Unlocking the promise of digital: no trade-offs

Author: John-Paul Syriatowicz – Squiz Co-Founder

Ever feel like you’re drowning in digital solutions? The temptation of new tech gets the better of us as we try to meet customer expectations online.

As we add to our growing tech stack mountain, we’re all inevitably faced with the same regrets as we start to juggle the individual data management, governance, maintenance and security requirements they each have.

These pieces of software that were brought in to make life easier in one area or at one moment in time ultimately don’t talk to each other and don’t work together. So your customers end up with a very disjointed experience across your digital landscape.

“Go Only Niche” or “Go Big”

We call this approach of taking on different tech solutions to solve different problems the “Go only niche” option - you try and piece together a puzzle of tech that’s never going to fit seamlessly into one big picture.

Not only does this create disjointed digital experiences, but the fact that third-party plugins need to be maintained, tested, and updated manually, also causes a significant security risk.

This approach is usually countered with a second option - “Go big”. Organizations that “Go big” will bring on the support of a big tech firm that offers them all the bells and whistles when it comes to creating their digital customer experience.

But it comes at a cost, well several really, including:

1. Expense?- there’s a huge financial implication of working with one of these big players. It can cost millions of dollars to implement the tech and the ROI can be difficult to measure since it's hard to know which part of the solution has made an impact.
2. Control?- while they seemingly offer all the tech you need, they will expect you to use only that tech. You will need to scrap the solutions you’ve already become used to working with and love and implement everything they offer before you can fully realise the benefits of a DXP.
3. Time?- Implementing this level of change takes time….a lot of it. It can take upwards of 18-36 months to complete a full transition to a platform like this. It’s an all-encompassing digital transformation tackled in one go - not something that could ever be completed quickly.
4. Risk?- there’s an element of going in blind to an agreement like this. It’s unfamiliar tech and you simply have to trust that it’s right for your organization and that, after all the time and money put into it, you will see results in the end.
5. Complication?- the job becomes harder than it needs to be because you have to replace systems rather than leveraging what you already have.

With each of these options, you are faced with trade-offs. You either opt for the approach that allows you to use the tech you want but means you jeopardize the experience of both your customers and your internal users. Or, you take the “safe” approach of partnering with a vendor who offers you everything you need but at the cost of control, time and budget.

A third option - no trade-offs required

The good news is, there’s a third option. One that we’re proud to offer at Squiz.

That is: “Come as you are”.

So, what does that mean?

“Come as you are” is more than a slogan, it’s a mantra and something that our whole team genuinely stands behind. It’s about allowing our customers to use our platform in the way that works best for them. Bring the tech you already know and love, but use our platform to stitch it together and offer a unified experience for users and customers.

The core principles of the “Come as you are” approach, include:

• BYO tech stack?- there’s no need to re-platform. Come with the tech and skills you already have in place.
• Access new features?- you shouldn’t be blocked out from using new things because you’re not on the right version of the platform or hosting environment.
• Deploy and evolve quickly?- make fast, incremental updates to your digital landscape, and keep evolving over time. Keep coming as you are with the tech that you want to use and a partner that can support you on your journey.

The Squiz engineering team are passionate about bringing this commitment to life. They build in a way that ensures there are never any trade-offs for any of our users. They’re fighting for our customers to come as they are.

The composability of “come as you are”

Squiz is committed to becoming the?world’s most composable DXP . It’s a journey and we’re rapidly evolving to get us there as quickly as possible.

As JP mentioned in his blog about the promise of a DXP in overcoming digital challenges, composability is about more than just stitching together multiple products. As I mentioned above, this “Go only niche” approach creates a complicated and disconnected stack that is difficult to manage and poses a risk to the experiences of your users.

The test of a composable platform is in how easy it is to use and how well it adapts to you over time.

Squiz is a composable DXP - it’s a stable foundation for any tech stack configuration, that has ease of use, governance, data security, protection and privacy baked in. We offer multiple capabilities that you can use to build the solutions you need - including websites, intranets and portals - and you can change them over time with minimal impact on the solutions you have created. It allows you to come as you are, today and as you scale and evolve in the future.

We enable customers to extend the value of the platform to meet their specific needs with each element of our DXP - for example, using our integration platform as a service (iPaaS) system allows organizations to integrate products from both Squiz and beyond, but still manage the data from one central location. We enable you to extend the capability of the DXP by composing it in a way that it can talk to other services and, as a result, create richer solutions for your end user.

It’s a win-win!