What is a True DXP Software?

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Jahia is the only DXP that truly empowers you to deliver personalized journeys powered by customer data Learn how here

In today’s digital-first world, true Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) empower organizations to create cohesive experiences across channels such as websites, mobile apps, and even IoT devices. For instance, by integrating DAM solutions, marketers can manage content more efficiently, driving customer engagement and improving operational efficiency. Modern DXPs also use behavioral data to deliver more personalized experiences, giving companies a competitive edge by better understanding their audience.

But these general issues do not constitute a definition... And the term “DXP” is therefore tossed out by a lot of companies nowadays. But what exactly defines a DXP can be unclear.

The problem is that what most DXP vendors sell nowadays are not, in fact, “DXPs.” They are branded as such, but only to take advantage of market trends rather than based on the actual capabilities of their CMS software. In truth, most of these platforms can hardly be considered true DXPs at all, but rather are just pretenders in convincing disguises. 

Jahia calls itself a true DXP, and we do so with confidence. Jahia, unlike many DXP vendors, was built from the ground up to take full advantage of a company’s content and data to deliver better, more personalized digital experiences to their customers. This wasn’t accomplished through acquisition, nor compromise, nor bundling multiple products together — rather, our entire platform was designed from Day 1 to deliver on the promises of the DXP concept.

As such, we know what it takes to deliver a fully realized, actual DXP. We also know where so-called DXP vendords often stumble in the attempt. We can boil it down into three simple rules.

 

RULE #0: A DXP software is a CMS software providing a Digital experience

It looks obvious for those familiar with the concept of Digital Experience Platform, however we know that some of you are still sufficiently in the dark that this reminder is not useless. So here are some good reminders: 

  1. A DXP is an advanced version of CMS, but a CMS nonetheless - it is used to manage the content of your company website(s),
  2. A DXP is meant to provide personalized digital experiences to users by capitalizing on the data a company has about them,
  3. To operate, a DXP needs data (usually a Customer Data Platform) and a personalization engine based on this data (generally providing access to AB testing functionalities).

RULE #1: A DXP is a single platform

When we talk about a DXP, we’re talking about a single platform. Not multiple, disparate technologies stapled together and called a “platform.” This is an important distinction, as a true DXP is designed to naturally deliver on the promise of personalized digital experiences.

Too often, we see other companies offer DXPs that are little more than rebranded Content Management Systems bolstered by acquisition technologies that feature data management, analytics, and personalization. The idea here is that, if they are able to check enough boxes, a customer will ignore the fact that these technologies weren’t built to work well together and often have overlapping and/or redundant functionalities.

This strategy is very commonly seen with DXP suites, which are a collection of products all revolving around digital experience. They are sold this way because their so-called “platform” requires almost all of the technologies within the suite to deliver what would be considered a “DXP” product. These suites also tend to be over-complicated and messy to implement, not to mention nearly impossible to integrate with outside technologies that aren’t part of the suite’s so-called “ecosystem.” 

Jahia, meanwhile, is our DXP platform. We designed and grew its functionality — content management, data management, personalization — all out of that base structure, and each piece was built to work in-sync with each other. Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle — other so-called “DXPs” are handing you hundreds of scattered pieces and telling you they have to be put together in order for a DXP to take shape. Meanwhile, Jahia gives you the completed picture from the start. You can of course add features, but the core of what makes a Digital Experience Platform is already there.

RULE #2: A Digital eXperience Platform must organically manage both content AND data

Digital experiences begin and end with the customer. You deliver content to the customer. The customer engages with the content, providing data about themselves in the process. That data is then analyzed so you can learn more about the customer. And, finally, you leverage that knowledge to deliver content that speaks more directly to them. This is the loop that forms the backbone of a DXP. 

Yet, often we see organizations call themselves “DXPs” without being able to deliver on this core concept within their own platform. Either they require an outside Customer Data Platform (CDP) to be integrated into their software or they forego handling customer data altogether and instead deliver personalization using external analytics.

Both of these approaches are inherently flawed and fail to deliver the end-goal of a cohesive digital experience. A DXP must be able to natively bring together content and data, using each one to further improve and grow the other. Failure to do this means that businesses are often stymied when it comes time to grow their content and data strategies, as they aren’t inherently interlinked.

We understood this from the beginning with our Jahia platform and built jExperience to address this exact issue. Combining a powerful Content Management System (CMS) and jCustomer (our CDP), the resulting product is a DXP that truly unites content and data together in the same ecosystem. 

RULE #3: A DXP is built around integrations (an open-source DXP helps)

Recent market trends reveal that the shift towards composability in DXPs is accelerating. According to Forrester, businesses are increasingly choosing a hybrid headless approach to enhance flexibility by combining modular and legacy systems. This trend is pushing the market towards large-scale adoption of custom integrations and flexible APIs, which allow for greater agility in delivering content across channels such as websites​.

The best DXPs based on the best integrations?

From our point of view, this is a good thing - we don't believe that suites are the answer to business agility issues. But in Jahia's view, this flexibility must be achieved through open source. A DXP is a living, breathing system that should act as the basis of your entire marketing technology stack. It should grow along with businesses' stack, always ensuring that its capabilities stretch out beyond the limits of the platform’s own borders.

Many “DXPs” don’t seem to understand this. In fact, we often see DXPs sold as end-to-end solutions for digital experience and an ecosystem unto themselves. While it’s true that a DXP can stand alone as a piece of software, the very idea of it is antithetical to a DXP’s mission statement.

Open source & future-proof

Technology changes. So do customers. A DXP is only effective when it is able to deliver the most up-to-date, personalized content to customers across every digital channel. A DXP incapable of keeping up with those changes – or integrating with technology that empowers them to do so - is no better than a smartphone without internet access.

That is why open DXPs - that is to say "open source DXPs" - are a way better match for most companies requiring an Enterprise DXP Software. With an open DXP, every team can keep its tools (Marketing, Communication, HR, IT...), or change whenever it wants to keep using the best-of-breed solutions. The only requirement is to have a web developer team capable of maintaining, and upgrading, this open DXP.

As marketers seek to meet evolving customer needs, the ability to leverage custom integrations and flexible APIs is becoming more important. This ensures DXPs remain adaptable, allowing for seamless scaling across different industries and improving the overall customer experience. With advancements in marketing automation and behavioral data integration, DXPs continue to drive digital transformation for businesses across sectors. Jahia’s technology was designed to be flexible enough to connect with both legacy technology and future technology. This means that Jahia’s DXP will always be able to deliver the most effective digital experiences imaginable, no matter how the digital landscape may change in the future.

This "future-proofness" means that developers play a central role in a web project built in Jahia. Over the years, we've strived to offer a genuine developer experience, for both back-end and front-end developers. This is reflected, for example, in the release of features such as JavaScript modules, enabling complete site development in JavaScript

How integrations work in our DXP solution

Jahia is built to integrate with over 1000 integrations available, and more being added every day. A practical example of integration can be seen in retail, where companies use DXPs integrated with DAM systems to manage product imagery and marketing content globally. This not only increases operational efficiency but also enables higher response rates from personalized marketing campaigns using marketing automation. In industries like banking, DXPs that harness behavioral data allow firms to build secure, large-scale platforms with enhanced personalization​

Know more about our DXP technology

We hope this helps you understand why Jahia is indeed a true DXP available today. Our team is passionate about digital experience and believes businesses deserve a product that can truly deliver on the promise of a genuine Digital Experience Platform. Set up time to chat with our experts. 

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