“Automation Hub, a low-code automation framework that allows users to automate actions across different technologies so that they stay in sync and function as if they were built to work together.”
How did you arrive at Contentstack?
I have been involved in the CMS industry my entire 20-year career both on the engineering and product side. Early in my career, I built in-house CMSes for companies like CNET and Yahoo, but shortly after, the monoliths emerged. Now it has become clear that these large, expensive, slow-moving systems are not up to the task of modern digital teams. When I saw the opportunity to join Contentstack, which was one of the originators of this new, disruptive movement I jumped at the opportunity.
What is Contentstack and what are your core offerings?
Contentstack is a composable digital experience platform (DXP) provider that empowers marketers and developers to deliver composable digital experiences at the speed of their imagination. We offer our customers a fully customizable platform and tech stack based on their unique needs. Our current core offerings include Contentstack Launch, Automation Hub and Marketplace.
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What is the meaning of a Composable Digital Experience? How is your platform different from traditional hosting service providers?
A composable digital experience allows the user to seamlessly integrate applications throughout their tech stack into one solution. This year, Contentstack announced its ‘Go Composable’ initiative which provides practical solutions for selecting and integrating best-of-breed technology into composable architectures for digital experience creation. Simplifying integration complexities and automating routines across a composable stack saves both time and money.
Our new service, Contentstack Launch, extends Contentstack’s product suite, providing enterprise companies with a first-ever fully composable, fully automated, digital experience stack from the front-end to the back-end. This means organizations can now more quickly stand up full-stack digital experience development environments, reducing organizational friction and technical obstacles, while accelerating business outcomes.
What are the major challenges on the road to building a complete digital experience stack?
There are so many benefits to using a composable stack. You get to add and remove pieces as your business changes and always use the best-in-breed technologies. The last few years are as good an example as any that agility is key to staying competitive. However, it can be intimidating to connect all the moving pieces and ensure that the various systems are communicating seamlessly.
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How does a company like Contentstack emerge as a potential tech enabler in overcoming the above-mentioned challenges?
We started by providing a headless CMS. However, we still saw that there was way too much assembly required. Because of that, we added two products last year to make going composable easier. The first is Marketplace, which provides users with one-click integrations into many of our most popular partner technologies. The second is Automation Hub, a low-code automation framework that allows users to automate actions across different technologies so that they stay in sync and function as if they were built to work together.
We also just announced Contentstack Launch, which is a front-end hosting product. Hosting is something that everyone needs to get their digital experiences up and running. By providing this solution, we remove one more obstacle to getting your composable stack up and running as soon as possible.
Your take on the future of headless commerce; how much of it would be influenced by the rampant development in the field of AI ML and automation:
I think the question is: what WON’T be influenced by AI? Certainly, our automation product is already making headless commerce easier, as so many systems need to work in concert to ensure up-to-date inventory, price changes, and promotions. I believe that AI will undoubtedly streamline this even further.
When you combine AI with the wealth of user data that we have, I expect a lot of optimization to be happening without any human intervention. It will allow more predictive targeting and hyper-personalization. We are experimenting with how we can remove some of the lower-value activities that humans are doing using AI, to empower humans to focus on more strategic activities.
Please tell us a little bit about your product roadmap goals for the next 2 years:
I don’t want to share too much detail, but I can confirm that we’re definitely investing in AI and working to build products that form the backbone of a company’s composable stack. We often think of ourselves as a “Content Operating System,” with a mission to provide all the tools that customers need to unleash a team’s creativity and not be held back by technology. This will manifest in terms of discrete problems that we solve, such as hosting, but also the tools to integrate and automate all of your systems to make going composable as easy as possible.
Thank you, Conor! That was fun and we hope to see you back on itechnologyseries.com soon.
[To participate in our interview series, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com]
Contentstack has achieved the industry’s highest customer satisfaction rating. Contentstack is also a founder of the MACH Alliance, setting the industry agenda for open and composable technology that is Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless.
