Anton Koval’s Post

Go Pre-Composable is moving to LinkedIn I'm excited to share that, in partnership with commercetools, we've moved the "Go Pre-Composable" newsletter to LinkedIn. This will help us expand our reach and engage with even more readers. I'm super grateful to commercetools for their production and marketing support of the initiative. So far, it seems that the topic is interesting, as we've gained about 3,500 subscribers in the last 48 hours. We will strive to deliver the best actionable content about pre-composable solutions so you can make educated decisions. Follow us here on LinkedIn to stay updated with the latest in pre-composable solutions! Link to the newsletter in the comments 👇

Why it is so hard to sell right now? A recent a16z article talks about sales challenges in the current market. While it focuses on AI it seems to be applicable to the wider tech market. Why is selling so hard? • The software spend pie has shrunk dramatically. • Post-COVID, companies are cutting low-ROI software and consolidating. • There's uncertainty about how new tech will reshape the landscape. There are still opportunities if you know where to look. Over 85% of winnable IT spend lies outside industries most disrupted by gen AI Key takeaways for winning new business: • Product-led growth alone isn't enough. Be prepared for heavier sales cycles involving CFOs and CIOs. • Sell on value, not experimentation. Demonstrate clear, measurable ROI. • Your product roadmap is more important than ever. Show how you're incorporating or adapting to new tech trends. • Engage channel partners like consultants and large platforms. --------- Here is how composable commerce accelerators can address these challenges: • They provide a robust framework for complex enterprise sales cycles, helping navigate conversations with both CFOs and CIOs. • Accelerators offer measurable cost savings and efficiency gains, making it easier to demonstrate tangible ROI. • The composable nature inherently future-proofs your offering, showing adaptability to emerging tech trends. • They're designed to integrate with major platforms and implementation partners, leveraging existing channel relationships. Link to the full article in the comments, got the idea from Bartek Pucek 's newsletter.

🚀 Accelerator of the week 🚀 Object Edge Launchpad B2B by Object Edge A quick-start solution for B2B companies to launch their online business with key features and integrations This accelerator is for B2B manufacturers and wholesalers who want to start or improve their online sales Key benefits: • Save up to 80% on launch costs 💰 • Cut ongoing costs by over 50% 📉 • Easy to customize and expand 🛠️ Core features and integrations: • Quotes and orders • Payments by Adyen • AI chatbot with Klevu • Company account management • Search by Klevu or Constructor • Product configuration with Logik.io • Content management with Contentful • Inventory management with Fluent Commerce ⏱️ Time to launch: 3-6 months for a basic version, then keep improving For more details talk to: Adriano Zanette

5 unexpected learnings from successful commerce implementation Recently, I had a discussion with a delivery manager of one of our partners. They've successfully implemented a composable project and hit the required deadline (without an accelerator). Here are 5 unexpected learnings from the project: 1. Contrary to the common belief that "it could have been an email," frequent meetings were crucial for keeping the project on track. These were short meetings usually focused on a single topic. Direct, honest communication about dependencies and issues helped speed up the process.     2. The progress was demonstrated on both the backend and frontend simultaneously, sometimes using mockups, which was important to keep business users engaged and informed.     3. While the new stack offered more scalability and efficiency, it also introduced more complexity. This was communicated clearly from the start. This gave the customer time to prepare for the rollout.     4. With a tight deadline, time became the primary KPI. The team focused on delivering end-to-end features within each sprint.     5. Including many departments from the very beginning of the project was crucial. While this takes a lot of time in the beginning, it reduces potential roadblocks later in the project. It also helps in integrating business processes into the IT framework more effectively. ------------------------------------------------------- Bonus point: Instead of doing acceptance testing as a demo, they asked executives to order products themselves. The moment the product showed up at their doorstep, acceptance from management took care of itself.

🚀 Accelerator of the week 🚀 Help Desk Starter Kit by Grid Dynamics This accelerator seamlessly fuses commercetools and Freshdesk to deliver tailored e-commerce customer support experiences. Perfect for B2C and D2C businesses looking for a modern, secure, and easy-to-use customer support solution in the composable commerce space. Key benefits: ⚡ Speeds up MVP release by up to 80% 🧱 Provides a solid foundation for customer support capabilities 🎨 Offers optimized UX/UI for efficient customer service 🏗️ Includes flexible architecture blueprints 🤖 Comes with deployment automation scripts Core features: 🎫 Customer ticket management 🛒 Order creation from existing cart ❌ Order cancellation 💰 Full and partial refunds 👤 Customer information management 📦 Real-time stock checking 🏷️ Promo code application Integrations: commercetools , Freshworks , Amazon Web Services (AWS) ⏱️ Launch time: As quick as 2-4 weeks for basic setup, 1-4 months for full implementation depending on customization needs. For more details reachout to Rossano Campolo for more details

How we leverage AI to manage accelerators The challenge When we evaluated accelerators (pre-composed solutions on our marketplace), we faced a data overload: • Filled request forms • Recorded evaluation calls (1,5 hour each) • Data on landing pages, booklets etc. With over 40 accelerators to assess, crucial details were lost in the chaos. We needed a way to efficiently analyze this data and share insights across teams without overwhelming them. Here is how we do it: 1. All recordings are uploaded to Bold Video 2. AI automatically transcribes videos and adds chapters for easy navigation 3. We Implemented a company-specific vocabulary for accurate transcription (e.g., "CoCo" is recognized as "composable commerce") 4. Creates a searchable video library for quick access 5. We feed transcripts, forms, and web content to Claude (an AI assistant) 6. We use tailored prompts to generate detailed, standardized accelerator descriptions 7. We populate Confluence template pages with generated content The benefits: • Catch and compare intricate details across all accelerators • Flexible content consumption (video or text) for internal stakeholders • Significant time savings - equivalent to hiring a full content team • Improved data accuracy and consistency • Enhanced cross-team collaboration and knowledge sharing Now analyzing an accelerator takes 30 minutes - a task that otherwise would take days and a whole team to perform. Most of that time is waiting for upload and copying and pasting data from Claude to Confluence (that task I have not yet automated).

Is your IT strategy aligned with 2024's $3.8 trillion spend forecast? HG Insights' latest IT Spend Report highlights key trends: → IT services: $1.7 trillion (44.5% of total spend) - largest segment → Software: $1.1 trillion (10.1% YoY growth) - fastest growing category → IT consulting spend surpassing internal staff costs - notable shift Implications for system integrators: 1. Enhance application management capabilities - $128.1B opportunity 2. Focus on AMER market - leading in spend across subcategories 3. Provide end-to-end services - from strategy to ongoing support 4. Develop cutting-edge skills - addressing widening talent gap 5. Prioritize IT consulting services - significant market demand What about composable accelerators? While not explicitly mentioned, the report offers clues to their potential value: • Enterprise demand for rapid technology adoption • System integration spend at $30 billion • High demand for application management/development Preintegrated solutions can effectively bridge strategy and implementation gaps. ------------------------------------ Link to the full report in the comments

What tech stack is dominating System Integrators' composable accelerators? Inspired by Thomas Mulreid 's post on his winning composable stack, here's a breakdown of the most popular tools used in accelerators: 🎨 Design: Figma 🧱 UI Components: Storybook 🌐 Frontend Hosting: Vercel 🖥️ Frontend Framework: Next.js 📝 Content Management: Contentful (with Contentstack , Amplience , and Storyblok as runners-up) 🔍 Search: Algolia 💳 Payment Processing: Adyen & Stripe 📦 Product Information: Akeneo: The Product Experience Company 📊 Order Management: Fluent Commerce 🖼️ Digital Asset Management: Cloudinary 🛒 Marketplace Platform: Mirakl 💰 Tax Calculation: Avalara 📈 Performance Monitoring: New Relic , Grafana Labs 🔐 User Authentication: Okta ☁️ Cloud Services: Evenly split between GCP, AWS, and Azure 🏗️ Infrastructure Setup: Terraform Note: This list reflects common choices, but it doesn't mean you should simply copy this stack. Unique solutions are crucial - specific needs may require a different mix of tools. Do you use any alternatives that work great for your projects?

🚀 Accelerator of the Week 🚀 Introducing Vaimo LaunchPad: Your Fast-Track to Ecommerce Success! 🌟 Purpose: Elevate your ecommerce game with Vaimo LaunchPad, a composable solution tailored for medium to large organizations with complex business models. 🎯 Perfect for: - Marketplace operators 🌐 - Manufacturers of complex equipment 🏭 - International brands 🌍 - Telecom, finance, and automotive companies 📱💰🚗 - Advanced multi-channel sellers 🛒 - IoT-based service providers 🌐💡 🔥 What You Get: - Best-of-breed tech providers like: Contentful , Algolia , Klevu , Nosto , Akeneo: The Product Experience Company , Adyen 🛠️ - Advanced connectors for seamless system communication 🤝 - DevOps foundation for rapid onboarding 🚀 - Accelerators and best practices for speedy implementation ⚡ - Trusted partners in the composable architecture space 🤝 - Continuously optimized microservice architecture 🔄 💪 Benefits: - Speedy time to market ⏰ - Minimal custom work required 🙅♂️ - Pre-built integrations and connectors 🧩 - Robust architecture foundation 🏰 - Tailored data strategy 📊 - Superior site performance 🚀 - Stunning UX & UI 🎨 - Proven safety record 🛡️ - Adaptability and scalability 📈 - Handpicked partners for reliability 🌟 - Consistent innovation for cutting-edge tech 🚀🌐 For more details reach out to Markus Åberg