How To Build A Composable DXP

As organizations reign in spending and prioritize operational efficiency, leaders are giving their tech stacks a closer look. Upon inspection, their technology is being graded on flexibility and scalability – and not everything is performing to modern standards.

The recent rise of SaaS has also created a new problem: software bloat, or saturation, where the tech stack has grown so enormous that the perks of SaaS have quickly become its downside, too. Both of these developments have spurred IT leaders to reevaluate not only the solutions within their tech stack, but also how these solutions are architected.

However, there is a solution that promotes vendor consolidation and interaction between different software to accomplish business goals: a digital experience platform, or DXP.

A digital experience platform (DXP) consists of several core solutions – typically from varying vendors – that integrate with each other and encourage the creation, management, and delivery of digital experiences.

In most instances, a DXP is built, not bought. It's not so much a product as it is an approach to technology architecture. This architecture supports the connections between various business capabilities. It can both work together and operate independently.

As your customers interact with dozens of first- and third-party channels, the customer journey splits into hundreds of different paths. Your brand must be prepared for every single one of these interactions, even as they take place all over the digital ecosystem. For this reason, a composable DXP is a powerful asset to have in your tool belt and in your tech stack.

There are different approaches to architecting your DXP. Traditionally, digital experiences were explicitly tied to monolithic content management systems, or CMSes. Organizations were forced to rely almost entirely on one large, legacy system – which is the opposite of composable architecture.

Today, brands are leaning more towards a composable architecture for their DXPs: platforms assembled from a variety of best-of-breed solutions that work together via APIs. Composable DXPs offer businesses the flexibility to build their tech stack their way, and to adapt it over time.

According to Gartner, customers who adopt a composable DXP approach deliver new features 80% faster than customers using suites. For leaders embedding flexibility and scalability into their tech stacks, a composable architecture for your DXP is a must.

Once you're determined to take a composable approach to building your DXP, you'll likely need to look for additional solutions. After all, DXPs are built, not bought – but the solutions within your DXP will still require a vendor.

The flexibility and scalability of a DXP stems from its composable infrastructure. As you build your DXP, you have the ability to choose your own vendors. Simply make sure that your desired solutions are MACH-certified – that is, microservices based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS, and headless. With MACH-certified solutions, you can easily add software to your DXP – or, just as easily, rip software out and replace it with an alternative – all while maintaining the integrity of your tech stack's architecture.

A headless content management system (CMS) is the foundation of any DXP. Every business or organization needs one: it serves as a unified repository for managing your content, and it's what allows you to power multiple channels from one content store. A headless CMS is vital for managing a growing number of digital endpoints – and delivering a great digital experience across each one.

Your composable DXP should also empower your team to manage first-party digital experiences, such as your website and all of the content within. Any solutions that power experiences within your website – such as the search experience, or similarly, the chat experience – should also be integrated with your headless CMS. This ensures that the right content appears to the right person at the right time – every time.

Third-party digital experiences include your various listings and the reviews associated with each. Just because these channels are not owned doesn't mean that they shouldn't be managed.

For example, think about your Google Business Profile and Apple Business Connect account, or even your Yelp Reviews. As information about your business changes, these third-party experiences and publishers must be managed and updated as well.

Build a DXP that will allow you to update this information once, and then leverage an API across your non-owned channels so that your customers always have access to up-to-date information.

When building your DXP, don't forget how important robust analytics can be. You'll want to know where your digital experience is seamless – and where it's broken. Leverage a robust, MACH-certified analytics solution that tracks interactions across listings, leverages APIs with other platforms, and pulls data into one dashboard for a comprehensive view. The trick is to have one main dashboard, pulling data from multiple composable applications within your DXP.

With a composable DXP, you are able to pick and choose pre-packaged capabilities and potential customization needs.

As a first step, think strategically on which capabilities to prioritize based on current and future business needs. You want a platform that allows you to "land and expand" over time – and ultimately, one that gives you vendor choice. Relying on composable systems helps avoid vendor lock-in and also reduces reliance on IT and system integrators, or SIs.

Then, it's easiest to start with your foundational platform: your headless CMS. Your CMS will host all of the information about your business, from blogs to locations, from FAQs to products. It's very important that you take your time to choose the right solution; However, rest easier knowing that as long as you follow a composable approach, you can re-evaluate and even replace your CMS without damaging the overall architecture.

After choosing your headless CMS, look for smaller solutions to fill any gaps. For example, you can leverage a search as a service provider in conjunction with your CMS to aid the search experience. Or, supplement your tech stack with a reputation management product. Look for holes in your digital experience, and choose MACH-certified platforms to fill them.

In a constantly changing market, you want a tech stack that is flexible and resilient. One where you can plug-and-play different solutions depending on evolving business needs, without being trapped in legacy systems or with specific vendors. And importantly, you need a tech stack that can adapt to changing consumer expectations and journeys.

When building a composable DXP, prioritize solutions that give you the flexibility you need to build custom experiences your way, using a best-in-breed approach to vendors. With an emphasis on flexibility and agility, seek an API-first, composable approach to building digital experiences. This will empower your teams to select, customize, and even consolidate your tools and vendors.

This is important because teams are lean and budgets are thin. Meanwhile, digital experiences – and your customers' expectations – are growing every day. Learn more about the very specific qualities of winning composable enterprise digital experience platforms when you download our eBook, 5 Things to Look For in a DXP.