DIGITAL PLATFORMS
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The easier something is to keep, the harder it is to truly evaluate your options.
No one owns the full picture. Procurement pushes for continuity. Marketing wants new capabilities. IT is buried. Everyone assumes someone else is doing the due diligence. And with cross-functional teams stretched thin, the idea of untangling workflows, integrations, and contract terms feels like too much lift.
But that friction is exactly what platforms like Adobe count on. Bundled modules, license tiers, and usage caps create complexity that benefits the vendor more than the buyer. Over time, the baseline gets harder to challenge ... not because it’s working, but because it’s familiar.
There’s no clean line between “comfortable” and “complacent.” But one thing is clear: digital inertia has a cost.
Budget gets locked in, not unlocked.
Staying with your current platform might feel like the responsible choice, especially if you're only using the CMS and not the full suite, but most licensing models are designed to quietly ratchet up costs. Tiered pricing structures, usage caps, and bundled modules make it hard to see the full picture until you're already locked in. And the longer you stay, the more entrenched (and expensive) your contract becomes.
Even seemingly minor overpayments compound quickly. A few unused features here, a handful of extra seats there, and before long, you're looking at a seven-figure overspend.
Meanwhile, performance drag creeps in and becomes the norm.
Marketing teams settle into clunky workflows. Content operations slow to a crawl. Legacy integrations pile up and start to get in the way. Instead of asking more from the platform, teams work around it and treat underperformance as the cost of continuity. That’s where digital inertia sets in.
Opportunity cost goes unmeasured, but not unfelt.
Every renewal is a choice to delay potential upside: faster launches, better personalization, higher conversion rates, more agile experimentation. These are the levers that drive marketing impact and if your DXP is slowing them down, that’s more than a nuisance. It’s a massive drag on growth.
“Most renewals aren’t strategic, they’re just missed opportunities.”
It’s worth drawing a line between CMS and DXP.
A CMS handles content creation and delivery. A DXP is designed to take that content further by connecting it to customer data, enabling real-time personalization, supporting experimentation, and driving coordinated campaign execution. It’s the difference between managing assets and orchestrating experiences. .
When teams stick with CMS-level usage but continue renewing at DXP-level pricing, the disconnect adds up fast. You’re not just overpaying for features you don’t use, you’re leaving marketing performance on the table. The licensing cost is visible. The opportunity cost often isn’t.
Most leaders assume that switching platforms is costly. But when you look at the numbers, the cost of staying put is often much higher.
According to Forrester’s Total Economic Impact™ study, organizations that switched to a modern digital experience platform (DXP) saw measurable gains across key business metrics:
These aren’t inflated outliers. They’re real outcomes from companies that took the time to reassess their DXP, not just renew it.
This is where most teams go wrong. Renewal decisions are framed around effort, not opportunity. But if the question is “how to choose a digital experience platform DXP that delivers better ROI”, the answer starts by modeling what you could gain, not just what you’d spend.
The data tells us that switching can reduce operating costs, accelerate time to market, and dramatically improve campaign performance. It’s not just about whether you can afford to switch. The real question is what it’s costing you to stay.
If your digital experience platform (DXP) or CMS isn’t speeding you up, it’s slowing you down. End of story.
CMOs are under pressure to hit bigger pipeline goals with tighter budgets and leaner teams. That kind of growth doesn’t come from platform stability, it comes from platform velocity. You need a DXP that accelerates time to market, supports fast-turn campaigns, and scales personalization without adding headcount or IT friction.
That kind of momentum requires optionality.
Your renewal window is one of the rare chances to ask a bigger question: What should this platform really be doing for us? And more importantly, Is it still helping us win or just helping us maintain?
Too often, renewal conversations center on discounts and contract terms, but the smarter play is to reframe the moment entirely: This isn’t just a vendor negotiation. It’s a chance to define what performance looks like and what’s standing in the way.
Modern DXPs give you options. Composable experiences, API-first design, and usability that doesn’t demand developer intervention at every turn. If you’re not operating with that kind of flexibility, you’re probably spending more to get less.
Renewal windows should be performance checkpoints.
If you’re asking how to choose a digital experience platform (DXP) that can support where your business is headed, start by looking at what you’re getting today versus what’s possible tomorrow. Ask the right questions:
A true evaluation doesn’t require months of discovery. Sometimes, a 30-minute audit can reveal hidden fees, clunky workflows, and performance drag you’ve been normalizing for years.
Not sure what you’re leaving on the table? Use our DXP Risk Calculator to input your current DXP spend, licensing model, and campaign velocity and get a personalized snapshot of potential revenue lift, cost savings, and operational gains.
Status quo bias is real ... but so is the opportunity cost of sticking with a platform just because it’s familiar.
Your digital experience platform should be a growth engine, not a sunk cost. Before you sign the next renewal, ask yourself: Is this platform still accelerating our goals or just the one we’ve always had?
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