Chapter 1 IntroduCtIon to dIgItal experIenCe platforms ͻ ĂƐŝĐĚŝŐŝƚĂůƚŽƵĐŚƉŽŝŶƚƐ tĞďƐŝƚĞ ͻ DƵůƚŝƉůĞƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJƐŝůŽƐ ͻ ŶƚĞƌƉƌŝƐĞƉŽƌƚĂůƐ dĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ ͻ ŽŶƚĞŶƚŵĂŶĂŐĞŵĞŶƚƐLJƐƚĞŵƐ;D^Ϳ WůĂƚĨŽƌŵƐ ͻ ŶƚĞƌƉƌŝƐĞƐĞĂƌĐŚ ͻ ŽŶƚĞŶƚŵĂŶĂŐĞŵĞŶƚ͕ĞŽŵŵĞƌĐĞ ŽŵĂŝŶͲ^ƉĞĐŝĨŝĐ ͻ ŽŵĂŝŶͲƐƉĞĐŝĨŝĐĨĞĂƚƵƌĞƐ ŝŐŝƚĂůWůĂƚĨŽƌŵƐ ͻ dƌƵůLJĞŶŐĂŐŝŶŐĐƵƐƚŽŵĞƌĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ ͻ ŐŝůĞ͕ƐĞůĨͲƐĞƌǀŝĐĞ͕ŽŵŶŝĐŚĂŶŶĞůĞŶĂďůĞĚ yW ͻ /ŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞĚƉůĂƚĨŽƌŵ͕ƵƐĞƌͲĐĞŶƚƌŝĐ͕ƉĞƌƐŽŶĂůŝnjĞĚ Figure 1-2. Digital platform evolution The evolution of the digital eco system is depicted in Figure 1-2. During initial stages, web sites were mainly used for information delivery. Web sites needed to be integrated with multiple backend systems and services needed for the business. The next stage of the digital ecosystem was technology platforms such as enterprise portals, CMS, search engines, analytics engines, and such. These technology platforms addressed specific concerns of the enterprise applications. For instance, enterprise portals mainly addressed concerns related to presentation, information aggregation, and personalization; CMS managed the end-to-end lifecycle of content and search engines handled the indexing and searching related concerns. In this scenario we needed multiple enterprise products to build a digital solution. The next step in the evolution was domain-specific digital platforms. For instance, CMS-specific digital platforms provided basic presentation, basic search and ready-to-use integrators/plugins for search engines, and campaign management systems. Similarly, e-commerce platforms provided storefront portals and basic content management capabilities. These prebuilt/out-of-the-box capabilities built around the core capabilities reduced the number of products and technologies that need to be integrated. 12