What is a DXP and do you need one?

As technology evolves, we need to develop new ways to work with it and hold everything together.

The content management space has been evolving rapidly, and now a new term has entered the lexicon. It serves to define a consolidation of technologies that together enable a richer digital experience across multiple devices and platforms. Introducing the Digital Experience Platform, or DXP.

What is a DXP?

Gartner defines a DXP as “an integrated set of core technologies that support the composition, management, delivery and optimisation of contextualised digital experiences.” In simpler terms, it’s software that gives marketers the ability to deliver consistent and captivating user experiences across multiple digital channels with built-in commerce and other features.

In the modern digital ecosystem, marketers have been finding that a traditional content management system (CMS) has limitations. Adjacent technologies have increasingly been called upon to augment a CMS and add greater functionality where it was needed.

Data analytics is one such function – something essential to optimise the user journey – and connecting customer data to e-commerce platforms requires customer relationship management (CRM) integration tools or even a customer data platform (CDC).

This array of technologies was becoming unwieldy for many organisations trying to meet growing customer expectations – they needed an integrated solution. And thus, the DXP was born.

DXP vs CMS – what’s the difference?

A DXP differs from a CMS in both architecture and function. In terms of the former, it has a far more complex structure than a traditional CMS. Rather than a simple content repository and front-end, a DXP comprises interconnected systems typically comprising both a CMS and CRM, as well as digital asset management, portals, commerce, analytics, marketing automation tools, third-party integrations and other services.

As such, a DXP goes far beyond what a CMS can do on its own. In addition to content management, most DXPs will support personalisation, search and navigation, customer data management and data-driven optimisation and offer support for a wider variety of platforms and experiences. It may also include e-commerce functionality, campaign management, customer communications, development platforms and more.

Do you need a DXP?

If your organisation is looking to offer a richer, more rewarding digital content experience while supporting and empowering your marketing team, a DXP might just be the ticket. In the right applications, a DXP can unlock benefits that include:

• Seamless content delivery to new and emerging platforms.
• A more modular approach to content enhancing reusability and agility.
• Unified analytics to offer improved oversight and greater optimisation.
• The ability to deliver a more personalised user experience with seamless access to customer data.
• Enhanced stability, thanks to a distributed content delivery network.
• The ability to incorporate more modern programming languages and frameworks.
• Improved website speed and performance thanks to a hybrid architecture.

If these strengths might be what your organisation needs to gain an edge on the competition and secure a future-proof lead in the market, it’s worth learning more about DXPs. But organisations with smaller requirements can still enjoy the benefits of a unified content management solution with the help of a third party, like the right kind of digital agency that can put it all together for you.

Regardless of the size of your organisation, we can help you set up and manage tools like these to enable you to polish, tweak or supercharge the way your customers experience your brand. To see an overview of the CMS landscape and how the different options stack up, take a look at our CMS comparison report.