Issue #19
In This Issue: Vile Rumour & Gossip | If in doubt, run an event | The mature accelerator | DXP wars… we thought they'd died
HNY People. Christmas Chrysalises are cast aside and we emerge like wet soggy fat insects in big parkas (rather than the butterflies we all are).
What’s changed in the 3 weeks since we last wrote one of these? Not much in truth, but the technology ecosystem is never about what’s really happening, the pace of change is mostly about rumour – which becomes momentum – and in turn makes superheroes of some and villains of others.
Vile Rumour & Gossip
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) just sent 53 out of the top UK 100 websites a letter informing them that they were non-compliant for cookie usage, and giving them a very short deadline to fix it. Great article in computing here if you’re interested. Remember that merchants have 100 things like this to deal with before thinking about your SaaS platform or service.
2024 will be the year of Headless in the mainstream. It’s so easy for the tech ecosystem to get ahead of itself, but in reality it’s only this year when digital merchants will wholesale opt for a separate Head. In truth, what’s holding this back is budget – convincing a board that headless will offer ROI beyond the $70k addition to the annual stack budget is hard work.
It’s vital for the Composable & MACH community to remember that while the stack connections evolve and customers deal with the complexity, Shopify is out there hoovering up new clients and sending them live without many issues. From the customers we talk to, we’d say this was now an amber light which might turn red in 2024.
Rumours abound about the long-term acquisition of some of the larger SaaS players by Google etc. Loads of chatter about the GCP marketplace being the location for many merchants to actually acquire their stack in a few years time (think multi-SaaS Shopify+ if you will). We see the logic but this feels like a political story that has too many moving parts to be successful TBH.
“If in doubt, run an event”
In fact – when I first heard that quote from the ex CMO at CISCO it had an “F” expletive in it. Back in 2005 the tech industry was obsessed with events, and so it remains. Of course nowadays they need to meet an ICP, deliver ROI within 4 weeks AND look good on LinkedIn – so no pressure!
Seriously, the point we’d like to make here is that partners joining hands and running solo can be incredibly effective, we’ve all seen it. Equally, I chatted to a SaaS Marketing leader pre-xmas who was honest enough to tell a story about 26 confirmed attendees turning into 4 delegates, none of whom met the ICP of any partners.
So, be careful in your planning and more than anything please do not use the theme to sell software! Delegates need to feel they’ll learn something, not be sharked within an inch of their life. We’re happy to advise if anyone has questions 🙂
The mature accelerator
We’ve been talking to some large online merchants facing a 2025 eCommerce platform decision. The GMV on SFCC is very painful, Adobe/Magento is not an option for obvious reasons, but they’re miles away from “doing a LEGO '' and building a stack in-house. The alternative? Go composable and pick the best combination of Accelerator and SI – really really hard to do that with any degree of trust and certainty.
This type of customer who relies on agency services and has no desire to build a composable stack, is very valuable (and they know it). If the accelerator is the answer then we don’t think that’ll cut it (it’s like going back to the Hybris days of best accelerator wins). More likely a platform like VTEX or Elastic Path who are really happy to go “all in'' and own the project success will win a few, and the others will stay in SFCC-land or end up with Shopify+, which has really now addressed the issues around international, multi-domains etc.
Accelerators are from the days of yore - they don’t offer customers any reassurance that the program will succeed. Must do better, we're afraid.
DXP wars… we thought they’d died
I clearly remember listening to Gartner (or Forrester – someone anyway) saying that the DXP was not worth thinking about and that the acronym would die away – this was 28 months ago exactly.
Not true. This isn’t going away sadly.
In a move either to raise investment OR to confuse customers we have another platform contender to consider. A quick Google shows us that Bloomreach, Adobe, Sitecore, Acquia and others present as DXP’s. These are not comparable software vendors, so how much work is there to do to convince/explain to customers? Will they care?
Still, it’s coming so we’d best get ready to digest 🙂.
We’d rather be thinking about CDP’s to be honest – customers are really interested in those currently.
No more for now. Let’s get going shall we?
Buyingtime Dictionary
Frequently used (but never about you) phrases from Buyingtime Ltd.
Stormtrooper
/ˈstɔːmˌtruːpə/
adjective
1. Never hits their target
"How's the new guy? Heard he's a trooper."
"Oh he's a trooper. A stormtrooper...up his target by 40% and put him on a PIP." (Cackles maniacally)."
