The age of the proprietary web content management (WCM) system is over. As the digital landscape continues to evolve at a dizzying pace, CMS systems that were once responsible solely for managing web content now must deliver content to native mobile apps, virtual reality platforms, smart speakers, fitness trackers, IoT apps, digital signage and a host of other interfaces.

Proprietary WCM solutions simply can’t keep pace. Lacking the ability to change quickly and adapt to new realities of the digital age, these legacy WCM systems prevent organizations from engaging audiences effectively across a growing number of channels. To remain competitive, enterprises need a cloud-based, open source WCM that delivers the agility and speed required for digital experiences in the 21st century.

That’s where Acquia can help. Providing an open source WCM built on Drupal, Acquia offers a variety of cloud solutions that give enterprises the unparalleled ability to rapidly deploy and manage multichannel content across all channels.

How an open source WCM improves content management

Organizations that adopt an agile and open source WCM are able to increase competitiveness by delivering more impressive digital experiences. An open source WCL also provides:

• Room for innovation: An open source WCM benefits from a worldwide developer community that is constantly updating the platform and adding functionality to improve innovation.
• Reduced costs: While a proprietary WCM can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, an open source solution is free of licensing costs.
• Easier integration: Open source technology can be more easily integrated with marketing automation platforms, CRM systems and other essential pieces of the technology stack.
• Minimal risk: With zero capital expenses and the ability to take systems for a test drive, an open source WCM won’t expose your organization to the risk of an ill-advised technology selection.
• More responsiveness: In addition to allowing organizations to deliver content for a greater variety of digital experiences in different types of customers, an open source WCM supports responsive, mobile-first design – an essential part of engaging audiences today.

Acquia: an open source WCM based on Drupal

Acquia provides an open digital experience platform based on Drupal. This open source WCM enables you to build, operate and optimize ambitious websites, apps and other digital experiences across the entire customer journey, using cutting edge tools to drive engagement from start to finish.

Acquia’s suite of solutions in this open source WCM include:

• Acquia Cloud Platform, a solution for web hosting for Drupal that makes it easier to build and manage Drupal-based digital experiences.
• Acquia Cloud Site Factory, a platform for building, updating and centralizing hundreds of Drupal websites with a simple, central dashboard.
• Acquia Lightning, a Drupal 8 distribution that helps developers build better sites faster. 
• Acquia Site Studio, a low-code solution with more agile, collaborative and inclusive tools for accelerating build times by as much as 4x.
• Acquia Digital Asset Management, a cloud-based DAM with a central library for achieving brand consistency across all sites.
• Acquia Commerce, for delivering integrated content and commerce experiences to build customer loyalty.
• Acquia Personalization, the only personalization tool optimized for Drupal, allowing marketers and developers to point, click and personalize content.
• Acquia CDP, a tool that helps marketers listen to and learn from customers, to better determine what content users need based on a sequence of personalized touchpoints.
• Acquia Campaign Studio, a full-featured marketing automation platform for personalizing multi-channel communications at scale. 
• Acquia Campaign Factory, a solution for managing multiple Campaign Studio marketing automation accounts from a single location.

Advantages of Acquia’s open source WCM

With Acquia’s open source WCM, you can:

• Deliver better user experiences: With support for decoupled architecture, Acquia enables developers to render front-end content with the tools to deliver the kind of experiences that better meet users’ needs and expectations.
• Future-proof your technology: As an open source solution, Acquia allows your WCM to evolve and quickly adapt to the emergence of new technologies and new business requirements.
• Engage customers with personalization: Acquia’s point-and-click personalization tools make it easy to personalize everything from the homepage to specific parts of individual pages, customizing content to the intent and interest of each visitor.
• Serve content to multiple channels and sites: As the universe of digital channels and devices continues to grow, Acquia’s Drupal content management system enables digital teams to provide content in the format and design that is most appropriate and effective for each channel.
• Integrate platforms for greater marketing power: Acquia’s open-source cloud content management system can easily integrate with platforms for marketing automation, CRM and commerce to deliver unified tools that more effectively engage customers throughout their entire journey.
• Move with speed and agility: Acquia’s content cloud platform provides all the tools that marketers, developers and non-developers need to quickly build, manage and optimize a wide variety of Drupal-based digital experiences.

Why make Acquia your open source WCM?

Acquia’s Drupal-based platform is open and built to be API-first, making it the perfect open source WCM for organizations in any industry. Founded by the inventor of Drupal, Acquia brings the same pioneering spirit of the Drupal platform to our mission of providing the world’s most ambitious brands with solutions that help them create personalized interactions and customer moments that matter. With Acquia’s CMS for Drupal, you get a platform that provides everything you need to drive user engagement, interaction and conversion with exceptional content, as well as an open source WCM that is at the leading edge of digital technology today and is ready for the challenges of tomorrow.

FAQs: what is an open source WCM?

What is a web content management system?

A web content management system, or WCM, is a software application or platform that allows organizations to create and manage digital content more easily. A WCM makes it easier for technical and non-technical users to build, edit, store, access and collaborate on web content, and provides tools for workflow, scheduling, ensuring brand consistency, improving search engine optimization and building more effective digital experiences.

What is an open source WCM?

An open source WCM is a web content management system built on open source rather than proprietary software. An open source WCM allows organizations to more easily customize their content management system to their needs and enables the WCM to adapt more quickly as new technologies, channels and devices continue to emerge. An open source WCM is also easier to integrate with other marketing and business platforms. And it provides significant cost savings, as there are no licensing fees for open source software.

What is Drupal?

Drupal is an open source content management framework that provides out-of-the-box tools to build and manage websites, mobile applications and other digital experiences. As an open source WCM, Drupal is supported by a worldwide community of developers, users and contributors, and provides a more flexible, scalable and cost-efficient platform for managing web content.