2xpngimg_.png" alt="Adobe media library essentials" /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p> </p><h2>The Digital World Mourns the Passing of Chuck Geschke, Co-found of Adobe and Father of the PDF</h2><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Farewell to the Father of the PDF, and one of the great digital innovators of all time.</p><p> </p><h2>Contentful Unveils New Features and Partner Apps at Second Annual Blueprints Conference</h2><p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/05/contentful-logo-dark.png" alt="Contentful logo - dark" /></p><p><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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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>.</p><p> </p><h2>Crownpeak and ilumino Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance Digital Accessibility</h2><p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/crownpeak_ilumino.jpg" alt="Crownpeak and ilumino logos in lockup format." /></p><p><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.</p><p>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.”</p><p>Some noteworthy highlights of the Crownpeak + ilumino solution include:</p><ul><li><strong>Accessibility and compliance dashboard</strong> – providing a “single source of truth” for automated and manual accessibility monitoring</li><li><strong>Automated site scanning (enriched by manual testing)</strong> – enterprise-grade, multi-site scanning technology</li><li><strong>Manual testing and consulting</strong> – performed by certified accessibility experts</li><li><strong>In-house or guided remediation</strong> – tailored to each organization’s unique design and development workflows</li><li><strong>Ongoing support</strong> – ensuring sustained compliance through a proactive approach</li><li><strong>Accessibility pattern library </strong>– simplifying remediation and establishing long-term organizational assets</li><li><strong>Litigation support</strong> – with expert review and consulting on any accessibility-related legal actions received</li><li><strong>Accessibility statement</strong> – drafted to demonstrate an organization’s commitment to digital inclusion</li><li><strong>Enterprise strategy </strong>– assisting with a prioritized roadmap and risk management</li></ul><p> </p><h2>Strapi Headless CMS Announces v3.6 with Free Content Internationalization</h2><p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/i18n-2.png" alt="content internalization" /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p> </p><h2>Kentico Kontent Gets a Fresh New User Interface, Adds Features to Streamline Enterprise Content Operations</h2><p><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/kentico-new-ui-1.png" alt="The new Kentico content UI" /></p><p>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.</p><p>The new UI has a fresh, modern design approach that fuses an array of vibrant colors with plenty of contrast to emphasize important elements.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>

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

<p>While COVID-19 continues to impact markets globally, the CMS world has been on a binge of buying, partnering, and releasing new features.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<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>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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>.</p>
<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>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<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>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<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>
<p><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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<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>
<p><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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<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>
<p>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>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<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>
<p><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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<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>
<p><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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>And that’s a wrap. Stay tuned for another installment next month.</p>


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

<p></p>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">Contentful, the leading enterprise headless CMS provider, today announced the release of a new <a href="https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/extensibility/apps/optimizely/" target="_blank">Optimizely application</a>, which allows developers to build content experimentation into <a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank">Contentful</a>, enabling faster experimentation and more efficient content delivery.</div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">The new application allows marketers to test critical marketing content without leaving Contentful. This enables more and faster content experimentation, resulting in increased customer conversions and improved customer experiences.</div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">“Time is money for all digital products and experiments. Contentful takes pride in helping customers deliver great experiences quickly, and the new Optimizely application will only make this even more possible,” said Sascha Konietzke, CEO and co-founder of Contentful. “Not having to leave the Contentful platform to create and run content experiments will give our customers yet another competitive advantage when it comes to the speed, agility and flexibility of the types of content they can deliver.”</div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">The Optimizely app removes hurdles for users by integrating the two products so practitioners can focus on the creation and testing of great content instead of configuration. Experimentation with variables like branding, messaging and user experience is critical to boosting customer conversions, driving more revenue. The new application also minimizes context switching and mistakes by reducing manual copying. It adds content variations to reference fields, assigns content variations to experiments  and monitors experimentation status.</div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">“Successful brands integrate experimentation throughout the customer journey to ensure they maximize every digital touchpoint to drive engagement, increase advocacy and grow their businesses,” said Byron Jones, director of product at Optimizely. “Our latest collaboration with Contentful makes it even easier and more efficient for marketers to use data-driven decision making to scale their experimentation programs and eliminate the guesswork to deliver the best digital experience for their customers.”</div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">The Optimizely application also makes it easier for users to supercharge their experiments with structured content by connecting it with Contentful. Users can ask the Optimizely platform to select a variation based on targeting criteria, which allows them to pick matching content from Contentful.</div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature"></div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">Contentful and Optimizely have a history of collaborating on technical projects to improve content management. Last September, Contentful joined forces with Optimizely to help form <a href="https://www.contentful.com/blog/2018/09/12/contentful-joins-dxsalliance-delivers-digital-experiences-faster/" target="_blank">The Digital Experiences Stack</a> (DXS), a group dedicated to creating a cohesive way for companies to use best-in-category technologies to deliver digital products. The companies also collaborated to build a modernized marketing <a href="https://www.contentful.com/blog/2019/03/20/building-a-modern-marketing-stack-with-contentful-optimizely/" target="_blank">software stack</a> earlier this year to fuel deeper experimentation and personalization processes.</div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature"></div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">The new Optimizely application for Contentful is available as a public beta for enterprise customers starting today, via the Contentful web app. For more information, visit the documentation <a href="https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/extensibility/apps/optimizely/" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature"><b>Additional Information</b></div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">● Learn more about <a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank">Contentful</a></div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">● Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/contentful" target="_blank">@Contentful</a> on Twitter</div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">● Explore resources on <a href="https://github.com/contentful" target="_blank">Github</a></div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature"><b>About Contentful</b></div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">Contentful provides the essential content infrastructure for digital products and experiences, making content accessible via APIs and editable in an intuitive web app. Companies including Spotify, Red Bull Music Academy, Xoom/Paypal, Lenovo, Nike and many others rely on Contentful to author, manage and deliver digital content to any channel or platform. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank">https://www.contentful.<wbr></wbr>com/</a></div>
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<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature"><b>About Optimizely</b></div>
<div class="m_-7301575464470174534gmail_signature">Optimizely’s leading platform offers a complete set of digital experience optimization technologies, including AI-powered personalization and experimentation, which encompasses A/B testing, multivariate testing, and server-side testing. We take out the guesswork to enable brands to deliver relevant experiences driven by data. The world’s greatest brands choose Optimizely to win and compete in the digital economy, including Gap, StubHub, IBM, The Wall Street Journal, and many more.</div>
<p></p>


Contentful Launches New Optimizely Application that Enhances the Content Delivery Process to Drive Great Digital Experiences

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<p></p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentful.com/">Contentful</a>, the leading content infrastructure for digital teams, today announced new features designed to enhance and streamline the authoring and editing experience for everyone who manages content at scale. These new features provide enterprises with a set of tools to create a custom authoring hub, which organizations can use as a single control center to create, optimize and deliver content across their entire digital footprint.</p>
<p>According to Forrester Research*, “web content management systems (CMSes) are evolving as channel-centric technologies give way to omnichannel digital efforts, boosting the value of content in all formats delivered to all users. As a result, application development and delivery (AD&amp;D) pros and vendors should not stretch the category of web CMS any further beyond the current generation of solutions. We need a new container to meet tomorrow's challenges: Agile CMS.”</p>
<p>Traditionally, there have been gaps in the offerings of legacy CMS providers and newer cloud-based solutions, meaning an enterprise would be need multiple CMSes, each serving a different purpose. This made the user experience inconsistent, causing a fragmented workflow that was confusing for editors, and difficult for developers. With the new authoring hub, Contentful is one step closer to providing an agile CMS solution which can handle the needs of all digital business teams, initiatives, and channels, with the UI custom-tailored to each.</p>
<p>“Reinforcing our commitment to content infrastructure as the CMS of the future, we’re helping enterprises to build the right technology stack for running content operations at scale,” said Peter Sunna, head of product at Contentful “With these new features, we’re empowering digital teams to build a seamless tool for managing and delivering relevant content without sacrificing any security, localization, compliance, or workflow requirements.”</p>
<p>The authoring hub solves three critical problems – content creators can produce all content in one place; third-party tools and data-backed insights can be embedded directly into the authoring environment; and developers can easily deliver content across all digital channels and customer touchpoints. The new feature set is comprised of:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Rich Text Editor (RTE)</strong> – a modern implementation of the classical concept: author content in an intuitive way, while delivering it in a structured format.</li>
<li><strong>Customizable Sidebar</strong> – helps teams be more productive by exposing the tools and data they need within the authoring environment.</li>
<li><strong>Extension Framework</strong> – provides modern tooling, including a newly open-sourced Contentful design system, for easily building, styling, and deploying in-app widgets and service integrations.</li>
<li><strong>GraphQL API </strong>– a query format that enables developers to turn siloed backends into streamlined, high-performance apps and websites.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Authoring Hub builds on the Contentful <a href="https://www.contentful.com/use-case/content-hub/">Content Hub</a>, which enterprises use to aggregate all of their content in one place and easily update, audit, or share it on any platform. With a wide partner network, Contentful also achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Digital Customer Experience (DCX) Competency status, which recognizes that Contentful provides proven technology and deep expertise to help Digital Customer Experience customers by providing end-to-end solutions for all phases of the digital customer acquisition and retention life cycle.</p>
<p>To learn more about the Contentful Authoring Hub, please see our blog post: “<a href="https://www.contentful.com/blog/2019/03/12/authoring-hub-feature-release/">Authoring Hub: A modern way of running content operations</a>”</p>
<p></p>


Contentful Announces Authoring Hub for the Enterprise

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