Composable modernisation, one feature at a time.

You don’t need a giant leap.

If Blog 1 challenged the “rip and replace” mindset, this post provides possible strategies to modernise without major disruption. It focuses specifically on the areas of CMS, DXP, and DAM.

Whether you’re running Sitecore XP, a legacy CMS, or homegrown asset storage, you can evolve. You could do this without having the massive risk of a transformation project.

Composable is a Mindset, Not a Product

Composable CMS/DXP for example isn’t something you just buy anymore – it’s something you build and architect for your needs.

It’s the idea that your digital experience stack should be:

• Modular – composed of loosely coupled services
• API-first – with clean data contracts between layers
• Outcome-driven – solving real user and business needs

And best of all, do what is best for you either big bang or you can build it incrementally.

CMS: Modernising Without Losing Content or Control

Many organisations may be running Sitecore XP, Drupal, or an other monolithic CMS platform. Replacing this in one go could be difficult and costly – but you can modernise around them.

Here is an example of a possible step-by-step CMS evolution. I’m using Sitecore products as examples and you can resonate with these migration strategies.

For this scenario imagine that the customer has the following setup:

• Sitecore XP
• MVC so not headless
• Doing basic personalisation
• Using SearchStax to manage the SOLR

The CTO is pushing to use more SaaS products. This is partly to keep up with competitors. It is also because resources are hard to find at the right price for the current CMS technology.

To add to this scenario the customer is a global brand with a huge amount of content in different languages. They also have some hesitation to switch to something new.

Below is my opinion based on the data on how to manage this one.

Let’s start with possible use cases for a new CMS platform – I would say leave the global content on the old platform (for now):

• Use Sitecore XM Cloud to power:
  • New microsites
  • Campaign landing pages
  • Regional websites – Small ones or new ones that need to be built
  • These can live alongside XP without disruption.
• Decouple the Frontend:
  • Use Sitecore Content SDK or Sitecore Headless Services – with Next.js and deploy on Vercel
  • Pull content via GraphQL or REST this allows you to keep the legacy backend as it is, but modernise presentation
• Reorganise Content for Reuse
  • Move from page-based content to structured modular content
  • Use Content Hub CMP or XM Cloud’s content modeling to centralise logic
  • Consume content via APIs on web, app, kiosk’s, or chatbot channels

Potential Results

Moving to headless is a big step, but it would successfully start the de-composition process of the architecture. Trying out the SaaS CMS on websites with a smaller footprint allows you to test the technology. This approach helps you evaluate the technology with a smaller scope.

Then you can migrate the rest of the websites on the foundation you know works. As it grows you can test the scaling capabilities without risk of the entire web estate from failing.

DXP: Compose Experience One Capability at a Time

Unifying your customer data would be a massive positive move. Imagine in this scenario a customer wants to use Sitecore CDP to unify site behavior, transactions, and offline events.

Customer already has a monolith DXP with some personalisation capabilities – but it was never configured properly and never used.

A massive opportunity for any customer is having the 360 view:

• Build segments based on real-time activity – even if your CMS is still legacy
• Real personalisation with Sitecore Personalise using tag-based integration

Potential Results

Sitecore Personalise and CDP are composable – introducing tools like this can get you where you need quickly.

Maybe A/B test banners or CTAs using Personalize on your current website to see value. Then as a customer signs up and it triggers an onboarding email journey using CDP and your email solution.

All while keeping your old CMS in place while this is being introduced, then when you want to do the CMS you have made your job easier.

DAM: Go From Storage to Strategic Enablement

Your DAM shouldn’t just be a file repository. It should power marketing activities, product campaigns, and omnichannel experiences.

Actually its main task should be to connect internal users together to allow collaboration. Enabling everyone to move faster meaning your customer facing channels get everything they need.

DAM migrations can be extremely complex and will touch every part of your business.

Find out the pain points your users are having and with DAM you might be able to improve a process that causes issues.

Imagine you have manual processes on spreadsheets – this could is a good litmus test, if this can move it to DAM and solve it easily what else could it do.

Maybe you have a product launch you need to create assets for. Start there, setup the campaign and tasks. This would be a good test to see the platform in action with minor configuration.

Sitecore Content Hub is my go to solution due to its versatility. Any task can be accomplished and you just need to find the problem.

Out of the box though it does items like this:

• Use auto-tagging to reduce manual work
• Global delivery by serving assets directly via CDN using secure public links
• Automatically generate responsive images and format variants
• Workflow automation using Content Hub workflows for approvals and version control
• Collaborate with external creative agencies using CI-Hub or via share links
• Digital-to-Physical integration by allowing the creation of print-ready assets using InDesign templates
• Use Content Hub CMP to push content to all digital signage, menus, or brochures

Where AI Fits all of the Journeys

Modernisation opens the door to value-adding AI, not wholesale automation.

Use AI to summarise, tag, or rewrite content Use Sitecore CMP’s content automation tools for scalable copy creation

Use chatbots connected to structured content for self-service and discovery

2 examples of where AI can help:

• A travel brand creates 5 versions of each destination page using generative AI
• A hotel chain builds a chatbot that uses content from XM Cloud and DAM

Final points

Composable Doesn’t Mean Complex

It’s about connecting the right tools through smart architecture and clear contracts.

Start with what brings value fastest Use open APIs to connect services Think in vertical slices: small end-to-end use cases that scale

Key Takeaway

You can modernise your CMS, DXP, and DAM without breaking your stack or your team.

Start small. Ship something. Measure success.

That’s smarter modernization.