Year in review: Kontent highlights from 2020
If you could describe 2020 in one word, what would it be? Unprecedented, abnormal, undefinable, ouch, or simply 404? Even though it was a truly challenging year that will probably have its own chapter in history books, this article will focus on the positive things and what we accomplished last year.
Adapting to remote work
2020 was the year we spent online. The shift to working from home has resulted in a much higher reliance on technology for many of us. It may have been a bit difficult to get used to not meeting each other in person every day, but we began to see the benefits of remote work—not having to commute five times a week, gaining more time to learn new skills, or even increased productivity.
“Even before 2020 happened, we were used to talking to our users remotely. Therefore, last year’s events did not stop us from researching the needs of our customers and learning how Kontent can help them. I was happy to see our product can simplify working with content in times when online presence matters more than ever.”
However, when we sometimes felt particularly “officesick”, we popped in to spend a productive day there or do a quick (and very necessary) photoshoot to show off new Kontent swag:
Organizing a virtual global event
A lot has been said about Kontent Horizons, but it would be wrong not to mention the live event in this article as it was one of the best things about 2020 for us. Interacting with our customers and partners through a live studio in Kentico’s headquarters was an unforgettable experience when we couldn’t travel anywhere. We recorded the entire three-day event, so be sure to check out the recordings here.
Kontent Horizons 2020
Adding website management into the headless CMS
If you’ve ever seen our Product Changelog, you know new product improvements and features appear there every month. Possibly the most exciting improvement last year was Web Spotlight, a web-specific add-on for Kontent combining traditional website management with the flexibility and multichannel support of a headless CMS. Two months later, we introduced In-Context Editor that lets editors update their website content right within the pages of their preview site.
Eliminating content silos
Another useful product improvement delivered in 2020—Collections—helps enterprises move all their content into a single repository to maximize consistency while catering specific messages for regional markets. Using Collections, you can share global content across the enterprise while individual teams can maintain their own portion of the repository.
By the way, Kentico Kontent was the first headless CMS to support Simultaneous Editing, which further improved real-time collaboration on content for remote teams :).
“Last year proved that, with the accelerated need to increase digitization, many large companies found their way to our solution. Our competitive position and results experienced an enormous boost in 2020!”
Named a Leader in the G2 Grid for Headless CMS
We were awarded the Leader badge for Summer 2020 and Winter 2021 in the G2 Grid for Headless CMS. We’re thrilled to have received such positive reviews from our customers!
“The UX of the product is very easy to use. Also, the pricing of the product scales as you use (API first) and provides you with a good headstart at a low budget. Features like user management, content management, digital asset management, and others are pretty useful and help get the job done. the integration ecosystem is quite solid and reduce your effort, cost & time to market.” (Madhur B, Senior Business Consultant, Enterprise > 1000 emp. - Read the full review on G2 here)
Passing the SOC 2 Type 2 examination
Our Kentico Kontent team is committed to developing the best and most secure headless CMS for our enterprise customers. In April 2020, we completed the SOC 2 Type 2 examination, which is a testament to how well our policies and procedures connected to protecting customer data stored in the cloud performed over a longer period of time (6+ months).
Diving deep into content modeling
Have you visited our Content Modeling Hub? It’s full of articles for those of you who want to start designing cutting-edge content models. If you want to become experts in headless content management and get started with modular content, taxonomy, or gain advanced content modeling skills, try our e-learning courses (there’s something for everyone in your team, plus the modules contain these cool illustrations).
Exploring the Jamstack ecosystem and becoming blazing fast
Last year, we focused more on the Jamstack as it started to make its way into the enterprise segment. We asked more than five hundred developers worldwide what they thought about this modern way of building apps and websites and ensured Kontent’s a Jamstack-ready headless CMS that will help you build “blazing fast” websites.
We were also excited to be among the first technology companies who’d joined the Gatsby Partner Program! And the fact that (according to “Will It Build?”) Kentico Kontent provides the fastest Gatsby plugin in the world is a cherry on top.
Amazing agencies joining the Kontent Partner Program
This is also a great time to reflect on how much our Partner Network has grown, gaining valuable new Premium Partners such as ACTUM Digital, Kyan, and Luminary. In cooperation with MMT Digital, Hawksearch, Luminary, UserCentric, and Blastic, we prepared five webinars on content modeling, content personalization, the state of the Jamstack, digital transformation, and iterating towards microservices (if you missed them, watch the recordings here).
With Americaneagle.com, we also produced a popular ebook for content writers that discusses best practices for each stage of the content lifecycle.
In December, we launched Partner Space that provides our partners with valuable resources, helps advocate our headless CMS to their clients, and enables them to get more out of Kontent projects.
“Although 2020 represented fairly turbulent times for everyone, our Partner Program grew steadily, and we welcomed some truly global agencies such as Infosys, MSQ, and others. We also introduced our new Partner Space to further enhance the partners’ experience of working with us. All in all, it was a good year.”
Entering 2021 stronger and bolder
What’s the Kontent Team planning for 2021, you ask? There’s a lot of stuff you can look forward to (check out our Roadmap), and below you can see a sneak peek of our major UI redesign we’ll release in the upcoming months! We are very excited about this and can’t wait to show you more. If you have your own ideas for new features to add, let us know!
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