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<h4>Snapshot:</h4><ul><li>Zmags has rebranded as Fastr and launched its new FastrAI service.</li><li>New AI features will power multivariate experimentation with greater speed and agility.</li><li>Generative AI provides content that is on-brand and optimized for SEO, Core Web Vitals, and more.</li><li>New Experience Canvas UI provides design tools, collaboration, and more for building no-code experiences.</li></ul><hr /> When I spoke to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanbreen/">Ryan Breen</a> last week, we traded notes about our recent meeting in Boston at the fall edition of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/boye-co/">Boye &amp; Company</a> CMS Experts Group. In passing, I described our “exotic” community as sort of a digital safari. We never know what we might spot roaming the plains of DX, or if any wayward explorers might join our expedition. This time around, we were lucky to score the legendary <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/billwilliamrogers/">Bill Rogers</a>, founder of the eponymous <a target="_blank" href="https://world.optimizely.com/products/ektron/">Ektron CMS</a>.There was no campfire in our WeWork room, but members of our CMS cabal seemed ready to chant. And while Bill spun tales of yore, he spent more time peering into the dense forests of AI and talking about his new startup, <a target="_blank" href="https://ai12z.com/">ai12z</a> – which builds copilots and next-gen AI apps, and advises on generative AI implementations. AI: A Song of Fire and Ice might have been a good title for his talk. With so much contention around the impact of AI on the digital experience landscape, it’s hard to separate the hype from the hope. But Ryan is all in. “It was really timely and fun seeing Bill come in as a ‘true believer’ of generative with copilots and the direction they're going,” he said, still dazzled by Rogers (like most of us). “I was like, yup, yup, I'm right there with you. A lot of stuff changed in December of last year that was [previously] very difficult to do, but now it’s just effortless – because you can wave that generative AI wand and things become easier.”Now, Ryan is weaving his own AI tale. His company, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/fastr">Fastr</a> (formerly Zmags) – a digital experience composition platform focused on e-commerce – just launched a new service called FastrAI. The solution streamlines e-commerce experience creation to support multivariate experimentation and fast iteration. The AI learns from tests, which helps optimize performance for brands.“Whether you’re aiming to improve conversion rates, increase average order value, or drive engagement, we can get you there disruptively faster,” Ryan said. “The traditional process for experimenting on e-commerce sites is either too limited or too slow. Brands can’t hit their aggressive targets with incremental improvements to copy or button colors. And they can’t wait for long prototyping and development handoff cycles to create experience variants to test.”That’s where Fastr comes in. Using the platform’s lightning-fast capabilities, businesses can intelligently test their e-commerce-enabled experiences – things like upsell carousels or dynamic bundle offers – all without tapping developer resources. FastrAI is also adaptive, meaning it can respond to each test and generate optimized experiences in minutes.  <h3>The evolution from Zmags to Fastr</h3>While AI is at the center of Fastr’s announcement, the company is going through another evolution around its identity – shedding its previous <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/">Zmags</a> moniker and adopting a component of its core product: Fastr.The new mantle unifies the legacy Zmags business, which was founded in 2006 and regarded for its <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/publicator">Publicator</a> digital catalog and <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/Creator-Studio">Creator Studio</a> software. It also folds in the professional services of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.beapartof.com/">Be A Part Of</a>, an award-winning BigCommerce partner agency that Zmags acquired the previous year. According to Ryan, this transition was a long time coming, as it speaks to the speed of a product that claims to deliver composable commerce in days. When he began this journey nearly three years ago as the Chief Technology Officer at Zmags, he was always thinking about the frontend experience and how acceleration was key to success.“We finally got our brains around going Fastr,” he said, “and that I can roll with.”With Fastr Frontend – the company’s core product – customers have the freedom to create the e-commerce stores they envision using digital experience composition tools. Fastr enables them to design at will, leveraging a blank canvas to import designs from Figma, Sketch, or <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a>. Fastr Frontend also removes the silos walling off e-commerce data, enabling brands to set conditions for specific details like inventory availability or pricing. Data can also come from any source via APIs, page data, or anywhere on the web. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">“A lot of stuff changed in December of last year that was [previously] very difficult to do, but now it’s just effortless – because you can wave that generative AI wand and things become easier.”</h4><hr />One of the big benefits of Fastr Frontend is the simple, elegant integration with an existing CMS. After an e-commerce journey has been built out, the platform provides a single line of code to paste into your<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms"> content management system</a>. Because it’s all architected in a lightweight fashion, the experiences load as fast or faster than most existing pages (hence the name).Orchestration is also a big part of the promise with Fastr. In addition to building composable frontend experiences that are extensible to the omnichannel, Fastr Frontend effectively “glues together” your backend applications with what’s in your API, on your website pages, or anywhere on the web.<h3>Wrestling with integrations and legacy systems</h3>It’s a fact: integrations can be a sticky wicket, particularly with legacy platforms that simply can’t be avoided. Despite what some platforms might say, not everything has an off-the-shelf connector. To that end, Fastr provides a host of professional services to help design or implement almost any kind of connection to bring experiences to life. “When we rolled out Fastr Frontend, the focus was really to bring in those integrations,” Ryan explained. “Whether you're still on a monolithic stack or you’ve gotten more composable and now have 40 different vendors, you need to orchestrate on top. We wanted to make something that any business user can look at and say, ‘We're going to grab these elements from Einstein personalization,’ or ‘I'm going to show and hide things if they're low on stock or have different CTAs.’ That's exactly how [Fastr] works.”Integrations in Fastr execute as JavaScript snippets within a browser as your experiences are rendering. They essentially act as conduits for API calls or data retrieval from a specific page, allowing data to be fetched dynamically. Ryan said that while some of the API work is handled on the customer side, this is an area where Fastr’s solution engineering team really shines. Even if it’s an integration they haven’t seen before, they can typically handle it within 24 hours. Obviously, these kinds of exotic connections tend to be the domain of large enterprises, where Fastr plays. As Ryan described, this is where the pain is most acute.“Maybe you’ve got two things you want to replatform off of, but that one ERP is still hanging out back there,” he said. “And you need to ask it some things or certain data lives over there. We help glue it all together.”<h3>Experimenting with FastrAI and Experience Canvas </h3>FastrAI is built into Fastr Frontend’s new user interface, which it calls Experience Canvas. Layered on the foundation of <a target="_blank" href="https://penpot.app/">Penpot</a> – a popular open-source design and prototyping app – Experience Canvas provides robust design tools, asset and component libraries for easy brand management, and real-time collaboration features. It also includes integrations to orchestrate your e-commerce technology ecosystem. Non-developers can easily set conditions for dynamic experiences without writing code. For teams with development resources, the platform also offers easy access to create and manage the underlying integrations for complete control of your composable ecosystem.During a brief demo, Ryan showed me how Fastr is harnessing AI to target specific elements within a digital experience and allowing an easier, more fluid way of building commerce-focused experiences and testing multi-variant options. I’ll say this: Fastr’s UI is slick and easy to navigate, conjuring a familiar Photoshop experience that speaks to my inner designer. Assembling components on the visual pasteboard is simple, and collaboration tools are intuitively baked into the flow. From there, adding variants is fairly straightforward. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:83.01%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/fastr-build-collaborate-screenshot.png" /></figure> With easily accessible AI, users can ask for recommendations on options for, say, a blog – or even a cross-sell carousel that optimizes click-through – and then request specific types of assets from the commerce system. Then, they can test what they create.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:82.66%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/fastr-ai-screenshot.jpg" /></figure> “In every product detail page under the sun, there’s some level of carousel, but people don't have control over it visually,” he explained. “But just as importantly, in terms of the business logic, what's it going to do? What products are we going to show? When we talked to our design services and e-commerce experts internally, we said, hey, rattle off the 20 different things you would like to test if you are building out a carousel – and it surprised me even after being in this business for almost three years now.”As Ryan clarified, Fastr’s customers use their platform to create things that aren’t just data-informed, but where they can control every aspect of how an experience is rendered on the front end. It's an orchestration – and the actual artifact in a CMS is one line of code targeted at whatever space a customer targets.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:82.82%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/10/fastrai-screenshot-2.jpg" /></figure> Building on that orchestration with AI, Fastr ensures e-commerce stakeholders that all AI-generated content is optimized for accessibility and SEO while restricting it to brand guidelines like typography, color, logo elements, and corporate content. It also supports <a target="_blank" href="https://web.dev/vitals/#core-web-vitals">Core Web Vitals</a>, ensuring optimized design and API calls for the fastest time to render. It also delivers multi-language support, providing the ability to scale to as many locales as needed.<h3>What does it cost, and when will it be available?</h3>As noted in the press release, Fastr is offering an Early Access program for its AI starting today. Ryan indicated that they expect it to be GA on December 12th. You can visit the <a target="_blank" href="https://getfastr.com/">company's website</a> to learn more or get in touch.I asked about pricing, and it sounds like we can expect more updates over the coming weeks. As Ryan pointed out, Fastr has a consumption-based, value-driven model – and that might be an indicator of what to expect when pricing the new features. “The majority of our pricing is really based on usage, like what percentage of page views you drive through us because we power those parts of your site,” he clarified. “And so anything that increases your desire to have us on more of your site, then that's a cool way for us to have a better long-term relationship with our customers. If you trust us more, you use us more.”<h3>The Takeaway</h3>For brands in retail and commerce, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms">headless</a> has been a digital game-changer. It has enabled greater freedom and flexibility to build and connect, and is a cornerstone technology for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen">MACH</a> and composable. And while omnichannel still represents a smaller slice of the overall pie, it’s growing. At the same time, the lack of visualization and control for marketers has been a huge detractor. It’s also stymied testing and experimentation, which enables content creators to refine and respond with greater agility.Fastr’s use of AI looks promising – and really speaks to the need for speed. It also addresses one of the key pain points for enterprise marketers: optimization. Without the ability to test and iterate, experiences struggle to meet their potential. What’s more, the capacity to orchestrate and scale without the limitations of code is precisely what marketing teams need.If there’s one corner of the DX market where a slow day can kill you, it’s e-commerce. And moving faster is what Fastr is all about.

Fastr Accelerates E-Commerce Optimization with Adaptive AI 

matt-garrepy

<hr /> There's no question that speed can be the deciding factor when it comes to e-commerce and digital retail. There's more to it than that, but the buck generally stops when the clock hops.Precious seconds count, so it's no wonder why brands are seeking new ways to accelerate and optimize their e-commerce properties. That's why platforms like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/fastr">Fastr</a> exist: to raise the bar for online shopping experiences and deliver more sales. As a frontend service, Fastr seamlessly combines a rich set of design tools with intuitive orchestration capabilities, giving marketers, merchandisers, and creatives more control over their e-commerce sites – as well as the freedom to experiment at scale. We've spoken previously to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/fastr-accelerates-ecommerce-optimization-with-adaptive-ai">Ryan Breen</a>, the company's Chief Technology Officer, about Fastr's investment in a built-in, brand-aware AI assistant. This tool – along with other novel features – are helping teams to rapidly create, deploy, and optimize dynamic shopping experiences without the challenging reliance on developers. All of this innovation is strengthening the SaaS company's position in the super-charged e-commerce landscape.Over the last year, Fastr has evolved on several fronts. The company's new identity emerged from the <a target="_blank" href="https://publicatorcommunity.zmags.com/hc/en-us">Zmags</a> corporate umbrella (it was previously a product under the moniker of “Fastr Frontend”). Zmags is known for its Publicator digital catalog solution and Creator Studio software. The company also acquired <a target="_blank" href="https://www.beapartof.com/">Be A Part Of</a> – an award-winning agency – last year. Now, Fastr is hitting the gas pedal on growth, which includes the appointment of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmurdock/">John Murdock</a> as its new Chief Executive Officer. As the company's press release points out, the move reflects Fastr's commitment to innovation and growth as it focuses on global brands and retailers seeking to “revolutionize their e-commerce presence.”“As I step into the role of CEO at Fastr, I am filled with optimism for the future of our company and the e-commerce landscape as a whole," said Murdock. "Together with our dedicated team, we will not only embrace the opportunities presented by the evolving market landscape but also strive to shape its trajectory. I am excited about the incredible journey ahead and the chance to work collaboratively to unlock new possibilities for Fastr and our valued community of partners and clients." <h3 id="proven-technology-pedigree-and-success">Proven technology pedigree and success</h3>Murdock brings 30 years of technology sales and operations experience to his new role. Before joining Fastr, he served as CEO at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.centage.com/">Centage</a>, an FP&amp;A software platform provider. He also spent 7 years at Juniper Networks, holding a myriad of sales director roles. According to the press release, Murdock's expertise lies in scaling organizations through strategic process shifts and building high-performing teams to drive customer success and organizational efficiency. With Fastr, he is squarely focused on profitable growth.  “Fastr has already established itself as a trusted partner for companies navigating the ever-evolving digital landscape,” said Murdock. “I’m thrilled to be leading a team that has earned the admiration of industry leaders, and excited to take Fastr into the future where it will be the go-to provider for all companies seeking cutting-edge e-commerce solutions.” Breen also emphasized the significance of Murdock joining the organization at this critical juncture for the business.“John’s leadership comes at a time when we are redoubling our efforts to fortify our technology for the enterprise, incorporating cutting-edge advancements like artificial intelligence, and introducing new functionalities and service packages that will elevate Fastr's value proposition," he stated. "His arrival marks a milestone in our journey towards greater maturity as an organization, and we look forward to the incredible advancements and innovations that will define this chapter of Fastr’s story.” <h3 id="leveraging-product-innovation-to-drive-growth">Leveraging product innovation to drive growth</h3>Along with advancements in AI and other features, Fastr recently achieved SOC-2, Type 2 compliance, which the company sees as a boon to its growth prospects. Continuing with this trend of milestones, Murdock promises a big year of product enhancements for Fastr’s enterprise solutions. This includes:<ul><li>Fastr Frontend: designed for digital experience composition and experimentation</li><li>Publicator: built for premium digital catalog creation</li><li>MINIBC: offering subscription and payment management for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a>-powered stores</li></ul>Fastr is aiming to make a big market impact in the coming months, starting with its participation at <a target="_blank" href="https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/">eTail West</a> from February 26th to 29th. The company will also attend other key industry events, including <a target="_blank" href="https://shoptalk.com/us">ShopTalk</a> and the <a target="_blank" href="https://commercenext.com/">CommerceNext Ecommerce Growth Show</a> later this year. These engagements reflect Fastr's goal of staying at the forefront of industry trends and building lasting partnerships.  <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.

Fastr Appoints New CEO John Murdock, Accelerates Plans for Growth and Innovation

cms-critic-staff

The Hero’s Journey to Composable: A Conversation with Uniform’s Mark Demeny

<h5>TL;DR – Recently, there was an epic but friendly debate in the Boye &amp; Company CMS Experts Slack channel about the confusion surrounding DXC as a category. We asked the three main voices in the conversation – Rasmus Skjoldan, Andrew Kumar, and Sana Remekie – to discuss their thoughts on Zoom. Matt McQueeny helped moderate the conversation.</h5>
<hr />
Of the great mysteries that scientists, philosophers, and theologians grapple with, one question is often overlooked:
What, exactly, is professional wrestling?
I’m not referring to school leagues or Olympic competitions – I’m talking about the <a href="https://www.wwe.com/" target="_blank">WWE</a> and its brand of sportstainment. And I don’t mean to be glib or insulting with any comparisons; heck, I’ve been to a live wrestling event many moons ago, and it was kinda fun (particularly the people watching). 
But really, what is it? Is this a legitimate sport replete with feats of athleticism? Or is it truly just performance art following a well-oiled script? If you ask <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_Hogan" target="_blank">Hulk Hogan</a>, the iconic figurehead of the modern experience, he might say, "Well, let me tell you something, brother…" and launch into a dissertation about sport versus stage. 
As humans, we’re classically conditioned to put things in boxes so they’re easier to understand. Sometimes, that’s not so simple. This has long been the case in the software industry, where confusion often precedes clarity when new ideas takes the mat – like <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/1/whats-the-real-story-about-digital-experience-composition" target="_blank">Digital Experience Composition (DXC)</a>. 
A short while ago, members of <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/groups/cms-experts" target="_blank">Boye &amp; Company’s CMS Experts</a>, a peer group focused on content management, were treated to a sort of WWE-styled “Smackdown” in the community’s Slack channel. In truth, it was a friendly exchange of ideas, with no bodyslams or half-nelsons to report (those are wrestling moves, BTW).
Still, it was spirited. And for several days, this epic “Slackdown” generated significant interest from across the DXP and DXC spectrum. It all started with a simple, poignant question from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusskjoldan/" target="_blank">Rasmus Skjoldan</a>, Chief Evangelist at <a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/?mgcid=19746730468&amp;utm_campaign=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=brand-protect-jf_us_2023&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_content=19746730468&amp;utm_term=magnolia%20cms&amp;gad=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw0ZiiBhBKEiwA4PT9z53dpcpsB0M2J-tIRhHdpnwYRHUwbjghkhAGI6_Azq8wWtHBU4ic8xoC4N0QAvD_BwE" target="_blank">Magnolia</a>, a leading DXP:
“I feel like some of the Digital Experience Composition positioning going on isn’t super helpful to customers, to be very blunt about it. What’s genuinely in it for them?”
This drew several DXC defenders to the ring, but the most vocal participants were <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkumarxyz/" target="_blank">Andrew Kumar</a>, VP of Customer Solutions at <a href="https://uniform.dev/" target="_blank">Uniform</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sana-remekie/" target="_blank">Sana Remekie</a>, CEO of <a href="https://conscia.ai/" target="_blank">Conscia.ai</a>. It was entertaining to watch these adroit leaders wrestle with a red-hot topic, but it was incredibly informative for the fans in the stands – so much so that I partnered with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/matthew-mcqueeny/">Matt McQueeny</a> at <a href="https://konabos.com/" target="_blank">Konabos</a> to take the show on the road.
A few days later, we invited Rasmus, Sana, and Andrew to join us for an informal follow-up on Zoom to wrestle down some answers.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/04/dxc_boye_debate_debrief_720.png" alt="Zoom photo of Matt Garrepy, Matt McQueeny, Rasmus Skoldjan, Andrew Kumar, and Sana Remekie" />
<h2>In this corner… DXP</h2>
<a href="https://www.forrester.com/analyst-bio/joe-cicman/BIO14164" target="_blank">Joe Cicman</a>, an analyst at Forrester, has been on a quest to decipher the Digital Experience Platform. As he noted <a href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/dxp-you-keep-using-that-term-i-dont-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means/" target="_blank">in a recent blog</a>, DXP is still misunderstood from a compositional perspective. The definition can be nebulous based on whether it’s delivered by a single vendor or assembled by an enterprise – or, in some cases, both.  
I like Joe's observation in the same post: “Every day I asked myself, ‘How is it possible for one vendor to create one product that works across multiple industries and grows in scope as a company’s digital remit grows?’ After talking to the vendors, turns out … it’s not possible.”
That might be the vein Rasmus tapped: confusion is everywhere. While DXC is emerging, DXPs continue to evolve in their own space. As he pondered in Slack, would it not be better to reenergize, modernize, or even reinvent the more established DXP label and category than trying to teach customers about another new acronym?
Add this to the confusion: Magnolia was included in an early DXC report by <a href="https://www.gartner.com/analyst/56850" target="_blank">Mike Lowndes of Gartner</a> as a vendor in this emerging field. So how does this color Magnolia’s positioning?
“When I speak to our composable die-hard customers, they are much more passionate about getting projects done, getting rid of the worst legacy apps, and reaching business goals than they are in the vendor/analyst-centric views on what’s in or out of categories,” Rasmus said. “Magnolia is seen as a DXC by some – which is fine, of course. We definitely cover that space with our own twist. To me, it just feels more like a use case than a real software category.”
That might be true. But vendors and buyers still refer to those MQ reports with biblical reverence.
Gathered in our cozy Zoom room, Matt McQueeny asked Rasmus why he felt compelled to engage with the community around these opinions.
“I'm very focused on looking at all this from the customer's perspective,” he said. “Every time I see a proposal for a category change, I'm just always asking myself, 'okay, who's actually behind this and who's to benefit from it?' Even for DXP, I sometimes have question marks around whether that really helps customers. So I felt that introducing new variations would be a significant sort of – not a disruption – but more confusion. And that's what I’m quite passionately against because I want to keep the focus on what has real value for customers.”
<h2>DXC enters the ring</h2>
TLAs (three-lettered acronyms) might be the bane of our technology existence. When I was consulting at IBM GTS, we were unpacking a catchy new triptych every week from across the cybersecurity theater. Heck, even “IBM” is an acronym... it's a bit like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception" target="_blank">Inception</a> with TLAs. 
I asked Sana Remekie about her take on this acronym acrimony – and how she perceived Rasmus’ call to quell the challenges by refocusing on the established DXP category.
“There's lots of three-letter acronyms popping up all over the place,” she said. “I think the movement towards composability and having that best-of-breed architecture is real. Customers are asking for a choice in terms of all the packaged and business capabilities that they need to build their overall architecture, and there's agreement across Gartner and Forrester on that. They may call it different things, but everybody’s starting to agree that we should give customers the ability to create and assemble their own solutions.”
So how does this momentum towards composability and DXC impact the more traditional definition of DXP – particularly as an established category? 
“Some folks are saying very clearly that a single DXP – what they call a monolithic DXP – should no longer be a thing at all,” she added. “Customers should be able to create their own DXPs by picking best-of-breed applications from across the ecosystem. With this phenomenon, we're now giving choices to the customer and power to the SIs to make those choices for the customer. Sometimes it's an IT team within the organization making those choices with, hopefully, the business in mind. And sometimes they say, ‘alright, Deloitte, Accenture, Valtech, go make that choice for me – go directly to those vendors and put together a solution that is composable.’ That happens a lot as well.”
<h2>Finding the right place to “poke the DXP bear”</h2>
As the wrestling match commenced, we turned to Andrew Kumar for more insight on what ignited the debate on Slack. He took us on a brief trip in the wayback machine to his days at <a href="https://www.telus.com/en" target="_blank">Telus</a>, where the company assembled what we now call a composable or <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH</a> architecture. 
“There weren’t these sexy marketing terms that exist today,” he said. “But in 2016, we [already] had this concept, and we created our own internal site builder on top of Contentful – and that's now part of DXC.”
Andrew also talked about the importance of the different roles and responsibilities that DXC needs to support and the tendency to lump the audience of potential users under a generic “business user” mantle. This might be a limiting descriptor, as the pool could include a wide range of team members from marketing, content ops, merchandisers, UX designers, product managers, or even data analysts.
Clearly, there’s room to improve the positioning and messaging around the DXC terminology – to find the right TLA, so to speak. And this confusion makes sense when we’re still in the early growth phases.
“Adoption and demand are still very, very nascent, but it's starting to get viral,” he said. “Despite being so nascent, it is disrupting and really ‘poking the bear’ on the big players in DXP. It's really shaping and adding maturity to headless and MACH – and these kinds of technical terms are now growing in maturity.”
Poking the bear sounds dangerous, but that’s what market challengers do. TLAs aside, Andrew went on to say that he would not recommend a “rip and replace” from DXP to DXC, but to take incremental steps towards composable.
“There are some bridges in place,” he said. “Uniform has one that can help Sitecore and AEM customers start to make those leaps. But there’s still a place for a DXP.”
<h2>What’s old is new</h2>
By this point in the match, we had wrestled multiple messages from our participants. Without question, DXC is the shiny new object blazing trails. At the same time, DXPs are evolving their posture to remain marketable. Andrew noted, “They’re decoupling and decomposing themselves, playing ball with others and having that multi-manufacturer style where you can build with OEM parts from all over the place.”
Pivoting back to Rasmus in the DXP corner, we inquired about his response to Andrew regarding the long history of APIs connecting different platforms – and how there are even use cases of Contentful feeding into Magnolia.
“I can totally back up that it's not really anything new,” he remarked to Andrew. “Magnolia has been producing a solution that is fundamentally a composable DXP for a very long time, since 2013 or 2014. We've had clients compose platforms out of multiple best-of-breed applications they put together in a joined platform for a long time.”
While Rasmus reinforced his criticism of a new TLA being injected into the ecosystem, he did express his support for how the narrative was being projected.
“If I look at some of the stuff I felt Uniform did super well, it was just a very clean story they came out with,” he said. “I totally love that. And it felt like a really novel spin that they would be the glue between all these different applications and allow the marketer the freedom to assemble, curate, and aggregate all their content and put together experiences based on many different services. I do see really good stuff about DXC. It's just not a category – and I don't think it will become a category.”
OK, so if it’s not destined to be officially blessed, where do we go from here? As Andrew pointed out, the roadmap might rest with user behavior.
“In some enterprises, there could be 60 times more technical folks that don't write code, but they're still making meaningful contributions to digital experiences. That is a huge user base. And that's where the DXC is really going to make its mark, and really going to – and this is probably an unpopular opinion – start to take over the DXP. It's serving so many more users in a more democratic low code, no code interesting way. It's empowering to that user base.”
<h2>A DXC by any other name is a… DXCP? DXO? EDP?</h2>
While pondering the future of a DXC category, Andrew quickly pointed out one basic flaw with the acronym: <a href="https://dxc.com/us/en" target="_blank">DXC Technology</a> is the name of a well-established global agency (which happens to sponsor <a href="https://dxc.com/us/en/manutd" target="_blank">Manchester United</a>). To that end, he feels “DXCP” might be a more suitable mantle – which Uniform has already been using across its communications.
He also talked about the long shadow cast by large competitors and the importance of establishing authority as a new category. “It’s really a challenge for new players to enter [the DXP market]. There's just so much <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-partners-with-google-cloud-to-take-experimentation-to-the-next-level/">Optimizely</a>, or <a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/" target="_blank">Magnolia</a> dominance. They've been around for so long. There’s no space for new entrants without a large insurmountable challenge.”
Sana also shared her perspective on the DXC category conundrum, which echoed my recent conversations with other vendors under the DXC umbrella. While <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/occtoo-dives-deep-to-unify-data-and-kill-integrations-a-conversation-with-ceo-niclas-mollin/">Niclas Mollin at Occtoo</a> is positioning around the Experience Data Platform, Sana is building a beachhead for Conscia as Digital Experience Orchestration.
“Conscia's not a DXC, even though we're playing in the space,” she explained. “There's a lot of confusion, so we said, you know what? We don't want to call ourselves a DXC because that would mean that we're tied too closely to a specific front end. So we’re going to act as the central piece of the composable ecosystem, which connects all the dots from the back end to the front end and is agnostic of both – and we’re able to orchestrate API's and experiences.”
<h2>And the winner is…</h2>
Er… not clear. We’re still wrestling with the answers, and the analysts have yet to canonize anything. But if we can smell what <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_Johnson" target="_blank">The Rock</a> is cookin', we might be in for more confusion as DXC continues to find its footing. 
What’s abundantly clear to us, however, is that DXC is building real momentum, and DXP continues to drive demand. With the advent of AI and other innovations, the DXP market is still predicted to grow to over <a href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/digital-experience-platform-market" target="_blank">$30 billion by 2030</a>. While our guests shared strong opinions about DXC's future as a category and the underlying challenges, each seemed committed to demonstrable value over category woes.
At the end of our session, Matt McQueeny noted that we ended up where we always end up: with a clear mandate to focus on the business and the customer. 
The best part of this conversation was each participant's undeniable respect and reverence for one another, despite their competitive position or conflicting ideologies. Collectively, this industry powers millions of websites, apps, and experiences. Yet, the top minds shaping its trajectory represent a tightly-knit community of shared innovation – and we had three of the best participating in this forum.
We'll give Andrew Kumar the final word: “It’s definitely a fun time to be in this space. It can be confusing, but there's a lot of innovation and disruption happening – and it's ultimately for the business and end customer's benefit.”
I can hear Hulk Hogan saying, “Amen, brother…”
<hr />
Big thanks to: 
<ul>
<li>Rasmus Skjoldan. Andrew Kumar, and Sana Remekie for participating</li>
<li>Matt McQueeny for helping to moderate, facilitate, and transcribe this session</li>
<li>Janus Boye for creating a community to host these kinds of debates</li>
</ul>

Wrestling with Category Confusion in the DXC "Slackdown"

Is the Birth of DXC the Death of DXP? A Conversation with Darren Guarnaccia, President at Uniform

Let's be honest: there's nothing quite like Awards Season. Just ask Moira Rose.
<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>

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>
<hr />
<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>
<hr />
<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>
<hr />
<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>
<hr />
<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>
<hr />
<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>
<hr />
<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>
<hr />
<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

CMS Summit 26

Find out at Open Source CMS 26, October 20-21 in Utrecht, Netherlands

What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

#ffffff

When acclaimed country singer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Nelson" target="_blank">Willie Nelson</a> penned his biopic song <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road_Again_(Willie_Nelson_song)" target="_blank">"On the Road Again,"</a> he wasn't crooning about the Composable Revolution.
Or was he? 
In his epic ode to a musical odyssey, Nelson proclaimed his love for "making music with his friends." And what is a band, if not a collection of musical microservices... an orchestra of orchestrated instruments playing in harmony? 
Speaking of taking the band on the road, <a href="https://uniform.dev/about-us">Uniform</a> will be rocking and rolling this spring as it launches its first-ever <a href="https://uniform.dev/composable-roadshow" target="_blank">Composable Roadshow.</a> The event will debut in London on March 14th and move to New York on March 21st, with plans to expand to more cities.
The Composable Roadshow will feature discussions on the state of the market related to composable architectures and their growing impact. It will also provide opportunities for guests to learn about implementing composable through expert speakers, panelists, and session leaders.
The roadshow series, held in partnership with <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/dm/mm-gtm/?utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_campaign=dig_amer_all_all_acq_core_brand_oa_2023_q1_sem-brand-alpha&amp;utm_content=Big+Commerce+%3E+Exact&amp;utm_term=big%20commerce&amp;lqid=engine:google|campaignid:933821213|adid:635224001507|gclid:Cj0KCQiA6fafBhC1ARIsAIJjL8nF-R32uSS1bgg7J8crzhBzNbjCL6jf8R8tITSRvLJHEowjfnnmHSMaAkg-EALw_wcB&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA6fafBhC1ARIsAIJjL8nF-R32uSS1bgg7J8crzhBzNbjCL6jf8R8tITSRvLJHEowjfnnmHSMaAkg-EALw_wcB" target="_blank">BigCommerce</a>, <a href="https://www.contentful.com/" target="_blank">Contentful</a>, <a href="https://www.codeandtheory.com/" target="_blank">Code and Theory</a>, and <a href="https://www.kinandcarta.com/en-us/" target="_blank">Kin + Carta</a>, will help to promote composable accessibility and deliver real-life use cases from companies and agencies that are successfully on the road to composable. 
<h2>Leading the Way for DXC</h2>
Without question, Uniform has been one of the leading innovators in the burgeoning <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/8-cms-trends-to-watch-in-2023-from-mach-to-metaverse/">Digital Experience Composition (DXC)</a> space. While still a nascent category (<a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/1/whats-the-real-story-about-digital-experience-composition" target="_blank">Gartner coined the TLA</a> but has yet to officially bless it), composable and MACH have stolen the air from the digital experience room – and created a groundswell of interest and activity across the market.
Along with the excitement and intrigue, confusion has emerged with the rise of DXC. Enterprises are struggling to understand the role and value of DXC platforms in the composable stack and even where it fits. Uniform and its contemporaries are working diligently to educate and illuminate the market about the benefits of DXC. The effort is paying off as vendors report growing demand and the presence of DXC in RFPs.
The Composable Roadshow is yet another experience channel for elevating awareness. The traveling series is designed to appeal to marketers, customers, and partners – all focused on unlocking the value that composable aims to solve. 
<h2>A Uniform that fits in a composable world</h2>
Unlike a traditional digital experience platform, the architecture behind Uniform DXC allows legacy programs to implement composable or <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/">headless</a> systems without a complete overhaul. This helps when juggling the labor and costs of re-platforming on an entirely new system and allows enterprises to scale faster when deploying composable components bit by bit. It also eliminates the "glue code" synonymous with connecting systems by streamlining everything with APIs. 
Uniform also wants to give power back to marketers at a time when headless has reigned supreme for developers. In the race to omnichannel, marketers and UX have often taken a backseat to functional considerations – and Uniform's strategy is chiefly focused on bringing marketers back to the fold. 
Earlier this year, Uniform participated in the heralded <a href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/mach-haus-new-york/" target="_blank">MACH Haus New York</a>, a live event presented by the <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/staying-focused-why-we-re-expanding-the-mach-alliance-advisory-board">MACH Alliance</a> during the <a href="https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/" target="_blank">National Retail Federation 2023</a>. Uniform joined the MACH Alliance in 2021, making them an earlier adopter to the MACH member community. 
During MACH Haus, Uniform participated in several panels, including a tantalizing segment entitled "The Death of DXP: Stepping Off the Monolith Bit by Bit" that featured <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dguarnaccia/" target="_blank">Uniform President Darren Guarnaccia</a>. The session focused on the benefits of composability within your tech stack and the challenges of maintaining the monoliths. 
Uniform is continuing to take suggestions for additional roadshow destinations, and you can contact the company with your suggestions <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeVTLYBrPpSDV9FqHDaAzs5PwNup2r2pNVM7KWN1bSUMowScg/viewform" target="_blank">here</a>. We'll continue to monitor and post updates as news is released.
In the meantime, crank some Willie, read more about composable, and <a href="https://uniform.dev/composable-roadshow#book-for-free-now" target="_blank">reserve</a> your tickets. This is one show you won't want to miss. 
<h2>About Uniform</h2>
Uniform digital experience composition (DXC) platform speeds up time to value for composable-experience architecture, lowers development costs, and makes it easy for business users to build digital experiences. A composable orchestration layer for legacy systems and headless APIs in Uniform DXCP eliminates the need for custom integration code, which delivers no business value. Instead, available for marketers, merchandisers, and other business users are no-code tools to build digital experiences with content from any source—without submitting tickets for developer assistance. Furthermore, Uniform DXCP’s high-performance personalization capability, delivered at the edge, raises conversion and CX for all channels.

Save the Dates for Uniform's Composable Roadshow 2023

mk-patterson

Uniform Composable Roadshow featured image

At the risk of sounding cynical...
For as long as I can remember, the customer focus has always been on finding the best CMS – while vendors have been busy trying to win the analyst game.
Yes, products have clearly improved and innovation in the CMS space is happening. But the real story is that most customers are still playing catch-up, often running their digital presence on older versions of multiple products.
I’m not sure vendors will ever stop competing in this "horse race," hoping to land in the leadership position in some diagram. But I’m cautiously optimistic that customers have finally changed their focus to something more sustainable by finding a solution (call it a “digital experience platform” if you must) that’s simply good enough for them.
Let’s look at current trends through that lens and unpack what it means for buyers, vendors, and agencies alike. We’ll start with the buzz…
<h2>Navigating the buzzwords: composable, federated content, and more</h2>
Even if you missed a few weeks of practice (maybe you took some time to work on something other than CMS), you have probably heard of the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/1/headless-cms-in-2023" target="_blank">headless CMS</a> trend that’s been going on for a while.
Today, several vendors champion “composable” as the one big buzzword and “federated content” as the other. Similar to the past – again, call me cynical – each vendor often has its definition, leaving customers to figure it out on their own.
In brief, I would say:
<ul>
<li>Composable is an architectural approach using different software solutions as building blocks to create a digital experience. For case studies covering this topic: <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2022/12/composable-design-throughout-the-stack-at-salling-group" target="_blank">Composable design throughout the stack at Salling Group</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/composable-cms-gains-traction-as-google-search-volume-triples-in-recent-months/">Composable CMS Gains Traction as Google Search Volume Triples in Recent Months</a>.</li>
<li>Federated content is all about unifying your content and data from different sources to enable better collaboration and a scalable content experience.</li>
</ul>
Then, there’s this thing called DXC: Digital eXperience Composition. Whether you like new three-letter acronyms or not, the problem that DXC is trying to solve is a real one: it’s what we called “composition” in the past, and it’s all about composing the digital experience based on content from different sources. There is indeed an experience challenge looking for better solutions – and niche vendors like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentful-and-conscia-launch-unify-a-multi-space-orchestration-app-for-personalization-and-headless-commerce/">Conscia.ai</a>, <a href="https://kajoo.ai/" target="_blank">Kajoo.ai</a>, <a href="https://www.stackbit.com/" target="_blank">Stackbit,</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">Uniform</a> are pushing the needle here.
Read more about DXC in this recent conversation with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dguarnaccia/" target="_blank">Darren Guarnaccia</a>, President at Uniform: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/is-the-birth-of-dxc-the-death-of-dxp-a-conversation-with-darren-guarnaccia-president-at-uniform/">Is the Birth of DXC the Death of DXP?</a>
No, it is not. I also shared a more detailed take in my post: <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/1/whats-the-real-story-about-digital-experience-composition" target="_blank">What’s the real story about digital experience composition?</a>
What else is everyone talking about? There’s at least one more big thing.
<h2>It's really an AI-supported world</h2>
In January, we hosted the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff23/" target="_blank">CMS Kickoff 23</a> and AI wasn’t really a big thing. 
Then, ChatGPT came out – and the game changed.
In each and every peer group meeting since, we’ve talked about the impact of artificial intelligence, be it from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-chatbots-to-contentops-how-ai-is-coming-to-your-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/">Google’s Bard, Bing’s integration with ChatGPT</a>, or similar tools. The bottom line is that AI is now being taken to the next level – saving time and enhancing platform features for many of our members.
To put things in perspective: compared to other trends, we haven’t just talked about the superpower of AI and how amazing these new tools are. Instead, our group members and practitioners have already adopted AI tools in their work. They've become AI-supported – whether to create sample content, inform analysis, or something more exotic.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-57-5-million-in-series-b-round-qa-with-ceo-neha-sampat/">Contentstack</a> may not have been the first platform to release an AI feature, but their ChatGPT connector lets you generate content via chat and prompt responses using the OpenAI platform. Other vendors are demoing similar capabilities, which will likely become a feature in most content management systems in the near term.
To quote Silicon Valley legend <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2023/3/expert-of-the-month-andreas-ramos" target="_blank">Andreas Ramos</a>:
“We are just at the beginning of seeing the practical application of AI in digital marketing.”
Having said that, you might have seen that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65139406" target="_blank">Italy just blocked ChatGPT over privacy concerns</a> – and some <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65110030" target="_blank">experts urged a halt to AI training</a>. Stay tuned!
One more buzzword…
<h2>How MACH must you be? </h2>
While I would probably struggle to find someone in the community unfamiliar with ChatGPT, many digital leaders haven’t heard about the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a>.
MACH stands for:
<ul>
<li>Microservices</li>
<li>API-first</li>
<li>Cloud-native SaaS</li>
<li>Headless</li>
</ul>
This unique community of vendors and agencies was formed in 2020 and now includes a set of infrastructure “Enablers” such as <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions/">AWS</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/google-cloud-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member/">Google</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/netlify-acquires-gatsby-aims-to-accelerate-adoption-of-composable-web-architectures/">Netlify</a>. To be clear: this is not just about CMS, and for a deeper introduction, see my 2021 post: <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2021/10/11/whats-the-mach-alliance-all-about" target="_blank">What’s the MACH Alliance all about?</a>
Today, the MACH Alliance is a vocal consortium with over 80 members, all promoting best-of-breed technologies and practices that power composable architectures. Vendors pay upwards of $25k to pledge allegiance to the certification and rules of what <a href="https://www.forrester.com/analyst-bio/joe-cicman/BIO14164" target="_blank">Forrester analyst Joe Cicman</a> described in 2021 as “The Coolest Tech in Town Club.” Agencies are paying less for membership but still upwards of $10k.
Looking at the Alliance from the outside and having covered it in several group meetings, here are a few observations:
<ul>
<li>As a community person, I like the idea of a shared ecosystem and collaborative and joint efforts to push the industry forward.</li>
<li>The process of joining is not as transparent as it could be. A few MACH Alliance members have told us about long wait times and less-than-critical technical reviews to become certified.</li>
<li>The annual fee is increasing and seems like a very expensive sticker for your products and collateral. Who is there to pay for this… besides the customer?</li>
<li>Could the Alliance be a bit more open, inclusive and transparent? That ‘insider club’ feeling is hard to quantify but shared by many.</li>
<li>Will the Alliance complicate things as a kind of “new monolith” selling to the enterprise? Hopefully not.</li>
</ul>
With far less marketing muscle, the open source community has long had its own “<a href="https://www.cms-garden.org/" target="_blank">CMS Garden</a>,” which launched in 2013 as a grassroots initiative. The membership fee? €100. 
Let’s move on and talk about the vendor side – and we’ll start with the biggest player.
<h2>We live in a WordPress world</h2>
At the recent <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/groups/cms-experts" target="_blank">European CMS Experts</a> meeting, we heard from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-mccue-56494910/" target="_blank">Ryan McCue</a> at enterprise WordPress powerhouse <a href="https://humanmade.com/" target="_blank">Human Made</a>, who reminded us that WordPress powers 43% of the Web. Contrary to what you might think, that’s not just millions of small sites for mom-and-pop stores but also wide enterprise adoption from large, complex, and global organizations.
Coming in second is <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a> with less than 15%. And from there, no platform has more than 10% of the market share.
Unfortunately, many industry analysts don’t cover open source well – where <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/joomla-cms-turns-16-celebrates-with-long-awaited-release-of-version-4-0/">Joomla</a> and <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/vendors/typo3" target="_blank">TYPO3</a> also have notable adoption.
In this crowded and confusing marketplace, you might think consolidation is happening.
I’m not seeing it.
Yes, there are the usual mergers and acquisitions happening. Recently, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/netlify-acquires-gatsby-aims-to-accelerate-adoption-of-composable-web-architectures/">GatsbyJS joined Netlify</a>, but that didn’t leave buyers with less options.
Actually, after 20 years, I keep learning about new ones. In fact, Netlify CMS was new to me when I saw the news that they will become <a href="https://www.netlify.com/blog/netlify-cms-to-become-decap-cms/" target="_blank">Decap CMS</a>.
One thing that’s for sure is that money keeps flowing into CMS vendors – not just from customers, but also from investors. Recently, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-80-million-series-c-focuses-on-accelerating-the-path-to-composable-for-enterprises/">Contentstack raised $80m in November</a> and they now have multiple product lines. And just last month, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hygraph-secures-30-million-in-series-b-funding/">Hygraph secured $30m</a> to “power the next generation of content management.” BTW, Hygraph is pushing big on federated content. 
Long story short: as a customer, you have more options today compared to a year ago. This brings me back to where we started.
<h2>Find the CMS that’s “good enough”</h2>
Yes, it still makes sense to go through a proper vendor selection and take time, potentially several years, to understand needs and the marketplace before selecting the right CMS. But a trend that makes me happy is that focus on finding a CMS that’s good enough, rather than necessarily the very best.
Finding a CMS that’s good enough can save you both time and money. Yes, do talk to references, invest time in training and learning, consider what you already have in your landscape – and then get started.
Having said that, don’t worry so much about where the vendor is on some analyst diagram or which club stickers you see on the laptops of your implementation team. Instead, worry about your requirements, budget, deadlines, and success criteria.
Let me finish with a friendly reminder by <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/speakers/morten-elvang" target="_blank">Morten Elvang</a>, European Business Agility Lead at <a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en" target="_blank">Accenture</a>:
“Most organizations suffer from project overload. They are simply trying to do too many things at once.”
Good luck with your initiatives.
<h2>Learn more</h2>
In my past marketplaced updates for CMS Critic, I’ve looked at
<ul>
<li>2022: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/will-this-be-the-year-where-cms-is-finally-about-managing-content/">Will This be the Year Where CMS is Finally About Managing Content?</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>2021: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/how-to-make-sense-of-the-cms-market-in-2021/" target="_blank">How to Make Sense of the CMS Market in 2021</a></li>
</ul>
I've also written <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-can-we-learn-from-the-w3c-cms-selection-process/">What can we learn from the W3C CMS selection process</a>, which had a healthy focus on accessibility, but was very much a selection process focused on finding the best.
<h2>About Boye &amp; Company</h2>
<a href="https://www.boye-co.com/" target="_blank">Boye &amp; Company</a> designs and delivers unique learning and networking experiences that bring similarly motivated and curious decision-makers and practitioners from different organizations together. Members receive direct access to a specialized international network of like-minded professionals through focused peer groups, meetings, and live events to share, learn, and discover new insights. Founded by Danish Internet entrepreneur <a href="https://janusboye.com/" target="_blank">Janus Boye</a> – a CMS Critic contributor – Boye &amp; Company provides a friendly community where strong professional relationships can take form as we discuss the challenges and opportunities across the digital experience space.

The Days of 'The Best CMS' are Over

janus-boye

Woman putting flowers on a grave with a headstone that reads, "The Best CMS"

“I get by with a little help from my friends...”
When The Beatles recorded this classic tune, they probably didn’t realize it would one day land on Rolling Stone’s list of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rolling-stone-500-top-beatles-songs/" target="_blank">500 Greatest Songs of All Time</a>. Then again, maybe they did. They were, after all, The Beatles.
We all need a little help sometimes. Case in point: if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the specter of evaluating content management systems, your friends at <a href="https://uniform.dev/" target="_blank">Uniform</a> are providing a little help to get by.
That help comes at just the right time. With so many CMSes flooding the market – from monolithic to headless, open source to composable – finding the right solution can feel a little helter-skelter. Using Uniform's <a href="https://uniform.dev/resources/cms-comparison-guide" target="_blank">CMS Comparison Guide</a>, you can get a vendor-neutral breakdown of some leading CMSes and tips for picking the best tool for your job.
<h2>Navigating the noise with Uniform</h2>
Uniform is a new breed of digital experience composition platform (DXCP) that works with many of the world’s leading CMSes as part of a composable architecture. It gives developers and business teams the tools they need to do their best work and deliver faster than ever.
Uniform works as a value-add for many companies because its product can tap both emerging technologies and legacy systems through what they call an “experience layer.” For developers, this means greater flexibility and less time creating “glue code” between services. For marketing teams, this layer provides a consistent experience in accessing data from multiple sources or previewing content prior to publishing.
No stack would be complete without CMS. Because these platforms play a central role in content development and delivery, it makes sense that Uniform would have insight into the different types of CMSes available – and how to choose the right one for your goals. 
<h2>What’s in the CMS Comparison Guide?</h2>
The in-depth comparison guide catalogs the details of 15 leading CMS vendors, including three monoliths and 12 headless and composable CMSes. Along with side-by-side comparisons, the guide details the strengths and weaknesses of each vendor across features such as content modeling, integration, workflow, and more.
The real "meat" of the guide is the granular comparison table, which organizes the attributes for each system into a large grid. This allows you to scan every vendor's abilities – from delivery APIs to CDN capabilities – with relative ease. 
“The CMS field is getting increasingly crowded, making it difficult for brands across industries to identify a partner and know where to start,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/is-the-birth-of-dxc-the-death-of-dxp-a-conversation-with-darren-guarnaccia-president-at-uniform/">Darren Guarnaccia</a>, president, Uniform. “Our guide helps you cut through the noise, as our team has decades of experience working with and for CMS providers. Our platform further assists companies by preventing them from getting locked into a single vendor, fueling more innovation, and eliminating content management pain points.”
Cutting through noise and eliminating pain points? Sounds like the kind of help we could all use from our friends.
If you're ready to avoid a hard day's night, <a href="https://uniform.dev/resources/cms-comparison-guide" target="_blank">download Uniform's CMS Comparison Guide</a>.
<h2>About Uniform</h2>
Uniform DXCP speeds up time to value for composable-experience architecture, lowers development costs, and makes it easy for business users to build digital experiences. A composable orchestration layer for legacy systems and headless APIs in Uniform DXCP eliminates the need for complex custom integration code, which delivers no business value. Instead, available for marketers, merchandisers, and other business users are no-code tools to build digital experiences with content from any source – without submitting developer tickets. Furthermore, Uniform DXCP’s high-performance personalization capability, delivered at the edge, raises conversion and CX for all channels.
Learn more at <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Funiform.dev%2F&amp;esheet=53363599&amp;newsitemid=20230320005058&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=uniform.dev&amp;index=11&amp;md5=44f6949a6ad8549958a74a274dbc71fa" target="_blank">uniform.dev</a> and follow them on <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Funiformdev%2F&amp;esheet=53363599&amp;newsitemid=20230320005058&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=LinkedIn&amp;index=12&amp;md5=c100ec7e79a11df76897aa4ce2fb0f43" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FUniformDev&amp;esheet=53363599&amp;newsitemid=20230320005058&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Twitter&amp;index=13&amp;md5=02b5c59cd07ca0555ebf05eff75f2814" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.

Uniform Releases Comprehensive CMS Comparison Guide

Uniform logo against a blue background featuring logos of various CMS platforms

This week, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">Uniform</a> – a digital experience composition platform (DXCP) – announced its latest product release, which promises to help simplify <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless</a> architecture for the modern user. This includes a new <a href="https://components.uniform.app/" target="_blank">Component Starter Kit</a> that complements its Mesh layer and additional enhancements to its Edgehancers. 
Uniform has been evangelizing the benefits of slaying the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/is-the-birth-of-dxc-the-death-of-dxp-a-conversation-with-darren-guarnaccia-president-at-uniform/">“glue code monster”</a> through a clever marketing campaign. With its newest release, they’re endeavoring to create easier processes for connecting data from any source to any front-end component – without the painful rigors of producing and managing integration code. 
<h2>Does headless mean harder? </h2>
When companies are operating a headless system – or even considering a new one – they might hit a few roadblocks. One of the most common examples is managing multiple content silos that must be coded into one central CMS. If the systems are difficult to integrate, content teams must rely on developers throughout the process and for future changes.
Uniform believes this is the opposite of “composable,” where developers and marketers find themselves limited by systems and processes that aren’t agile or easy to maintain. This has made the headless journey harder.
<h2>Composable is key</h2>
Uniform tackles these issues head-on, promising to reduce or eliminate glue code from the equation. With its newest feature release, the DXCP is aiming to deliver a “new headless paradigm,” outlined by Uniform co-founder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-birkholm-petersen/" target="_blank">Lars Birkholm Petersen</a> in a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/evolution-headless-from-glue-code-composable-lars-birkholm-petersen%3FtrackingId=AelqHfr4TSKkqU0RPHDyXw%253D%253D/?trackingId=AelqHfr4TSKkqU0RPHDyXw%3D%3D" target="_blank">blog post</a> announcing the launch this week.
As he noted, the new headless paradigm includes these core tenants:
<ul>
<li>Make solutions composable instead of composed</li>
<li>Optimize workflows and aim for the shortest time to market</li>
<li>Connect data and content across technologies</li>
<li>Enable marketers and merchants to do their jobs independently, freeing developers from having to maintain glue code</li>
<li>Give brands an unfair competitive advantage to launch new initiatives faster</li>
<li>Boost agencies’ competitiveness through the elimination of custom code</li>
</ul>
<h2>Open source Component Starter Kit</h2>
Uniform’s Component Starter Kit gives users the flexibility to create dynamic web experiences quickly and easily. The open source Kit is built on a TNT stack – <a href="https://www.typescriptlang.org/" target="_blank">TypeScript</a>, <a href="https://nextjs.org/" target="_blank">Next.js</a>, and <a href="https://tailwindcss.com/" target="_blank">TailwindCSS</a> – making it extremely adaptable to build with.
With the Component Starter Kit, users can easily clone, run locally, and customize based on their specific needs. By leveraging lightweight React components, it also helps keep Core Web Vitals in the green. And because the whole library is open source and based on TailwindCSS and <a href="https://daisyui.com/" target="_blank">DaisyUI</a>, it makes it easy for users to adapt their brand style.
With these component tools, marketers and content creators can use RESTful API integrations to connect content from a headless CMS or commerce system with no glue code or developer tickets.
<a href="https://components.uniform.app/" target="_blank">Browse components and learn more</a> about the Component Starter Kits from Uniform.
<h2>Mesh and Edgehancers</h2>
Uniform’s Mesh – its API integration layer – connects data or content sources with the user’s preferred design system in just a few clicks and zero coding. Marketers can enjoy total flexibility in how they build and connect their content without wasting precious developer time and resources.
When connecting to sources or on-premise APIs as a step for creating digital experiences, performance can be a bottleneck. With Uniform’s latest release of Edgehancers, users can cache data from any API on its global distributed edge, which makes sites run lightning fast – rendering in under 50 milliseconds – while supporting surgical cache invalidation from the underlying technologies.
<h2>Composable, not coded</h2>
With this latest launch, Uniform has gone above and beyond to save users from the hassle of integrating software. These new capabilities empower content creators and developers to focus on what’s important – so going headless doesn’t have to be harder.
“With the launch of these new capabilities, Uniform is taking how brands and agencies build digital experiences to the next level,” said Petersen. “With orchestration at each layer of the digital experience composition platform (DXCP), it’s easy to get the job done in minutes instead of days.”
The frightening glue code monster may be on his way out, but what’s coming next might be scary, scary good.
<h2>About Uniform</h2>
Uniform's digital experience composition (DXC) solution turns headless and legacy stacks into a seamless end-to-end digital delivery pipeline. Uniform transforms the approach to digital delivery by empowering developers, content creators, and marketers to easily create and deliver amazing experiences while allowing the tech stack to evolve with your brand. Several top brands use Uniform to power their digital experiences, including Cobham Satcom, Cirque du Soleil, Life Extension, Sunweb and Trimble. Learn more at uniform.dev and follow on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/uniformdev/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/UniformDev" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.

Uniform Launches Component Starter Kit with Latest Product Release

If you haven’t been to the British Virgin Islands, go. They are a jewel in the crown of the Caribbean. Beyond the sugary sand beaches and predictable tourist bars, a rugged, untamed beauty makes it all feel... undiscovered.
A few years back, I took a snorkeling excursion to the <a href="https://www.bvitourism.com/the-islands/virgin-gorda" target="_blank">Baths on the island of Virgin Gorda</a>, a nature park that offers a labyrinthine journey through a network of caves and secret pools. That might sound a bit daring, but there’s no spelunking involved. Just bring a good pair of shoes.
At the other end of this trek is a spectacular beach called Devil’s Bay. As you emerge from the rocks, it unfolds like a dream, with unspoiled turquoise water shimmering like diamonds in the sun. It’s worth the hike to experience it.
As I explored the crystalline depths, I encountered an octopus. It was a little bigger than my hand but full of vigor. I followed it for what seemed like hours, darting about the submerged rock formations, constantly changing its shape and size.
When I think about the octopus (or plural, octopi – that’s fun to say), the first thought that enters my head is “alien.” It’s not hyperbole: <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/scientific-paper-claims-octopuses-actually-161100373.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAlDc3OtmWaNnugy1CE9jDhDNBqXMsAtCICpCq5Kq276uYXmXNInrAgucHJDs2i3qlWggBfdZtzxrRqcvSIiG-VpDK7TZi4l-I2xm-GG4I4B8RcNFZij_oc_JsnQ7l2DVWTeMIuANjQLBrTCH9uhlnNTJZ0nQjIdG4zO9uovndmu" target="_blank">a scientific paper</a> released last year postulates that these critters exhibit "extraterrestrial biological features." If that sounds more like science fiction than fact, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz1R6tOBryY" target="_blank">watch this video</a> of octopi making spectacular escapes from impossible places. They are cunning, intelligent, and able to reach places other species can’t.
It’s clear why this unique creature influenced the name Occtoo. The etymological allusion is obvious, but I wanted to ask <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nmollin/" target="_blank">Niclas Mollin</a>, co-founder and CEO of this new breed of business, how this permutation came about – and why it’s so apropos to his company’s ethos.
“We had a lot of ideas,” he said, bouncing around concepts of infinity and its relationship to persisting data. But under it all, the octopus motif seems to align with the company’s values to reach, connect, and unify – like a cephalopod’s long, sticky arms.
As it so happens, a design company located in their shared workspace helped bring the brand to life – and the rest, as they say, is history. Since its launch in 2019, the startup platform has grown to almost 50 employees across 14 countries, with a hub in central Sweden.
During the course of our conversation, I asked Niclas about the murky depths of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/8-cms-trends-to-watch-in-2023-from-mach-to-metaverse/">digital experience composition</a> (DXC) and how Occtoo is shining through the confusion. We also discussed the importance of the MACH Alliance as a force for shaping the composable landscape and what’s on the roadmap for his vibrant young company.
<h2>Swimming in rivers and oceans of data</h2>
Building businesses from the ground floor is nothing new for Niclas. He’s a steely entrepreneur that exudes confidence, masterfully translating business value into something scalable.
He mustered those traits as a founding member of <a href="https://www.inriver.com/" target="_blank">inRiver</a> – a product information management (PIM) system that simplifies multichannel commerce by making it fast, easy, and visual in nature. The platform enables customers to create, maintain, and distribute product information across multiple sales channels.
inRiver started flowing in 2008, and Niclas spent nearly a decade building it into a powerhouse PIM. Along the way, he saw the opportunity for Occtoo to emerge, specifically as fragmented and siloed data became a key inhibitor to building modern apps.
“There was a big challenge with flowing data and making it available in real time,” he said. “We couldn’t take so long to launch digital experiences. So I decided to explore if we could build something that can help customers innovate faster and launch in a more capable way.”
While not all startups have the good fortune to start with an international customer like <a href="https://www.cartier.com/en-us/home" target="_blank">Cartier</a>, Niclas was able to leverage his network of partnerships to prove out Occtoo’s utility. In the first two years, they landed <a href="https://www.fenixoutdoor.se/" target="_blank">Fenix Outdoor</a> and other leading brands, helping the company reach 500% revenue growth between 2020 and 2021.
This led to an investment by Sweden-based <a href="https://industrifonden.com/" target="_blank">Industrifonden</a> and <a href="https://www.42cap.com/" target="_blank">42CAP</a> for €2 million in early 2021, no doubt buoyed by the rapid acceleration of digital transformation by the Covid-19 pandemic in areas like eCommerce. This continued in November of 2022, with an additional infusion of €4.6M in a round led by <a href="https://newion.com/news/occtoo-raises-e4-6m-to-help-digital-teams-build-relevant-experiences-with-their-low-code-composable-experience-data-platform/" target="_blank">Newion</a>.
<h2>Building customer experiences at lightning speed</h2>
Occtoo is purpose-built around data, hence its claim to the mantle of “The Experience Data Platform.” But therein lies its competitive distinction: Occtoo helps companies build experiences faster by harnessing real time data from internal and external sources – from CRM to ERP, PIM to DAM – and combining it all in a low-code platform. With everything persisting in one place, you can assemble product and editorial content using data from various relevant places.
Sounds cool. But how?
APIs, baby – which, according to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecka-l%C3%B6thman-ryd%C3%A5-b8638a55/" target="_blank">Rebecka Löthman Rydå</a> of Industrifonden, can be rendered in Occtoo “as easily as creating a Slack channel.” These APIs also power additional capabilities like headless personalization, allowing for greater experimentation and optimization.
One of Occtoo’s strongest attributes is its ability to tap legacy and siloed data and make it available and reusable across an omnichannel of frontend screens and devices. At the same time, it’s bi-directional, allowing you to collect behavioral data from app users.
Occtoo’s cloud-native SaaS posture makes it a composable play that accelerates everything in the ecosystem, enabling a faster time to innovation – something critical in our rapidly evolving digital economy. Occtoo also offers a visualization UI that allows for simplified management.
On this point, Niclas analogized Occtoo to an iceberg. “We spent the first couple of years building, [figuring out] how to store data, our graph database – so customers don’t have to think about it,” he said. “Now, Occtoo Studio is the user interface. You can see it, activate it, and front-end developers can get the APIs. It’s all visual.”
<h2>The integration killer</h2>
In my <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/is-the-birth-of-dxc-the-death-of-dxp-a-conversation-with-darren-guarnaccia-president-at-uniform/">recent interview</a> with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dguarnaccia/" target="_blank">Darren Guarnaccia</a>, president at Uniform – a digital composition experience platform (DXCP) –  he emphatically denounced integration glue code as “the lowest value code.” No disagreement from me, but many SIs subsist on costly, long-term engagements and retainers to manage a hornet’s nest of integration code.
Like Uniform, Occtoo is appealing to both enterprises and SIs with the practical equation of time = money. By eliminating the friction around combining and activating data from any source, you can effectively kill the reliance on costly, time-consuming integrations that can sometimes take three, six, or even 12 months to build.
I know enterprises are seeing the benefit, but I asked if SIs were on board with "anti-glue code" solutions like DXC – and if they’re already seeing potential with these tools.
“Yes,” Niclas said unequivocally, “because glue code isn’t fun. The amount of time spent on projects is becoming an issue, but SIs also need to do something with their offerings, as there’s more than just commerce. We need to be asking, 'how can we help with the customer journey?'"
He also believes the SIs realize they can deliver their first DXC-powered project successfully and will be positioned to deliver more projects – and Occtoo has the perfect solution to make that happen.
“If you have Octoo in the offering, you can spend more time working on the dynamics of project cost. That creates more dollars to reallocate to do more – and that’s incentive for the SI. We have all the data needed in Occtoo, and launching the next digital initiative is five times faster.”
Five times faster. Not too shabby when considering time to market. Or your bottom line.
<h2>To be a DXC, or not to be… is that the question?</h2>
Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/" target="_blank">Kelly Goetsch</a> – Chief Strategy Officer at <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/">commercetools</a> and co-founder of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a> – hosted a sort of DXC Family Feud on LinkedIn. The purpose: bring some definition to the emerging “digital experience composition” category. The contestants included Niclas, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">Lars Petersen</a> (CEO of Uniform), and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-legacy-to-composable-whats-the-best-way-forward/">Sana Remekie</a> (CEO of <a href="https://conscia.ai/">Conscia.ai</a>).
The word “family” is apropos because everything about this webinar felt amicable. As Sana observed, this was her first time amongst frenemies. Kelly further amplified this point, suggesting all three panelists might be competing for market share – but only after a category, Wave, or Magic Quadrant had been codified. 
As I shared with Niclas, my experience with each of these leaders has been one of true composable ambassadorship for DXC, where rising tides lift all ships. He agreed and took it one step further.
“Lars came out of CMS, Sana out of search, and Occtoo out of enterprise data,” he said, noting the different layers of the stack. “When we talk to each other, we’re not competing at all. We’ve even pitched together [and] provided elements to help Uniform build cool frontends.”
That camaraderie sounds great, but the big challenge plaguing these innovators is a continued lack of clarity. While Gartner mentioned DXC as an important trend in its recently published Magic Quadrant for DXPs, the lack of “category guardrails” can still confuse potential buyers. Add to that a parsing within the proto-category, from Occtoo's "Experience Data Platform" to Conscia's "Digital Experience Orchestration." 
Niclas didn’t seem troubled by this, perhaps because of his clear focus on data.
“CMS is great, and you need to have that. The commerce engine has its purpose. But you have to include PIM data, enterprise ERP data... and this is where the magic happens [with Occtoo]. We want to help take care of the real business data, the kind that resides in internal facing systems. Persisting the data, the ability to unify data from different sources, and the ability to make it available from one API.”
I asked Niclas where he sees demand. Are RFPs specifically calling out DXC or Experience Data Platforms as a requirement?
“We’re in the early days,” he said. “but now we’re moving towards [being] a best-of-breed solution.”
And with a customer list that includes Cartier, Marquet, and other leading brands, they’re already carving out demand for their service.
<h2>MACHified for a composable world</h2>
As a member of the MACH Alliance, Occtoo has undergone a rigorous approval process to meet the organization’s certification benchmarks. Additionally, Niclas serves on the <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/staying-focused-why-we-re-expanding-the-mach-alliance-advisory-board" target="_blank">Executive Advisory Board</a>, which is helping to shape the future of the Alliance and serve its growing member community – which now includes 80 vendors, SIs, and enablers.
I asked Niclas what the MACH Alliance means for Occtoo and the industry at large.
“It has a fantastic role to play,” he said. “It puts a light on it, and it would be hard to do [this] alone. The collective power is amazing and the team has done an amazing job.”
Niclas also reinforced what I’ve heard from multiple members and outside analysts: that the Alliance needs to continue its investment in education and certification, so it doesn’t dilute its value. This will continue to be a challenge as more monolithic DXPs shift to composable offerings and focus their marketing on the hype.
As Niclas created one of these MACH-certified composable solutions, I probed to see what he thought of these chess moves by more monolithic DXPs.
“It’s good – they recognize they can’t have data locked in,” he responded. "This is a tricky topic, but I believe that a DXP needs to be constantly evolving to include new technology and approaches – hence, interoperability is going to be key, even if this is a suite bought from one vendor or multiple vendors. The MACH Alliance is important to validate which vendors adhere to MACH principles."
The good news, as Niclas predicts, is that DXPs can use Occtoo to aid their transition to a modern posture. "This is the path moving forward. We can tap into legacy players, and it works – if they admit they are good at one part, and not another. DXPs have strengths.”
<h2>Eight arms towards the future</h2>
Design has been an important attribute of Niclas’ entrepreneurial makeup, from brand to business value. I asked what the roadmap looks like for his still fledgling company and what it takes to design an entirely new category – especially at a time when the economics are, shall we say, rattling the cage.
“You need to be a little crazy to do it,” he said, bending a wry smile in my direction. “When I left inRiver, I [swore] I would never build a category again. I love the building part, but it’s frustrating. Change is hard, and there’s a lot of resistance.”
Resistance may seem futile, but not to this business builder. He is undeniable in his quest to "empower people with data," and he’s focusing his passion on the possibilities – as crazy as they might seem.
Maybe those risks are less daunting when you have more time to explore. As we parted ways, Niclas shared how his two kids (a daughter and son, 20 and 18) have left a wake of space, allowing him and his wife to travel, hike, and even enjoy a glass of wine in the middle of the week.
As I think about Occtoo and its future, I’m reminded again of the octopus. In some ways, its otherworldly abilities to change form and reach impossible places are the very essence of being composable. DXC may feel a bit like wading into alien waters. But a new world of potential awaits below the surface – and leaders like Niclas are taking us there.
If you haven’t yet explored it yet, go.

Occtoo Dives Deep to Unify Data and Kill Integrations: A Conversation with CEO Niclas Mollin

Occtoo featured graphic with headshot of Niclas Mollin and Occtoo logo

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">Uniform</a> continues to drive innovation in the digital experience composition platform (DXCP) space.
As a leading provider in the emerging category, the company just announced a series of enhancements to its <a href="https://uniform.dev/canvas">Uniform Canvas</a> and <a href="https://uniform.dev/mesh">Uniform Mesh</a> products. The new features round out Uniform's DXCP as the most robust visual workspace, empowering digital teams to deliver winning multichannel experiences.
The new product releases also complete Uniform's original promise of headless technologies. Now, brands can visually weave multiple API-powered technologies together to create high-performance digital experiences quickly and with greater agility. 
According to Uniform's press release, the new functionality will allow marketers to create web and app experiences faster and more flexibly. The enhanced features will also give developers broader scope for building lightning-fast experiences with innovative technology.
Below are some of the technical highlights and enhancements of Canvas and Mesh.
<h2>Putting power back in the hands of marketers </h2>
Canvas comes equipped with two new enhancements: Uniform Dynamic Pages and Uniform Redirect Manager. These powerful additions to the visual experience builder will offer marketers and merchandisers greater control over product-based experiences.
<ul>
<li>Dynamic Pages: Enables business users to efficiently adapt and iterate across thousands of webpages, such as product detail pages, to build visual experiences at scale without developer support. No-code templates and custom page creation drive seamless content updates, consistent branding, and improves speed to market.</li>
<li>Redirect Manager: Simplifies URL management through the creation of vanity URLs, activation of fast redirects using a modern content delivery network (CDN), and reliable page access. A visual tool helps business users quickly identify browser errors, improving accuracy and ensuring a smooth customer experience.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Freedom to innovate with best-of-breed tools</h2>
Mesh’s enhanced features underpin Uniform's DXCP capabilities by removing silos, eliminating weeks of manual coding, and freeing developers to work with their tools of choice. Features will allow users to: 
<ul>
<li>Utilize any data source: Build and reuse front-end components to boost implementation speed and flexibility.</li>
<li>Leverage no-code connections to any API: This includes headless services, legacy platforms, and single-use data sources, along with pre-built connectors for key services.</li>
<li>Use Edgehancers to enable cutting-edge performance: Automatically push content to a CDN’s edge to enhance page speed, user experience, and SEO performance – all without any custom code.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Accelerate time to market</h2>
Uniform is also launching a Component Starter Kit – an open-source and fully customizable collection of front-end components to streamline ideation for testing and production. Users can easily add these to a component development system like <a href="https://storybook.js.org/">Storybook</a> and connect to content sources using Mesh.
“The excitement surrounding the new release comes from its ability to empower digital teams and tackle the challenges marketers encounter when delivering high-performing digital experiences,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/is-the-birth-of-dxc-the-death-of-dxp-a-conversation-with-darren-guarnaccia-president-at-uniform/">Darren Guarnaccia</a>, president, Uniform. “These latest capabilities elevate the visual workspace, enabling true enterprise scalability and seamlessly blends content, data, and technology at remarkable speeds. With enhancements to Canvas, Mesh, and the introduction of the Component Starter Kit, we’re fulfilling the promise of what headless tools initially aimed to achieve. The envisioned future is one where marketers can focus on storytelling and audience engagement, free from the constraints of traditional platforms and processes.”
<h2>About Uniform</h2>
Uniform DXCP speeds up time to value for composable experience architecture, lowers development costs, and makes it easy for business users to build digital experiences. A composable orchestration layer for legacy and modern headless systems or any API in Uniform DXCP eliminates the need for complex custom integration code. Instead, available for marketers, merchandisers, and other business users are no-code tools to build digital experiences with content from any source—without submitting developer tickets. Furthermore, Uniform DXCP’s high-performance personalization capability, delivered at the edge, raises conversion and CX for all channels.

Uniform Adds New Visual Editing and Integration Features to Enhance DXCP

<a href="https://uniform.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Uniform</a> has been anything but uniform. And that's a good thing. Since the company's inception, it has frequently challenged conventional industry thinking and elevated the conversation around composability.
As a certified 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>, Uniform has been trumpeting its vision for integrating modern composable systems with legacy monoliths, allowing customers to smooth out the rough patches with delivery and update their architectures "through evolution, not revolution."
Along with an array of platform products that include personalization, Uniform has been carving a new niche that has DXPs and analysts rethinking the digital experience landscape. It's the kind of bold thinking that helped the company <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/uniform-raises-28m-in-series-a-funding-round-for-composable-dxp/">raise $28 million</a> in Series A funding last December, just 15 months after breaking ground. 
Now, Uniform is launching a new kind of industry event that focuses on digital experience composition – or DXC (add it to your list of three-lettered acronyms to remember).
The virtual conference, dubbed <a href="https://uniform.dev/dxc-assembly?utm_campaign=marketing&amp;utm_source=uniform-blog&amp;utm_medium=DXCA-web-banner-link-for-uniform-page" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DXC Assembly</a>, will be held on November 15th and promises a unique mix of speakers that are leading the charge in the emerging field of digital experience composition. The conference will also feature breakout sessions, AMAs, and demos that will be announced in the coming weeks.
<h2 class="text-lg sm:text-2xl font-semibold text-blue-ribbon mb-4 md:mb-8">Building the future for developers and business teams</h2>
According to Uniform, DXC offers fast, robust, and highly adaptable tools that allow businesses to build lightning-fast experiences that are engaging and immersive. DXC-powered experiences are also designed to respond to changing business needs, customer behaviors, and market conditions. 
The DXC Assembly will feature a mix of speakers and attendees from across the development and business tracks. This includes engineers, architects, and marketers that work extensively in the digital experience arena.
While the agenda continues to evolve, the festivities will begin at 9 AM Eastern with a keynote from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-birkholm-petersen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lars Birkholm Petersen</a>, cofounder and CEO of Uniform. Immediately following, Uniform's CTO and cofounder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexshyba/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alex Shyba</a> will demonstrate how to build a composable solution by taking a project from early development and quickly delivering it to business teams. 
In addition to the Uniform leadership, attendees will hear from a panel of speakers including <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-burgy-88671673/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pierre Burgy</a> of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/strapi-releases-v4-of-headless-cms-enhances-plugins-and-api-performance/">Strapi</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciakunth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patricia Kunth</a> of Cobham Satcom, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-orum-andersen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lars Ørum Andersen</a> of Kruso, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/workingmom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beth Torrie</a> of Tercera. 
If you're interested in attending DXC Assembly, you can get a free ticket for access to all workshops, live streams, and expos <a href="https://hopin.com/events/dxc-assembly-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. 
<h2>About Uniform</h2>
Uniform is the world's first composable DXP, built for today's performance and scalability demands. A frictionless, pre-integrated composable digital experience platform gives companies the choice to continuously adopt traditional and headless best-of-breed technologies without ever replatforming, allowing businesses to deliver omnichannel orchestration with built-in high-performance testing and personalization – regardless of how their tech stacks evolve over time. Several top brands use Uniform to power their digital experiences, including Cirque du Soleil, Life Extension, Sunweb and Trimble. Visit <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3376641-1&amp;h=192194015&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3344227-1%26h%3D2537620590%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Funiform.dev%252F%26a%3Duniform.dev&amp;a=uniform.dev" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">uniform.dev</a> for more.

Uniform to Host DXC Assembly, Offers First Virtual Conference on Digital Experience Composition

Image of DXC Assembly artwork - a series of geometric shapes that form the letters "DXC" against a solid colored blue background.

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