Digital experience platform (DXP) provider Optimizely has made some changes to its leadership. Shafqat Islam, previously CMO and the former CEO and co-founder of Welcome, the content marketing platform acquired by Optimizely three years ago, has been promoted to Optimizely President. 

“We acquired Welcome not only for its innovative marketing tools, but also for the entrepreneurial spirit embedded throughout the company that stemmed from Shafqat’s inspiring, hands-on leadership style. From ensuring the continued growth of CMP customers, to defining our Optimizely One positioning, Shafqat’s deep background in both engineering and marketing makes him an ideal leader to further propel Optimizely’s success,” said Optimizely CEO Alex Atzberger.

Elsewhere, Acquia launches Drupal 1, Soletrader embraces headless commerce and composability could be the future of software development and applications.

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• commercetools Announces Elevate - the Global Commerce Summit™ 2025: “The success of 2024 and the anticipation for 2025 is a testament to commercetools’ commitment to fostering a global community of commerce innovators, and driving impact instead of amplifying buzzwords.”

• Acquia Announces Support for Drupal 11: “Drupal 11 marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the platform, and sets the stage to establish Drupal as the preferred tool for ambitious site builders on the Open Web.”

• Global Footwear Retailer Soletrader Unveils High-Performance Headless Ecommerce Site Using BigCommerce: “We decided to flex our in-house tech capabilities and replatform again to position ourselves at the cutting edge of technology now and in the future.”

• WYSIWYG Challenges: The Downfall of 'What You See' Web Design: “WYSIWYG's challenges in scalable environments highlight the need for more robust content management systems.”

New RFPs From DXP360

• [New] [RFP Value: Undisc.] University Seeks Headless CMS

• [New] [RFP Value: $18,000] Website Development, Hosting, Support & Maintenance Tender

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Stories that caught our eye

1. Hygraph Adds Live Preview: Editors can edit and preview content side-by-side.

2. Mastering Your DXP Change Management Strategy: A change management strategy must address long-term metrics and comprehensive communication. 

3. What Composability Means For CDPs: Is the term being misused in the CDP space?

4. Pet Valu Selects commercetools: Powering digital commerce transformation for the Canadian retailer. 

5. The Future of Designing Software and Applications: Composability seems to be the answer.

The word on the street…

1. [LinkedIn]: The universal CMS paradigm is gaining momentum: VP of Product at dotCMS Preston So explains why the industry is taking notice. 

2. [LinkedIn]: Is DXO just another Mulesoft?: CEO of Conscia Sana Remekie explains why DXO matters. 

3. [Reddit]:Git-based vs API-based CMS: Redditors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Git-based approach.