Pimcore is an outstanding platform that brings multiple tools and functionalities from different areas, such as product information management, customer data management, master data management, commerce and content management in a single consolidated platform.
Today, Pimcore has evolved into a powerful DXP/CMS platform that combines traditional webpage building with great API-centered and headless content delivery. It quickly became a popular tool among marketing professionals, allowing them to easily unify data in a single place, making content more accessible to users and seamlessly integrating with their existing ecosystem.
Back in the 2000s, Pimcore provided a more traditional content management system known as Documents, which was similar to Typo3 and WordPress. This platform allowed product content, such as images, text and other file formats to be entered through editable elements. It was considered a technological breakthrough during that time.
In 2010, another revolutionary technology was introduced, which was focused on mobile devices. Smartphones, tablets, wearables and other smart devices were introduced, and the volume of content delivered to these devices was increasing. That was the time Pimcore realized its limited capabilities when it comes to implementing unique requirements for PWA or SPA.
As time went by, there was another breakthrough in the technological world, which was the introduction of DXPs (Digital Experience Platforms). DXPs were meant to deliver personalized and optimized digital experiences at all customer touchpoints.
This was a major turning point in the content management space as there was a shift from delivering content to delivering experiences. The realm of headless CMS began, and Pimcore became one of the leading companies to offer headless CMS.
What is Headless CMS?
Headless CMS refers to a content management system that separates the presentation layer from the backend layer. With a headless CMS, you can manage the content in one place and choose to deploy it on any digital platform. When you separate front-end from the back-end, it makes easier to for marketers to organize content, and for developers to build the application faster.
As front-end and back-end are decoupled, there comes a need of a content delivery API to load the content. At first, this seemed like a step backward, but decoupling the front-end from back-end allows developers and content managers to work on any platform they are familiar with. Neither developers nor content managers have to deal with bugs existing in each other’s systems.
With headless approach, now we can connect CMS with a higher number of output channels through APIs and have more freedom in content distribution.
What Makes Headless CMS Different from Monolithic CMS?
Long gone are the days when CMS abbreviation was used for simple content management on the website. Today, platforms, such as Pimcore DXP offer a range of functionalities, such as product information management, customer data management, order management, digital asset management, real-time analytics and much more. The key difference between these two platforms is CMS is always included alongside other Pimcore modules, such as PIM, DAM, MDM, CDP and e-commerce.
Another major difference between DXP and a CMS is their intended purpose. The purpose of the CMS is only to manage content and distribute it to numerous output channels. On the other hand, DXP offers a holistic view of the business lifecycle, provide detailed insights, manage finances, manage customer relationship and so much more. Clearly, the DXP represents the revolutionary technology in content management.
Let’s take a look at some benefits offered by Pimcore Headless CMS
Agility in workflows
Pimcore’s headless CMS brings agility in your workflows by allowing you to write content once and publish it wherever you need. There is no need to manage content separately for each channel as headless CMS enables users to manage content in an intuitive way. Creators, editors, marketers, and everyone involved can update content on several channels at once.
Moreover, content creators and developers can work in parallel. Content creators can quickly update content across all channels without the developer’s support, while allowing developers to focus on more critical work. This enables collaborative workflow, which ultimately reduces your time to market and gives you competitive advantages.
Multi-language support
Another great benefit of Pimcore headless CMS is it supports generating content in multiple languages. Pimcore has partnered with Across Systems and Translations.com that makes possible to produce content in your desired languages. It offers different sets of languages for the back end and the front end, allowing you to have a user interface of Pimcore in different languages than the website.
With Pimcore, you can generate fresh content in any supported language while you work in your native language. Within the editor, you can instantly open the translated version of the same content, enabling you to add content for multiple languages at the same time. Brands can now reach a global market through their content with minimal effort.
Mobile optimization
As Pimcore offers headless CMS, the content back-end repository can be connected with various front-end channels, including mobile devices through APIs. This allows brands to deliver omnichannel experience and personalized content to its users.
Managing mobile application content is pretty easy, which can be done within the platform through the content-as-a-service paradigm. It also allows you to preview the documents on mobile devices in real-time, making easy to manage content and assembling documents according to the device’s requirements.
Marketing tools
With Pimcore, you get several marketing tools that come as core elements of Pimcore CMS. These tools contain strong SEO capabilities, site quality management, site analytics and many more, which may be crucial for the success of your marketing campaigns.
In addition, Pimcore offers seamless integration with Google’s analytics and marketing tools, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Thus, digital marketers can rely on Pimcore for their all digital marketing needs rather than switching to other marketing and analytic tools.
Conclusion
Knowing that the whole digital presence of your business is dependent on how future-proof your content management strategy is, it becomes imperative to have a platform that supports your goals. The greatest strength of Pimcore is data management, and Headless Documents is a really good extension of the Pimcore.
Pimcore moves from old monolithic CMS, and aims to offer everything a business needs to offer a truly personalized experience. In essence, Pimcore is a powerful platform that offers a number of features to enhance customer experiences throughout their journey.
