eZ Systems on New v2.3 Platform Release & Future Roadmap
Recently, eZ Systems, an open source enterprise content management system (CMS) and e-commerce provider, announced the release of their new v2.3 of their platform.
Their press release lists the new features users could expect from the new version and stated “The new version (2.3) provides users with many new and improved features, including, Form Builder, Content Scheduler Block, Image Asset Field Type, Personalization block and many more. These updates – driven by the feedback of our customers – focuses on making the developer and editorial experiences even more simple and powerful, to allow them the toolset to build websites and applications better and faster.”
Roland Benedetti, eZ Systems’ Chief of Product commented on the news to say “Simpler is better, but also more difficult! We’re very excited to bring a new take on such core features as the ones in this 2.3 release, thanks to close collaboration with our customers. It just became way simpler and better for both developers and editors to launch awesome websites with eZ Platform!”
Intrigued by the new release of eZ Platform v2.3, I reached out to Product Marketing Manager, Amit Gutin of eZ Systems to dig a bit deeper on what the new release was addressing, details on the new capabilities and their future roadmap.
Exclusive Interview with Amit Guton of eZ Systems
What were the biggest areas of importance that the release of v2.3 was trying to address?
"Editorial productivity and experience - We significantly improved the editorial experience thanks to the different content scheduling capabilities added to the platform in v2.3. Marketing teams and content producers can now more effectively plan, schedule and manage content on their webpages.
Visitor and customer data management capabilities - Marketing teams heavily rely on collecting and managing customer data. The new Form Builder provides advanced capabilities allowing marketers to easily access any sort of data and information collected from forms that are submitted online. Marketers and administrators can preview or download customer’s data using our user-friendly interface."
You recently released a “full-featured Slack connector” for the eZ Connector competition that was built by one of your partners, Novactive. Can you explain how that’s used?
"The Slack connector lets administrators use Slack both as a channel for collaboration and a channel for triggering commands in your CMS. For example, a user can push a call to action button or menu in which the user can select from a list of options. This can be, for example, a request for an admin to approve an article before publishing. They can also use Slack push posts such as notifications about events on the platform (new content, workflow changes, etc.) to different Slack channels."
Your press release mentioned “eZ Systems is constantly looking for ways to enhance eZ Platform’s features and make it easy-to-use for editors and developers alike.” Can you talk a little bit about your future roadmap and if you plan on releasing any other new capabilities?
"Our next release is planned for end of December and it will be eZ Platform v2.4. It will provide a collection of new capabilities focusing primarily on editorial teams. The main features are a new editorial workflow system and an improved Online Editor with additional custom tag capabilities. 2.4 will also make minor improvements that look to improve the user experience for both editors and developers alike."
When reading your blog posts, it seemed as though the new capabilities were mainly developer focused. From a marketing perspective, would you say the new capabilities are easy to use?
"Many of the capabilities added in v2.3 (content scheduling, form builders, image assets) focus on improving the editorial experience. We simplified the use of the CMS user interface for content contributors such as marketing and editorial teams. For example, content scheduling capabilities allow editors to schedule the airtime of future content. This feature also allows editors to preview these content changes and see the rendering of the page by using the timeline tool."
Your press release mentioned that with the new technologies of your latest improvements users will now have the tools to “build long-lasting relationships with your users throughout the customer journey, no matter the platform, channel or device.” What is your idea of a seamless customer journey?
"A seamless customer experience is an experience where the customer encounters as little as possible disconnect along his journey. From his first interaction to the last, the customer needs to be assured that he will have a consistent and unified experience across all channels. An example of a non-seamless customer experience is when a user needs to reconnect between a marketing website and a commerce website. For instance, it may require the user to refill customer data on both sites, rather than just one during a purchase process or redoing a search query into a product on his mobile application, when he already had done this step on his desktop."
Since the announcement, eZ Platform v2.3.1 has been released which quickly addressed some bugs that were reported. You can check out the release notes to find out which bugs were addressed, update your current installation using Composer, or you can also download the release from eZ Systems’ developer hub.
Ending Notes
If you’re still curious about the eZ Systems platform, I highly recommend that you visit their online blog forum where they have an abundance of information and videos on the new release along with how-to-guides, developer insights, marketer insights and more.
As mentioned by Amit in our interview above, I’m looking forward to their next release of eZ Platform v2.4 that’s planned for the end of December. Stay tuned and we will keep you in the loop on the upcoming release and any details we find out beforehand.
For now, check out their roadmap below to see details on their release process and what's to follow in the coming months!
Gabriella Pirrone
Gabriella is the Digital Marketing Assistant for CMSC Media. She brings a wealth of knowledge from not only a CMS perspective but also content, SEO and eCommerce. She enjoys everything social media and staying ontop of the latest trends in the digital marketing world.