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MACH Global Research 2023  Blog Series Pt. 3: Adapting To An Evolving Landscape

In March, we <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-global-research-2023" target="_blank">released the results</a> of our third annual global IT decision maker research, which surveyed 500 tech leaders from Australia, France, Germany, UK and the US. We sought to understand how MACH investment has accelerated over the past 12 months and what impact that is having on organizations’ ability to thrive in a difficult economy. We’re publishing a four part blog series to dive further into each of the four key research areas within the report, which are: <ul><li>Challenges to upgrading infrastructure </li><li>Influences on transformation </li><li>MACH utilization </li><li>Evidence of MACH benefits </li></ul>Parts <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-global-research-2023-blog-series-pt-1-so-many-upgrades-so-little-time" target="_blank">one</a> and <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-global-research-2023-blog-series-pt-2-the-growing-urgency-for-tech-innovation" target="_blank">two</a> of the series have been published. Today, we’re looking at the next section: MACH utilization, including examining the growing adoption of MACH and what’s driving it. <h2></h2>Momentum at MACH speed <h2></h2>MACH is on the rise. Eighty-five percent of research respondents said they’ve increased the percentage of MACH in their infrastructure over the past 12 months. We also learned that organizations plan to increase MACH further within the (very) near term. More than 80% said they have plans to do so within the next six months. So we sought to know what’s driving both that growth in adoption and the urgency decision makers are feeling to embrace MACH. We weren’t especially surprised to find that the top answer was responding to changes in the market faster, followed by the need to build and implement new functionality quicker. We’ve known since our inception in 2020 that MACH enables businesses to pivot quickly. We really saw that come to life during the pandemic when businesses built with best-of-breed solutions were able to quickly deploy new features like click-and-collect when stores shut-down, for example, or they were able to launch a contactless check-out feature where there wasn’t one previously. For many, this made the difference between the companies that survived the pandemic and those that struggled or even shuttered. While the COVID era was a dark period of time, it was an opportunity for MACH to take center stage, and it really shined. In a similar vein, four in five research respondents acknowledged that they view MACH as a way to respond to economic volatility, noting the rocky economy has been a contributing factor to their organization's attitudes toward MACH. That has also led to a decreased resistance to change among IT teams. Year-over-year compared to our 2022 research, resistance to change has fallen from 39% to 30%. We don’t take a 10% drop lightly and believe this helps affirm that MACH Alliance’s efforts to showcase the clear and measurable benefits – and the long-term value – of MACH are working. The shift toward MACH has become impossible to ignore. <h2></h2>Adapting to an evolving landscape<h2></h2>As new digital touchpoints continue to emerge, it’s become clear that legacy platforms simply weren’t built to accommodate constant change. Improving the customer experience by being able to respond to change quickly is the only way businesses will meet buyers where they are today. Case in point: Fifty-five percent of respondents said improving customer experience is a main driver behind their transition to MACH infrastructure. Composable commerce opens the door to creating truly omnichannel CX whereby differentiated, personalized experiences can be delivered. So many leaders from within the Alliance network have shared compelling anecdotes or best practices for making a business digital-first and customer-led. For example: Costa Coffee’s Digital Technology Director <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/meet-your-mach-alliance-ambassador-gordon-lucas-global-digital-technology-director-costa-coffee" target="_blank">Gordon Lucas</a> described how the company poured its focus into revamping its app and loyalty programs with MACH elements. Doing so has paid dividends. Costa has one of the largest non-grocery loyalty programs in the UK with millions of members. And member Frontastic <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/how-mach-technologies-allow-you-to-adapt-your-digital-experiences-easily" target="_blank">dove into</a> how MACH technologies allow for easy adaptation of digital experiences, touching on how commerce teams can create outstanding digital experiences fast thanks to the power of headless. This is the way forward. Adapt and thrive, or be complacent and fail. That’s the option businesses have today, and we saw in our research that more and more organizations refuse to stand idly by while the competition evolves. Stay tuned for the fourth part of this four-part series, which will focus on evidence of MACH benefits.

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In March, we released the results of our third annual global IT decision maker research, which surveyed 500 tech leaders from Australia, France, Germany, UK and the US. We sought to understand how MACH investment has accelerated over the past 12 months and what impact that is having on organizations’ ability to thrive in a difficult economy. We’re publishing a four part blog series to dive further into each of the four key research areas within the report.

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What is an Experience Data Platform and how can it fast-forward your composable/MACH journey?

The MACH/Composable movement has gained great momentum in the last years and during 2023 Gartner predicts that 60% of companies will seek composability in their tech investments to gain speed and agility.With a composable approach to the technology stack, companies can quickly adopt changes and meet the evolving needs of customers. A composable approach involves breaking down the technology stack into modular, reusable components that can be easily assembled and reassembled to meet changing business needs. Using this approach, companies can easily add or remove components as needed, without disrupting the entire system.But what’s the best way to transition to composable while ensuring your customer-facing applications don’t get disturbed in the process?While a composable approach offers many necessary benefits, it can also present some challenges related to data fragmentation. When adopting a composable approach, organizations need to carefully consider how they structure their data and ensure it is available in a consistent format across all APIs. Enterprise data from systems such as PIM, DAM, ERP, etc. is often locked in silos where it has its structure and format which makes it difficult to expose the data in a standardized way that is easily consumable by developers. Moreover, different systems may have their own unique way of exposing data, which can make it challenging to achieve interoperability and consistency across APIs. When we ensure data is available in a consistent format and easily accessible, organizations can unlock the full potential of a composable architecture while delivering superior customer experiences.What role does an Experience Data Platform play in the Composable stack?An Experience Data Platform acts as an agile unifying layer sitting on top of all data sources, unifying data assets without the need for costly and time-consuming integration projects when launching new digital initiatives. It has the purpose of funneling this unified data and content into a front-end experience in real-time. It can also collect new data from digital destinations and make it readily available to the rest of your tech stack (insights).Occtoo’s <a href="https://www.occtoo.com/experience-data-platform" target="_blank">Experience Data Platform (XDP)</a> provides several benefits, allowing you to easily replace parts of your tech stack without disrupting customer-facing applications. By starting your composable architecture journey with an XDP, you can quickly reap the benefits of composable architecture in the customer-facing layer, where it adds the most value, while setting yourself up for less risk as you continue to swap the rest of the components in your stack.“With Occtoo’s Experience Data Platform, we are able to easily access data from many different systems and distribute headless experiences into a variety of applications. Not only are we now 4x faster to market but our costs to build these experiences has lowered dramatically.” - Thomas Davis, Global Digital Operations Director – Cartier SA<h2></h2><hr/>Here are five key reasons why an Experience Data Platform (XDP) is a critical investment in the composable stack:<h2></h2><hr/>Easily unify data and content from separate systems: It allows you to quickly unify data and content from separate systems, to make better use of the data you already have, in turn, better preparing you for a transition to a composable architecture while still using your existing data.Leapfrog into a state where you can innovate your customer-facing experiences: When you start your composable architecture journey with an XDP, you have the ability to quickly modernize your customer-facing experiences, giving you a competitive edge and improving your ability to innovate where it matters, in-front of your employees and customers.Lower integration complexity, lower costs: An XDP reduces integration complexity and costs, making it easier and more cost-effective to integrate new systems into your tech stack. By having an XDP in place before swapping out other systems, you can significantly lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your tech stack.Swap each individual backend system without disrupting your customer-facing experiences: An XDP enables you to swap each individual backend system without disrupting your customer-facing experiences, minimizing the risk of disrupting your revenue streams.Risk reduction while adapting to your pace of business changes: You can reduce the risk associated with transitioning to a composable architecture, with an XDP. With the XDP serving as a central hub for all data and content, you can transform the rest of your tech stack at a pace that's suitable for your business, without disrupting your existing systems and customer-facing experiences.All in all, if you are an organization that’s looking at going composable, considering an Experience Data Platform as your first investment may just save you complexity and costs while setting you up for long-term success as you continue to swap the rest of the components in your stack.Occtoo is also the first MACH Alliance member to have joined in the data layer and as an Experience Data Platform.<h1></h1>You can also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.occtoo.com/how-mqmarqet-improved-their-digital-customer-experience" target="_blank">How retail brand MQ Marqet improved their CX and expanded their market reach with Occtoo</a></li><li><a href="https://www.occtoo.com/blog/access-realtime-data-scale-globally-with-experience-data" target="_blank">Access real-time CX data and scale globally with an Experience Data Platform</a></li></ul><hr/><hr/>Author – Jimmy EkbäckJimmy Ekbäck is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Occtoo. Jimmy’s combined passion for new technology and frustration over legacy technology holding CX professionals back from launching innovative ideas is what brought the seed of Occtoo to life. Prior to founding Occtoo, Jimmy has founded and acted as CTO at inRiver, a globally recognized Product Information Management System.

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The MACH/Composable movement has gained great momentum in the last years and during 2023 Gartner predicts that 60% of companies will seek composability in their tech investments to gain speed and agility. With a composable approach to the technology stack, companies can quickly adopt changes and meet the evolving needs of customers. A composable approach involves breaking down the technology stack into modular, reusable components that can be easily assembled and reassembled to meet changing business needs. Using this approach, companies can easily add or remove components as needed, without disrupting the entire system.


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Over the past three years, the MACH Alliance has grown from an idea to a movement, to an established non-profit organization with more than <a href="https://machalliance.org/members" target="_blank">80 international members </a>dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. The response we’ve seen has made it quite clear - and exciting - that this shift is happening even faster than we originally anticipated.<h3></h3>See our latest research on <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-global-research-2023" target="_blank">MACH adoption trends.</a><h3></h3>As true proponents of MACH technologies, we believe the Alliance has a responsibility to the market, especially to enterprise buyers, to approach MACH certification with a high degree of objectivity and scrutiny. It can be incredibly hard for a buyer to cut through industry jargon, particularly from big companies with loud marketing, to understand if a vendor or agency is truly following composable architecture principles. Our certification is our word that we have evaluated the technology, references, and roadmap of a member and they have proven they meet all the criteria for the Alliance to recommend them as part of a future-proof technology stack. This includes that they are active advocates for MACH and composable with clear senior leadership commitment.<h3></h3>As the adoption of modern, composable technology continues to grow, businesses are seeking out experienced and certified MACH System Integrators (SI) to help them transition and manage their tech environments. If you're interested in becoming a certified MACH SI, there are certain prerequisites your agency must meet before being considered. This blog focuses on criteria for a standard SI. The MACH Alliance also encourages boutique and global SIs, and the criteria is adjusted accordingly.<h3></h3>First and foremost, a standard SI is a full-service digital agency/SI with a sizeable composable practice. We are looking for commitment to MACH practices in the form of a Centre of Excellence or a MACH technology practice. It is not enough to be undertaking a few projects that customers requested, but requires an actual MACH practice and proactive promotion of MACH principles. *Your agency must have a minimum headcount of 250, and 100 or more engineers and architects certified by one or more of the major cloud providers (AWS, GCP or Azure) in engineering, architecture, and operations of cloud-native solutions.<h3></h3>In addition to headcount and expertise, your agency must have five public enterprise MACH references (annual revenue &amp;gt;$1 billion), with three customers willing to speak publicly about how you helped them move hosted solutions/on premise architectures to composable SaaS architecture or build 'greenfield' MACH ecosystems for a new brand or operation. These references should have a minimum of two MACH technology components or two ISV MACH member solutions. The goal is to gather insight on how the SI approaches and implements the solutions. The evaluators look at the case studies to understand:<h3></h3><ul><li>Problems and challenges that MACH/Composable Architecture is aiming to solve.</li><li>Implemented Architecture - high-level diagram with vendors’ suppliers showing how the architecture is held together.</li><li>Their role/scope in the implementation - were they prime on the project or just implementing one solution, or building the storefront.</li><li>The current state of the project: is it complete or are there plans for further development.</li><li>Details of the delivery team: composition, technology stack, etc.</li></ul><h3></h3>All of this helps to understand the real complexity, reach and scale of the project, and the involvement and expertise of the SI. The evaluators also look for references moving from legacy monolithic platforms into a composable ecosystem.<h3></h3>Your agency must also have executed partnership agreements with at least four MACH Vendor member companies and at least one of either AWS, GCP or Azure.<h3></h3>Finally, to be considered for certification, your agency must have at least three recent thought leadership publications related to MACH technology, for example composable, microservices, headless or anti-monolith content. These publications should showcase your agency's expertise in MACH technology and its benefits.<h3></h3>In summary, becoming a certified MACH System Integrator is no small task. It requires significant experience, expertise, and references, along with partnerships with multiple MACH vendor member companies and cloud providers. But if your agency meets all the required pre-requisites and is passionate about helping businesses transition to modern, composable technology, then becoming a certified MACH SI can offer significant growth opportunities for your agency.<h3></h3><a href="https://machalliance.org/application-member" target="_blank">Apply here.</a>*Criteria valid at time of publication but is subject to change at the discretion of the MACH Alliance without notification.

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As the adoption of modern, composable technology continues to grow, businesses are seeking out experienced and certified MACH System Integrators (SI) to help them transition and manage their tech environments. If you're interested in becoming a certified MACH SI, there are certain prerequisites your agency must meet before being considered. This blog focuses on criteria for a standard SI. The MACH Alliance also encourages boutique and global SIs, and the criteria is adjusted accordingly. 

MACH Certification - Prerequisites for SIs

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MACH 2021 Certification

In the world of enterprise technology, it can be complicated to see who walks the walk, and who’s just talking the talk. When looking for a best-in-class vendor or system integrator, you want to be sure you’re working with an organization that understands what the future of composable software looks like.
Who doesn’t want to be future proof? Especially in tech, no one wants to work with yesterday’s solution. However, being future-proof requires innovation and boldness. Both are hard work and this deserves to be recognized.
The MACH Alliance certifies its Members only once they meet a set of specific criteria. This ensures that in working with one of our Member organizations, you can rely on them to embrace MACH principles based on being Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless. 
What do you get when choosing MACH Certified organizations?
* Interoperability - By using API’s, solutions and applications seamlessly integrate with each other
* Flexibility - No more vendor lock-in. Stay in control of your technology and adapt whatever you like, whenever you want to
* Rolling Updates - No more downtime due to cloud-native applications
* Versatility - By being headless, you can connect any front-end to any back-end with confidence
MACH Certification in 2021 and beyond
As MACH Alliance Members are certified to uphold the MACH principles and to continually follow the requirements for certification, we will renew their certification on a yearly basis. Member organizations have seen the benefits of joining the Alliance by being able to ensure to (future) customers that they stand for the future of best-of-breed enterprise tech. Look out for the updated certification stamp below:<figure style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: auto; padding: 0px; display: block; position: relative; outline: 0px !important; clear: both; color: rgb(116, 133, 144); font-family: proximaNovaRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; text-align: center;"><img data-image="zjkrxhcm9iqa" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt3ffb839a70fbf421/5ffc41c0f093203f68d4226f/mach-cert-21-w@3x.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt3ffb839a70fbf421" alt="mach-cert-21-w@3x.png" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; outline: 0px !important; max-width: 100%; height: auto !important;"></figure>

MACH 2021 Certification

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