dotCMS: The Glue Code That Holds Your DXP Together

While the primary advantage of building out a best of breed DXP is leveraging a wide range of high-quality software solutions at once, this could lead to problems without a strategically chosen tech stack. If the data from each system isn’t easily accessible, for example, then siloes can form, which renders content or digital assets unusable. That means the ROI on digital asset creation plummets.

For many organizations, data orchestration is a real obstacle to delivering the customer experiences they need to remain competitive well into the future. In fact, only 2% of information technology decision-makers in a recent survey believe they’re effective at data sharing, with the remaining respondents struggling with data siloes.

That’s why enterprises need to unify their data from disparate systems within a centralized content hub. And to do this, they’ll need software to act as flexible “glue code” to get the job done. But why is centralization so crucial in a headless environment, and what is “glue code” exactly? Continue on to find out more.

The Importance of Centralization

If you want to provide a cutting-edge user experience, you need an experience-led digital platform that’s fueled by customer-centric content and sound data orchestration practices. That’s because you’ll likely need to leverage a multitude of software solutions to deliver compelling digital experiences, whether you’re building an intranet, frontend app, or eCommerce store. And the challenge of managing more and more applications and data within the tech stack only continues to grow as the number of MarTech solutions proliferates.

With so many different systems generating data about your customers, it becomes more critical to centralize this information so that your marketing team can get a 360-degree view of your customers. That’s because there are likely valuable customer insights within your ERP, CRM, CMS, and more. Centralized management of customer data, therefore, can drastically improve an omnichannel marketing strategy. And the best way to build a centralized DXP is to have a system act as glue code to break through the content siloes and make data available and actionable for the digital marketing team.

What is Glue Code?

In the software development space, glue code refers to the custom code necessary to integrate disparate systems that are built using different programming languages, tools, and frameworks. In a broader context, however, we’re considering glue code to be a single technology that enables a more cohesive tech stack. For most DXPs, this means a highly interoperable CMS solution that has a variety of integration points and flexible content taxonomies to both prevent content siloes and maximize data usability.

In terms of integration points, powerful APIs are critical for a CMS to act as glue code because APIs are completely language agnostic. That means systems built with entirely different technologies and programming languages can communicate using a standardized method — such as a JSON-based REST API — with minimal additional effort required by developers. Some solutions support GraphQL for even further simplification of system communication or offer prebuilt integrations for many of the most frequently used best of breed MarTech systems on the marketing. In any case, the backbone of your tech stack should be a system that gives developers a variety of integration options to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Today’s tech stacks aren’t a one-time effort, so easily integrating new applications — with a system acting as the glue code — is critical for digital adaptability.

Further Reading: What is Interoperability: Web Content Management Edition

Along with integrations, the way that data is stored matters as well. Even when a CMS can pull data from a variety of disparate systems, it can still be tightly coupled to the external system because of its data structure. The flexibility to structure data in a way that maximizes reusability and the ability to retrieve content easily are essential capabilities for eliminating and preventing content siloes as tech stacks grow. Avoiding content siloes should be a priority in order to maximize the ROI for expensive content creation efforts. That’s why flexible content taxonomies are another critical component for a CMS acting as the glue code of a DXP.

Further Reading: dotCMS Taxonomies & Tags: The Key Pillar of Online Conversions

dotCMS: The Glue For Your DXP

There’s no doubt that the ability to leverage all the data your tech stack collects or generates can transform the way you do business. A consolidated view of your customers enables better content personalizations when pursuing an omnichannel marketing strategy, and gives marketing teams the insight they need to make better decisions going forward. Avoiding data silos, however, requires a particular system to act as the glue code for a cohesive tech stack. And dotCMS is ready to fulfill this need as the foundation for your DXP.

dotCMS is highly interoperable, with a wide variety of integration points ranging from robust REST APIs and native GraphQL support to pre-built integrations and low code custom endpoints. The platform’s API-first approach means it takes less effort to pull data from external systems, and also to deliver digital experiences to a variety of frontends. Among the pre-built integrations available with dotCMS are leading commerce platforms to streamline the process for delivering content-driven shopping experiences.

The flexibility of dotCMS extends well beyond integrations, however, as the platform has taxonomy capabilities that make content more reusable. You can easily define custom content or data structures that fit the needs of each of the systems within your tech stack, so that data becomes more actionable. dotCMS, therefore, can aggregate data to act as a content hub and a centralized interface for marketing teams to deliver compelling digital experiences.

Don’t let your disparate systems fall apart, let dotCMS be the glue code that allows your marketing team to deliver content that sticks. For more about how dotCMS can be the glue code for your DXP, see our whitepaper: How dotCMS Enables Interoperability & Extensibility.