Opticon 2023:The Launch of "Optimizely One"

Optimizely has worked hard behind the scenes this past year, particularly in integrating its top-tier acquisitions like Optimizely Experimentation and CMP (formerly Welcome) into an even more connected DXP.

The effort has resulted in creating what I believe to be the most robust ecosystem of interconnected composable products for marketers. It is known as Optimizely One, a solution that covers the full content lifecycle, an integrated yet fully composable "operating system for marketers".

Product Highlights

• SAAS Core CMS: The first complete SaaS CMS from Optimizely.
• Visual Builder: An easy-to-use interface for crafting page templates and content.
• Opal: Optimizely's AI assistant that assists marketers in areas from content creation right through to experimentation.

Choosing your Content Solution

Optimizely now offers a range of Content Management solutions to give companies the ability to choose the architecture that is right for them, as explained by Optimizely's David Knipe.

The upcoming launch of SaaS Core CMS is key along with the evolution of Optimizely Graph, the headless API layer. Optimizely Graph now includes Semantic Search capabilities. Semantic Search uses AI to understand and match the intent behind search queries, delivering more accurate results beyond simple keyword search.

The key point of David's talk was that there is no one size fits all content management solution for companies of different shapes, sizes and complexities.

For example, companies who need fast speed to market, do not require customisation control and have frontend capabilities in-house may be very well served by a SaaS Full Headless architecture.

Or for others, they might value customisation without what they perceive as the unwarranted technical complexity of connected systems. It's not uncommon for such companies to have a preference to manage their frontend application from within the PaaS code. In this case, a Head On approach can still be a good fit even if it is not the flavour of the month with every would be evangelist.

Moving from simplicity to flexibility, an aggregated approach pulling content from CMS and other sources. This content is then made accessible via a single Graph API interface, allowing CMS Editors to employ a Visual Builder to craft how their aggregated content will be displayed on their Head.

There are several other possible configurations to consider, particularly when deciding whether the Head should be knowledgeable or ignorant about the underlying system. While purists might contend that Head awareness is detrimental, this comes at the expense of flexibility for CMS Editors, which may be essential for some companies.

The Lego Analogy

In his E-Commerce talk, Josh Schoonmaker likened DXP design to Lego and for the very first time, a Lego analogy relating to composable technology resonated with me.

He pointed out that the essential element of a Lego set is the instruction manual. Often, companies find themselves with various composable products and end up investing far more time and resource than budgeted in figuring out how to assemble these pieces.

Optimizely One's value proposition is that you get the best Lego pieces and a comprehensive instruction manual to put them together in the way that is right for your company.