Is a Composable DXP right for any business?

Listen up, business decision-makers: is the future you're investing in interoperable in the long term? It may be time to plan ahead and start to future-proof your company with top-notch, scalable technology. We all know, in the digital era nothing remains static.

Businesses with the ability to pivot as fast as clients' needs shift have stood out over the last few years, and it may be time for companies to embrace this agility level if they want their business to fulfill their digital destiny.

Due to the growing number of channels and devices, users want companies to adapt to their needs and their interaction workflows, not the other way around. In a world where a new startup is coming for a piece of your business everyday, change is required in order to survive a hyper-competitive context.

As competition arises and reaches its peak, personalization is key in order to equal users' expectations. Gartner predicts 60% of organizations will seek composability in new application investments by 2023. This is where composable digital experience platforms (DXPs) aim to bridge the gap between digital experiences.

Breaking down DXP and Composable DXP

What is a DXP?

A digital experience platform (DXP) enables businesses to create a full omnichannel digital web experience by providing a flexible architecture to control every touchpoint. Companies have evolved in terms of the features that they expect in their DXP due to the growth of digital channels, the current robust technology and integrations.

A patchwork of fragmented tools commonly used for large projects may seem like the way to go, but the truth is, this approach will only cause optimization pains and full retooling expenses a couple of years down the line. Expresia and other DXPs, on the other hand, empower brands to create future-proof digital assets with a powerful suite of tools and technology that guarantee sustainable quality and much faster delivery times.

What is a Composable DXP?

A Composable Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is completely modular; built from packaged business capabilities (PBCs), which allows changes and updates on each of its parts, without affecting the whole system. A Composable DXP is comparable to a composable business. It follows the same principles with features that operate as modular capabilities or packaged business capabilities (PBCs), working on its own and guided through API communication.

By 2023, according to Gartner "organizations that have adopted an intelligent composable approach will outpace competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation". Remember the “one ring to rule them all” thing? Well, that’s what Expresia’s API does. It doesn’t only control our suite of tools. It is fully extensible to communicate with any other tech in your stack with minimal development and support effort. All while keeping your data your own. Forever.

Headless, cloud-native architectures fuel Composable DXPs by enabling multi-experience delivery and a composable strategy for users to build and assemble their own DXP.

Composable DXP orchestration

One word: Orchestration. What does it mean for you?

The orchestration layer binds together functions and capabilities to optimize jobs at a planning and strategic level. It’s crucial when creating smooth, contextualized and seamless digital experiences. These are some of the features a Composable DXP integrates

Readily customization: Deploy complex integrations easily, and bring to ecosystems new gadgets or any feature from another third-party, without sticking to a vendor or any unique platform features.

Customer-centered approach: Ensure customer-centric journeys. Adapt quickly to customer needs and focus on the results you aim to reach. Create smooth, personalized digital experiences custom-tailored for each end user.

Omnichannel content delivery: Create once, deliver everywhere. Reach wider audiences on multiple channels thanks to headless structured architecture. Edit content once and distribute it on whatever channel you choose. Experience easier approval flow and edit your content independently of the layout.

Smoother content development: Bring your global team together and make any necessary changes as you go. One of the composable DXP benefits is easy access to content and editing capabilities.

Faster time-to-market: By integrating new features with already created interfaces, composables DXP are able to shorten the time to market with top-notch technologies. Digital transformation projects usually take 2-3 years in launch. You can shorten that time from years to months or even weeks.

True value of experience: A great customer experience comes first. With a wide range of implementations, composables DXPs contextualize and personalize the digital experience in this never-ending marathon. They provide customers with innovative, unified experiences and multichannel content distribution to encourage the transition from extensive, complex development to the composition of modular features into digital experiences.

Boost performance in digital experiences

Currently, businesses aim to create an online presence to stand out from the competition. Users and buyers, on the other hand, are looking for smooth and friendly experiences that make them feel a deeper connection with the brand they feel closer to. To achieve those goals, for both brands and users, valuable data turns out to be crucial, since it provides businesses the advantage to remain ahead of the curve. A DXP gathers this data and information for you, adopting new technologies and implementing in one place content management, marketing and eCommerce capacities.

Influencing audiences is possible by empowering the best suitable technology for businesses at the right moment. Making choices around assumptions won't lead a company anywhere. To boost performance and deliver better experiences it’s important to start with a serious understanding of your goals and your assets, set reachable objectives and create a clear route to go. Navigating the digital experience path towards the digital transformation of a company and boosting content performance with clients and end-users is the way to go.

What about technology? Although the growing promise of composable DXP is attractive, it also often leaves decision-makers asking ‘Is a Composable DXP the right approach for my business?” Well, it depends. As good as it sounds, composable digital experiences may not be the answer for all company's needs; it depends on the tools and technologies that best suit the goals and the objectives a company is trying to achieve in content, design, workflows, media assets, analytics, SEO, marketing, development, etc.

We’ve previously discussed what a DXP is and what it means that it is composable. But what other kinds of Digital Experience Platforms are out there and how do you know which one suits you better?

Composable DXP

As we mentioned earlier, Composable DXPs are future-proof, but is it the only kind of DXP that can guarantee scalability? What differentiates it from the others?

Headless, cloud-native architectures fuel Composable DXPs by enabling multi-experience delivery and a composable strategy for users to build and assemble their own DXP. With a fully composable approach, companies are able to choose their preferences for CMS, automation, CMR, eCommerce, and so forth. Simply put, composables make possible the design and control of a DXP so it adapts however you want to your needs. Although, keep in mind it does require a strong IT department that is capable of dealing with any of the challenges that building it requires. You’ll need to face any issues or bugs that may arrive. The benefit? You pick the tools that fit best with your needs and goals.

If a Composable DXP doesn’t seem right for your business, an Integrated DXP or a Monolithic DXP may fit your goals and needs.

Monolithic DXP

A Monolithic DXP is actually similar to traditional CMS. In a monolithic system, all tools and functionalities are handled by one service or vendor. This means that changing a single tool with another vendor is close to impossible, with you being locked in within a single ecosystem.

The challenge is you will likely run into issues when making modifications, such as the length of time necessary to execute and apply updates, the associated costs, and the resources needed by the development and QA teams to comprehend the requirements. A monolithic approach may be the right fit for you if you’re looking for something to begin with or if you prefer to simplify your technology selection to a single provider with a single support service. When a company needs an all-in-one platform and doesn't want to deal with external vendors, monolithic matches the roadmap traced and it aligns with their goals. Although take into consideration that in the long term, its flexibility will be very limited and sooner or later with the business growth you’ll be facing a re-platforming challenge.

Integrated DXP

Now you’ve seen both landscapes for a fully Composable and a Monolithic DXP approach. Still not sure about the right way to go? Then, an integrated approach may work for you. An Integrated DXP is the mid-point between a composable and a monolithic approach. With an Integrated DXP you get all the tools from a single vendor but still have composable capabilities provided by third-party integrations through Application Program Interfaces (APIs). In a shorter period of time, third-party integrations make possible the extension of required external data to an existing project, by calling into the ecosystem solutions from other providers. This represents a business's complete flexibility without the need to build a larger and more robust IT team.

Expresia’s take

The current digital landscape is living proof customers have become much more informed, and providers have accelerated their shift to more scalable, flexible systems moving forward SaaS, although complexity is still a challenge for DXPs, especially for a fully composable approach.

Expresia brings together the best of composable and monolithic DXP systems into an integrated approach. It has built-in extensibility and is API-driven which translates into easier, faster, frictionless integrations with third-parties. Our modular framework opens digital experiences towards the freedom of a composable platform offering cloud infrastructure, a browser-based IDE, content management, and eCommerce in a collaborative workflow to deliver robust and customized digital experiences through an all-In-One SaaS Digital Experience Platform.

Expresia’s extensive and elegant REST APIs give you the freedom to push any creative or technological limit you or your enterprise may have by easily innovating and pushing the limits of your creative and technical vision. In one place, developers, content creators, and marketers can find the perfect spot to empower brands to create future-proof digital assets, de-risking digital transformation, and accelerating the speed to market, as we did with Colnago. Think of any composable feature that captures your attention. Try us, we have them all.

The way to define if a composable DXP is right for your business it's you. The decision depends on different criteria, including flexibility, prices, complexity, existing issues with your current set-up, projections of your business and the needs you aim to attach first.

In order to create a memorable digital experience for your users or customers, you need a flexible, scalable and easy-to-use DXP solution. Contact us to learn more about Expresia and we can help you determine which digital solution is right for you.