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Gartner Magic Quadrant Article

Yo Ho! Gartner’s New Magic Quadrant for Search and Product Discovery is a Compass for CX

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Optimizely Leads Gartner's 2024 MQ for Content Marketing Platforms as More DXPs Join the Game

The DXP Kerfuffle: Finding the Big Chords in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin" target="_blank">Benjamin Franklin</a>, the revolutionary American statesman who helped architect the fledgling U.S. republic (and flew a kite during a thunderstorm), once said, "Look before, or you'll find yourself behind."
When it comes to the future of CMS, that same observation applies – but with another Franklin that dared to look ahead.
Recently, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a> – the <a href="https://business.adobe.com/blog/the-latest/adobe-named-a-leader-in-2023-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms#:~:text=The%20Latest-,Adobe%20named%20a%20Leader%20in%202023%20Gartner%C2%AE,%E2%84%A2%20for%20Digital%20Experience%20Platforms&amp;text=Gartner%20published%20the%20latest%20Magic,has%20been%20named%20a%20Leader." target="_blank">Gartner MQ Leader</a> for DXPs –  introduced a new feature in its <a href="https://www.adobe.com/?clickref=1101lwIXbvhb&amp;mv=affiliate&amp;mv2=pz&amp;as_camptype=277929&amp;as_channel=affiliate&amp;as_source=partnerize&amp;as_campaign=chelen" target="_blank">Experience Manager</a> suite called <a href="https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/forms/forms-overview/latest-innovations.html?lang=en" target="_blank">Next-Gen Composability</a>, the new mantle for its AEM "<a href="https://www.hlx.live/home" target="_blank">Project Franklin</a>" initiative.
A bit of background on the skunkworks: Franklin was introduced in January as a lightweight CMS architecture designed to launch new sites faster and accelerate page performance. It also provided a more intuitive way to create and publish content using simple tools like <a href="https://www.google.com/docs/about/" target="_blank">Google Docs</a> or <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/word" target="_blank">Microsoft Word</a> for authoring. 
The news was officially announced last month at <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/adobe-summit.html" target="_blank">Adobe Summit 2023</a>, but Adobe is already experiencing success with a pilot customer (keep reading for more details). 
<h2>What is Next-Gen Composability?</h2>
Content management jargon can take on many forms, with enough variations to make any head spin. With Next-Gen Composability, Adobe is attempting to make things simple. Really simple.
When implementing Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) in the past, developers and marketers would be tasked with learning new publishing tools, workflows, and more – often requiring several different learned processes across multiple channels. With Next-Gen Composability, AEM can now leverage commonly used tools like Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspace and implement content built from those tools directly into the experience manager.
Producing and editing content in channels that marketers are already familiar with can reduce the back and forth that plagues many enterprise CMSes. With these hurdles now removed from the equation, building websites and producing content should become faster and more reliable – and further reduce dependence on technical support teams. It should also reduce the overall friction with implementing AEM. 
<h2>Lightning-fast pages with high Google Lighthouse scores</h2>
The cloud-native infrastructure behind Next-Gen Composability is designed for speed. The tools built into the program require each web page to render a <a href="https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overview/" target="_blank">Google Lighthouse</a> score of 100 on live pages – made possible by fast caching and an edge delivery engine.
Along with enhanced page performance, content can be built quickly with Next-Gen composability because teams can use tools they already know – and all with a few clicks. For content creators, this should eliminate many obstacles throughout the publishing workflow, giving them greater speed and agility. 
<h2>Supercharged forms</h2>
Forms continue to be one of a website's most important engagement tools. They're also a huge pain for content creators.
According to Adobe's website, with Next Gen Composability, users across an enterprise can create forms using their preferred tools, such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets – without extensive training on new UI workflows.
What’s more, Next Gen Composability is designed to load forms with unmatched speed, achieving a near-perfect Google Lighthouse score on live pages, practically guaranteeing top performance and user experience.
<h2>Tried, Tested, and Approved</h2>
The first to implement Next-Gen Composability within AEM was Adobe partner <a href="https://www.netcentric.biz/insights/2023/04/next-gen-composability-reimagines-content-management" target="_blank">Cognizant Netcentric</a>. They used the new feature to produce <a href="https://www.netcentric.biz/" target="_blank">cognizantnetcentric.com</a> – drafting their content in Google Workspace.
In a blog article reflecting the project’s success, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrin-weissenborn/" target="_blank">Katrin Weissenborn</a>, a commercial marketing manager at Cognizant Netcentric, commented on the ease of use and overall satisfaction with Next-Gen Composability:
“Next-Gen Composability has completely transformed the way we work, our web publishing has never been that fast and easy before. Whenever I spot something on the website that I want to change, I just do it myself in record time, no need to brief content editors. As soon as the change is live, I just tag my content editing colleagues directly in the content repository so the change will also be done in other languages to ensure a consistent user experience throughout.”
<h2>About Adobe</h2>
<div class="main-content">
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com&amp;esheet=52479752&amp;newsitemid=20210819005739&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.adobe.com&amp;index=3&amp;md5=16bfbb09ccdd811085bcdfd56783339b" target="_blank">www.adobe.com</a>.
</div>

Adobe Experience Manager Evolves Franklin, Launches Next-Gen Composability Feature

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This week, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/?s=acquia"> Acquia</a> – a leading open source digital experience platform – rolled out an enhanced version of its digital asset management (DAM) platform, offering customers new integrations and API connectivity to further boost their digital experiences.
“Content is at the core of any exceptional digital experience,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeathey/" target="_blank">Jake Athey</a>, VP of Sales and Marketing for Acquia DAM and PIM. “Acquia DAM enables organizations of all sizes to maximize the value of their content by connecting to other software solutions, including a DXP, via built-in integrations or API. Our newest integrations with widely used tools as Shopify, Asana, and Monday.com make content more secure, extensible, accessible, and trackable across a brand’s digital properties.”
<a href="https://www.acquia.com/platform/digital-asset-management" target="_blank">Acquia DAM</a> works within the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/platform/acquia-dxp" target="_blank">Acquia DXP</a> (powered by the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-introduces-composable-enterprise-features-in-latest-version-of-dxp/">Drupal Cloud and Marketing Cloud</a> ecosystem) to push out content across many different channels. With many of today's marketers utilizing images, audio files, and video files for the majority of their content creation, housing those large file assets in the DAM makes searching and accessing them much easier, especially for marketing teams that might be located in different offices.
<h2>What to expect from Acquia DAM</h2>
With the new enhancements, Acquia DAM is now able to integrate with the following:
<ul>
<li>Airtable: Enables customers to use DAM assets to build collaborative applications in Airtable.</li>
<li>Asana: Adds finished assets to the DAM once projects are completed.</li>
<li>Google Sheets: Allows customers to connect their DAM with Google Sheets to capture and use metadata about content, such as when an asset was published and by whom.</li>
<li>HubSpot: New or updated assets in Acquia DAM can be copied into HubSpot. Customers may also choose to set security in HubSpot for all assets or groups of assets managed by the DAM.</li>
<li>Monday.com: Adds finished assets to Acquia DAM once projects are completed.</li>
<li>Optimizely: Connects the DAM to Optimizely content management systems (CMS).</li>
<li>Shopify: Syncs content assets and metadata from Acquia DAM, as well as all product details from Acquia’s product information management (PIM) system to Shopify to support e-commerce deployments.</li>
<li>Slack: Permits users to access Acquia DAM files from their Slack messaging platform.</li>
<li>Smartsheet: Connects Smartsheet and Acquia to automatically sync new or updated assets and metadata from Smartsheet to the DAM.</li>
<li>Templafy: Allows access to brand-approved assets from Acquia DAM within the Templafy document generation platform.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Built on the legacy Widen DAM</h2>
In September 2021, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/">Acquia announced</a> it would acquire Widen, a DAM vendor. Widen had strong brand recognition among enterprise-level organizations and a well-established following, making it a great addition to Acquia's expanding digital experience platform.
After rebranding to Acquia DAM, Acquia has continued to make improvements and provide additional API connectivity for its DAM system.
<h2>Other enhancements to Acquia DXP</h2>
In late December 2022, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221222005228/en/Acquia-Launches-Enhancements-to-Market-Leading-Customer-Data-Platform" target="_blank">Acquia also released enhancements</a> to its customer data platform, including a unified data layer, an integration with Acquia DAM, and direct SQL access. In that news release, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimidelson/" target="_blank">Jim Idelson</a> – vice president of product for Acquia CDP – promised additional integrations, which are now coming to fruition.
“A key tenet of any composable digital experience strategy is ability to work with data across systems,” said Idelson. “We look for every opportunity to expand integrations between Acquia CDP and other martech systems, and to make it easy for organizations to make full use of their data while respecting the privacy and preferences of their own customers. In 2023, you’ll see additional enhancements from Acquia designed to support customer self-service and broader integrations.”
Acquia’s updates in the last several years have brought its DXP into <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/report/gartner-dxp-magic-quadrant" target="_blank">the Leader category</a> of the Gartner Magic Quadrant, along with the likes of <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>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-announces-updates-to-product-suite-enhances-composable-features-and-innovation-from-acquisitions/">Sitecore</a>.  
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that leverage their content and data assets to engage customers personally and at scale, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://acquia.com" target="_blank">https://acquia.com</a>.

Acquia Announces New Integrations as Part of Its Enhanced Digital Asset Management System

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These days, if you're not beating the DXP drum of "composable" and "scalable," you might seem out of step with the direction of the market. That's been a challenge for traditionally monolithic platforms that have invested in a vision of completeness for enterprise customers, but still want to be perceived as flexible amidst a growing stack of services. 
In an effort to MACHify (more on that in a minute), <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/" target="_blank">Sitecore</a> is evolving its own monolithic legacy position by adapting its fully-integrated platform of solutions. At last week's <a href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/en/world-tour/London" target="_blank">Sitecore Symposium World Tour</a> in London, the company outlined a composable product portfolio, showcasing customers delivering digital experiences at scale with its own composable offerings. 
<h2>Driving DXP growth through strategic acquisitions</h2>
In case you missed the barrage of stories we covered, Sitecore has been making headlines since announcing its <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-embarks-on-1-2b-investment-plan-to-accelerate-growth/" target="_blank">$1.2 billion capital investment</a> last year – which, at the time, was unprecedented in the industry. 
As part of its growth plan, the company went on an acquisition spree. In just one year, it purchased four technologies that addressed key gaps in its DXP strategy: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-ai-powered-search-platform-reflektion/" target="_blank">Reflektion</a>, an AI-powered digital search solution; <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-moosend-adds-ai-powered-email-marketing-automation/" target="_blank">Moosend</a>, an e-mail marketing automation, and campaign management platform; <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/" target="_blank">Boxever</a>, a SaaS-based Customer Data Platform (CDP); and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51/" target="_blank">Four51</a>, a digital commerce platform for e-Commerce B2B marketplace solutions. 
According to the company, these platforms are now fully integrated into Sitecore, achieving a significant milestone in delivering a complete, SaaS-based DXP.
<h2>MACH vs. monolith... or can we all just get along?</h2>
We've talked a lot about <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">MACH</a>-based composable architectures and how they're being adopted at a wild pace, particularly as brands look to scale faster and faster. Following the seismic shift in digital transformation following the Covid-19 pandemic, many CMS and DXP companies doubled down on a composable market posture – and Sitecore was among the enterprise crop that announced its intentions to invest in a more composable DXP position.
Sitecore's product updates have been fundamental to expanding its advanced, SaaS-enabled capabilities, which do align with several principles of MACH architectures (which stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless). Sitecore says that its suite of capabilities will enable brands to provide real-time, personalized digital experiences across every touchpoint, from content to commerce – powered by the cloud. 
One of the key challenges for vendors in the MACH space is the ability to prove their "MACH centricity" under the tenants established by the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">MACH Alliance</a>. The industry organization has become a bellwether for all things MACH and established strict requirements for members that reinforce the underlying fundamentals of the movement – all in an effort to help companies invest in the most composable solutions on the market.  For platforms like Sitecore, this has become an opportunity to tout the benefits of its broader market offerings while future-proofing products like <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/blog/headless/what-is-mach-architecture" target="_blank">Sitecore OrderCloud as "MACH Certified."</a> 
"For brands to truly meet the moment, it has never been more crucial than it is now to adopt technology that offers choice, flexibility, and speed," said Dave O'Flanagan, Chief Product Officer at Sitecore. "Sitecore is committed to delivering a composable DXP that meets the continuously changing needs of brands – unifying content, experience, and commerce, enabling them to offer exceptional customer experiences while continuing to innovate for whatever demands are around the corner. Ambitious brands have outgrown the one-size-fits-all vendors, and they will not settle for piecemeal point solutions – they need a stack of best-in-class features that work in harmony together – and this is what Sitecore delivers."
Here are more details on the updates to Sitecore's product offerings, which all build on innovation via their acquisitions:
<h2>Sitecore OrderCloud</h2>
<a href="https://ordercloud.io/" target="_blank">Sitecore OrderCloud</a> is an API-first, headless cloud platform for B2B, B2C, and B2X. This capability comes from the Four51 acquisition, which originally designed the platform. The new updates expand OrderCloud's marketplace support capabilities with the release of new order routing flexibility, supplier empowerment, and pricing flexibility. And as mentioned, OrderCloud is powered by a MACH architecture, giving it greater flexibility within the Sitecore stack.  
In addition, OrderCloud released a new Inventory Records feature to provide management flexibility that enables manufacturers, distributors, and retailers with seamless operational and commerce capabilities.
"With Sitecore OrderCloud, we are excited about the possibilities of connecting our customers with products they need and want to play sports and have fun," said Jason McConnell, Director of Product at NBC Sports Next. "We picked Sitecore OrderCloud because we're impressed with its composable developer-first functionality, which should give us all the flexibility needed to seamlessly weave commerce into our existing technology platforms." 
<h3>Sitecore Send</h3>
<a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/send" target="_blank">Sitecore Send</a> is an e-mail marketing automation tool that evolved from the Moosend acquisition. Sitecore's updates include six additional languages: Spanish, French, German, Greek, Japanese, and Portuguese. Sitecore also announced a new pricing plan with a 30-day free trial for the full range of Send's enterprise-level features.
<h3>Sitecore Discover</h3>
<a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/discover" target="_blank">Sitecore Discover</a> is an AI-powered product search and merchandising solution that came with the acquisition of Reflektion. It helps understand and predict an individual shopper's purchase intent based on patterns, context, and needs – all of which help convert browsers into buyers.
The updates provide Sitecore Discover's Commerce Engagement Console (CEC) with a revamped appearance library and editor, providing a better user experience and more control over merchandising. It also improves its widgets with type filters and rule exports, adding more convenience for users.
<h3>Sitecore Personalize</h3>
<a href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/sitecore-personalize" target="_blank">Sitecore Personalize</a> is an AI-driven, cloud-native solution for delivering tailored experiences to every customer. The product stems from the acquisition of Boxever, a SaaS-based Customer Data Platform (CDP) that provides decisioning and experimentation capabilities.
As part of the update package, Sitecore Personalize has completed its integration with Sitecore Experience Manager, offering channel diagnostic testing and real-time personalization that complements Sitecore's market-leading CMS – and is all delivered in the cloud.
<h3>Expanded integrations for Salesforce and more</h3>
Sitecore also published several new connectors on its Sitecore Marketplace for several product integrations, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Responsys, and Klaviyo. The company also added new AI-powered product discovery capabilities to support a broad range of commerce-related use cases, including intelligent search, product listing pages, and product recommendations.
<h2>Ramping up the competition</h2>
Sitecore has been a consistent Leader on <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/webinars/4005210/the-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms" target="_blank">Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>. However, in the most recent 2022 assessment, the platform has fallen slightly behind its chief competitors, Acquia and Optimizely, while Adobe continues to maintain its dominance.  
<img style="max-width:800px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/gartner-dxp-mq-2022-graphic.webp" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs graphic 2022" />
According to Gartner, the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-keynote-the-future-of-business-is-composable" target="_blank">future of business is composable</a>, and Sitecore's journey towards composability and the cloud illustrates its commitment to the market. The analyst firm noted that Sitecore's efforts to convert its core applications into SaaS – and acquiring SaaS vendors with complementary capabilities in AI, CDP, and search, among others – is a strength. 
While the company may have slipped against its competitors, it certainly appears ready to do battle in the Composable Revolution. 
<h2>About Sitecore</h2>
Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform that empowers the world’s smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers. A highly decorated industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies including American Express, ASOS, Carnival Cruise Lines, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oréal, and Volvo Cars rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalized experiences for their customers. Learn more at <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/">Sitecore.com</a>.

Sitecore Announces Updates to Product Suite, Enhances Composable Features and Innovation from Acquisitions

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The hype around digital experiences, headless, MACH, customer journeys, and other buzzwords can be deafening. 
But what about content? And more specifically, managing content? 
For most people in the CMS industry, managing content is considered "core functionality" when it comes to a content management system, but also an area that hasn't really been front and center for the past few years. 
Managing content – so you can do more with it – has huge potential. But how do you tap into this? 
Let's start our quest for better content management in 2022 by looking at some of the recent analyst reports. I'll then turn to a few other key market trends, provide some inconvenient truths, and finally offer some (hopefully) helpful advice on how you can make progress. 
 
<h2>What do the industry analysts say about managing content in 2022?</h2>
I've looked at the reports, we've talked about them in our recent <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/groups/cms-experts/" target="_blank">CMS Experts group</a> meetings, and to be blunt: there's so much confusion that even industry insiders struggle to navigate this marketplace.  
If you turn to the most recent <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/webinars/4005210/the-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms" target="_blank">Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>, you can get a glimpse into how one of the larger industry analysts sees the marketplace. As they say in the opening of the MQ report, their focus is on:
"...the demand for platforms to manage digital experiences of customers, partners and employees…"
And the way they look at the vendors is on how well they:
"...enable the composition, management, delivery, and optimization of contextualized digital experiences across multiexperience customer journeys…"
Content is naturally a key part of digital experiences, and Gartner does consider content management a core capability of a DXP. Still, it's listed alongside 14 other core capabilities and 12 optional capabilities. 
16 vendors are included in this year's Gartner report, and content comes up directly and indirectly with a few of the vendors, such as:
<ul>
<li>CoreMedia's strengths in supporting global multisite operations provide a solid platform to ensure consistency for brands.</li>
<li>Magnolia's focus on offering an extensible DXP built from best-of-breed components from different vendors, to the point of enabling customers to replace native content management system (CMS) capabilities.</li>
<li>Oracle's offering being differentiated by content and digital asset management.</li>
</ul>
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/gartner-mq-dxp-2022.jpg" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXP graphic 2022" />
It's also worth noting that Gartner looks at <a href="https://www.doxee.com/blog/marketing/what-is-b2e-and-why-it-is-becoming-important/" target="_blank">business-to-employee (B2E)</a> use cases (traditionally known as intranets) and with some of the tools squarely focused on external use cases like digital marketing. This impacts how well they rate in the "horse race style" evaluation approach. 
A noteworthy vendor in this analyst report: Salesforce, who has been marching towards the leader quadrant for quite some time. According to Gartner, they're still positioned as a Challenger, but they've made a few interesting acquisitions – most notably Slack – with the aim of connecting their suite more deeply as a customer experience hub. Salesforce does seem to have a clear vision for integrating its technologies to deliver a more unified digital experience with brand power. Still, where does CMS, and specifically managing content, fit in the Salesforce stack? 
Competing IT analyst firm Forrester released their Q1 2021 <a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/the-forrester-wave-agile-content-management-systems-cmses-q1-2021/RES161667?objectid=RES161667" target="_blank">Agile Content Management Wave</a> a year ago, which covered 15 vendors (mostly the same as Gartner). The initial recommendation from Forrester to buyers was indeed content focused:
"Deliver on the promise of reusable omnichannel content experiences…"
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/forrester-wave-agile-cmses-q1-2021.jpg" alt="Forrester Wave Agile CMSes Quadrant graphic Q1 2021" />
Further down they mentioned the importance of managing content and experiences centrally to drive reuse. In terms of vendors, they didn't include Salesforce in the report but instead Amplience and Contentstack. 
Forrester hasn't yet released an updated 2022 Agile CMS report, but instead a new report on "<a href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/why-a-multi-cms-approach-may-be-right-for-your-brand/" target="_blank">Making The Case For A Multi-CMS Strategy</a>." That's back to the age-old discussion of best of breed vs. suites, but also a potential to focus more on where you actually manage your content. That is unless you want to manage your content in multiple systems?
Finally, there's G2, which has its "<a href="https://www.g2.com/categories/web-content-management" target="_blank">Best Web Content Management Software</a>" quarterly grid report. G2 has carved out its own niche with user-based reviews – providing an unbiased, real-world reflection of what content managers and CMS users actually think about different platforms. Interestingly (and confusingly), Hubspot is currently positioned as the Leader on the G2 Grid, but not even mentioned in the reports by Forrester and Gartner. 
We live in confusing CMS times. 
 
<h2>Market trends driving a focus on managing content</h2>
There's always the good advice of not just looking at what someone says, but also their actual behavior.  
The recent acquisition of <a href="https://www.bynder.com/en/press-media/bynder-acquires-content-operations-platform-gathercontent/" target="_blank">GatherContent by Bynder</a> is interesting as it signals an investment in Content Operations or the more hip permutation of "ContentOps." GatherContent was initially a platform designed to "gather content" from different sources (kind of like a pre-CMS, if you will) and has since been developed into a large-scale content operations platform. 
In my analysis entitled <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2022/3/gathercontent-joins-bynder-to-take-contentops-to-the-next-level" target="_blank">GatherContent Joins Bynder To Take ContentOps To The Next Level</a>, I predict a shift in the content toolstack. Where the past decade has been mostly focused on delivery, content management is really not a solved problem. 
Looking at Google search metrics, can tell you a thing or two about intent and where the market is right now. One telling example: there are many more searches for CMS than for DXP. In fact, we have vendors who have long abandoned the term "CMS" and analysts who have stopped talking about it, evolved its definition, or completely eliminated the category. Meanwhile, there are a huge number of potential buyers that are looking for a new CMS – and using that keyword in their searches. 
There are a few lesser known but still established vendors that are benefiting from this confusion and focusing on managing content. Here's just three examples:
<ul>
<li>Norwegian <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/vendors/enonic" target="_blank">Enonic</a>, with their low friction content platform. Or as they frame it: "The ultimate back-end for your digital experiences."</li>
<li><a href="https://www.coredna.com/" target="_blank">Core dna</a> comes from Australian roots and has invested heavily in being an alternative to legacy technology. Their focus is on making it easy "to build your content the way it makes sense for your business."</li>
<li>"Your content. Better, faster, at scale." This is the positioning statement by <a href="https://kontent.ai/" target="_blank">Kontent by Kentico</a>, the headless CMS that's rapidly growing in adoption on the back of the Czech-based Kentico mothership. </li>
</ul>
Another key market trend is the success of MACH and the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2021/10/11/whats-the-mach-alliance-all-about" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a>. This is indeed a technical focus (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) but also opens up different conversations in the enterprise. Historically, many have found themselves having to compromise when making technical decisions, and with MACH becoming more established, it enables customers to look for tools that manage content really well while selecting something else for different use cases. 
One final trend worth mentioning: businesses have a huge focus on building their digital presence, whether its campaigns, new stores, new brands, or introducing new digital functionality, it's always build, build, build. 
While talking about building websites, <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/vendors/wordpress">WordPress</a> remains the world’s #1 CMS. Their Gutenberg Editor was introduced in late 2018 and has made creating and managing digital content much easier. It’s not without controversy, however – one industry blogger even described Gutenberg as a “monumental hack” that is worrisome as a future foundation for WordPress. Will this affect WordPress and its mantle of leadership? Only time will tell.
On the enterprise side of the spectrum, many platforms are doubling down on growth and announcing huge investment rounds, particularly in areas like e-Commerce and headless commerce. One example is Bloomreach, which is keenly focused on being the best SaaS CMS for commerce – and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/bloomreach-reaches-2-2-billion-valuation-following-175-million-investment-from-goldman-sachs/" target="_blank">recently reached a $2.2 billion valuation</a> with an investment from Goldman Sachs. In the news from late February, Raj De Datta, CEO of Bloomreach, made an interesting comment:
"At Bloomreach, we believe that if the first 20 years of e-commerce have been about standing up the store or simply transacting online, then the next twenty years are about standing out from the crowd or differentiating in the face of increased digital competition and rising consumer expectation."
Besides using a tech solution that fits your needs, I would say that content and how you manage it is how you differentiate in the face of increased competition and rising expectations. That's the key market trend fueling huge investments. 
 
<h2>Inconvenient truths in the CMS marketplace</h2>
There is no "best web content management system." But there is probably a good Web CMS for what you're trying to do, and that's exactly what we focused on at a provocative session at the <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/past-conferences/2005-2009#2009">Boye Aarhus 2009 conference</a> some 13 years ago.
Much has happened since then, but unfortunately, customers still look for the best CMS. That's an inconvenient truth right there, and navigating the marketplace is not much easier these days. I wrote about that confusion in my post last year and offered some hopefully helpful advice: <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>. 
A big part of the problem, and a problem that's been around for a very long time, is how many customers keep creating checklists and producing Request-for-Proposals that ask questions that achieve nothing. Specifically, on selecting a CMS, you might find the open selection process by the web standards committee, W3C, interesting – in particular as accessibility was a key selection criterion. For more read: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-can-we-learn-from-the-w3c-cms-selection-process/" target="_blank">What can we learn from the W3C CMS selection process.</a>
Another key indicator of an immature marketplace, even though this thing has been around for 20 years, is that buyers are not talking to each other as much as they should. That's why we have peer groups; that's why conferences are so important, and that's also why CMS Critic has a big value: so that you can find balance between the vendor marketing and the real story. 
When it comes to managing content, it's interesting that many CMS vendors are also struggling to keep up with the pace. Content migration is still not an easy thing and probably the biggest inconvenient truth that still exists in this marketplace – particularly when it comes to managing content in your CMS of choice. More often than not, it's actually more of a people problem. It's the people and the team who builds your site and, in the process, makes some key decisions – and it's down to the team that designs and implements the content experience afterwards to make it work. 
A bad team without a driver's permit will navigate their CMS of choice into a wall, while a good and experienced team will make almost anything work. 
 
<h2>Manage content like a pro</h2>
Let's wrap up this 2022 post by trying to learn from the best, in particular when it comes to content. 
To a digital leader, there's actually some good news in the world right now, even though the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are both inescapable realities. Digital strategies and playbooks, which used to be gathering dust and a low-priority thing, are increasingly being put to good use. And the importance of a digital mindset is no longer questioned.
To quote Ashley Budd from Cornell: "<a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2020/4/23/we-cant-rely-of-the-content-strategy-of-the-past">We can't rely on the content strategy of the past</a>." The new approach that she advocates includes:
<ul>
<li>creating various ways for people to help and make it easy for them to contribute </li>
<li>providing content themes to showcase the breadth of what your organization can offer</li>
</ul>
There's also progress when it comes to identifying content gaps – that's content you are missing on your website as customers are searching for it or because you've designed your site to focus on health and wellness but are short on authoritative content. There are guides and tools in the marketplace to help you, including from SEO experts like <a href="https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/content-gap" target="_blank">Backlinko</a> and ahrefs that come with a <a href="https://ahrefs.com/academy/how-to-use-ahrefs/site-explorer/content-gap" target="_blank">Content Gap report</a>. Website governance vendor <a href="https://littleforest.co.uk/" target="_blank">Little Forest</a> also has an interesting approach to identifying the content you need to be creating. 
There's also the term "content design." What is that, really? 
According to Melinda Belcher at Mastercard, content design focuses on the objective of driving preferences for their products and services. In other words, content design drives great customer experience through storytelling, clarity, and relevance. Still, content design is far from an established practice as compared to user experience design. Read more in this post: <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2020/11/13/content-design-drives-great-customer-experience-at-mastercard" target="_blank">Content Design Drives Great Customer Experience At Mastercard</a>. 
When it comes to managing content – and why I firmly believe this will be the year – the single biggest reason is the topic of trust. The <a href="https://www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer" target="_blank">2021 Edelman Trust Barometer</a> speaks of a "failing trust ecosystem unable to confront the rampant infodemic, leaving the four institutions – business, government, NGOs and media – in an environment of information bankruptcy."
Content is key to addressing it. To quote <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/speakers/tim-walters" target="_blank">privacy and trust expert Tim Walters</a>, you need to: 
"Embody, demonstrate, and project trustworthiness."
It's not just about compliance. It's not just about designing a better cookie banner or protecting consumer data privacy. In fact, it's what Tim Walters calls a "Global Data Privacy Revolution" – and this also impacts how we manage content and enhance growth. It's <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/blog/2022/3/6/the-necessary-shift-from-privacy-to-trust" target="_blank">the necessary shift from privacy to trust</a>. 
In closing: the best, in my humble view, are the ones who are sharing their work openly. Whether epic successes or that project that could have gone more smoothly, those are the heroes and the stories that drive us forward. If we continue to work together, it might also remove some of the confusion we're experiencing at the moment. 
Good luck with your projects this year! Hopefully, you've learned something about change and how we aspire to manage content. And if you're evaluating a CMS, remember to think about what it means to truly manage content.

Will this be the year where CMS is finally about managing content?

janus-boye

Featured image of graphic man pulling down a curtain to reveal a large text graphic of the word "CONTENT"

OpenText, an Enterprise Information Management (EIM) platform, has <a href="https://www.opentext.com/about/press-releases?id=E3D3BCD028D24EF6A1F6782F238DE862" target="_blank">announced</a> two new content services platforms: <a href="http://www.opentext.com/core-content" target="_blank">OpenText Core Content</a> and <a href="http://www.opentext.com/core-case" target="_blank">OpenText Core Case Management</a>.
Both platforms are a part of <a href="https://www.opentext.com/about/press-releases?id=AE94CFC185174B16A949366534C0E403" target="_blank">OpenText Cloud Editions (CE)</a> and were unveiled during the keynote address at the <a href="https://www.opentext.com/opentext-world/europe" target="_blank">OpenText World Europe</a> event. CE provides customers with greater choice, enabling them to run their software anywhere – off-cloud, in a private cloud, in a public cloud, or through cloud API services.
OpenText Cloud Editions are cloud-native, helping users to accelerate innovation and simplify app management. The two new content services join CE’s AppsWorks, AI and Analytics, Customer Experience, eDiscovery, and Security solutions.
“The future of the workplace is digital. Organizations today need digital business process solutions that are quick and simple to deploy, configure, govern, and use,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText CEO &amp; CTO. “Core Content and Core Case Management deliver the strong records management, case management, API’s, and integration into leading applications that OpenText is recognized for – all delivered as a simple-to-deploy, multi-tenant cloud application.”
Within OpenText Cloud Editions 21.2, OpenText Core Content and OpenText Core Case Management are multi-tenant cloud offerings that are quick and easy to deploy – and can be tailored to address unique lines of business, departmental, and industry needs.
<h3>OpenText Core Content</h3>
OpenText Core Content offers robust content management capabilities and key integrations with leading business applications like the <a href="https://www.sap.com/products/s4hana-erp.html" target="_blank">SAP S/4HANA Cloud</a> and its intelligent ERP system. Some key attributes of OpenText Core Content include:
<ul>
<li>Customizability: OpenText Core Content features template-based business workspaces with team access to content. This enables users to keep everyone on the same page while boosting productivity and collaboration with capabilities like viewing, annotation, and workflows. Core Content’s Smart View UI feature allows users to customize their widgets and dashboards as shown:</li>
</ul>
<img style="max-width:768px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/core-content-ui.jpg" alt="Core Content UI" />
<ul>
<li>Ease of deployment: OpenText Core Content is easy to deploy, maintain, and update, requiring little (or no) IT involvement. With Core Content, organizations can leverage out-of-the-box, use-case templates that fit business process needs, and create custom case flows with zero coding.</li>
<li>Enhanced control and governance: OpenText Core Compliance Services, powered by <a href="https://www.opentext.com/products-and-solutions/products/opentext-core-for-federated-compliance?_ga=2.120507848.1368938370.1617044304-192936264.1605283574" target="_blank">OpenText Core for Federated Compliance</a>, provide automated, comprehensive content lifecycle management for Core Content. It delivers an entirely SaaS-based solution to address governance needs across all corporate records and enterprise information holdings.</li>
</ul>
You can learn more about OpenText Core Content <a href="https://www.opentext.com/products-and-solutions/products/saas-content-services-platform?utm_source=core-conten" target="_blank">here</a>.
<h3>OpenText Core Case Management</h3>
With OpenText Core Case Management, users get a no-code SaaS application that empowers workers to make better decisions – and create, adjust, and monitor workflows and tasks in real-time while improving stakeholder visibility.
If you’re wondering what “Case Management” is, here’s a bit of context. According to the <a href="https://www.aiim.org/What-is-Case-Management" target="_blank">Association for Intelligent Information Management</a>, a “case” is any project, transaction, service or response that is “opened” and “closed” over a period of time to achieve resolution of a problem, claim, request, proposal, development, or other complex activity. It is likely to involve multiple persons inside and outside of the organization, with varying relationships to each other, as well as multiple documents and messages.
A simple example of a case is car insurance. It involves many types of information from many sources such as accident reports, body shop quotes, and more. All of this information is collected, analyzed, and summarized to help find a resolution.
OpenText Core Case Management helps businesses by:
<ul>
<li>Improving decision-making: Access all information and collaborate with stakeholders in a unified workspace for smarter, more informed decisions.</li>
<li>Increasing productivity: Create, track and manage cases with a centralized dashboard for a single view of tasks, approvals and case status.</li>
<li>Expanding visibility: Enable internal and external stakeholders to visualize information via dashboards, widgets, and notifications for greater real-time insight.</li>
<li>Accelerating case resolution: Eliminate manual, disjointed processes with seamless access to case information and easily create ad hoc tasks and workflows.</li>
</ul>
You can learn more about OpenText Core Case Management <a href="https://www.opentext.com/products-and-solutions/products/saas-case-management?utm_source=core-case" target="_blank">here</a>.
<h2>17 consecutive years on the Gartner Magic Quadrant</h2>
OpenText has been included in the Leaders quadrant of the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3993178/magic-quadrant-for-content-services-platforms">2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms (CSP)</a> – marking its 17th consecutive year. Being one of Canada’s largest software companies, OpenText has a big global presence and a strong ecosystem of over 600 international partners to implement and support multinational clients. Its deep partnership with SAP and its strategy of in-market acquisition have made it number one in the overall CSP market share.
<img style="max-width:570px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/figure_1_magic_quadrant_for_content_services_platforms.png" alt="2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms" />
<h2>About OpenText</h2>
<a href="https://www.opentext.com/" target="_blank">OpenText</a> is a leading Enterprise Information Management (EIM) company that enables organizations to gain insight through market leading information management solutions, powered by OpenText Cloud Editions. OpenText software applications manage content or unstructured data for large companies, government agencies, and professional service firms. OpenText aims its products at addressing information management requirements, including management of large volumes of content, compliance with regulatory requirements, and mobile and online experience management.

OpenText Adds New Content Services to Power Modern Work in the Cloud

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