Some surprise news

This email is a surprise for you and me.

It's a surprise for me because my initial plan for our final email of the year was a typical (read: boring) one—a compilation of the biggest stories from 2022.

I wasn't thrilled about writing it, so I doubt you would have been thrilled to read it.

Instead, I’m going to do something unplanned and surprise us all by announcing some news a tiiiiiiny bit early. Minus the juiciest details, of course.

By the end of Q1 2023, we want DXP Report to play a bigger role in the rapid rise of MACH and headless. A much bigger role.

Over the last 12 months, I've noticed headless CMS and headless commerce vendors spending more time and money wooing agencies than ever before.

At the same time, the gradual shift away from monoliths and towards MACH architecture is sparking a trend among large "traditional" agencies. You know the type.

They're feeling the winds of change in the air. Suddenly, agencies that have historically worked exclusively with monolithic platforms are questioning their long-term prospects of landing big contracts.

With MACH architecture coming in hot, an agency's affinity to a single platform is quickly becoming a point of weakness, rather than a source of strength.

Back on the vendor's side of the fence, the demand for flexibility and API-first-ness is also being met. More marketplaces, more plugins, more partnerships, and more integrations.

So, now what?

2023: May the Companies With the Most Handshakes Win?

Here's how everybody in the scene interprets the situation.

• Headless software vendors: Our niche is growing rapidly, but selling directly to enterprises is a long, arduous task. We need to form more partnerships with more agencies in order to jointly win contracts. Also, we're aware that our partners are working with more of our competitors, so we need to stay top of mind so they recommend us to their clients before any other platform.
  
• Traditional Agencies: This headless niche is growing rapidly. Our traditional partner(s) may not be the darling of the enterprise world in two years. We need to gently pivot towards headless by showcasing our knowledge of the space, and by forming multiple partnerships with headless CMS and headless commerce vendors. More clients both old and new are asking to migrate to these headless platforms, after all.
  
• Emerging Agencies: This headless niche is growing rapidly. We have a couple of partnerships in the headless sphere, but we must capitalize by bringing our existing partners more business while building new partnerships at the same time.
  
• Other Composable Software Vendors: This headless niche is growing rapidly. We need to showcase our knowledge of the space while simultaneously building flexible, API-first integrations with leading headless CMS vendors, so our platform doesn't get left behind.

Notice the common denominator? Partnerships.

We want to facilitate those partnerships.

The best part is, we're almost ready to tell you more. We'll speak again next year.

(...But if you really can't wait, reply to this email with "more info".)