Drupal Digital Experience Platform (DXP) roundup (2020-2021)

In a previous article on Drupal personalization I covered content personalization trends in terms of search frequency for the term "content personalization". We saw that interest in the term has been on the increase since around 2015 with possibly a peak being hit around 2020. Whilst it is too early to say that interest in the subject has collapsed, it certainly has taken a breather. In its place it appears that interest in "digital experience platform" (DXP) has picked up over the last couple of years. The chart below (Google Trends) shows the relative rise of DXP as a search term in contrast to personalization.

The rise in interest is DXP can be seen as an extension in the interest initially shown in content personalization. Attention is now moving from the concept of what it is to how it might be achieved. Personalization cannot be achieved by an isolated system. It requires the coordination of a number of processes including data gathering, management and processing to determine the next best piece of content to deliver to the user. Traditional content management systems (CMS) have been good at managing and delivering the content but not so good at orchestrating the delivery of the experience. Campaign management software has been effective at pushing content to users but has suffered from not having a view into what their interests are. And finally CRMs store content on known users but miss out on insights to anonymous users who probably make up the bulk of traffic to the website and other platforms. Digital Experience Platforms offer the promise of being able to bring the pieces of the puzzle together.

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) potentially play a role in this ecosystem. They offer capabilities to form unified user profiles based on behaviour and the aggregation from a number of sources. They also offer user segmentation tools which can help drive the delivery of personalized content. In a similar way to DXPs, there has been a rise in interest in them as well over the last few years.

In conclusion there is increased interest around technology to better understand users and how personalized content can be delivered to them across the various touchpoints.

But what is a DXP?

It has been said that there is no such thing as a DXP. By its very nature a DXP is a collection of different tools acting in unison with the ultimate aim of delivering digital experiences to users. As we know, the marketing technology landscape is vast with countless options available for almost any problem. Buyers will look for solutions which fit their needs, capabilities and budgets. This will inevitably lead to buyers working with a mix of technologies which may not be well integrated. The problem can then be seen as to how to coordinate these tools to act in unison. 

Gartner identifies a number of different capabilities for a DXP:

• Content management
• Account services
• Personalization and context awareness
• Analytics and optimization
• Customer journey mapping
• Customer data management
• Presentation, delivery and orchestration
• Search, navigation and insight
• Collaboration and knowledge sharing
• Security and access control
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Cloud capabilities
• Architecture and platform design
• Integration, interoperability and extensibility
• Multiexperience support

The list is long and covers a wide range of requirements. In the DXP space vendors have been scrambling to build out platforms which tick the various boxes for what makes a DXP. The individual pieces of these solutions will have their strengths and weaknesses and may not be right for every customer. Tightly integrated solutions offer the advantage of enabling the flow of data and easier management, however, they may well offer the wrong type of solution for the customer. In all practicality it is not feasible to buy a single solution off the shelf and have success.

The rise of the composable DXP

Whilst DXP vendors have been making acquisitions to build out their monolithic platforms, a counter idea has emerged, that of the "composable" DXP. The main idea behind the composable DXP is the recognition that a monolithic solution is not going to be right for everyone. With the monolith comes vendor lock in and the inability to pick and choose "best of breed" solutions. In a fast moving world businesses need to be able to act in an agile manner to the changing landscape and demands.

In the Gartner report on the matter, the following recommendations were made:

• Modernization of the DXP technology stack around the principles of composable business.
• Improvements in operational agility by replacing the DXP monolith with a composable architecture.
• Implementation of task-oriented packaged business capabilities

The ideas of the composable DXP has taken strong hold with many vendors now using the term in their marketing. This is particularly the case for smaller vendors who may not have developed their own monolith. Composable DXPs require coordination and integration. The focus is now on how well the tools work together and what the effort and cost is in making this happen. For buyers considering their platform, the concept of a composable DXP offers a way to reconceptualise the problem to focussing on business needs and processes, rather than a single silver bullet.

The open DXP

The rise the composable DXP with its emphasis on integration has necessarily lead to an evaluation capabilities of the components to interoperate. Open systems will fare better because they are outward looking and better able to work with other systems. Open source systems, with their collaborative nature, are at an advantage as they will more likely have a breadth of solutions available. Where there is a gap, new functionality can be easily incorporated. The architectures of open system will also make extensions easier to implement and incorporate.

"Openness" can be seen in two ways. The first refers to the licensing of the code. Open source systems will necessarily be open in this sense. However, in a wider sense, openness also refers to the ability for the system to be easily implemented and extended. Is the system open to being extended and improved. Solutions claiming to be open need to be evaluated in this light. 

Drupal's place in the DXP world

Drupal has earned its place as a leading enterprise CMS which excels at content management and integration. These have always been its strong points and as such it is extremely well placed to form a key part of a DXP. The Drupal ecosystem (hosting, code, support, knowhow) is capable of ticking many of the boxes for what makes up a DXP. 

Looking back at the Gartner list, it is apparent that there are key pieces missing:

• Personalization and context awareness
• Customer journey mapping
• Customer data management
• Orchestration
• Architecture and platform design

These missing pieces should be seen as an opportunity for the Drupal community as they point the way to how Drupal, as a product, can be improved to remain future proof.

Interestingly, Drupal is namechecked by the composable DXP article:

Currently, most DXP products are too large and not task-oriented. This prevents organizations from managing them easily, or changing them quickly. DXP capabilities are not easily decomposable or replaceable. However, several DXPs do have extensibility built in, via robust APIs, extension frameworks (such as Drupal’s module framework) and/or app marketplaces. These can be the starting point on the journey toward composability.

Drupal is therefore seen as being well placed to take a central role in the composable DXP ecosystem due to its APIs and extensibility.

The future

There will no doubt continue to be increasied interest in DXPs from businesses looking to build integrated platforms. The rise of the composable DXP as a concept should see many smaller vendors with more open platforms starting to make an impact in the space. For Drupal, improvements in the areas of personalization and experience orchestration should see it build on the strong foundations it already has. This should see a range of DXP options becoming available as activity increases in the area.