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MACH Alliance Article

<hr /> We’ve covered several stories about the unique Women in MACH program, most recently at the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year">MACH Two</a> Conference this past June in Amsterdam – where the MACH Alliance launched a new Women in MACH <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-launches-women-in-mach-mentorship-program">mentorship program</a>.Without question, the initiative is growing and represents a continued commitment from the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-launches-women-in-mach-mentorship-program">MACH Alliance</a> and its community of companies, ambassadors, and contributors to support diversity and inclusion – including gender equality. Last year, the organization celebrated its first Women in MACH flagship event in Madrid, Spain. The conference was an overwhelming success, and the momentum built over the last 12 months has been a testament to the program.Next week, the organization returns to Madrid for its 2023 flagship event, where it plans to go “Beyond Boundaries” with its stated <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/insights/women-in-mach-manifesto-for-gender-equality">Manifesto</a> – and begin transforming the MACH technology ecosystem into a diverse and inclusive space for everyone. <h3>Going “Beyond Boundaries” </h3>According to the program’s website, the purpose of the event is to inspire and support women in MACH to develop their own skills, competencies, and career paths – and take the next step toward equal opportunities.The one-day event will draw together 100 leading women in tech as well as select “male allies” to provide mentorship, education, and support. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals, acquire new skills and knowledge, collaborate on ideas, and network with other professionals. “Beyond Boundaries” will offer a packed program of inspirational speakers, masterclasses, and workshops on a range of relevant topics. The event also promises to focus on the challenges that exist for achieving the tenants of the Women in MACH manifesto and will explore actionable solutions and programs. <h3>Where and when is the event? </h3>The Women in MACH 2023 “Beyond Boundaries” event will be held on September 21, from 9:00 a.m. - 11 p.m. at Club Alma Sensai in Madrid, Spain. For more details on the program – including the complete one-day agenda – you can visit the conference website at https://machalliance.org/women-in-mach-2023-beyond-boundariesAlong with the 100 leading women and allies, organizations can pay $5,500 to be part of the grass-roots movement. The investment provides two tickets, as well as opportunities for a company’s brand to be highlighted throughout the event.

Women in MACH’s 2023 Flagship Event Plans to Go “Beyond Boundaries” in Madrid

cms-critic-staff

In a recent interview, I invoked the original Star Wars film as a thematic backdrop. It seemed an apropos analogy for exploring the galactic frontier of composable – and, hopefully, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-heros-journey-to-composable-a-conversation-with-uniforms-mark-demeny/">made for a fun read</a>.Now, at great risk of crossing my sci-fi streams, I’m going to channel Star Trek.I know, I know. What is he thinking? These are distinct mythologies, each with a fiercely devoted fan base. But rest assured, my goal isn’t to stir up debate over <a target="_blank" href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/star-wars-vs-star-trek-which-one-is-better/">which is better</a> – I’ll leave that to you. Think of me as Switzerland… if it was a planet in the Dagobah system.So why am I doing this?Because every time I read the words “content federation,” I can’t help but think of Star Trek’s unmistakable “United Federation of Planets.” Key to the franchise canon, this futuristic authority has unified species and cultures across the expanse, enabling a utopian coexistence built on collaborative exploration and the betterment of humanity.In so many ways, this mirrors the mission of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/graphcms-rebrands-to-hygraph-launches-new-federated-content-platform/">Hygraph</a> – a headless CMS designed for the purpose and promise of content federation. Its captain, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/critics/michael-lukaszczyk/">Michael Lukaszczyk</a>, is seeking out ways to chart this frontier by uniting content data from different sources with one universal API.It’s not science fiction. Much like Star Trek’s Federation, Hygraph is pioneering a new quadrant of headless space as the first “Federated Content Platform,” ushering in a new reality for content management. It’s a strange new world where a headless platform is both frontend and backend agnostic, and data can be joined across multiple sources using a single <a target="_blank" href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL</a> query.With so much change and commoditization in the headless category, I connected with Michael to learn more about the benefits of Content Federation, why he’s betting the future on it, and how it's powering the warp drive behind Hygraph’s market acceleration.<h2>A digital experience explorer</h2>For some DX professionals, the path to a platform is often incongruous. But for Michael, it seemed his destiny was always in the stars.Joining me from his home base in Germany, about an hour north of Frankfurt, he chronicled his origin story. At age 11, he was already adopting the mantle of a digital wunderkind, building websites for friends and family. He pursued this passion at the university level, studying abroad in Spain and Sweden.After completing his master’s degree, he began his career at a company called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canto.com/">Canto</a>, a digital asset management (DAM) vendor. While challenging, it wasn’t entirely his cup of early grey tea.“I was in professional services, but I didn’t enjoy it,” he confessed unabashedly. “I was building integrations, but I always wanted to work on the core product and in distribution.”It was at Canto in 2015 that Michael met <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-winter-403059118/">Daniel Winter</a>. The two would become thick as thieves – much like Kirk and Spock – sharing a common sentiment on architecting and delivering software. By early 2016, the pair had already built a prototype for their own DAM solution.“But then, on a Friday night,” Michael recalled vividly, as if only yesterday, “I was scrolling through my Twitter feed before going to sleep, and I stumbled onto a post called <a target="_blank" href="https://css-tricks.com/what-is-a-headless-cms/">‘What is a Headless CMS’</a> by Chris Coyier from CSS Tricks. I didn’t know what a headless CMS was. No one did [in those days]. But as I read the post, I was impressed.”As Michael shared, the durability and sustainability of the headless CMS product model is what really appealed to him. “Whatever comes next in terms of digital channels, wherever you want to distribute your content to – AR, VR – you’re already set. Headless lets you build a sustainable content strategy.”After sharing the article with Daniel, they took a risk and pivoted from DAM to headless CMS, with one unique etch: the introduction of <a target="_blank" href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL,</a> a new query language for APIs. They had already been experimenting with it in their DAM prototype and knew its potential for improving the developer experience. The rest, as they say, is history.“The next day, we started to build the first GraphQL native CMS out there,” he said. “[We introduced] the product in early 2017, got some angel funding, and grew to a company of 90 people across the globe, from San Francisco to Manila.”What followed can only be described as a meteoric rise. After an initial raise of $13 million, the company closed on a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hygraph-secures-30-million-in-series-b-funding/">Series B of $30 million</a> in March of this year. They christened the vessel “GraphCMS,” but later rebranded to “Hygraph” to avoid any confusion or biases around page-building capabilities or publishing workflows. It also sounds cool and futuristic – exactly where the company wants to be. <h2>The voyage from headless CMS to federated content platform</h2>Over the last few years, Michael and his team have been chasing the answer to a very simple question: what will the next generation of CMS actually look like?As you might guess, that question isn’t so simple to answer. The evolution of CMS has been a long one – and with the explosion of the device ecosystem, things changed significantly. Demands shifted from a single web channel to multiple channels. This paradigm gave rise to the headless CMS, rendering the CMS frontend agnostic and turning it into a one-to-many relationship of content sources and destinations.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/hygraph-diagram-1024x432.png" alt="Hygraph diagram of content federation evolution" />“What we launched last year – what we call the federated content platform – is turning the promise of the headless CMS around,” he said. “Now, it’s not just frontend agnostic, but also backend agnostic, meaning you can source the content and data that lives in your backend stack on the other side of the API.”Bottom line: Hygraph has transformed the headless CMS from one-to-many to many-to-many across content sources and destinations. Developers and product builders can turn all backend systems into one universal API, allowing users on the frontend to work in any way with their data.This plays directly into the concept of federation. As Michael pointed out, the term originated in the GraphQL community, with the basic idea of merging multiple APIs together in a sort of “Super API” (powered by dilithium crystals?)“It was a very easy progression to being a GraphQL headless CMS to adding federation capabilities to the mix,” he added. “We were already so strong on GraphQL that it just made sense.”I asked Michael what else was driving this change, aside from the obvious. That brought us back to the core question about the next generation of CMS, and a key word: composable.<hr /><h4 style="text-align:center">We’re adapting to a new reality where content and data aren’t residing in one source anymore... content federation is content management for a new reality.</h4><hr />“We’re adapting to a new reality where content and data aren’t residing in one source anymore,” he professed. “The typical stack now is modular. With composability, the monolith is going away, and companies are establishing more modular architectures in their tech stack and picking the best tool for the job.”While building so-called “best-of-breed” stacks sounds great, composable has its share of side effects. As Michael reinforced, things aren’t integrated as tightly, and this can cause huge problems and delays. Enterprises are left tending to these integrations, and man… it’s hard.“Before content federation, the biggest challenge we saw was building middleware,” he said. “It’s really expensive and painful to develop. You have to design, maintain, authorize, secure, make fast, wire up with CDNs. Each time there’s a new component or system coming in or new business requirement, you have to adapt the code base. It’s an innovation bottleneck.”This is where Hygraph fires its photon torpedoes to eliminate that bottleneck, allowing you to configure all your systems downstream and easily tap all content sources and destinations with a single API. It solves the customization and integration challenges that hold back innovation or slow time to market.As Michael punctuated, “Content federation is content management for a new reality.” And it certainly feels like a Star Trek-level next generation of headless CMS.<h2>Charting the composable frontier</h2>Hygraph is a member of the <a target="_blank" href="https://machalliance.org/members">MACH Alliance</a>, a not-for-profit organization focused on open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems – and the defacto voice of the composable movement. As I shared in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">previous posts</a>, I had the opportunity to judge entries in the MACH Two Impact Awards this past June.During our conversation, I shared with Michael how inspiring and intimidating some of the project examples were. The system integrators behind these transformations were creative and ambitious. In some cases, the resulting stacks felt a bit like Frankenstein’s monster coming to life – miraculous, but potentially scary. Could content federation help change this?“I actually think Frankenstein is a good term for it,” he replied. “What led us to content federation is that we would see the integration requirements and what kinds of Frankensteins [our customers] would build. One reason why it’s hard to maintain is that very often, the people who can build these Frankensteins can be strong characters – very experienced enterprise architects. There’s a human factor, and there can be a lot of arguing about how things are built.”The human factor. Of course. One of the biggest risks to the success of a modular, composable architecture is the mindset – which, by its very nature, is about people and processes. Larger organizations have the resources to support both, but I wondered if Hygraph might be looking downstream as it removes many of the challenges from going composable.“We want to make complex architectures feasible, not just possible,” he said. “Even for the mid-market. A lot of vendors in the MACH space address [that segment], so there has to be some way to get those technologies together more easily.”<h2>A warp engine for content-rich applications</h2>In the expanding universe of digital experiences, content is fueling opportunity – hence the continued explosion of CMS, DXP, and other technologies in the ecosystem. Some estimates put the market potential at over <a target="_blank" href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/04/11/1802414/0/en/Global-Content-Management-Software-Market-Will-Reach-USD-123-500-Million-By-2026-Zion-Market-Research.html">$123 billion by 2026</a>, with a CAGR of 17 percent.At the same time, the headless CMS market is approaching a Neutral Zone of commoditization, with composable forcing greater downward pressure on price and parity. Most platforms provide similar functionality, and some are feeling the pinch to add new features that challenge their MACH posture as pure-play composable solutions.I asked Michael what gives Hygraph an edge in this battle.“A lot of CMS vendors focus on websites and marketing personas. But we’ve built powerful capabilities that have attracted different kinds of use cases to our platform, the kind that we were surprised to see a CMS being used for and not a database.”Michael referred to these as content-rich applications, where the content itself is the main asset of the product being sold. Like Netflix for streaming movies or Peloton for workout classes, content creators only need tools to maintain those experiences. In these cases, it’s not marketers using Hygraph, but domain experts that don’t require page builders or WYSIWYGs.On the channel side, Hygraph is partnering with SIs and collaborating with other MACH vendors to build deeper API-based integrations. While much of this attention is focused on enterprise, there’s some solid mid-market in the mix, where it’s easier to find early adopters of their technology. Regardless, organizations stand to gain significant benefits from content federation.“It can help consolidate the legacy stack within an organization,” he explained. “You integrate all the services under the hood, and you get a fresh façade, like a renovation for all the APIs you have. All of a sudden, a company can attract better developers because they can work with modern tools. If you want top talent, you have to keep iterating.”Content-rich applications are one dimension. Enterprises are also wrestling with multiple CMSes under on roof. “We’ve seen enterprises have as many CMSes as teams or divisions, and they need to stay there for a couple of years. Content federation is enabling this to work, making it easy to consolidate and build new digital experiences.”<h2>Phasers locked on growth</h2>As Michael noted, the biggest challenge to growth in composable is that no one knows how to Google the problem they have. It’s a bit like being trapped on an alien planet with no universal translator.“Headless CMS is mature, and people are aware, but we are so early with composability and building the tooling that a lot of education still needs to happen,” he proclaimed. “I’m happy the MACH Alliance is around, as it’s a joint effort to educate and position to other vendors. It’s the category creation process that needs to be innovated.”For Michael, the role of the MACH Alliance can’t be understated. I recall <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/">Kelly Goetsch</a>, one of its co-founders, saying that if the Alliance does its job, it might become less necessary in the future. That said, the rise of new certifications brings greater certainty and confidence to technology buyers.Michael said he wouldn’t be surprised if the MACH Alliance became a marketplace to bundle those services under one umbrella. Driving that belief is the challenge of procurement.“With monolithic vendors, you have all the tools with one vendor, one renewal process, one customer success manager. In a composable stack, you have ten solutions you have to deal with ten times a year. At some point, market consolidation may happen – and the MACH Alliance might be in the best spot to do this.”There are a lot of challenging headwinds, to be sure. Composable is growing, perhaps more in Europe right now, but I asked Michael how his approach to growth as a leader is setting Hygraph up for success.“It’s challenging economically, but we’re still growing at a good pace,” he said confidently. “We’ve built four strong pillars of growth: product-led strategy, a good sales team and quotient, the right ecosystem partners, and a commitment to customer success – so our customers buy again. It’s important to go the extra mile to make sure they implement successfully. Otherwise, after three or four months, it’s a safe churn.”<h2>Scotty, beam me up…</h2>Whether you’re a Star Trek fan or not (and really, who isn't?), you can’t argue its impact on pop culture. Content federation might be on a similar trajectory within the CMS industry as it evolves the composable landscape.  As Michael reflected on our conversation, he returned to that tipping point of opportunity and the importance of having a solid vision and a good story to pitch. “Innovation and differentiation are so important. If we hadn’t pivoted to GraphCMS, we wouldn’t be here. Everyone told me not to go fundraise for a Series B, but the whole process took 90 days to being at the notary and signing the round. A differentiated, unique story is incredibly important in that aspect.”I asked what’s ahead for Hygraph as 2023 warps toward a new year. I also inquired about AI, as peer platforms continue to add functionality to their toolsets.“We’re very focused on federation and larger releases, but what we see with a lot of vendors is that they’re wrapping ChatGPT around a UI plugin and giving you ChatGPT tools in their CMS. Is there a real value add? In reality, you can say you’re a CMS with AI capabilities, but you’re just copying and pasting from ChatGPT with better integration.”Michael suggested there are stronger use cases for AI in content management. For example, in the future, companies may be able to define schema and allow AI to build out the rest of an application – reducing the fail rate for software projects. There are clearly boundless opportunities for automation that still put users in control.As Hygraph continues to explore the DX galaxy under Michael's leadership, it’s clear that content federation is the prime directive. It’s the kind of innovation that could very well shape the next generation of content management and drive significant growth.I’m betting it will live long and prosper.

Content Management for a New Reality: A Conversation with Hygraph CEO Michael Lukaszczyk

matt-garrepy

This week, <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fkontent.ai%2F&amp;esheet=52780079&amp;newsitemid=20220713005621&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Kontent.ai&amp;index=1&amp;md5=c56e95cdd90647703ac78689ada036c6">Kontent.ai</a> – a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> – announced the expansion of its Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program, which recognizes the contributions of industry experts who have worked to support the Kontent.ai community.
The expansion features two new categories: Strategy MVP and Ambassador MVP. These join Kontent.ai's existing Technical MVP program, which has successfully operated for several years and elevated technical personas and developers in the company's community.
Along with the expansion, Kontent.ai announced seven new MVPs joining the new Strategy &amp; Ambassador programs. According to the company, these individuals will play a crucial role in shaping the future of Kontent.ai's platform and help drive innovation in the field. 
<h2>Strategy MVPs</h2>
The Strategy MVP category recognizes and celebrates valuable members of the Kontent.ai community who demonstrate a strong understanding of modern digital strategies. These individuals highlight how Kontent.ai can deliver successful outcomes for brands in an evolving technological landscape by sharing their technical knowledge and consultative expertise with the market. The new MVPs include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgriffith/" target="_blank">Adam Griffith</a> (Luminary - Australia)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshaysura/" target="_blank">Akshay Sura</a>* (Konabos - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmckeiver/" target="_blank">Brian McKeiver</a>* (Bizstream - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/katywhitedept/" target="_blank">Katy White</a> (DEPT® - United Kingdom)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaasjanmeijer/" target="_blank">Klaas-Jan Meijer</a> (ACTUM Digital - Netherlands)</li>
</ul>
*Transitioned from the Technical MVP Program
<h2>Ambassador MVPs</h2>
In addition, the newly formed Ambassador MVP category recognizes Kontent.ai customers that are considered experts in the deployment, management, and orchestration of Kontent.ai’s headless CMS. This category focuses on how the platform delivers superior content management experiences in a highly-competitive digital landscape. Ambassador MVPs are champions of Kontent.ai and advocate for what brands can achieve in their own complex digital and content management journeys. The new MVPs include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-lamothe-87b78686/" target="_blank">Marc Lamothe</a> (American Bath Group - United States)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiremebecause/" target="_blank">D’Arcy Heath</a> (UNUM - United Kingdom)</li>
</ul>
It's worth noting that Akshay Sura and Marc Lamothe were part of the team that received a 2023 MACH Impact Award for the American Bath Group project – a composable solution that featured the Kontent.ai headless CMS. The project featured the migration of 10 websites with over 50,000 products in only 8 months.
The award was announced in June during the MACH Alliance's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two event</a> in Amsterdam. 
<h2>About Kontent.ai</h2>
Kontent.ai is a leading modular content platform that enables marketers and developers to plan, create, and deliver content at scale. Business teams collaborate daily in the intuitive authoring experience designed for governed content production and management, real-time reviewing and approvals, and modular content reuse. In parallel, developers leverage the total flexibility of the headless solution, best-of-breed technologies, and composable AI to deliver digital experiences via API to any channel. With hubs in New York, London, Amsterdam, Brno, and Sydney, Kontent.ai helps companies like Zurich Insurance, Algolia, Vogue, AC Milan, and Oxford University unlock the full potential of their content and connect with customers worldwide.

Kontent.ai Expands its MVP Program with Two New Categories

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/new-mach-alliance-maturity-assessment-tool-helps-organizations-evaluate-their-mach-readiness/">The MACH Alliance</a> continues its unabated upward trajectory in 2023.
The not-for-profit group, which advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems, has <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/stripe-joins-mach-alliance-bringing-organization-to-nearly-90-members/">added multiple technologies and system integrators</a> to its ranks since the beginning of the year. This includes some noteworthy brands like Stripe and Paypal. 
Now, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility/">Agility</a> – an API-first <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> – has joined the prestigious industry organization.
This week, the company announced that it is now a certified member of the MACH Alliance, highlighting its commitment to utilizing modern, modular, and scalable software architectures to provide innovative digital experiences to its clients. 
"We are thrilled to be a part of the MACH Alliance community," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvoigt/" target="_blank">Jon Voigt</a>, CEO of Agility. "At Agility, we’ve always had the belief that customers should use best-of-breed solutions and bring them together to create the best experience for their teams and their customers. Joining the MACH Alliance just shows external verification that we’ve always been on the right track." 
<h2>Building the composable future on the principles of MACH</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a community of technology companies and enablers dedicated to promoting the adoption of MACH architecture principles for building flexible, interoperable, and future-proof digital ecosystems. MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) represents the foundational principles that Agility was designed on from its conception – making it an ideal fit for membership.
"By leveraging MACH architecture principles at Agility, we empower our customers and partners to build and deliver personalized, omnichannel digital experiences that drive engagement and loyalty," said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/playing-to-win-in-the-headless-cms-game-interview-with-joel-varty-cto-at-agility/">Joel Varty</a>, CTO of Agility. "I look forward to collaborating with other members of the MACH Alliance to drive innovation and advance the adoption of modern architectural standards." 
As a composable platform, Agility CMS allows clients to easily manage and distribute content across multiple channels and seamlessly integrate with other services. Additionally, its API-first approach enables clients to create content once and then distribute it anywhere, seamlessly integrating it with their existing technology stack.
From an infrastructure perspective, Agility is cloud-native, running on the latest technology and making it easy for clients to scale their solutions as their business grows.
Finally, Agility's headless approach – a key component in MACH architectures – allows clients to easily separate content from the presentation layer, giving them the freedom to deliver customized experiences across a variety of channels. 
<h2>Gaining agility in a rapidly-changing marketplace </h2>
Agility's membership in the MACH Alliance will give the company access to a network of leading technology companies, enabling it to stay at the forefront of technology innovation and continue delivering outstanding digital experiences to its clients. 
"At Agility, we always strive to provide the best possible digital experiences for our clients," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jina-zohori/" target="_blank">Jina Zohori</a>, Head of Customer Experience at Agility. "By joining the MACH Alliance community and leveraging modern, modular, and scalable software architectures, we will continue to innovate and provide our clients with exceptional digital experiences that engage and delight their customers. Our membership in the MACH Alliance will also provide us with access to a network of leading technology companies, enabling us to stay at the forefront of technology innovation and deliver even more value to our clients." 
Agility's <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/agility-unveils-refreshed-design-system-in-ui-delivering-enhanced-user-experience-and-accessibility/">recent announcement</a> of a new UI also reinforces its commitment to delivering a best-in-class customer experience. The upgrade reflected 18 months of research and innovation that improves the overall usability of the headless platform, along with new features and modernizations. 
<h2>About Agility</h2>
Agility is an API-first Headless CMS that enables organizations to build and deliver personalized digital experiences across multiple channels. With a Headless Architecture and White Glove service, Agility empowers its clients to easily manage and distribute content while seamlessly integrating with their existing technology stack. For more information, visit<a href="https://agilitycms.com/"> https://agilitycms.com/</a>

Agility Joins MACH Alliance, Bringing its Headless CMS to the Industry-Leading Composable Ecosystem

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One of the biggest challenges with adopting <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-technology" target="_blank">MACH</a> (Microservices, API-First, Cloud-Native SaaS, Headless) is understanding what you’re in for. After all, going composable and embracing MACH patterns and architectures is not for the faint of heart.
So if you’re seriously considering MACH, is your company prepared for what’s ahead? What resources will you require? And what does success look like?
To help answer some of these foundational questions, the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-expands-advisory-board-launches-new-mach-book-resource/">MACH Alliance</a> – a not-for-profit group that advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems – has developed a new <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-maturity-assessment" target="_blank">MACH Maturity Assessment Tool</a>. This five-minute "quiz" focuses on high-level business considerations instead of just the technical landscape, giving you a quick snapshot of your organization’s MACH readiness.
The online self-assessment provides a step-by-step Q&amp;A that scores your overall readiness to make the MACH shift. The questions focus on six key pillars: Strategy and Transformation, Organization and Governance, Process and Metrics, People and Culture, Technology and Architecture, and Business Intelligence.
I previously chatted with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Casper Rasmussen</a>, President of the MACH Alliance, to ask why this assessment tool is so important.
“What we set as an objective for 2023 is to help buyers make the right decisions,” he said. “We want to clarify the role of MACH and whom it’s for – and this tool plays a vital role in doing that. It allows an organization to gauge its readiness to adopt MACH, but it’s not a technology evaluation. This is a 360-degree view of the actual organizational aspects.”
It’s worth noting that MACH Alliance member Deloitte Digital led the development of this tool, along with a group of Alliance member volunteers and SI reps. The consortium included professionals from commercetools, Capgemini, Apply Digital, Orium, Vuestorefront, Big Commerce, Scaleflex, Vercel, talon.one, Cloudinary, Intive, Bold Commerce, Epam, and Valtech.
<h2>The six dimensions of a MACH-ready business</h2>
The Maturity Assessment questions align with what Casper described as six dimensions of a MACH-ready business – the same dimensions the Alliance has been consistently focused on.
But, as he points out, there’s always a journey element to MACH. Part of that transition is evaluating readiness, but it’s also identifying the gaps to help improve it.
“We’re not expecting companies to be perfect,” he clarified. “Not only do we score based on the answers that brands provide us, but we help them figure out, rectify, and actually improve across the dimensions that might be troublesome or problematic for them. This helps them navigate the journey they are about to embark on.”
The MACH Alliance also released a <a href="https://machalliance.org/thought-leadership/mach-maturity-assessment-whitepaper">white paper</a> covering the six pillars, which pair up to each self-assessment stage. Here’s a brief summary of each dimension:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/mach-maturity-diagram-pillars-1024x757.png" alt="MACH Maturity Assessment Diagram" />
<ul>
<li>Strategy and Transformation: As an organization considers a MACH transformation, clearly understanding its business objectives is essential. This initial step of the assessment highlights where a MACH approach may be applicable based on an organization’s current view of transformation across domains and as a whole.</li>
<li>Organization and Governance: This assessment step focuses on the decision-making process and how organizations support rapid change cycles and integrate with multiple external suppliers. MACH may require a business to adapt its operating model or delegate governance around an agreed-upon set of principles. These practices are foundational to supporting an effective MACH transition.</li>
<li>Process and Metrics: As noted in the white paper, any approach to MACH will have “knock-on” effects to process and metrics to support a distributed system of smaller components. Organizations may need to adopt an Agile project management framework, new reporting to span multiple business domains, and business processes for procuring, provisioning, and onboarding external systems.</li>
<li>People and Culture: Having the right distribution of people and frictionless communication between teams is key to a successful MACH transition. These questions focus on an organization’s culture and dynamics, where empowering greater autonomy, collaboration, and personal ownership of decisions can drive success – along with the development of new digital skills.</li>
<li>Technology and Architecture: While the assessment focuses more on business considerations, technology is a cornerstone of MACH and plays a big role in the transition. These questions focus on the shift from large, multi-function systems to more granular components, assessing whether an organization’s engineers and architects are prepared for microservices, APIs, cloud-based systems, and decoupled services.</li>
<li>Business Intelligence: The final stage of the assessment is concerned with optics and KPIs. To achieve and maintain MACH, organizations require tools for analysis and visualization that enable data-driven decisions at technical, operational, and business levels. Also, business intelligence best practices encompass the role of advanced analytics, AI and machine learning, and near-real-time data transparency.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Taking the MACH Maturity Assessment</h2>
Like any objective knowledge-seeker, I took the MACH Maturity Assessment myself.
As billed, I spent just a few minutes from start to finish and found the experience clear, frictionless, and kind of fun. Each question was multiple choice (A/B/C), peppered with intuitive options that use words like “firepower” and “big bang.” This makes the flow easy and highly accessible to business users.
A few questions did meander into techspeak (CI/CD processes, APIs, etc.). As a cloud guy, I easily understood the concepts, but you can pause the assessment and even back up if there are any specific details you need to hunt down. Once completed, you can enter your email address and have the assessment sent to you (not a requirement, BTW).
The final report generates a slick performance chart that maps your maturity as Weak, Immature, Moderate, or Mature. I included mine below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/07/mach-maturity-performance-chart-1024x1018.png" alt="MACH Maturity Assessment diagam" />
I pulled a “Moderate” based on some of my answers, and was given a set of suggestions for improving my performance in the areas that required the most attention. For example, I was stronger in People and Culture but weaker in Business Intelligence – so the tool suggested I invest in improving my ability to track metrics across applications and experiences.
Again, this is a high-level snapshot, so not enough detail to prescribe specific solutions. But certainly enough to plan next steps.
Reviewing my results reminded me of how Casper framed success in our discussion. “The more we can emphasize the potential areas that will end up being problematic and really improve, the better,” he said. “Because it means brands are walking into it eyes wide open.”
<h2>MACHinating the journey ahead</h2>
If you’re considering a transition to MACH – and want an eye-opening experience – I would wholeheartedly recommend the MACH Maturity Assessment. It takes just a few minutes, but it’s a great place to start your journey.
You can access the tool online at <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-maturity-assessment">https://machalliance.org/mach-maturity-assessment</a>

New MACH Alliance Maturity Assessment Tool Helps Organizations Evaluate Their MACH Readiness

Big leadership changes are afoot at the <a href="http://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a>, the group of independent tech companies that advocate for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. The organization just announced changes to its Executive Board and leadership team, coming on the heels of its successful <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two Conference</a> in early June. 
As composable technology adoption increases globally, the MACH Alliance provides vendor-neutral resources, education, and guidance through industry experts, helping to support companies on their journey to <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">MACH</a> (Microservices, API-First, Cloud-Native SaaS, Headless). As a movement, having transparent and democratic governance is vital, and the new board intends to fulfill the Alliance's commitment to diverse representation across member categories, geographies, genders, and areas of expertise.
According to the press release, the Alliance now touts more North American representatives than European. This reflects an accelerated adoption of MACH in markets like the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, the board has shifted its primary technology focus to concentrate more on business, marketing, and strategy. This transition will aid in advancing its mission, promoting the overall movement, and further supporting its expansion into North America within the next 12 months.
<h2>New Executive Board appointments 
</h2>
The MACH Alliance Executive Board comprises representatives from ISV, SI, and Enabler members within the Alliance, with an almost equal split between female and male members. Board elections take place every year, each term lasting two years, and Executive Board members are permitted to serve a maximum of two terms.
The new Executive Board appointments include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/naragon/" target="_blank">Kristin Naragon</a> – Chief Strategy &amp; Marketing Officer at Akeneo</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/briankwalker/" target="_blank">Brian Walker</a> – Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Bloomreach</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/krithikaganesamoorthi/" target="_blank">Krithika Ganesamoorthi</a> – Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture at Amazon Web Services (AWS)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenerale/" target="_blank">Jen Jones</a> – Chief Marketing Officer at commercetools</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmin-guthmann-a463a766/" target="_blank">Jasmin Guthmann</a> – Head of Corporate Communication at Contentstack (re-elected)</li>
</ul>
This new crop of members will join the existing MACH Alliance Executive Board, which includes:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/casper-aagaard-rasmussen/" target="_blank">Casper Rasmussen</a> – President and Global SVP Technology at Valtech</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-panella-b616911/" target="_blank">Jon Panella</a> – Group Vice President at Publicis Sapient</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbachdk/" target="_blank">Chris Bach</a> – Co-founder and CSO at Netlify</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dom-selvon-1488958/" target="_blank">Dom Selvon</a> – Chief Technology Officer at Apply Digital</li>
</ul>
<h2>Outgoing members of the Executive Board </h2>
As the new board appointees cycle in, the Alliance is parting with three very large pairs of shoes to fill:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/" target="_blank">Kelly Goetsch</a> – Chief Strategy Officer at commercetools</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjwilliams/" target="_blank">John Williams</a> – Chief Technology Officer at Amplience</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordana-vuckovic/" target="_blank">Gordana Vuckovic</a> – Advisor, TAZI AI Systems</li>
</ul>
Goetsch has been – and remains – an important changemaker within the MACH Community. He has played a critical role in the development of the Alliance since its inception and served as its founding president. During his two-year board tenure, he significantly contributed to furthering the industry’s understanding of MACH and will continue to be a very active member.
Similarly, Williams and Vuckovic have left an indelible mark on the Alliance and bolstered the MACH movement during their time on the Executive Board.
<h2>2023 Elections introduce new Heads of Councils</h2>
The Alliance announced the appointment of several new Heads of Councils during its 2023 elections. Voting took place between June 28th and 30th. Candidates from member companies nominated themselves and campaigned for MACH Alliance member votes, which were cast as part of a transparent, democratic process.
The new appointments include: 
<ul>
<li>Growth Council: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetalofer/" target="_blank">Tal Ofer</a> – Partnerships Director at Cloudinary</li>
<li>Marketing Council: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewwadsworth1/" target="_blank">Andrew Wadsworth</a>, Senior Director Business Development at Apply Digital, joined by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabotea/" target="_blank">Irina Boteo</a>, VP Marketing at Uniform</li>
<li>Tech Council: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartguestsmith/" target="_blank">Stuart Guest-Smith</a>, Lead Principal Architect at BigCommerce, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertocarreramaldonado/" target="_blank">Roberto Carrera</a>, Strategy Architect at Apply Digital</li>
</ul>
<h2>New Education Council focuses on business and technical foundations</h2>
This year, the Alliance also announced the establishment of a new Education Council. The initiative will be led by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tareknseir/" target="_blank">Tarek Nseir,</a> SVP of Digital Engagement EMEA at EPAM Systems, who has been an active member of the Executive Board for the past year.
With this new council, the Alliance aims to turbocharge its efforts in the educational space, ensuring it remains at the top of the agenda. During the MACH Two Conference, Casper Rasmussen detailed some of the roadmap for the Alliance's ambitious education plans. The council will be critical in meeting that horizon, launching business and technical foundation tracks later this year.
<h2>Celebrating MACH Milestones</h2>
The board changes and election appointments come on the heels of several milestones for the MACH Alliance. Most notably: the celebration of its third anniversary. The organization recently attained 90 members, including <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-announces-paypal-is-the-first-company-to-join-new-supporter-membership-category" target="_blank">PayPal</a> and other global financial service providers – all while maintaining the purity of the MACH Alliance certification.
As previously noted, the MACH Two Conference – which was held from June 13-14 in Amsterdam – was a resounding success. The event brought together more than 600 leaders across the MACH community, providing a wealth of education workshops and sessions with real customer use cases and success stories.
“It has been an exciting and fun experience to strategically lead this organization for the last 12 months,” said Casper Rasmussen, President of the MACH Alliance. “We are looking forward to onboarding fresh thinking, new energy, and to welcome new individuals to our executive team. With this leadership team in place from August, we have the exclusive opportunity to really propel awareness, education and the advancement of MACH to the next level. My sincere thanks to our board for having been such an essential part of all our achievements to date.”
<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.

MACH Alliance Appoints New Members to Executive Board, Focuses on Diversity of Expertise and Growth in North America

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<a href="http://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance,</a> the not-for-profit industry body that advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems, just announced the launch of its new Women in MACH mentorship program. 
In previous articles, we've covered the Women in MACH initiative, which has become integral to the MACH Alliance’s roadmap. Mentorship has been earmarked as one of three core pillars for the Women in MACH movement in 2023 and will be offered as a unique benefit to MACH Alliance members.
The new program was on center stage at the recent <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-two-conference-wrap-six-takeaways-from-the-composable-event-of-the-year/">MACH Two Conference</a> in Amsterdam, where more than 100 people signed on as mentors during the event. This groundswell of interest reflects the community’s appetite to promote change and increase diversity and inclusion.
“From the very beginning, the MACH Alliance has been committed to encouraging companies across the MACH ecosystem to strive for best-of-breed architectures,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jguthmann/" target="_blank">Jasmin Guthmann</a>, Vice President &amp; Executive Board Member of the MACH Alliance. “Why stop there? We saw a golden opportunity to expand our advocacy mission to nurture the professional growth of women, and the Women in MACH mentorship program is the perfect avenue to do that. Our intent is to grow the Women in MACH mentorship program into an overarching mentorship program for increased diversity, equity and inclusion by early-2024.”
<h2>MACHifying mentorship</h2>
The MACH Alliance has been a champion of mentorship since its founding in 2020. The new mentorship program builds on the MACH Alliance’s fall 2022 <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-publishes-women-in-mach-manifesto-for-gender-equality/">Women in MACH event</a>, where over 100 high-profile attendees collectively authored its <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/women-in-mach-manifesto-for-gender-equality" target="_blank">Women in MACH manifesto,</a> urging companies to prioritize gender equality.
According to the organization's press release, its mentor/mentee matching will be 1-1 and cover six key areas:
<ul>
<li>Sales and marketing</li>
<li>Career development</li>
<li>Product and R&amp;D-related topics</li>
<li>Change management</li>
<li>Leadership</li>
<li>Team building</li>
</ul>
“We’ve said it before and we continue to emphasize that MACH is a modern category, and that calls for an equally modern approach to drive forward a new era in enterprise tech,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Casper Rasmussen</a>, President, MACH Alliance. “That requires rethinking the faces and voices that are leading the charge. We’ve seen firsthand what tremendous leaders and contributors women are in this space. This mentorship program is just one way we’re working to pave the way for the success of women and other diverse individuals to continue to succeed.”
To learn more, visit <a href="https://machalliance.org/women-in-mach-mentoring" target="_blank">Women in MACH Mentorship program.</a>
<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 with the same vision for the future. Learn more at <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">machalliance.org</a>, <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence" target="_blank">read here </a>about MACH certification and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/machalliance" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

MACH Alliance Launches Women in MACH Mentorship Program

In Hollywood, sequels are a roll of the dice. Few manage to capture the magic of an original film, and most burn up on re-entry. I won’t partake in any “sequel shaming,” but the list of losers is long.
But then there’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” a film that surprisingly managed to <a href="https://boardroom.tv/highest-grossing-sequels-of-all-time/">earn $1.4 billion globally</a>. While not the biggest franchise follow-up (that still belongs to Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame”), it cemented its place at the top.
At this year’s <a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/">MACH Two Conference</a> – the sequel to the <a href="https://machalliance.org/">MACH Alliance’s</a> inaugural event in 2022 – Tom Cruise wasn't piloting any box office blitz. But as the final session wrapped, there was more Maverick in MACH than anyone could have predicted.
I had the opportunity to attend the much-anticipated event in Amsterdam this week at the swank <a href="https://delamar.nl/en/">DeLaMar Theater</a>. And while dodging airport delays with international connections was nerve-racking, it was well worth the effort.
Because MACH Two was, in a word, awesome.
Don’t take my word for it. As <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/netlify-to-host-headless-commerce-summit-for-talks-on-building-world-class-e-commerce-experiences/">Netlify</a> co-founder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbachdk/">Chris Bach</a> observed, it was the “crème de la crème of events, and I wanted to talk to everyone.”
While the MACH Alliance is still a relative newcomer to the tech landscape, its signature conference has already attained world-class status. Along with an impressive lineup of 36 speakers, the event featured expert practitioners, technology vendors, integrators, and brands willing to share their MACH journeys.
Betwixt the lively keynotes, there were numerous workshops, a co-lab zone, learning circles, social groups, afterparties, and more. Even the tasty plant-based bites provided by Food Line-up – Europe’s first <a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/" target="_blank">B Corp</a> caterer – were <a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/?overlay=Sustainability-pledge">sustainably produced</a> (and you know how boring conference food can be).
Over the two days of the conference, I connected with Alliance leaders, sponsors, and attendees to discuss MACH and how it’s shaping the composable landscape. While innovation and technology were central to the content, it was evident that the “Art &amp; Science” of this event’s theme had more to do with people and community.
I met so many great people and there are too many stories to tell, so I tried to compress everything into six big takeaways that made MACH Two a winning sequel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/06/mach-two-image-1.jpg" alt="MACH Two presentation" />
<h2>1. Interest in MACH and composable is growing in a big way</h2>
During Tuesday’s opening keynote, the lower bowl of the DeLaMar Theater was solidly packed. This echoed what MACH Alliance president <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Casper Rasmussen</a> said during his opening remarks: “The footprint has grown.”
To be sure, last year’s shindig was smaller – which makes sense when you’re throwing a party for the first time. During the planning phase for MACH One, a few Alliance members admitted to me that they weren’t sure if anyone would show up.
But that wasn’t the case this year. With just over 600 attendees from numerous countries, things sometimes got elbow-deep.
Since last year’s event, the Alliance has grown to nearly 90 members, with a pipeline of new applications streaming in. <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions/">AWS joined</a> as an Enabler in 2022, bringing industry-leading brands to the ecosystem ­– and that trend has continued. In fact, as the show was opening, it was <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/stripe-joins-mach-alliance-bringing-organization-to-nearly-90-members/">announced that Stripe</a> had joined the ranks.
At one point during the opening session, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-diliberti-73801140/" target="_blank">Danielle Diliberti</a> of Sommsation (who shared MC duties with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nialledwards/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Naill Edwards</a> of Lego Group) asked for a show of hands to see who was attending their first MACH event. It looked to be around 60% – evidence that interest is swelling, and the market sees more potential than it did just 12 months ago.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/06/mach-two-image-2-1.jpg" alt="MACH Two ASICS presentation" />
<h2>2. MACH has moved from early adoption to real impact</h2>
One of the most notable transformations from MACH One to MACH Two is the shift from ideas to successful implementations. Across both days, the event featured customer stories from an array of verticals, all told through the voice of the internal MACH champion. In every example, we saw the realization of the MACH journey through working architectures and KPIs.
Each use case was brilliant, from Interflora to IKEA to M&amp;M. But as a runner, I was a bit partial to ASICS, the international sportswear brand. With a global omnichannel platform serving Japan, Europe, North America, and Australia, it was a perfect example to showcase the potential of MACH at scale.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjmontgomery/" target="_blank">Mindy Montgomery</a>, Associate Director of Product Management at ASICS, gave a fantastic overview of how her company evolved beyond a purpose-built eCommerce solution and broke its monolithic dependency. Starting with a change in mindset, her team built a modern DXP to support loyalty, search, promotions, design systems, and other functions across its digital business. She’s now looking to make parts of the stack available via headless for other company initiatives.
One concept that kept surfacing with ASICS and other brands is the concerted move to a product-led philosophy. As Montgomery explained, removing the small, feature-based approach was critical to embracing MACH. She also emphasized the importance of having a trust-based relationship between product and engineering to improve delivery.
AI made its way into numerous stories, and ASICS was no exception. Montgomery admitted that the emergence of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/from-chatbots-to-contentops-how-ai-is-coming-to-your-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/">ChatGPT</a> forced them to pause and rethink their product search initiative. The company is now considering a generative AI application to augment its shoe finder experience.
One key takeaway: while AI might be changing the game, composable could make the pivot much less painful.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/06/mach-two-image-3.jpg" alt="MACH Two Media Q&amp;A" />
<h2>3. More education, tools, and transparency are on the way</h2>
During a dedicated media Q&amp;A on Tuesday, I had an opportunity to engage with a panel of Alliance leaders and ambassadors. In addition to Casper Rasmussen, the group included <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/" target="_blank">Kelly Goetsch</a>, MACH Alliance Chair &amp; CSO of commercetools; <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jguthmann/" target="_blank">Jasmin Guthmann</a>, Alliance VP &amp; Head of Corporate Communications at Contentstack; <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/balakrishnancs/" target="_blank">Balki Subramanian</a>, VP Digital Experiences, Mars; and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anca-iordanescu-phd-computer-science-3756971/" target="_blank">Anca Iordanescu</a>, VP Engineering at IKEA.
When asked about what’s changed since MACH One, Rasmussen said, "MACH is at an intersection, " leading to more opportunities. He suggested that it also requires a carefully managed expansion that relies on improving interoperability and standards for new and current members.   
Kelly Goetsch also reflected on the last year of growth, saying MACH “now feels like the default,” and that “we’re no longer advocating from the sidelines.” Jasmine Guthmann also suggested that the MACH philosophy will play a bigger role moving forward, helping reinforce the organization's spirit.
There was a clear consensus around the need for more education, a key requirement for improving adoption. Along with a cache of thought leadership content and other knowledge resources, the Alliance just launched a new MACH TCO tool, and plans to release a maturity assessment tool that focuses on 6 key pillars, such as governance.
Later this year, we can expect new educational programs for brands and members, and Rasmussen hopes to offer some degree of certifications based on different levels of MACH expertise. This would include foundational programs, developer and architecture modules, and even a “MACH Expert” certification.
Rasmussen also talked about the evolution of MACH principles. He said that two years ago, we didn’t talk about MACHifying operations or enterprise resource planning. To that end, the framework needs to be flexible, as definitions and criteria will continue to change over time.
The panel shared a few other insights worth mentioning. First, there’s been a noticeable growth of MACH requirements in RFPs. In fact, one brand mentioned that MACH membership had become a baseline requirement when picking technologies – positioning MACH as a standard for the future.
The other topic was transparency. At both evening mixers, I heard from multiple ISVs and SIs about their concerns regarding the membership selection criteria and wanting more visibility into the process. According to Rasmussen, 53% of membership applications are rejected – but the majority resubmit. He noted a clear evolution in those resubmissions, suggesting that companies understand the gaps and adjust to meet the criteria. That said, the panel recognized this need for even more transparency and expressed a commitment to deliver it.
<h2>4. Relationships and trust continue to drive value</h2>
One of the persistent gaps in composable strategies is the responsibility model. Monoliths provide one throat to choke, while composable architectures might require seven.
Researching, procuring, and managing multiple technology partners can be challenging and time-consuming. More importantly, when things go sideways – and they always do – who takes responsibility? Who owns the issue?
For vendors like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-launch-aims-to-simplify-front-end-hosting-interview-with-dean-haddock-senior-product-manager/">Contentstack</a>, its “Care without Compromise” provides an SLA-like template for handling problem resolution. But not all vendors have that kind of framework in place.
Over the last few days, I spoke to numerous SIs and ISVs about their composable partnerships and how they handle the hard stuff. I kept hearing the importance of their human relationships and the clear reliance on trust.
In one such example, an agency praised a headless CMS and its dedicated customer service manager, crediting them for their ongoing success. In another conversation, I used the word “vendor” to describe a platform, and was politely asked to use “partner” instead.
I heard several attendees talk about the need for more guidance when handling these partnership challenges. There may not be a common template or SLA yet, but it’s evident that MACH members are investing in the quality of their relationships to deliver and maintain high-value customer outcomes.  
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/06/mach-two-image-4.jpg" alt="MACH Two Impact Awards" />
<h2>5. The Impact Awards is a win for the MACH movement</h2>
It was an honor to help judge the MACH Two 2023 <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-impact-awards" target="_blank">Impact Awards</a>. Over the last month, I read through dozens of detailed entries, each with a compelling story of composable transformation. They were bold, ambitious, innovative… and sometimes downright scary.
I say that with the greatest reverence, but I won’t pull any punches on the level of complexity in some of these use cases. But that’s just it: MACH isn’t for the faint of heart. Building a composable stack requires the right use case and a thoughtful implementation strategy. As Kelly Goestch once said on LinkedIn, “I love MACH, but regularly tell people 'MACH is not for you' – and then promptly refer them to Shopify.”
American Bath Group, winner of the "Best Overall Change Project,” truly brought the rain from an innovation perspective. Not only did they embrace MACH tenants at a foundational level, but they embodied the MACH mindset from planning to best practices. From an architectural perspective, this was all reinforced by its agency partner, Konabos, and its headless CMS, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kontent-ai-raises-40-million-to-bring-the-power-of-ai-to-content-management/">Kontent.ai</a>.
The <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-impact-awards">winners in each category</a> were all well-deserved. At the same time, the bulk of the 150+ entries showcased how far MACH has progressed. <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">Sonja Keerl</a>, former president of the MACH Alliance, spoke about the importance of demonstrating real change when selecting the Impact Awards – and American Bath Group delivered the most compelling results from end to end. You can read the <a href="https://kontent.ai/customers/american-bath-group-success/">complete case study here</a>.
Even if you didn’t take home a statue, the Impact Awards represent a win for the MACH movement. With this much adoption and successful implementation, we can only expect more entries next year.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/06/mach-two-image-5.jpg" alt="MACH Two mentoring program presentation" />
<h2>6. Women in MACH, mentoring, and other initiatives are becoming top of mind</h2>
Above all, the MACH Alliance is a community that strives to put people first. That was made abundantly clear throughout MACH Two, just by watching the networking and interactions between attendees – many of whom were experiencing a MACH event for the first time. Even the Whova conference app encouraged social engagement, with groups sprouting organically around various business and personal interests.
Aligning with this cornerstone of its mission, programs like <a href="https://machalliance.org/women-in-mach">Women in MACH</a> took on an elevated level of visibility within the physical event space and throughout the MACH Two communications. The group is still relatively new but has already established an important role within the Alliance community.
While credit is due for making this effort, there’s still work to be done across the tech industry to shatter the silicon ceiling. We need more allies to support programs like this – and for businesses to truly walk the talk.
Surely, we can do better by emphasizing STEM education and career mentoring at the earliest stages. But here and now, we need more female tech leaders in MACH and a continued focus on diversity. In his closing session, Casper Rasmussen called for more female representation, and this is where the Alliance is acting as a conduit for change. 
In addition to people, there’s our planet, and several attendees inquired about the roadmap for weaving sustainability and green technology initiatives into the fabric of the MACH Alliance. Rasmussen also touched on this in his final presentation, suggesting that more can be done with partners like AWS to enable greater sustainability in the cloud – and that more is coming.
<h2>Accelerating ahead to MACH Three</h2>
I'm still feeling the sonic boom of MACH Two. It might be hard to top the success of this sequel – but with so much growth and potential ahead, MACH Three could be an even bigger story.
As more brands evaluate MACH and composable strategies, hearing successful use cases from actual stakeholders might be the best way to overcome reluctant executives. Couple that with a community of ambassadors and members – many of whom are willing to share their time and expertise – and you might build consensus at MACH speed.
While no specific date or location has been publicized, MACH Three is tentatively planned for 2024 in North America. We’ll keep you posted on the details as they emerge.

MACH Two Conference Wrap: Six Takeaways from the Composable Event of the Year

MACH Two featured image with photos from the event in a collage

Yesterday, 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> – a group of independent tech companies dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems – <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/stripe-joins-the-mach-alliance">announced that Stripe</a> had joined its membership ranks. This noteworthy addition brings the organization to nearly 90 members.
<a href="https://stripe.com/en-nl">Stripe</a>, a leading internet payment processing platform, is trusted by enterprises around the globe to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online. This includes leading brands like Amazon, BigCommerce, Ford, Zara, Maersk, and more.
“Stripe serves as an excellent example of a company that’s built upon a modern technical infrastructure,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">Casper Rasmussen</a>, MACH Alliance president. “They’ll be strong champions for the Alliance across their vast network of users and partners, which will influence broader embrace of MACH across the fintech category.”
As noted in the MACH Alliance press release, organizations of all backgrounds – from startups to digital natives to traditional enterprises – require MACH principals to grow. According to its <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-global-research-2023">annual survey </a>of global IT decision-makers, the inability to innovate stifles competitiveness. This is further compounded by the need to accelerate time to market. Adding Stripe to the MACH Alliance provides another trusted technology layer for building composable architectures to meet the demands of an evolving market – allowing businesses to respond to change and deliver customer experiences faster and at scale.
“MACH Alliance is enhancing the online commerce space and is a leading standard for the industry,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorothycopeland/">Dorothy Copeland</a>, global head of partnerships at Stripe. “Becoming a member was an obvious choice – many existing Alliance members are already Stripe users and partners, which demonstrates the importance of this ecosystem to accelerate digital experiences." 
The Stripe announcement comes as the MACH Alliance begins its <a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/">MACH Two Conference</a> in Amsterdam. The event – dubbed “Art and Science” – offers two days with expert practitioners and C-suite leaders as they discuss the future of composable technology. Speakers from the Lego Group, Harry Rosen, and other respected industry brands will provide insight through their successful MACH and composable use cases. The conference will also feature MACH technology ISVs and system integrators from the Alliance member community building MACH and composable solutions.
<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://machalliance.org/">machalliance.org,</a> read here about <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence">MACH certification</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/machalliance">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/">LinkedIn</a>.
<h2>About Stripe</h2>
Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies – from the world’s largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups – use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, the company aims to increase the GDP of the internet.

Stripe Joins MACH Alliance, Bringing Organization to Nearly 90 Members

MACH Alliance and Stripe logo for announcement

<a href="https://the.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">The MACH Alliance</a> has announced the finalists of its <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-impact-awards" target="_blank">2023 MACH Impact Awards</a>, highlighting innovative and impactful technology projects that utilize a MACH (microservices-based, API-first, Cloud native SaaS, Headless) strategy.
The finalists were narrowed down from hundreds of entries and judged by an independent panel of judges with expertise in applying MACH technologies.
The awards finalists represent global brands that impact thousands of consumers across various industries. The winners will be announced at the MACH Alliance annual <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-announces-speakers-for-mach-two-conference-in-amsterdam-june-13-14/">MACH TWO</a> conference in Amsterdam on June 13 - 14.
<h2>2023 MACH Impact Awards Finalists</h2>
Best Retail Project
<ul>
<li>Primark</li>
<li>John Lewis Partnership</li>
<li>River Island</li>
</ul>
Best B2B Project
<ul>
<li>Wavin</li>
<li>MKM Building Supplies</li>
<li>Sonepar</li>
</ul>
Best Digital Experience
<ul>
<li>Paul Smith</li>
<li>Anheuser Busch</li>
<li>Dutch Railway</li>
</ul>
Best Health/Pharma Project
<ul>
<li>Bulk Nutrients</li>
<li>Thommen Medical</li>
<li>Integria Health</li>
</ul>
Best Hospitality Project
<ul>
<li>Just Eat</li>
<li>Gordon Ramsay Restaurants</li>
</ul>
Best Overall Change Project
<ul>
<li>American Bath Group</li>
<li>WWF</li>
<li>Mars</li>
<li>Primark</li>
<li>Belcorp</li>
<li>Alamy</li>
</ul>
Contributor of the Year
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhornby/" target="_blank">Paul Hornby</a>, The Very Group</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-thomas8/" target="_blank">Justin Thomas</a>, Kraft Heinz</li>
</ul>
Team of the Year
<ul>
<li>TaxFix</li>
<li>Mars</li>
</ul>
<h2>Register for MACH TWO</h2>
If you’d like to get a closer view of the MACH Impact Award finalists, it’s not too late to register for <a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/#about" target="_blank">MACH TWO</a> at the DeLaMar Theater in Amsterdam on June 13 and 14. The conference is free to attend and promises 48 hours of solid instruction, workshops, speakers, and more all centered around MACH technologies.
With multiple tracks that fit your goals, chances to network with like-minded peers and plenty of opportunities to hear from the brightest MACH practitioners in the game, MACH TWO is the premier annual event of the year.
<a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/#register" target="_blank">Register here</a>
<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 with the same vision for the future. Learn more at machalliance.org, read here about MACH certification, and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/MACHAlliance" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

MACH Alliance Announces 2023 MACH Impact Awards Finalists

mk-patterson

MACH Alliance Awards imagery - stacked award

May is in full bloom for the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a>. The organization just announced the addition of five new members this month, <a href="https://machalliance.org/members" target="_blank">raising its tally to 85</a>. 
The new members – <a href="https://www.dotsource.de/" target="_blank">dotSource,</a> <a href="https://www.kbrw.com/" target="_blank">Kbrw</a>, <a href="https://pimberly.com/" target="_blank">Pimberly</a>, <a href="https://www.sheerid.com/business/" target="_blank">SheerID</a>, and <a href="https://www.xiatech.co.uk/" target="_blank">Xiatech</a> – represent independent software vendors (ISV), start-up ISVs, and system integrators from across the globe. Each has met the membership requirements and is focused on delivering MACH-compliant solutions to help organizations future-proof their composable strategies.
<h2>dotSource</h2>
dotSource is a leading digital agency based in Jena, Germany. It specializes in developing and implementing products for marketing, sales, and services.
According to its <a href="https://www.dotsource.com/agency/press/commitment-to-flexibility-and-scalability-dotsource-gmbh-joins-the-mach-alliance/" target="_blank">news release</a>, dotSource expects its System Integrator membership to provide valuable inspiration and stimulate fruitful exchange on microservices architectures and headless solutions.
Together with its partners <a href="https://commercetools.com/" target="_blank">commercetools</a>, <a href="https://www.akeneo.com/" target="_blank">Akeneo</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/bloomreach-acquires-exponea-secures-150m-investment-to-power-e-commerce-saas-expansion/">Bloomreach</a>, dotSource intends to carry out numerous projects in the coming months and years – and take the implementation of digital experience platforms using MACH architectures to an even higher level.
<h2>Kbrw</h2>
Kbrw is a Paris-based order management, warehouse management, integrated inventory management, and order capture solutions company. The company specializes in digital transformation for organizations and their supply chains, and has successfully developed, deployed, and maintained dedicated solutions for clients of all sizes in more than 100 countries across the world. Kbrw will also be joining the MACH Alliance as an ISV member.
<a href="https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/kbrw-enters-into-a-strategic-partnership-with-commercetools-the-world-s-leading-platform-for-next-generation-b2c-and-b2b-commerce-824591973.html" target="_blank">Last summer</a>, Kbrw entered into a strategic partnership with commercetools, another MACH Alliance member, to deliver better customer experiences for its customers by utilizing Kbrw’s order and purchasing management capabilities.
<h2>Pimberly</h2>
Pimberly is a product information management (PIM) platform, specializing in data and digital assets. Pimberly helps businesses expand their online sales rapidly through efficient management of product information. The platform allows retailers, brands, distributors, and manufacturers to harness and enrich large, complex volumes of product data across multiple channels and regions – enabling them to expand product delivery to more markets faster and deliver high growth in online revenues.
Based in Manchester, the MACH Alliance <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7064521540033236992/" target="_blank">identifies Pimberly</a> as one of the “UK’s fastest-growing tech scaleups.” It joins the MACH Alliance as a Startup ISV.
<h2>SheerID</h2>
SheerID is a leader in identity marketing. Its platform allows merchants to develop personalized offers for customer communities like students, teachers, and healthcare professionals with a digital verification engine. The Portland-based company is the first identity verification SaaS solution to join the MACH Alliance as an ISV.
“We’re excited to partner with our fellow members of the MACH Alliance as brands transition away from legacy, monolithic commerce infrastructure to best-of-breed technology ecosystems that provide the agility to remain relevant as business strategies evolve and customer needs change,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeweatherly/" target="_blank">Jake Weatherly</a>, CEO of SheerID. “Our API-first platform and open architecture is a natural fit with MACH. Our customers can look at our membership in the MACH Alliance as proof that SheerID will integrate seamlessly with their promotions and loyalty platforms, commerce platform, and more.”
<h2>Xiatech</h2>
Based in London, <a href="https://www.xiatech.co.uk/resources/xiatech-joins-mach-alliance/" target="_blank">Xiatech joins the MACH Alliance</a> as an ISV member. The company will provide organizations with its MACH-certified Xfuze Hyper-Integration Platform, connecting systems in real-time and unifying data into a single view to automatically deliver advanced insights and analytics in a single cloud-based solution.
“We are proud to join the MACH Alliance, working closely with members to promote the benefits and the adoption of composability around the world,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathansummerfield/" target="_blank">Jonathan Summerfield</a>, CEO of Xiatech. “Xiatech, an early pioneer of composability, has always embraced MACH principles in its Xfuze Hyper-Integration Platform, which enables organizations to rapidly increase revenue, reduce costs and enhance business agility through a future-proof, composable solution.”
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a non-profit organization, governed by an independent board 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 with the same vision for the future. Learn more about the Alliance and MACH certification at <a href="https://www.machalliance.org/" target="_blank">machalliance.org</a>, and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/MACHAlliance" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

MACH Alliance Adds 5 New Members: dotSource, Kbrw, Pimberly, SheerID and Xiatech

Things are heating up for the <a href="https://machalliance.org/">MACH Alliance</a> as it prepares to host its annual global conference in Amsterdam. 
Kicking off the summer season, <a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/" target="_blank">MACH TWO</a> will be held June 13-14, 2023, and promises “48 hours of solid MACH” for attendees at the <a href="https://delamar.nl/en/" target="_blank">DeLaMar Theater</a> – located in the heart of one of Europe's most iconic cities.
MACH TWO will focus on the "art &amp; science" powering the future of business. The event will feature keynotes, workshops, and networking opportunities focused on MACH principles – and practical applications for executive leaders, technology decision-makers, and MACH practitioners.
The two-day event will offer a range of speakers across a variety of industries, each sharing examples of successfully “MACHifying” their tech stacks.
<h2>Meet the speakers</h2>
While more presenters are expected to be announced, the MACH Alliance has released the bios of five technology and business leaders speaking at the conference.
<h4><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffdesandre/" target="_blank">Jeff DeSandre</a> – Chief Information Officer, AmerCareRoyal</h4>
Jeff is a results-driven technology executive with 15+ years of experience leading complex IT transformations. As CIO of <a href="https://amercareroyal.com/" target="_blank">AmerCareRoyal</a>, Jeff spearheads innovative digital transformation initiatives that optimize operational efficiency and enhance customer experience. With a strong background in consumer goods, Jeff's strategic direction and technology solutions ensure alignment with business objectives. Jeff also sits on the advisory board for UCX.
<h4><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anca-iordanescu-3756971/" target="_blank">Anca lordanescu</a> – VP of Engineering, IKEA Retail</h4>
Anca is an award-winning engineering leader. As the VP of Engineering at <a href="https://www.ikea.com/us/en/" target="_blank">IKEA</a> Retail, Anca is leading the charge to transform IKEA into a retailer that provides products to consumers wherever and whenever they want by implementing agile, simple, and future-focused technologies. With a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Anca previously modernized the IT landscape at Maersk Line from a monolithic to a decoupled, microservice-based architecture. Actively involved in the "Women in Tech" community in Sweden and various programs around mentorship, diversity, and uplifting women and girls in the technology sector, Anca has been recognized as a top 100 Woman in Tech – and winner of the Digital Transformation Leader award 2022.
<h4><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjmontgomery/" target="_blank">Mindy Montgomery</a> – Associate Director of Product Marketing, ASICS Digital</h4>
Mindy has 20 years of experience in IT, strategy, and product/business management. As Associate Director of Product Marketing at <a href="https://www.asicsdigital.com/" target="_blank">ASICS Digital</a>, she leverages her expertise in delivering innovative solutions across various industries and focuses on developing foundational infrastructure that advances ecosystem-wide solutions and creates exceptional customer experiences.
<h4><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmnotenboom/" target="_blank">Hans Notenboom</a> – Tribe Leader B2B Platform Experience &amp; Conversion, Philips</h4>
Having spent the past 30 years working at the intersection of IT, innovation, marketing, new media, and digital technology, Hans is responsible for delivering the <a href="https://www.usa.philips.com/" target="_blank">Philips</a> global platform experience for healthcare customers – connecting digital marketing, eCommerce, and self-service portals. By decoupling internal complexity and technology from external customer experiences, Philips’ goal is to increase speed and agility and improve its ability to personalize the customer experience and create internal efficiencies. 
<h4><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-valade/" target="_blank">Dylan Valade</a> – Head of Global eCommerce Technology, PUMA</h4>
Dylan is a technology leader with 20 years of experience defining digital transformation strategies and rolling out systems worldwide. He's a survivor of crises, mentoring teams through recessions, a bull market, and the pandemic-fueled e-commerce growth spree. At <a href="https://us.puma.com/us/en" target="_blank">Puma</a>, Dylan takes charge of budgets, infrastructure, applications, and business processes, serving millions of users on the web, apps, and marketplaces. He expanded PUMA's direct-to-consumer business from 7 to 25 markets and provided management consulting for digital transformation with packaged and custom software. Previously, Dylan created a SaaS content management system and multi-tenant hosting platform, leveraging it to start five businesses. 
<h2>MACHing your way to Amsterdam? </h2>
Fantastische! CMS Critic will see you there.
If you haven’t registered for MACH TWO, it’s not too late. Find logistics details, conference insights, and more when you <a href="https://the.machalliance.org/machtwo/" target="_blank">register here</a>.
<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 with the same vision for the future. Learn more at machalliance.org, read here about MACH certification, and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/MACHAlliance" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

MACH Alliance Announces Speakers for MACH TWO Conference in Amsterdam, June 13-14

MACH Alliance MACH Two logo against geometric background

Kentico - Gartner

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Kentico has been recognized by Gartner.

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

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

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