Optimizely recently hosted a webinar titled ‘The Next Generation of Optimizely CMS’ on the 25^th of July to announce the launch of the SaaS version of their CMS. This blog summarizes the key takeaways from the webinar.

The product demo led by Nazanin Ramezani, emphasized the admin experience and a general understanding of the product features. 

A few key highlights from the demonstration are as follows: 

• Optimizely’s SaaS CMS has key features facilitating collaboration among teams with intuitive editing functionalities for omnichannel publishing. Optimizely’s SaaS CMS supports omnichannel content management and is channel agnostic, however, the product is designed to ensure the creation of seamless experiences on the website, as seen from the intuitive usability provided by their Visual Builder tool.  

• Visual Builder eases the process of designing sites systematically. The Visual Builder UI enables access to all pages, subpages and previously deployed pages. It also provides the ability to create sections which are blocks of nested content and elements such as headers, footers, article lists and CTAs among others (as configured by developers) placed strategically, and aligned with brand guidelines, providing marketers a simple way to edit every section to a greater level of granularity. 

• The admin portal allows for permissions management at group and individual level and provides admins access to create and edit Content types such as pages, media, blocks (for omnichannel use), experiences and elements, also providing for properties associated with the same to be edited. The  advanced permissions management settings can be applied at the level of every content type.  

• With Blueprints, webpages or sections can be saved and reused as templates to recreate experiences faster and more efficiently. 

• Optimizely Search, Graph and Visual Builder are available OOTB. Optimizely Graph converts content from the Optimizely CMS into a graph that can be searched and manipulated using GraphQL. The tool enhances content search and delivery, making searches faster, real-time and more customizable. Optimizely Graph facilitates dynamic content delivery by pulling together data from various sources (like DAM, PIM, and MDM). This ensures that users receive a consistent and seamless experience, by getting content out headlessly.  

The Visual Builder has features that enable faster time to market with its drag-drop functionalities and collaboration features and as announced, the upcoming version of the PaaS product (CMS 13) will include the Visual Builder, another highlight from the webinar for existing and future Optimizely clients. 

According to Vaishnavi, Analyst at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, "Optimizely's latest product release marks a notable evolution for their CMS offering, blending advanced usability with powerful backend capabilities. The introduction of the Visual Builder within their SaaS CMS platform equips marketers with a highly intuitive interface for seamless omnichannel content creation, while the integration of Optimizely Graph revolutionizes content management by leveraging GraphQL for faster, more flexible content retrieval.  

The strategic emphasis on both PaaS and SaaS deployment options underscores Optimizely's commitment to meeting varying organizational needs, aligning with the shift in the competitive landscape towards headless and composable architectures that offer unparalleled adaptability and scalability for complex digital experiences." 

Author: Vaishnavi, Analyst at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions