Articles

Digital Experience Composition Article

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

Fastr Accelerates E-Commerce Optimization with Adaptive AI 

matt-garrepy

<hr />Andrew Kumar is the GVP, Customer Solutions &amp; Tech Ecosystem at <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/uniform">Uniform</a>, and a CMS Critic Contributor. Effective content management is crucial for businesses to stay competitive and engage with their audience in today's digital landscape. As technology evolves, so do the processes and methods for managing and creating content. The shift to composable architectures has disrupted the more traditional model for content management, providing opportunities to accelerate time to market and tap omnichannel capabilities. One emerging trend is the concept of a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.uniform.dev/visual-workspace">visual workspace</a>, which is revolutionizing how teams collaborate to build websites and apps.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:79.94%"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_4678/image_ac69077b90c17d4e6f80a06e9ced0a93_2000.png" /></figure> In this article, we'll explore the future of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management</a> through the lens of 8 key predictions, focusing on how visual workspaces are shaping this landscape. <h3 id="prediction-1:-“all-hands-on-deck”-when-building-websites-and-apps">Prediction 1: “All hands on deck” when building websites and apps</h3>Traditionally, website development and content creation have been siloed tasks performed by developers or marketers. This is nothing new; collaboration has seldom been a main staple of the developer/marketer workflow, which has been <a target="_blank" href="https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/enterprise-marketers-challenges-opportunities-research">described as “broken”</a> for the last two decades.However, in the future of content management, there will be a conscious shift towards a more collaborative approach. A broad spectrum of digitally-savvy team members will be involved in the process, democratizing who can build, deploy, and launch with confidence. This “new way” is more inclusive, allowing diverse perspectives and expertise to come together, resulting in more innovative and user-centric experiences.<h3 id="prediction-2:-platforms-must-coexist">Prediction 2: Platforms must coexist</h3>With the increasing complexity of digital experiences, it's unrealistic to expect a single platform to fulfill all of your requirements. In fact, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/enterprise-marketers-challenges-opportunities-research">Content Marketing Institute</a>, less than 25% of marketers believe they have the right tools to succeed. In the future, platforms will need to adapt and learn to coexist. To that end, we can expect to see a combination of consolidation and modularization. Different platforms will be used for specific tasks based on their strengths, allowing organizations to leverage the right tool for each job. This approach promotes flexibility and adaptability as businesses can easily integrate new technologies or features without being tied down by a monolithic system. <h3 id="prediction-3:-experience-modeling-will-rise-in-importance">Prediction 3: Experience modeling will rise in importance</h3>While content modeling has long been a cornerstone of effective content management, experience modeling will gain prominence. Unlike content modeling, experience modeling creates clear divisions and boundaries within digital experiences while enabling seamless reusability across multiple channels. Dedicated tools for experience modeling will emerge, providing organizations with better control over their customer journeys and enabling them to deliver consistent experiences across multiple touchpoints.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:81.33%"><img src="https://images.storychief.com/account_4678/image_b5a7c1f942cb402be3dd60d09d468929_2000.png" /></figure><h3 id="prediction-4:-brands-will-start-with-the-customer-and-deprioritize-orchestration">Prediction 4: Brands will start with the customer and deprioritize orchestration</h3>Orchestration has certainly become an oft-used buzzword in the composable realm. But in the future, brands will shift to prioritizing customer-centricity over orchestration.Content graphs, which provide visibility and observability of existing content, will enable organizations to solve specific business problems. Orchestration, however, will take a backseat – as it does not directly improve customer experience or tackle customer problems. This shift in focus will allow businesses to allocate resources more effectively and achieve a higher return on investment.<h3 id="prediction-5:-no-more-“lift-and-shift,”-only-incremental-migration">Prediction 5: No more “lift and shift,” only incremental migration</h3>Ask any practitioner who has redesigned or migrated a website to a new CMS, and they will likely say the same thing: it's hard.Content migration has traditionally been a daunting task. However, in the future of content management, we can expect a more granular and piecemeal approach to content migration. Instead of “lifting and shifting” entire websites or applications, organizations will adopt an incremental migration strategy. This approach allows for faster and more efficient migration while minimizing disruption to ongoing operations.<h3 id="prediction-6:-more-accelerator-">Prediction 6: More accelerator "products" for integration and white-labelling</h3>Accelerators are pre-built technology solutions that provide a faster time to market. To mitigate the risks associated with current accelerators, the future of content management will see an increase in accelerator "products." These products offer pre-built integrations and white-label solutions that can be easily customized to meet specific business needs. By leveraging these accelerators, organizations can streamline their development process, reduce time-to-market, and ensure greater consistency across their digital experiences.<h3 id="prediction-7:-no-code-capabilities-for-integration-frameworks-will-continue-to-emerge">Prediction 7: No-code capabilities for integration frameworks will continue to emerge</h3>As headless and composable stacks gain traction in the industry, integration frameworks will play a crucial role in connecting various components seamlessly. In the future of content management, we can expect to see the rise of no-code integration frameworks. These frameworks allow non-technical users to build integrations between different systems without writing code. This democratization of integration capabilities will empower teams to quickly adapt and connect their preferred tools without relying on developers.<h3 id="prediction-8:-ai-quality-will-improve">Prediction 8: AI quality will improve</h3>Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already made significant advancements in various industries, and content management is no exception. In the future, we can expect AI to play a more prominent role in CMS platforms. Improved AI capabilities will enable personalized user experiences, enhanced search functionality, chatbots and virtual assistants, automation of repetitive tasks, dynamic pricing and offers, real-time language translation, accessibility enhancements, and much more. These advancements will revolutionize how businesses engage with their audience and deliver tailored experiences at scale.<h3 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h3>The future of content management is bright – and filled with exciting possibilities. At the center of it all are visual workspaces, which are reshaping how teams build digital experiences by fostering inclusivity and collaboration. With the predicted trends discussed in this article, organizations can prepare themselves for the evolving landscape of content management and stay ahead of the curve. By embracing these changes and leveraging emerging technologies like AI and integration frameworks, businesses can create compelling experiences that resonate with their audience while streamlining their workflows.Continue the conversation with Andrew Kumar in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/groups/cms-experts">Boye &amp; Co CMS Experts Community</a> <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Visual Workspace and the Future of Content Management

andrew

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

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

Uniform Adds New Visual Editing and Integration Features to Enhance DXCP

cms-critic-staff

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

Save the Dates for Uniform's Composable Roadshow 2023

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

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

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

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