Today, Kentico EMS has rebranded as Kentico Xperience.
It's a rebrand and repositioning, rather than a product overhaul, to re-align their all-in-one content management, ecommerce and marketing platform with the market's expectations.
Research conducted by Gartner recently stated, "client demand has been shifting from WCM to the broader scope of DXP (Digital Experience Platforms)". They are retiring their Web Content Management Magic Quadrant as a result.
Fellow research firm Forrester, which also produces an industry report on WCM, noted in 2019 that the "classic era" of WCM is nearing the end. Organisations that build digital strategies around "bringing people to their website" are lagging behind the curve.
According to Kentico CEO, Petr Palas, this is more than merely following the footsteps of the analysts:
We’ve been helping customers transform their digital presence with our platform for many years. In order to reflect [the marketplace changes towards DXP], we decided to rebrand our platform. It’s a bold change for Kentico, but one that makes sense and inspires us to deliver a digital experience platform that will help you do your job better. We are adamant that our mission and vision remain, and our core values haven't changed. We will continue to invest in our DXP and CaaS solutions, focusing on bringing value to our customers.
A little Kentico history
Before I explain why that's important for you, a little history on Kentico's evolution is worthwhile.
Kentico first launched its Content Management System (CMS) in 2004, and added digital marketing capabilities in 2011, calling it the Enterprise Marketing Solution (EMS).
Kentico's second core product, Kentico Cloud (a cloud-based CMS) was introduced in 2014, which was rebranded in 2019 to Kentico Kontent.
What's changed?
Today, Kentico has rebranded Kentico EMS to Kentico Xperience. It has a shiny new website, brand, logo and all the supporting assets.
Kentico has created clarity for its customers, and created dedicated websites to showcase both of their products:
- Kentico Software, the company, at https://www.kentico.com
- Kentico Kontent at https://kontent.ai
- Kentico Xperience at https://xperience.io
There are no product or pricing changes associated with the rebrand, although a new version of Kentico Xperience is launching later this year.
Why is it important to you?
For Kentico Kontent customers, you'll probably see a minimal impact of these changes. Product enhancements and new feature releases are already rapid, and vast sums of investment are already being spent on innovation and resources.
For Kentico Xperience customers, those currently using Kentico EMS or considering buying it, we hope that you'll see a re-energised and re-focused team getting behind the product. As Kentico continues to migrate from Web Forms to MVC, product and feature enhancements have been few and far between in recent years. We hope that this rebrand signals Kentico's intent to push into the DXP marketplace aggressively, and that can only mean good things for new and existing users.
A clear future
We welcome the clear direction Kentico has taken with their product brand development.
With Kentico Kontent aimed squarely at the Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) audience, and Kentico Xperience now clearly positioned for the mid-market looking for an established Digital Experience Platform (DXP), Kentico feels very well positioned for the future.
If you'd like to know how this affects your business specifically, then please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.
