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Kentico Article

Mastering the Poetry of Partnerships: An Interview with Kentico’s Jenda Perla 

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<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/kentico">Kentico</a> is kicking things up on the headless hybrid field.The award-winning provider of digital experience and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management</a> software just announced that Mainz 05, a renowned German football club, has successfully launched its new website using <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kentico.com/platforms/xperience-by-kentico">Xperience by Kentico</a>, the cutting-edge hybrid headless digital experience platform (DXP).<a target="_blank" href="https://www.mainz05.de/">Mainz 05</a>, a prestigious German football club with more than 100 years of rich history, has captured the hearts of sports enthusiasts worldwide with captivating performances and dedication to the game. Renowned for its passionate fan base and unwavering support, Mainz 05 has established a strong reputation within the football community, both domestically and internationally. With a drive to succeed, Mainz 05 continues to leave an indelible mark on the world of football.<h3>Scoring a digital triumph: Kentico passes to Mainz 05 for a goal</h3>Mainz 05 united with Kentico partners <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kuehlhaus.com/">kuehlhaus AG</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://bluesoft.com/">Bluesoft</a> to launch a new website built on the new hybrid headless platform Xperience by Kentico. The Bundesliga club’s progressive digital team was looking for an innovative digital experience platform to put at the center of its complex digital ecosystem. They wanted to reduce the size of their technology stack and replace several technologies with one multi-functional DXP. The goal was to get all the needed capabilities for less effort, lower cost, and with fewer products.Mainz 05 developed the website in phases aligned with the roadmap of the DXP. After the initial launch of the website on July 14, 2023, the project will continue with the implementation of digital marketing features such as Contact Management, Audience Segmentation, Email Marketing and Marketing Automation, and Cross-site Activity Tracking. Eventually, multiple channels – the website, an app, and social channels, will be managed from the single DXP.Given the specific needs of the football club, the solution had to be highly customized. And Xperience by Kentico was the perfect fit, thanks to its flexibility. The platform is being rapidly developed, aiming to help customers drive better business outcomes with fewer resources by minimizing overhead and maximizing ROI. It offers built-in ready-to-use capabilities to meet the company’s needs today but can be scaled and extended with integrations in the future. Although Xperience by Kentico can be implemented as SaaS (software as a service), Mainz 05 decided to deploy it on-premises, in a way that suits its specific needs better.“Xperience by Kentico’s architecture allows us to modernize and focus on the capabilities our customers really need," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-xperience-pinter/">Dominik Pinter,</a> CEO, Kentico. "It will help them build the right set of channels for their target markets and provide the tools they need as they grow and evolve.” <h3>The winning play: Kentico's Customer Success services</h3>Kentico also provides tailored Customer Success services that Mainz 05 and the implementation partners leveraged. To ensure the success of this project, Kentico’s Customer Success Managers and technical support team consulted during every step of the implementation and suggested possible solutions for challenges that arose during the process. Kentico also helped Mainz 05 with editor training.“Our collaboration with Mainz 05 was based on an agile and iterative project approach. This iterative approach enabled us to react quickly to change requests, to introduce new ideas, and to continuously improve the quality of the solution,” says <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianreschke/">Christian Reschke</a>, CEO of the digital agency kuehlhaus AG. “Xperience by Kentico allowed us to hit all of Mainz 05’s project requirements, and the support from the Kentico team complemented our agile and iterative approach, which allowed us to implement the DXP at speed. With a phased approach, Mainz 05 has successfully released its website, and future plans include implementing digital marketing features and managing multiple channels from the centralized DXP. With its flexibility and scalability, the customized solution provided by Kentico perfectly aligns with Mainz 05's unique requirements. As Mainz 05 continues to excel on the field, its partnership with Kentico ensures it delivers exceptional digital experiences to fans and stakeholders alike.“The decision to relaunch our website on Xperience by Kentico marks a milestone in our digital transformation journey. Working with Kentico and partners kuehlhaus AG and Bluesoft has enabled us to map and further develop our complex digital ecosystem on a single powerful platform”, says <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-sparwasser-231ba3220/">Tobias Sparwasser</a>, Director of Communication and Media at Mainz 05.  “Xperience by Kentico will sustainably improve the digital fan journey and optimize our internal processes.”

Mainz 05 Football Club Scores with New Website on Xperience by Kentico, the Hybrid Headless DXP

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Is web design dead?
Countless articles, videos, and subreddits have pondered this question over the last few years, and for good reason. With the growth of canned templates, off-the-shelf themes, and pre-packaged options, web design can feel less… designed.
Despite this state of sameness, the web is still the central communications platform. At last check, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/website-statistics/#:~:text=There%20are%20about%201.13%20billion,are%20actively%20used%20and%20updated." target="_blank">71% of businesses</a> have a website, and there are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/website-statistics/#:~:text=There%20are%20about%201.13%20billion,are%20actively%20used%20and%20updated." target="_blank">1.13 billion sites</a> swarming the Internet. How can a brand stand out?
The answer is simple: they invest in beautiful, high-quality, custom digital experiences, the kinds that inspire visitors to engage, convert, and buy. And while a stunning UX can turn heads, the best sites put content first and utilize modern tech in profound ways.  
<a href="https://www.kentico.com/" target="_blank">Kentico</a>, a leading composable hybrid headless digital experience platform (DXP), has long been a champion of custom website design, highlighting the spirit of innovation through its exclusive “Site of Year” competition. The annual contest recognizes the most ambitious sites built with Kentico – and the 2022 winners were, in a word, breathtaking.
“The [Site of the Year] winners are clients and partners who succeed in delivering exceptional user experiences,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-xperience-pinter/" target="_blank">Dominik Pinter</a>, Kentico CEO. “Their websites or apps show excellence in creativity, innovation, content modeling, and the use of technology. The creators of the websites are experts in innovative thinking – creative people with a strong vision.”
According to Pinter, the winners and finalists went beyond attractive content and interactive features, leveraging Kentico’s full potential to improve productivity for marketers while providing a solution to future-proof their growth.  
While 2022 is in the rearview, many of the sites produced on Kentico continue to shine. We wanted to take a fresh look at the winners, dive deep into a few standouts, and share how these projects continue to challenge the status quo.
<h2>Celebrating innovation across industries</h2>
The “Site of the Year” competition solicits entries from any global partner or customer that built a website or app using <a href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/blog/kentico-xperience-13-is-here" target="_blank">Kentico Xperience 13</a> or the new <a href="https://www.kentico.com/platforms/xperience-by-kentico" target="_blank">Xperience by Kentico</a> – and launched it in 2022.
The competition covered ten industry categories: Entertainment and Hospitality, B2B, Commerce, Consumer Goods, Education and Careers, Healthcare, Financial Services, Government and Municipal, Industrial Manufacturing, and NGO and Associations.
Submissions were evaluated by a hand-picked committee of experts, who judged each entry on a range of criteria. All winners were then entered into a Community Choice competition, which was open to public voting.
While each category showcased its top pick, Kentico also included other finalists – which, in all cases, offered exceptional experiences. You can peruse every project in more detail by downloading this <a href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/resources/soty-2022-ebook" target="_blank">dynamite ebook</a>.
It was a tough call with so many great use cases, but these three really exemplify the quality and innovation in this year’s crop.
<h2>Pro Football Hall of Fame</h2>
As the Entertainment and Hospitality Industry winner and Community Choice Award recipient, the <a href="https://www.profootballhof.com/" target="_blank">Pro Football Hall of Fame</a> scores on every play.
Like a wide receiver scrambling downfield, this website is blazing fast. The mobile experience is elegant, app-like, and features intuitive navigation. From a visual perspective, the whole experience unfolds with gorgeous, energetic photography, reflecting the dynamic history and culture of American football.
For an organization that’s been around for over 100 years, making a bold digital statement reflects modern relevance. <a href="https://www.americaneagle.com/" target="_blank">Americaneagle.com</a> – the agency behind the site – did its homework to ensure a seamless, cohesive brand experience that celebrates the past while looking ahead. 
What we really love about the Pro Football Hall of Fame site are the interactive details. Visitors can search its rich database of athletes based on a series of filters, and each player’s page features a slick design that combines career performance stats with powerful imagery.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-sites-pro-football-hof-1024x655.jpg" alt="Kentico Site of the Year 2022 example of the Pro Football Hall of Fame with both desktop and mobile views" />In addition to an online store featuring an array of merchandise, fans can score tickets to the museum experience and plan their trip to the storied venue in Canton, Ohio. These enhancements have increased online transactions and foot traffic, making it a site that blends the past and the future – and one that earns its place in the digital experience hall of fame.  
<h2>Potten &amp; Pannen</h2>
For Czech-based <a href="https://www.pottenpannen.cz/" target="_blank">Potten &amp; Pannen</a>, the ingredients for a successful digital strategy called for more than the typical accoutrements. As an importer, distributor, and retailer of kitchen equipment, it needed a website that reflected its reputation for luxury and sophistication while scaling to meet the demands of online retail.
Everything about the new Potten &amp; Pannen site exudes elegance, from the wide-format hero images to the light and airy template. The product photos are bright and beautiful, and the text and graphics bring a distinctly European sensibility to the general gestalt. Superb.
One thing that really stands out from a UX perspective is the mobile experience. Elements are well-placed within the frame and highly clickable – and the use of white space helps the overall legibility on longer-form product pages, where images and details can get lengthy. The result: a more pleasing shopping experience and more conversions at the right points.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-sites-potten-pannen-1024x655.jpg" alt="Kentico Site of the Year 2022 example of Potten and Pannen with both desktop and mobile views" />The secret ingredient for Potten &amp; Pannen is baked behind the scenes, where the Cloud adds pizzaz. The company launched four e-Commerce websites to meet growing demand, and an auto-scaling strategy allows for dynamic resource allocation during peak periods.
<a href="https://www.bluesoft.cz/en/" target="_blank">Bluesoft</a>, the Kentico partner that brought the project to life, didn’t stop with scalability. The solution also tapped the power of artificial intelligence by leveraging Kentico’s integration with <a href="https://www.recombee.com/" target="_blank">Recombee</a> – an AI-powered recommender. This allowed the brand to serve more relevant recommendations for products.
With such rich innovation from frontend to backend, Potten &amp; Pannen brought real sizzle to the commerce category – and a great menu addition to the “Site of the Year.”
<h2>Suffolk Credit Union</h2>
Rounding out our picks in the financial services category is <a href="https://www.suffolkcu.org/" target="_blank">Suffolk Credit Union</a>, built by <a href="https://www.zaginteractive.com/" target="_blank">Zag Interactive</a>. It’s hard to ignore the innate challenges that any fintech application faces around security and trust, so we were immediately drawn to the use case.
What struck us about this project was the uniquely inviting design. The thoughtful approach to journey mapping in key customer areas like auto loans and mortgages makes the experience easy to navigate while supporting users at every step.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico-sites-suffolk-credit-union-1024x589.jpg" alt="Kentico Site of the Year 2022 example of Suffolk Credit Union with both desktop and mobile views" />The large, legible text and high-contrast color scheme help this site stand out, but the visual choices also reflect a commitment to accessibility. Using brand elements from the logo icon (we especially like the “hello” emblem in the footer) makes the experience more cohesive.
This site “feels” impressive on all screens, but the magic doesn’t end there. Zag also focused on delivering trusted security to support Suffolk’s online banking – one of its most vital services. Along with improved SEO and other integrations, technology helped enhance the experience.
Many financial websites rely on predictable stock images and tired templates to build their digital brand. But Suffolk has bucked the trend with an inspired design you can bank on.
<h2>Good design is never a commodity</h2>
After reviewing the 2022 “Site of the Year” winners, it’s abundantly clear that unique, high-quality web design continues to thrive. To bring custom ideas to life, web agencies and brands leverage Kentico’s complete range of DXP capabilities – from its customizable CMS to its breadth of marketing capabilities and integrations.
Boasting a network of <a href="https://www.kentico.com/partners/find-a-partner" target="_blank">1,000 digital agencies</a> globally, Kentico’s partners are a critical factor in the success of these projects. Their expertise delivers beautiful UX with secure and scalable performance while utilizing Kentico’s industry-leading features. Partners also receive technical support, training, and certifications that help ensure quality implementations.
As an annual event, we can anticipate the 2023 call for entries before the end of this year. And if the use cases are anything like 2022, we’re preparing to be blown away.

Kentico ‘Site of the Year’ Competition Proves Custom Web Design is Alive – and Thriving

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At the end of May, Janus Boye and his <a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/martech-briefing2023">Boye &amp; Co organized two meetups</a> in Europe with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjbrinker/">Scott Brinker</a>, the famous author of the <a href="https://chiefmartec.com/2023/05/2023-marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-11038-solutions-searchable-on-martechmap-com/">Marketing Technology Landscape infographic</a>, Editor at <a href="http://chiefmartec.com/">chiefmartec.com</a>, and VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot. Janus also invited some other speakers to showcase the reality of martech development in different types of companies. Since Kentico was sponsoring the event, I was lucky to attend both of them and can summarize the most interesting takeaways.
<h2>MarTech Supercollision</h2>
Let’s start with Scott Brinker's presentation, “<a href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/martech-briefing-hamburg-2023">MarTech Supercollision</a>,” covering several marketing technology topics. He discussed companies' varying levels of maturity with marketing technology, emphasizing the need for investment in people in addition to technology. Scott also explored the concept of composability in marketing, including its importance in creating personalized customer experiences. He analyzed the three different trends in MarTech, calling it “Supercollision” because each would be big enough to shake the industry. Still, they are now happening all at the same time: data, composability, and AI.
Scott has been exploring the MarTech landscape since 2011. There has been a 7,258% growth in the number of martech solutions in the last 12 years. The 2023 infographic contains 11,038 solutions – that’s an 11% increase from 2022, even though there was a 7% churn rate.
And as we discussed during the event, we can expect an even bigger influx of new niche solutions since the development of AI has completely shaken and democratized software development. It’s unexpectedly easy to brief an AI tool to create the right app for your needs and put it to the market.
In my insightful interview with Scott after the event, the conversation also revolved around the rapid influx of tools and innovations in the market and how companies can embrace these changes. Scott emphasized the importance of maturity in utilizing MarTech, stating there's a wide distribution in how mature companies are with leveraging marketing technology. He referred to Avinash Kaushik's 90/10 rule, where 90% of the investment should be in people and only 10% in technology. Scott stressed the importance of investing in people, not just in terms of individual skills training but also in evolving the organization to support what those people want to do.
We also discussed the concept of composability in martech. Scott explained that while there are different levels of composability, most companies are currently at a stage where they are composing relatively lightweight but very useful things. He emphasized the importance of creating a supportive culture that encourages people to experiment with applying these tools. He also highlighted the need to adjust processes to remove some friction, making it easier for people to use these tools.
I found Scott’s analogy of composability to LEGO clever for explaining it to non-tech marketers. However, I argued that in many cases, companies do not need to buy thousands of small bricks to build a LEGO ship. They can use pre-built sets, put them together, and have fun with the result instead of spending hundreds of hours sitting with the most expensive building kits. Sure, there are people who love to spend this time building it from scratch, and it’s fine. It’s just not the majority.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/06/scott-brinker-lego-analogy-1024x502.png" alt="Buy, build, adapt composable images from Scott Brinker's presentation" />
<h2>What about people?</h2>
I already mentioned that Scott emphasized the importance of people during our interview, but there was also another presentation called “The hidden success factor behind MarTech” by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelika-gust-5a4192205/">Angelika Gust</a>, Head of Marketing at S-Bahn Berlin, focusing on this.
Angelika argued that martech should actually be called “Communication Technology (CommTech)” since it should help anyone in the company, not just marketing people, communicating with the customers. And very often, she said, these hidden champions, employees with direct or indirect customer touchpoints, are not digitally native and savvy.
To maximize the potential of MarTech, companies should focus on transforming these employees into enthusiastic MarTech users. Angelika underscores the need for roles like Data Translator and MarTech Operationalizer, who can bridge the gap between MarTech specialists and other employees. She also highlighted the importance of addressing fears like job loss due to AI advancements.
<h2>The digital experience maturity journey</h2>
The journey towards digital experience maturity is a shared endeavor, as evidenced by the contributions of our own Kentico partners and customers at these two events. Co-founder of <a href="https://www.actumdigital.com/">ACTUM Digital</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/janhavel/">Jan Havel</a>, along with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/delfinvassallo/">Delfin Vassallo</a>, Marketing Director at <a href="https://www.actumdigital.com/cases/uponor-case-study">Uponor</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roelkuik/">Roel Kuik</a>, Kentico Practice Lead at <a href="https://www.avivasolutions.nl/">Aviva Solutions</a>, alongside <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-van-dijk-b176b611/">Michael van Dijk</a> from APS IT-diensten, all shared their unique experiences of re-platforming.
The key takeaway from these presentations is the vital importance of ensuring that technology is in harmony with the specific needs and objectives of the business. By doing so, companies can optimize their technology solutions for the greatest impact. This alignment boosts operational efficiency and enriches the user experience and satisfaction, improving engagement metrics.
Furthermore, these insights highlight the necessity of flexibility and the courage to shift towards different goals and strategies when needed. Whether it's crafting a user-friendly interface for content editors, establishing a unified component library, or tackling industry-specific challenges in B2B e-commerce, the capacity to adapt and pivot is crucial.
In summary, these insights reinforce the mantra of "Listen to understand." Companies can make well-informed decisions about their technology implementations by attentively listening to the needs of the business, the users, and the industry. This approach, combined with a commitment to employee satisfaction and a willingness to embrace change, can substantially enhance business performance and user experience.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/jenda-perla/">Jenda Perla</a> is VP of Marketing at Kentico, and a CMS Critic contributor.

Scott Brinker's "MarTech Supercollision" and Key Takeaways from the Boye & Co Briefings in Europe

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Martech supercollision of text and background moving towards center of light

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At a time when many tech companies are streamlining their forecasts, there's big growth news from <a href="https://www.kentico.com/" target="_blank">Kentico</a> – a leading provider of digital experience and content management solutions. The company recently announced that after a phenomenal year, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/luk%C3%A1%C5%A1-pol%C3%A1k-aa4356118/" target="_blank">Lukáš Polák</a> has been appointed as its new Chief Financial Officer.
<h2>Kentico’s ARR more than doubled in 2022</h2>
Polák joins Kentico at a time of major growth. In 2022, the company more than doubled its ARR growth rate thanks to a healthy and growing customer base. Kentico routinely reinvests its profits, and as CFO, Polák will be heavily involved in ensuring those profits are invested in the development and growth of the company’s new product, <a href="https://www.kentico.com/platform/roadmap/product-vision" target="_blank">Xperience by Kentico</a> – its latest software-as-a-service digital experience platform (DXP).
Xperience by Kentico provides a focused set of features to the market, enabling marketers to deliver personalized content through any channel and optimize campaign performance to reach more customers. Not only is the platform being built to deliver superb value for money, low TCO, and a competitive time to market, but it is laser-focused on end users with its low-code/no-code approach – enabling marketers to create digital experiences without being dependent on developers.  
<h2>Xperience Adopters Program delivers success</h2>
Along with innovative new DXP, Kentico has also launched the <a href="https://www.kentico.com/platform/xap">Xperience Adopters Program</a>, which gives first adopters early access to Xperience by Kentico. The program also enables users to learn how to work smarter and more confidently with the platform's low-code/no-code features. 
Companies like Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) are already benefiting from enhanced efficiency, flexibility, and reusability of content, which has enabled them to execute their mission of generating travel demand. 
“We are so happy that our website <a href="http://miamiandmiamibeach.com/">MiamiandMiamiBeach.com</a> is powered by Xperience by Kentico”, said Josie Llado, AVP, Digital Marketing at GMVCB. “The fast, intuitive user interface lets us manage our content with ease and connect with our community better than ever. The regular new feature refreshes of the DXP bring new ways for us to deliver on our mission to maximize economic impact to our community, ensure industry resiliency, and elevate the resident quality of life.” 
Kentico has also launched an <a href="https://demm.kentico.com/">interactive digital experience maturity model powered by Xperience by Kentico</a> that helps companies assess their level of digital sophistication, empowering them to choose the right solution with the right tools for their needs – now and in the future.
<h2>Polák reinforces transparency as a "fundamental Kentico value"</h2>
Polák joined Kentico in 2021 as Finance Controller, bringing vast experience from Heineken Czech Republic, Deloitte Czech Republic, and Honeywell Aerospace.
“It was time to leave the corporate environment. I was looking for a more human company, and Kentico caught my eye," said Polák. "The company culture is based on cooperation, openness, and trust; it almost feels like one big family.” 
A crucial player in the carve-out of its enterprise-focused division, Polák started building a new finance department structure in July 2022 and was appointed CFO in January 2023. Responsible for the strategic direction of finance and business intelligence, Polák will provide reports and forecasting to the executive board, create strategies for reporting, budgeting, and data structures, and cooperate with financial institutions.  
“I accepted the role with two clear goals in mind," explained Polák. "Firstly, I want the finance department to be a strong strategic partner for the executive and commercial teams. Secondly, I want people in my team to develop their skills and know their work is meaningful.” 
Polák will be influencing the company’s financial strategy and will collaborate with Kentico’s CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-xperience-pinter/" target="_blank">Dominik Pinter</a>, and the Marketing and Sales, Security, and Operations teams to introduce more efficient processes. He appreciates Kentico’s shallow management structure and friendly culture, and that everyone in the company has a voice. But he is most impressed by the company’s transparency.  
According to Polák, “transparency is a fundamental Kentico value. And it’s not just a fancy word on paper; it’s real. We openly communicate our results, how we’re doing, and what we do to achieve our goals, including finance.”
<h2>About Kentico  </h2>
Kentico is an award-winning provider of digital experience platforms that combines content management, digital marketing, and commerce. Available in the cloud or on-premises, Kentico offers easy-to-use solutions for modern websites. Its solutions provide personalized experiences and integrate seamlessly into any technology stack. Kentico empowers companies and brands to increase customer engagement, deliver personalized content to the right audience, and optimize performance to win more clients. Its advanced capabilities, short time to value, and ease of use are backed by market-leading support and a global network of implementation partners.  
Kentico was founded in 2004, headquartered in the Czech Republic with offices in the US, UK, Germany, Prague, and Australia. Kentico has more than 1,000 digital solution partners and powers over 30,000 websites across 120 countries. Customers using Kentico include Allergan, Ingram Micro, Konica Minolta, Land O’ Lakes, PPG, and <a href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/success-stories/canadian-red-cross">Red Cross</a>.

Kentico Appoints Lukáš Polák as CFO, Doubles ARR in 2022

Kentico featured image with new CFO headshot

When the MACH Alliance first arrived on the scene in June of 2020, the composable movement was still gestating. While monoliths and industry watchers pondered its fierce, no-exceptions-allowed membership requirement to be 100 percent focused on MACH, it's now clear that many vendors and agencies are adopting this posture – a clear signal that composability is shaping business strategy.
To that end, the <a href="http://www.machalliance.org/">MACH Alliance</a> announced this week that three new member companies have joined its ranks: <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en">Bloomreach</a>, <a href="https://www.emporix.com/">Emporix</a>, and <a href="https://kontent.ai/">Kontent.ai</a>. These additions bring the group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems to more than 70. Worth noting: two of these vendors have recently adapted their models to become hyperfocused on MACH principles to meet the horizon of composable opportunities. 
“As with all new members that join the Alliance, we feel tremendous pride in continuing to attract such a reputable group of global leaders who believe in our mission,” said Casper Rasmussen, MACH Alliance president. “The fact we’re seeing companies like Bloomreach and Kontent.ai reshape their portfolio and product strategy sends a strong message to the market that MACH is not only the future standard for enterprise technology best practice, it’s the standard now."
<h2>Expanding the MACH movement and evolving the ecosystem</h2>
The embracing of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH</a> – an acronym for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless – is no mystery. Composable architectures are giving companies a deeper level of agility, allowing them to deliver new features to customers at greater speed. But there are other considerations influencing the move to MACH, including the palpable presence of softening IT budgets and the specter of a global recession. 
"At a time when economic factors have forced many organizations to cut back spending on technology and innovation, we’re seeing that businesses who’ve embraced MACH are faring better by being able to adapt and respond faster,” said Rasmussen. 
To be certain, MACH is requiring a new philosophical mindset to embrace its foundational principles successfully. But based on the rapid scale of its membership community – which includes individual ambassadors that are champions for the cause – it's evident that more platforms and integrators are willing to make the shift and realize the benefits.
As previously noted, all members of the MACH Alliance must meet a stringent set of <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence">certification standards</a> and pass muster with the Alliance's unbiased panel of reviewers. To carry the coveted "MACH Certified" seal, a company must be in full compliance with the organization's standards at all times. As we've covered in past interviews and articles, the Alliance has dismissed members based on acquisitions or other circumstances that have altered their posture.  
<h2>Welcoming Bloomreach, Emporix, and Kontent.ai to the MACH Alliance</h2>
According to the Alliance's press release, the three new members announced this week will join a cadre of leading platform and solution providers, including some of the biggest names in global tech. They will also be in the company of advanced "MACH enablers" that provide cloud infrastructure services and solution ecosystems, including <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions/">AWS</a>.
The three new certified members of the MACH Alliance include:
Bloomreach: Launched in 2009 as an algorithm-powered platform for improving online experiences, Bloomreach has fully transformed into a composable commerce experience cloud, delivering industry-leading personalization and digital commerce growth. The company has undergone a major shift in product strategy over the past 18 months and is now 100 percent focused on MACH – enabling it to achieve Alliance certification. Bloomreach offers a range of composable solutions including AI-driven search and merchandising, a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a>, a leading CDP, and marketing automation capabilities.
Emporix: A composable commerce platform that enables bigger, more engaged, and more efficient B2B and B2C, Emporix enables organizations to digitize and run their businesses with a cloud-native technology for building channels. Its open, modular, API-first ecosystem and easy-to-use, no-code interface are some of the many attributes that earned Empoix its MACH Alliance certification.
Kontent.ai: A modular content platform that enables global content and engineering teams to plan, create, and deliver experiences across channels, Kontent.ai was previously a business unit within the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kentico-cloud-whats-it-all-about/">Kentico</a> software portfolio. Spun off as a standalone entity in July of 2022, the cloud-native service is now purely focused on MACH – and positioned for membership in the Alliance.
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members, or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website. The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. Learn more at<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fmachalliance.org%2F&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=machalliance.org&amp;index=5&amp;md5=db9d7bdff8c8646152c1923d3ff4adc2"> machalliance.org</a>, read here about<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fmachalliance.org%2Fblogdetail%2Fbltfc0a3afbca44303e&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=MACH+certification&amp;index=6&amp;md5=ba1c5d6e1bf42963a3a8bb59771d09da"> MACH certification</a> and follow us on<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fmachalliance&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Twitter&amp;index=7&amp;md5=dfeea3f8422d14d51b860d90329a6837"> Twitter</a> and<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fmachalliance&amp;esheet=52478831&amp;newsitemid=20210818005487&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=LinkedIn&amp;index=8&amp;md5=a1db2958e174d041221c1705e694b6f0"> LinkedIn</a>.

Bloomreach, Emporix, and Kontent.ai Join MACH Alliance, Pushing Member Total Over 70

Composite of the MACH Alliance logo above icons for Bloomreach, Emporix, and Kontent.ai

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<a href="https://kontent.ai/">Kentico Kontent</a>, a leader in the Headless CMS market, announced the launch of their new user interface, designed to help enterprise content teams execute their content operations faster.
Kontent’s UX team stated that the new interface incorporates direct feedback from their customers and partners. After conducting deeper usability tests and analyses, the platform now features an enhanced, more intuitive UI with a minimal learning curve.
<h2>Streamlining Content Operations</h2>
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That’s the mantra software vendors wrestle with when considering any change to their UI/UX. The challenge exists because users sometimes react negatively to changes – no matter how small – as they can disrupt their workflow.
Content operations within an organization are especially sensitive to UI/UX modifications, as CMS users can quickly become frustrated with new or different processes that delay their publishing rhythm. Kontent believes it has overcome potential objections by listening to users and focusing on key areas of improvement.
“The new look makes it easier for editors to find content and action items, helping them stay focused on the task at hand,” said Tadeas Kubat, VP User Experience at Kentico Kontent.
<h2>A fresh design approach</h2>
At first glance, Kontent’s new visual design is quite different from the previous. It is more modern and appealing, sporting an array of vibrant colors with plenty of contrast to emphasize important elements. Overall, it feels more “app like” in its appearance, which projects a more mature experience.
Here’s a before and after image:
Before
<img style="max-width:1280px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/home-your-content_before.png" alt="Kentico Kontent UI Before image" />
 
After
<img style="max-width:1280px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/kentico-new-ui-1.png" alt="The new Kentico content UI" />
As previously noted, the new UI is designed to help enterprise teams find what they need and share their content across other departments. The updated design helps deliver on that promise by simplifying a familiar framework – allowing users to make the leap with limited friction.
<h2>Kontent Collections</h2>
Originally branded as Kontent Projects, one of the new upgrades in the latest release is the <a href="https://kontent.ai/specials/collections?menu=true">Collections</a> feature – which lets enterprises manage all their content in a single repository, allowing the content to be shared across teams and channels without losing any control.
Having a single repository brings multiple benefits. First and foremost, it eliminates content silos that lead to inconsistent brand standards and content duplication. It also centralizes governance around configurations, content models, and policies.
One of the biggest content challenges for enterprises is the sheer scale of content and the number of users spread across an organization. This is especially true for organizations with multi-national websites that need brand consistency across global regions.
<img style="max-width:858px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/collections_content_sharing.png" alt="Collections Content sharing" />
Kontent’s Collections offers centralized governance, where organizations can set user access in a single location. This minimizes the complexity while providing greater flexibility for different teams with varying requirements.
With Collections, organizations can:
<ul>
<li>create collections instead of separate projects</li>
<li>share anything between collections</li>
<li>restrict access to collections</li>
<li>customize collections governance</li>
</ul>
You can also create collections for teams, regions, websites, microsites, initiatives, and even cross-platform content hubs.
<img style="max-width:1283px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/create-collection.png" alt="image of the create collection screen" />
After you create a collection, you can configure access to it by assigning roles to individuals. This includes read access to global content, editorial access to team content, and more.
<img style="max-width:672px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/04/user-roles-collections-languages.png" alt="image of users roles screen" />
With the upgraded <a href="https://kontent.ai/specials/collections?menu=true">Collections</a> feature, teams can share content items across departments, websites, and experiences to ensure consistency and eliminate error-prone duplication. The goal is to improve efficiency and minimize the frustration that many enterprise content teams experience.
Kentico also features noteworthy capabilities like <a href="https://kontent.ai/specials/simultaneous-editing">Simultaneous</a>, which allows multiple editors to work on the same content without worrying about overwriting each other’s changes, and <a href="https://kontent.ai/blog/in-context-editing-the-best-way-to-update-website-content">In-Context Editing</a>, which lets editors update the website content right within the pages of their preview site.
If there’s one thing evident in this latest upgrade, it’s that Kentico is listening to their customers. While some platforms might forge ahead with uninformed enhancements, Kontent represents a true reflection of how a CMS platform engages with their users to shape the future of their product. They clearly understand the meaning of customer experience.
<h2>About Kentico Kontent</h2>
<a href="https://kontent.ai/">Kentico Kontent</a> is a leading headless CMS that empowers enterprise content teams to manage all their content in a single repository. Flexible content models, real-time collaboration, and workflow lead to faster content production, better consistency, and higher quality. Content is managed completely independent of the presentation, freeing developers to build engaging digital experiences using the technologies of their choice. Kontent’s customers include AC Milan, Oxford University, Konica Minolta, PPG Industries, and Vogue.

Kentico Kontent’s New User Interface Streamlines Enterprise Content Operations

paris-tuzun

Please introduce yourself and your position with Kentico.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/petr-palas-500x500200x0-is.png" />I'm the founder of Kentico Software, one of the leading CMS vendors. I started Kentico in 2004 with a vision of making content management easier for both developers and business users. Over the past 13 years, we grew into one of the leading vendors with 230 employees and a partner network of over 1,000 digital agencies in 80 countries that use our products to create websites and online stores with a personalized digital experience. We're headquartered in the Czech Republic, with sales and support offices in the United States, UK, Australia, and the Netherlands.
Please tell us a bit about your product and its latest release.
We launched our completely new product Kentico Cloud in November at our user conference in Las Vegas. It's a cloud-first headless CMS. Cloud-first means that it was built as a true multitenant SaaS product from the very beginning. We take care of the CMS, including its upgrades, security, performance, etc. As a result, customers can focus on developing their applications and managing their content. Headless means that you store all the content in our cloud-based content hub and you can use it through our API on any channel—on your website, in your mobile app, or even in your chatbot. Since we provide a standard REST API, you can use your favorite platform and programming language to build your applications.
What do you think businesses need to keep in mind when selecting a platform?
They should certainly start with their business needs and look how the CMS supports them today, but also how it fits the latest trends. Many traditional CMS products were built for managing web pages, but we have seen a growth in the use of mobile, virtual reality, IoT, etc., which requires a more granular content model so that you can reuse that content across channels. The other major trend we see is a growing need to be more agile—companies want to launch new projects in a matter of weeks, not months, so they are increasingly looking for cloud-based solutions.
What makes Kentico the go-to choice for the enterprise?
Actually, Kentico Cloud aims to support a broad range of customers—from small to enterprise. You can start with a free plan and upgrade it when needed. For the enterprise customers, we provide a strong product as well as all the extras they need for mission-critical projects, like 24×7 support provided by our experts on three continents, SLAs, training, consulting, and a dedicated customer success manager who takes care of their onboarding and long-term success. Plus, they can choose from a growing number of Kentico Cloud partners—digital agencies who can build the projects for them if they do not have an in-house development team.
What do you consider to be the biggest trend for CX vendors in 2017?
We already see vendors moving to the cloud, and that will continue in 2017. However, most traditional CMS or CX vendors just take their existing products that were built for the on-premise world and offer them as managed hosting or PaaS, which is certainly not the most efficient model. We expect more customers are looking for true SaaS CMS options, which will give rise to new cloud-first headless CMS offerings.
How is Kentico positioned to be at the forefront of these trends?
We've been preparing for this for a couple of years as we always believed the cloud is the future. Our experience with the cloud started back in 2011 when we were the first CMS certified for Microsoft Azure. In the past two years, we built Kentico Cloud from scratch as we wanted to provide a true SaaS product and make sure it's ready for the multi-channel world we live in. At the same time, we leverage our experience, our skilled team, and the market presence we've built over the past years.
How do you see the market changing in the next five years?
I believe the CMS market is at just another inflection point. The cloud-first headless CMS will start replacing traditional CMS products as customers realize the benefits of the SaaS model. The vendors who don't make the shift to the new architecture and business model will disappear from the market. It will be similar to the shift from on-premise document management systems to cloud-based file sharing services. In five years from now, we will laugh at how we used to install and babysit a CMS.
What kind of evolution can we expect to see from Kentico?
We will continue enhancing our existing product, Kentico EMS, that fits well to customers who want a sophisticated all-in-one solution or do not feel ready for the cloud yet. At the same time, we will invest in the future and make progress with Kentico Cloud—we will grow its capabilities every week, and it will become a mature CMS during this year.
Final thoughts?
I would wrap up with a quote by Clayton Christensen, the author of Innovator's Dilemma, who said: “You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn't care.” Cloud-first headless CMS is a major change for many, but it's inevitable. We're at the very beginning of a new era of the CMS industry. The vendors, customers, and digital agencies who adopt this model first will gain a competitive advantage by being more agile and ready for the new communication channels that will go mainstream in the upcoming years.

Interview with Petr Palas, CEO of Kentico

mike-johnston

Are you tired of having a CMS that just doesn’t do what you want it to? Do you feel like you are just babysitting your CMS, taking care of the web servers, upgrades, hotfixes, backups, and constantly dealing with a growing list of plugins? Isn’t it frustrating when you have to rewrite your awesome code because your CMS just refuses to play nice? Are you tired of creating different versions of the same content to optimize it for various channels? Wish there was another way? Now, there is.
Kentico Cloud is the cloud-first headless CMS for digital agencies and their clients.
It’s Not Just a CMS Dropped into the Cloud
Many CMS vendors have caught onto the Cloud movement that is currently occurring. But what most do is simply to pick up their CMS and drop it into the Cloud. Sure, it works, but it lacks the elegance and agility of a truly cloud-first CMS. In fact, in 2013, we created Kentico+, which was just that—a CMS deployed in the Cloud—but we could not make it work efficiently for all users. We realized that if we wanted to provide agencies and their clients with all the benefits of the cloud, we needed to go back to the drawing board and rethink the entire CMS architecture.
Kentico Cloud is a completely new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product. By taking care of the service, it allows agencies and their clients to focus on what matters most—driving their business goals by creating truly wonderful digital experiences.
Manage All Your Content in the Cloud
Kentico Cloud works as a centralized content hub where you can produce all your structured content in one place. It provides customizable content types, taxonomy, site map, workflow, versioning, and comments—everything you need to work and collaborate on when creating your content.
Once the content is ready, you can either export it to your existing CMS (if you do not want to redesign the site) or use our content delivery API to publish the content directly on your website or in your mobile application.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico_draft1063x0-is.png" />
Deliver Content to Any Website or Mobile Application
Kentico Cloud provides a super-fast API for developers to display the content on websites, mobile apps, IoT devices, and any other channel. It uses the headless approach, which means you have full control over your presentation layer.
As a developer, you can use our API on any platform, using any programming language, and with your favorite development tools—just the way you like it.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico_deliver869x0-is.png" />
Provide a Personalized Experience
Kentico Cloud goes beyond content management. It allows you to personalize the content displayed to customers based on their profiles. It allows you to track customers on your website and personalize their experiences based on the data it collects. It can tell you which pages the customer visited, which forms they submitted, and what they bought.
Unlike with traditional web analytics tools, Kentico Cloud also creates profiles of individual users with a complete history of their activities. You can then use it to personalize the content on your website or export the data to other systems.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico_engage_profile869x0-is.png" />
Kentico Cloud—the Solution to Digital Agency Problems
Kentico Cloud is a set of fully integrated cloud services built from the ground up in the headless CMS architecture. As a hassle-free cloud platform that eliminates complex technology, Kentico Cloud helps agencies and their clients to be more productive while also increasing the scope of content delivery to any device or platform. Instead of wasting time looking after your CMS, put that time to greater effect and focus on delivering successful, profitable projects for your customers.
The Future Is Now
Stop babysitting your CMS and get started with Kentico Cloud now. It allows you to tackle the future of the digital landscape head on and gain a competitive advantage. From websites to virtual reality, bots to digital assistants, and augmented reality to Internet of Things devices, the possibilities are endless. Let Kentico Cloud make it easy for you—go to <a href="http://www.kenticocloud.com">www.kenticocloud.com</a> and sign up for a free trial.

Kentico Cloud - What’s It All About?

<a href="http://www.kentico.com/?utm_source=press_release&amp;utm_medium=link&amp;utm_campaign=pr_g2crowd_Q12016" target="_blank">Kentico Software</a>, makers of an all-in-one CMS, E-commerce, and Online Marketing platform, today announced Kentico 10. The company’s flagship product features a long list of functional improvements all focused on getting digital marketing jobs done faster and more efficiently. It is by far the company’s most enterprise-ready solution to date.
<blockquote>“We see ourselves as being a very different kind of WCM vendor,” said Karol Jarkovsky, Kentico’s Director of Product. “Our view is that it’s not about how many features you can cram into a product, but rather understanding how digital marketers work and building a platform that’s easy for them to use and enables them to get jobs done faster.” He continues, “The last thing we want to do is bog marketers down with flashy but seldom used capabilities. We have, to the contrary, been removing lesser-used features and streamlining our software code for the past several years. The result is that Kentico 10 is a very clean, very elegant solution that’s ready for today’s business enterprise.”</blockquote>
KENTICO 10 FEATURES &amp; CAPABILITIES
Productivity
<ul>
<li>Kentico has spent months observing the way that digital marketers work and built much of what it has learned into Kentico 10. For example, more agile campaign management has been achieved by featuring a single unified control panel from which marketers can design, deploy, and evaluate digital marketing campaigns.</li>
<li>Responsive Images Management – In order to deliver a superior customer experience, personalized content must be delivered through multiple channels including phones, tablets, and a growing list of mobile devices. That means that images need to be resized and rendered in numerous resolutions, color profiles, layouts, and viewports. With Kentico 10, the company has introduced responsive image management. After some initial setup, that means you upload images just once and the system automatically adjusts them for various media.</li>
</ul>
Context
<ul>
<li>With Kentico 10, you can gain insights into activities of your customer base across multiple web properties, enabling cross-site lead scoring and contextual marketing projects. Complete view of visitor interactions across all brands is now supported.</li>
<li>With the Campaign Journey, we allow marketers to track interactions of visitors with the brand during the sequence of steps in the journey. Flexible campaigns allow marketers to change attributes of the running campaign without concluding the campaign or losing any of the data already collected.</li>
<li>The abundance of data makes it difficult for marketers to make sense of it all. During the development of Kentico 10, the company explored different ways to better glean and share insights to both Kentico and non-Kentico users. That’s important because often you are not the only one interested in the data. That’s why Kentico is leveraging its strategic relationship with Microsoft and offering advanced Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities through the Power BI Email Marketing dashboard. This ensures that everyone has access to the same channel intelligence.</li>
</ul>
Performance &amp; Scalability
<ul>
<li>Users will notice a dramatic 50% faster page load and response time of the Kentico environment. This means faster development of digital marketing campaigns and faster deployment of websites. This should be of particular appeal to digital marketing agencies, freeing them to take on more work within the same hours. The bottom line is that with Kentico 10, users will get more jobs done in less time.</li>
<li>Kentico 10 features a tenfold improvement in scalability, supporting over 100 million contacts and over 1 billion marketing activities. This new scale of work, in addition to built-in web farm support, makes Kentico enterprise-ready, and a much more viable option for Global Fortune 500 corporations.</li>
</ul>
Technology
<ul>
<li>Full Implementation of MVC – The <a href="http://asp.net/" target="_blank">ASP.NET</a> Model View Controller (MVC) is the fastest growing developer framework, helping companies to build better performing, more scalable websites. That’s why it was introduced in the last version of the product and is fully implemented in Kentico 10 in both the E-commerce and Online Marketing areas. That means total separation of concerns for all kinds of projects. By using the coupled REST API, Kentico 10 can be used in a variety of use cases as a content repository with the content consumed not only through traditional delivery channels, but also in native mobile apps, and by smart devices and machines to extend the pool of use cases.</li>
<li>Full Deployment of Continuous Integration – One of the challenges that digital agencies face is that every developer has their own instance of the development installation and their own instance of the development base – in effect, their own isolated environment. At the end of the day, they need to share that functionality with the rest of the team. Continuous Integration – the tool that makes this possible – is fully deployed and supports all object types in Kentico 10, enabling you to quickly and easily move objects between environments.</li>
</ul>
Ready for the Enterprise
<blockquote>“With the introduction of Kentico 10, the expansion of our service offerings, and our recent entry into the Gartner Magic Quadrant for WCM, we expect that more Global Fortune 500 companies will take a serious look at Kentico,” commented Founder and CEO Petr Palas. “We have been anticipating that day, and have been working hard to make our products and our business enterprise ready.”</blockquote>
Learn more at <a href="http://www.kentico.com/" target="_blank">http://www.kentico.com/</a>

Kentico 10 Features Dramatic Advances in Speed and Usability

Despite evident backing from the likes of Apple and Samsung, Smartwatch technology is still viewed by many to be a passing fad.However, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">Kentico</a>, the enterprise-grade CMS, CXM and eCommerce solution, has thrown its weight behind the Smartwatch industry by setting out some research-backed marketing guidelines.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico_rgb_bigger_400x0.png" /></a>Brands as large as Starbucks, Mazda and Twinings all trust Kentico with their online presences.Kentico carried out their research in aid of their newly released White Paper, entitled, “Smartwatches: The Opportunities &amp; Challenges for Marketers“<h2>The Marketing Era of Respectfulness</h2>The White Paper highlights a number of key points surrounding Smartchwatch marketing, although one of those points in particular stood out for me.<blockquote>“More than anything, advertisers and marketers will need to learn how to be even more respectful of their audiences.”</blockquote>This statement from Kentico is in reference to the hyper-personal (and perhaps one might argue, hyper-public) nature of Smartwatches.Push notifications sent to a smartphone are typically viewed when the user is alone, or at least in an environment where viewing messages and marketing material are appropriate. In other words, the user gets to choose when and where to start reading notifications.When it comes to Smartwatches though, marketers must realize that those same push notifications will be seen almost immediately, and perhaps by more than just the Smartwatch owner.Unlike with other smart technology, the owner has far less choice over their environment when receiving such messages, thanks to instant wrist vibrations and the ability to quickly glance down at whatever just popped up on their Smartwatch screen.Marketers will have to further consider the timing of their content, its wording and the importance of each push notification. Because without a doubt, even semi-regular messages that disturb a user's day or environment will be enough to warrant them tapping the unsubscribe button.<h2>Too Expensive &amp; Not Enough Functionality</h2>Kentico's research also included a survey, conducted around the question, “Which of the Following Reasons Are Keeping You from Buying a Smartwatch?”Respondents mostly opted for the answer, “Too expensive” (69%). The second most selected answer though, was “Not enough reasons to use one” (38%).To be fair to the Smartwatch industry, those same two obstacles are traditionally faced by new tech. The iPod was, once upon a time, a fairly expensive and one-dimensional piece of equipment. Many thought it was too expensive, while others couldn't find enough functionality to warrant any cash at all.With this research, and with the resulting marketing guidelines, Kentico is a company that sees a future for the Smartwatch. And I for one, totally agree with them.Download Kentico's White Paper here.And as always, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/kentico">Kentico via our CMS Directory</a>.

More Than a Fad: Kentico Research Implies That Smartwatches Are Here to Stay

<a href="http://www.kentico.com/" target="_blank">Kentico Software</a> has revealed the latest version of its CMS, E-commerce, and Online Marketing platform. <a href="http://www.kentico.com/kentico9" target="_blank">Kentico 9</a>.
Founded in 2004, Kentico is an Enterprise Web Content Management System and Customer Experience Management solution, available as an on-premise or cloud solution.
Kentico 9 is a sizeable update, bringing about a long list of improvements from MVC support to Modularization. Let's take a closer look.
<h2>A Look at the New Features of Kentico 9</h2>
Kentico 9 moves the platform forward quite some bit. Here's a detailed fifteen minute introductory video to get the ball rolling.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mzDNCdBCmek?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Continuous Integration 
Continuous Integration means that new changes are published more efficiently than ever before thanks to continuous delivery. Kentico 9's new Continuous Integration Solution is designed to be easy to set up, reliable, and fully automated.
This reduces the need for manual deployment, allows for better and faster detection of integration problems, and helps reduce and even prevent errors and loss of data – all resulting in reduced development costs.
Integrated Campaign Management 
Brands are facing issues when it comes to creating, managing, and evaluating campaigns based on incoming data.
Kentico 9 enables such brands to do all of that from a single, unified control panel. The new reporting engine is accessible not only for campaign management, but also for email marketing.
ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC Support)
MVC is the fastest growing developer framework, helping companies to build better performing, more scalable websites.
In recognition of this trend, Kentico 9 has embraced MVC to a much higher degree than ever before.
Improved Web Farm Support
Kentico 9 is optimized for cloud deployments. Improvements such as auto-scaling support are geared at simplifying every user's life.
The platform has been geared to respond to the environment as it scales up or down, minimizing the amount of administration that companies have to do in web farm scenarios.
Modularization
The final major upgrade comes in the form of modularization.
With Kentico 9, it's much easier to move code between modules, and move modules in between projects. This functionality had its beginnings in version 8, but it has been dramatically expanded in version 9.
<h2>Evolving &amp; Delivering on Promises</h2>
Kentico's Technical Evangelist, Bryan Soltis, made some interesting remarks about how the product is evolving:
<blockquote>“Kentico 9 is evolving along with the .NET community and is a major step forward in terms of technology and capabilities.
The new release demonstrates that we're listening to our customers, to our partners – and even to those companies that aren't customers and partners – to see what features and capabilities they need and what obstacles remain in their way.”</blockquote>
Kentico's CEO, Petr Palas, on the other hand, spoke of how Kentico is keeping its promises:
<blockquote>“There are only a handful of vendors who offer customers the full range of capabilities, from CMS through E-commerce to Online Marketing. There are even fewer who can deliver on that promise. Kentico is one of those companies.”</blockquote>
To find out more about Kentico, <a href="http://www.kentico.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>, or check out the Kentico 9 announcement. You can also view the new home page for Kentico 9 at <a href="http://www.kentico.com/kentico9" target="_blank">www.kentico.com/kentico9</a>.
Plus, you can explore more of <a href="/products/kentico/" target="_blank">Kentico via our CMS Directory</a>.

Kentico 9 Released With Integrated Campaign Management, MVC Support & More

In keeping with <a href="/kentico-8-2-release-date-set/">Kentico's announcement last year</a> pointing to an early 2015 release, Kentico 8.2 has now officially arrived.With its headquarters in the Czech Republic, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">Kentico</a> is a respected Enterprise Web Content Management System and Customer Experience Management solution, available on-premise or via the cloud. Founded in 2004, Kentico offers solutions for website building, intranets, community sites, and e-commerce websites.<a href="/kentico-8-1-release-date-revealed/">Kentico 8.1 was recently released</a> back in August 2014, and that version brought about its own set of features, including SharePoint integration and social marketing improvements. Kentico 8.2 has built upon those marketing features somewhat.<h2>Kentico 8.2 Enhances eCommerce, Marketing &amp; Collaboration</h2>Kentico 8.2 allows marketers to quickly deliver the right marketing message, at the right time, via the right digital channel. Here's an overview of what's new.Bi-Directional SharePoint Synchronization: Kentico’s new SharePoint Integration module streamlines collaboration while facilitating better file sharing. Kentico’s new bi-directional SharePoint synchronization feature means that all changes made in Kentico will be made automatically on the SharePoint server. So, your files are always up to date, and everyone has the latest versions.Easy Shipping Calculations: With shipping costs affected by order value, size, weight, geography, shipping provider, and customer, providing shipping discounts and free delivery to certain customers can be difficult to calculate. One-size-fits-all solutions are not for everybody, so Kentico has made it easy to create a shipping module that presents all the tools you need to calculate shipping costs in your own custom user interface.Enhanced Contact Management: The newly introduced Kentico Contact Management module provides a 360-degree view of all your website visitors and customers as well as their behavior across all channels and devices. If you are using multiple tools to manage your leads, contacts and recipients, it can be a headache to sync them, import them and reuse them across all the platforms in use. With Kentico 8.2, you can easily import Contacts from a CSV file, segment them, and leverage them in the system.Upon the release of version 8.2, Kentico's CEO and Founder Petr Palas made the following comments.<blockquote>“With the new features contained in Kentico 8.2, we continue to show we not only listen to our customers, we respond to their needs.We are constantly working to enhance our product to bring our customers the easy-to-use and affordable set of tools they need to launch and manage integrated digital marketing activities that are highly personalized, dynamic, and effective.”</blockquote>To find out more about Kentico, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">visit their website</a>, or check out their <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/Company/Press-Center/2014/Kentico-8-2-Features-New-Collaboration-and-Ecommer">Kentico 8.2 announcement</a>.Plus, you can explore more of <a href="/products/kentico/">Kentico via our CMS Directory</a>.

Kentico 8.2 Released With eCommerce & Marketing Improvements

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