Various trends from the IT environment are currently affecting content management systems (CMS). For 2021, the business application provider Progress, which specializes in CMS among other things, has identified six key topics for the CMS market.

As the successor to the .NET framework, .NET Core enables cross-platform ASP.NET apps to be built for Windows, Mac and Linux. With its help, developers can create hybrid and progressive web apps faster and easier. In addition, configurable widgets increase your productivity. Since developers have a decisive influence on CMS purchase decisions, CMS without .NET Core will receive less and less attention, predicts Progess.

It depends on the interfaces Various experts agree on the subject of headless: Providers will be forced to rely on decoupled solutions. The majority of companies need integration in the backend. In addition, they have to use several channels in the front end. For these reasons, modern CMS platforms are either headless or decoupled. Both variants separate the content from the presentation and contain APIs for delivering the content to the different channels.

However, according to Progress, purely headless CMS platforms are lacking due to their best-of-breed approach Website development applications with WYSIWYG (“What You See is What You Get”) options designed for non-technical users. The manufacturers are therefore obliged to improve and equip their CMS platforms with such applications or to recommend applications for them.

Personalization through edge computing Edge Computing helps to make personalization more efficient for the customer. In this context, the new 5G cellular standard also plays a role, which will help to further spread edge computing. Hyper-personalization is now taking place in more places than before. According to Progress, in the future, for example, shopping lists on consumers’ mobile devices are conceivable in the food retail sector, which will dynamically adapt to the position and route of users through the aisles of a store according to Progress the online-offline merger. Both worlds are becoming more and more mixed when it comes to consumers, for example. A number of supermarkets, for example, have already started displaying prices in stores digitally. In this way, the prices can be adjusted in real time. CMS-driven retail must react to this development, says Progress. At this point, CMS can support the mixing of online and offline with the help of artificial intelligence.

Chat functions are becoming more and more established Integrated chat functions are clearly on the advance – more and more websites or online shops offer users the opportunity to contact them directly via chat. A few years ago, chatbots looked awkward, but now more and more companies are using them. With better technology behind them, they help users in first-line support or forward them to real people if necessary. This is why Progress sees chat functions as part of the basic configuration of CMS in the future.

Furthermore, Progress observes that companies are increasingly opting for CMS-based portals. The motivation behind this can be seen as the Covid – 19 – pandemic, which separates both employees and customers from the company. Therefore, more and more modern, interactive portals will be used in the future. This would enable companies to support remote work, optimize their business processes and improve customer service, it is said. Further information on the trends in CMS can be found on the Progress blog.

(csc)