Why composable architecture is the future of digital experience

Highlights

You’ll learn why composable technology is the future of digital experience.

• Flexibility & scalability: You can quickly adapt to tech and market shifts
• Speed & business agility: Deploy features, updates and content faster across channels
• Innovative edge: Frees IT teams to focus on new features and technology innovations
• Personalization: Real-time data enables you to deliver tailored experiences

Future-proof your digital strategy with composable tech—start your transformation with Contentstack.

As digital experiences evolve, the ability to build your tech stack to fit and adapt to the industry and customer needs continues to be attractive. But what does that mean for your business, and do you need to adopt a composable approach? We explore:

• Why experts say composable architecture is the way of the future

• Potential benefits of a composable digital experience platform (DXP)

• How to get started and why being “fully composable” matters

What is a composable DXP?

The composable DXP is the most recent concept to emerge in the evolution of the digital experience from its beginnings when enterprise content was limited to a static website viewed on a desktop where customers could find information about a brick-and-mortar business.

With no need to frequently update or publish to multiple digital channels, a monolithic architecture was the answer to publishing enterprise content. Businesses would purchase a predetermined set of tools designed by one vendor.

Then came the smartphone, which led to today’s e-commerce landscape, where consumers shop online on many devices and digital channels. Monolithic platforms, which require developers to code any changes to content, cannot keep up.

The composable DXP is the latest solution for businesses aiming to delight customers, increase customer loyalty, improve customer experience management, and serve customers across multiple digital channels and devices. It uses a headless CMS as the foundation for a content hub where microservices are delivered via independent APIs, allowing content to be easily deployed across channels.

Why a composable DXP is the way of the future

As businesses are transitioning through digital transformation and as digital commerce evolves, customers not only expect to be able to interact with your digital products and services; they expect a seamless and personalized experience.

Monolithic systems, which require IT teams to code every change and update, can’t rapidly respond to customer preferences and publish fresh omnichannel content.

According to Gartner Research, businesses can no longer meet their objectives with monolithic platforms.

In its 2021 report “Drive seamless digital customer experiences with composable UX,” Gartner predicted that by 2023, analyzing and understanding the nature of enduring changes in customer behavior will be a crucial factor for organizations in determining the most influential business strategies for the remainder of the 2020 and organizations that adopt a composable content approach will outpace the competition by 80% in implementing new features.

Benefits of a composable DXP

A composable DXP offers many benefits for enterprise marketing and IT teams, which can positively impact the success of the overall business. These include:

Flexibility, scalability, and faster development

Composable architecture allows organizations to choose and combine a unique mix of best-in-breed tools and microservices and to change this mix as business needs evolve. The modular approach supports the seamless integration of these independent best-in-breed solutions. You can add, remove, or recombine components in without downtime. The ability to deploy services independently enables organizations to scale faster and more efficiently as needed.

Speed and agility

Because the tools and microservices in composable architecture are modular, each works as an independent component or application programming interface (API) and can be updated incrementally as needed without impacting other tools, services, or channels. Organizations become more agile, improving their experience strategy as they can act faster to keep pace with changing customer expectations by providing more up-to-date content experiences.

Ease of use

Without coding or technical expertise, marketing teams can modify user interfaces and content experiences without opening tickets and waiting for developers to fulfill requests. Workflow governance for multiple sites and channels is managed from one central hub with customizable user controls, ensuring the right persons have approved content before rollout.

Rapid innovation

Monolithic platforms require hundreds of hours of development time and resources to upgrade and maintain with heavy reliance on tech teams. A composable platform is more manageable for IT because you can launch new apps and integrations independently. Major website overhauls become a thing of the past. Free from mundane marketing requests and maintenance, IT can focus on innovation and delivering better customer experiences.

Increased ROI

A composable DXP reduces both development and publishing time, resulting in reduced costs and an increased profit.

Real-time feedback

Website analytics, social media, customer relationship management, and other data sources collected via the tools and microservices in a composable architecture can provide a complete picture of your customers in real-time. This enables the personalization and up-to-date, relevant content experiences that customers expect.

Omnichannel content deployment

In a composable DXP built with a headless CMS, the creation of content and the channels where it’s published are mutually independent. This allows marketers to maintain a responsive presence across digital channels and devices from one central hub by seamlessly and rapidly optimizing and pushing out marketing campaigns to reach customers where they are.

Getting started on the journey to composable architecture

If your current digital experience solution is holding you back from experiencing the benefits above, it may be time to switch to a composable DXP. While there are many small processes, and stakeholder buy-in is essential, here is a 3-point summary of how to go about it.

1. Audit current platform: List everything that is not working in your current platform. Consider those parts that are working well to meet the needs of your business and whether those needs will change soon. This will help clarify which apps, mobile apps, and microservices you should include in your future solution and how to approach implementing it.
2. Research DXP vendors: Based on your business requirements and budget, consider digital experience platforms that fit your needs. It is always best practice to prioritize MACH-compliant composable DXP platforms, like Contentstack.
3. Adopt a phased approach: You may want to adopt a gradual approach by implementing composable applications in crucial areas where it could make the most impact and where your monolithic platform is slowing you down. This ensures there are no disruptions to your current operations. It also allows your team adequate time to get used to the new platform.

Finding the right composable DXP

Once you’ve decided on the best approach, it’s time to research solutions. If you decide on a gradual process, ensure the vendor you choose can help your organization reach its goal of going fully compostable.

Many vendors currently market their platforms as “composable architecture” even though they are not fully composable. Instead, they sell platforms built on monolithic architecture that offer composable functionality, such as plugging in some APIs or integrating with specific microservices.

A fully composable DXP, on the other hand, is built on a composable architecture rather than a monolithic. A headless CMS at its foundation separates the back-end coding from the endpoints, such as your website interface. Ensure that you go with an API-first composable DXP, built on MACH principles. Also, consider platforms with extensive documentation, enterprise security, and proactive customer support.

Case studies

MongoDB

MongoDB had multiple CMSes to manage their five core websites, this was costly to maintain and led to misalignment of IT and business.

Contentstack modernized their tech stack, allowing them to migrate over 250 pages with support in multiple languages.

Subi Babu, said. "Coming from an in-house CMS, our background for several years was focused on developing CMS features. Now, we can use the marketplace and get plug-and-play integrations, which is exciting."

Read on to see how MongoDB modernized through a composable technology.

Air France-KLM

Air France-KLM's legacy system was slow and required two weeks to update content. They also used multiple CMSes for their different brands. It was costly and inefficient.

Contentstack composable DXP allowed them to align IT and business, and streamline operations. The headless CMS offers them a single source of truth to manage content for all their website.

Ralf Schipper, the Product Owner, had this to say."With Contentstack, we are changing the way we distribute content and paving the way for personalization. We’re defining the solution to master content distribution and optimize content creation and management."

Read more to see how Air France-KLM enhanced its operations with a composable DXP.

Does being ‘fully composable’ really matter?

If you’re wondering if it makes a difference whether a DXP is fully composable or not, it matters a great deal. A DXP built on monolithic architecture will not deliver all the great benefits of a fully composable platform we’ve covered in this blog. It will have many limitations that a fully composable platform won’t have.

One of the most notable differences is with monolithic architecture; the vendor controls the type of technology that you can and cannot use. Your organization will only sometimes have the flexibility to choose and leverage the best available apps and microservices for success as your business grows. This is especially important moving into the future as technology continues to evolve and new options become available.

A fully composable DXP provides the flexibility to choose the best solutions now and later so your organization can always leverage the most up-to-date technology tools it requires for success. A fully composable architecture puts you in control of creating a unique DXP that will evolve to continuously align with business needs without being limited by a vendor.

FAQ section

What is a composable digital experience?

A composable digital experience is a digital experience built using a modular, flexible platform where different components can be selected from various vendors and integrated via APIs. 

Why use composable architecture?

Composable architecture is an approach to designing and building applications by combining self-contained, independent, and interchangeable modules.

What are the benefits of composable?

It offers many benefits, such as cost-efficiency, agility, faster time to market, and better customer experience.

Learn more

A composable DXP built on MACH principles is API-first, supports microservices, headless technology, and is cloud native. These features ensure you can pivot to new technologies and adapt to tech and market shifts without disrupting your current operations. It also allows you to integrate modules and digital solutions to personalize content, and expand to new regions.

Ready to embark on your journey towards composable architecture and transformative digital experiences? Discover insights in the report "Drive seamless digital customer experiences with composable UX," and learn how to develop an organization-wide digital experience strategy. Talk to us today to see how Contentstack’s composable digital experience platform can help future-proof your enterprise.