Intro to Liferay DXP: Your Key to Improved Productivity and Enhanced Collaboration

Key takeaways

• Discover how Liferay DXP adaptability resolves the issue of scattered digital experiences, helping you manage them across web, mobile, and connected devices seamlessly and provide a cohesive CX.
• Liferay DXP gives you access to advanced content management tools and intuitive collaboration features, effectively addressing challenges related to inefficient content management, lack of personalization, and poor internal communication. Find out what else the solution has to offer.
• Explore the way the platform successfully tackles common business challenges, such as prolonged development, fragmented customer experiences, and limited scalability. 
• Gain actionable insights on how to validate whether Liferay DXP is the right solution for adoption.

What is Liferay, and what stirs up confusion when attempting to understand its DXP nature? In a nutshell, it’s a Java-based open-source platform with robust low-code/no-code capabilities that offers a comprehensive suite of tools to build portals, portlets, extranets, intranets, and more. It serves as an integration hub, in addition to assisting businesses with the creation, management, and delivery of digital experiences. However, what does this versatile suite of tools mean? How exactly does it help to streamline digital experiences? Does it function as a portal, platform, or CMS? This is where the confusion arises when you start considering the usage of this platform for your business.

While looking for the right solution to address fragmented customer experiences, inefficient content management, and employee productivity that is far from being streamlined, you may often find yourself overwhelmed with a cacophony of buzzwords that don’t make much sense and options in the DXP market. Despite being one of the top DXP platforms, Liferay still requires a thorough evaluation to ensure it aligns with the specific needs and objectives of your company, which is impossible without understanding its nature, adoption scenarios, gaps it can help you cover, and features it offers.

As an IT company that uses Liferay both for the optimization of its own internal operations and as a vendor who assists other companies with the adoption of this technology, we’re here to help you overcome confusion and make an informed decision. With the series of blog posts called “Intro to Liferay,” our goal is to ensure you can navigate the Liferay ecosystem and get exhaustive answers on the platform’s essence, capabilities, pricing, deployment, and use cases.

Liferay DXP: navigating the essence of the platform

The key to understanding Liferay DXP is to perceive it as an umbrella term, namely, a vast ecosystem that covers a wide range of components that are used to build, run, and expand your web application quickly and conveniently.

When it comes to Liferay DXP origin, note that it didn’t emerge as a robust solution as we know it today. Over the years, Liferay has undergone various changes, evolving from a solid foundation for creating enterprise-scale portals and content management systems. With each next version, its capabilities expanded, catering to the needs of businesses while offering more tools to meet their customers’ expectations and enable seamless execution of workplace activities. 

As a result of all the transformations and enhancements, Liferay DXP was released in 2017 and was presented as a solution that combined key capabilities of CMS and Portal; however, offering a unique approach to digital experience management different from one inherent to the mentioned standalone solutions. 

As of today, the Liferay DXP system is a multifaceted platform that helps build the exact solution you need, not compromising between their unique needs and the choice of either poorly customizable software or costly development from scratch. The key solutions that can be built using Liferay are:

• Content management systems
• Intranets for employees
• Extranets for customers
• Portals (supplier, partner, and customer)
• Digital commerce solutions

It’s now used by more than 1,200 well-known enterprise-grade companies, including Carrefour, Trimedx, Jose Cuervo, Douglas, and many others of varying scales. 

Before exploring Liferay’s features and capabilities, let’s examine key points about this platform so that you can get a general understanding of its essence:

• Open-source nature. Liferay DXP is based on an open-source platform, which means its source code is freely available and can be modified and redistributed under certain licenses.
• Modular architecture. Liferay DXP follows a modular architecture, allowing businesses to extend their functionality through plugins, themes, and other extensions.
• Java-based. Liferay DXP is primarily built using Java, making it compatible with a wide range of Java-based technologies and frameworks.
• Stability, community, and support. The solution is supported by a large community of developers, contributors, and users who provide support, documentation, and resources for users. Liferay regularly releases updates and new versions to ensure the platform remains secure and up-to-date with the latest technologies and industry standards.

What Liferay DXP is Not?

When it comes to understanding complex solutions, it’s easier to get their essence by understanding what they are not. So, let’s see what Liferay DXP is not:

• A bundle of technologies. A Liferay DXP serves as a central tech foundation to be built upon that is profoundly integrative and agile. While it does have a portal, CMS, and even commerce features, all of them work well together to support a continuous customer journey across all digital channels.
• A monolithic system. The platform is designed for constant evolution, optimization, and refinement since the digital landscape, customer, and business expectations continue to change.
• A CMS or Portal. Liferay DXP is not just another CMS or Portal. While it provides portal and CMS functionality, it also encompasses features for content creation, personalization, collaboration, and integration, making it a versatile digital experience platform.
• A quick-fix solution. Liferay DXP is not a quick-fix solution for immediate results. Implementing DXP requires strategic planning, evaluation, and ongoing optimization to realize its full potential and benefit from it in the long run.
• A standalone product for a particular department within the company. Liferay DXP is not a standalone product for a single department within an organization. Instead, it serves as an integrated hub that connects various systems, departments, and user categories to streamline operations and enhance digital experiences.

Given all the mentioned above, let’s see what those core capabilities of Liferay DXP are. 

What’s in the box? Unveiling key features and capabilities of Liferay DXP

When presenting Liferay DXP to the world, the company characterized its product in a very simple yet comprehensive way — the solution that builds complex web applications easily. With its extensive capabilities, Liferay can be used for various purposes, helping create personalized experiences for different user categories, meeting even the most sophisticated requirements of businesses easily.

In this series of blog posts, we’ll cover in detail each of the solutions that can be built with Liferay, their functionality, and capabilities, and explain how to choose one that fits your needs most. With this particular blog post, our goal is to give you a general overview of Liferay DXP features without diving deep into each particular solution. So, let’s explore what the platform has to offer by examining the overview of its key functionality below.  

1. Low-code and no-code capabilities

The platform has various low-code and no-code capabilities, which are basically the approaches to developing business apps faster without the need for profound coding knowledge. According to the survey, low-code/no-code solutions help reduce development time by up to 90%. In turn, Vitaliy Koshelenko, our Lead Liferay Architect, says that it’s possible to reduce development time by 300%–600% using Liferay no-code opportunities. Thus, a Liferay project that usually requires 6 months of “regular” development can be done with Objects and related no-code features within just 1–2 months (depending on features and design complexity).

For companies where changes happen constantly and require a prompt response, it means that you can use various instruments to build and deploy solutions time-efficiently, including drag-and-drop tools, pre-coded modules, forms, objects, workflows, design patterns, pre-built connectors, and APIs, and much more. With such an approach, your business gains more flexibility in integration and significant cost savings.

2. Integration & Interoperability

Liferay has a flexible architecture that assists in bringing various scattered internal systems and data within one centralized platform, helping your businesses stay coherent. No more chaos and complexities since Liferay supports numerous methods to integrate (i.e., SOAP, REST, RSS) as well as proprietary APIs. Liferay is designed to work seamlessly alongside your existing systems like CRMs, ERPs, and others, ensuring data can be easily transferred within the company.

On top of that, the platform allows you to remove data silos (repositories of data that are controlled by one department or any other unit and isolated from the rest of your company) by capturing data from users via forms and updating it in other systems.

3. Multitenancy and virtual hosting

Liferay helps manage various independent virtual instances that serve different groups of users within a shared environment, which ultimately leads to cost savings and improved operational efficiency. This feature allows companies to organize users according to defined categories (e.g., departments, positions), which ensures that every particular group gets their permissions and roles for different systems they use, leading to streamlined access control and enhanced security. Moreover, a single instance can be used to develop other websites with unique themes and designs promptly that will be hosted within a centralized Liferay deployment.

4. Quick configuration

Thanks to its intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, Liferay DXP offers businesses to benefit from the fast set-up and configuration. It offers easy-to-use functionality to handle time-consuming operations, such as adjustments in a page layout, the addition of new pages, and the implementation of content changes. Everything can be executed with a few clicks, which ultimately results in significant time savings and increased productivity for employees. Such an optimized configuration process allows companies to adapt to changing requirements quickly and deliver updates to their digital experiences without the need for prolonged development cycles.

5. Liferay Commerce

One of the most recent Liferay DXP features is Liferay Commerce. The platform helps businesses build personalized shopping experiences for their customers. Tools to process orders seamlessly, manage subscriptions, shipments, promotions, and product information across all channels, provide sales and customer service, and much more. 

On top of that, Liferay DXP provides a wide range of OOTB components to set up storefronts, including Sites, Channels, Catalogs, Products, Pages, Widgets, which can be easily customized to meet your unique business needs. Additionally, Liferay DXP’s integration with other enterprise systems, such as CRMs and ERPs, ensures a smooth flow of data and transactions, providing businesses with a 360-degree view of their customers and operations.

6. CMS & Portal capabilities

Liferay DXP embraced the most efficient features out of the standalone solutions. With its intuitive interface and flexible content management tools, the platform enables organizations to easily create, manage, and publish content across multiple channels, including websites, portals, intranets, and extranets. Additionally, Liferay DXP’s portal capabilities help create personalized portals for employees, customers, and partners, providing a centralized hub for accessing information and collaborating on projects.

7. Cloud & Infrastructure

In addition to the mentioned capabilities, Liferay DXP helps simplify the management of the infrastructure and cut your IT expenses. The platform can be deployed and administered easily in the cloud with the help of Liferay DXP Cloud. For businesses, this means that Liferay DXP Cloud will take care of different infrastructure needs so that you can spare your IT resources and focus on other crucial business-related activities. However, the platform also supports on-premise and hosted cloud configurations.

Considering the infrastructure scalability aspect, Liferay can withstand peak load caused by tens of thousands of users. It has also been deployed in large installations with millions of active users in the most demanding environments.

8. Personalized experiences across various touchpoints

Finally, the platform helps provide and maintain digital experiences for both employees and your customers through various touchpoints, such as web, mobile, and connected devices. Having access to page analytics, tools for user segmentation, multichannel support, workflow and reporting, digital asset management, and many others, you can build consistent and personalized experiences seamlessly. 

Liferay’s capabilities are not limited to the ones we described above. These are key features that help it stand out among competitors and demonstrate its value to businesses seeking a comprehensive digital experience platform.

Top 5 major benefits of Liferay DXP for your business

Based on the insights you got from the sections above, you should now have a solid vision of what Liferay DXP can offer theoretically. But how about considering what is the actual benefit to your business if you decide to put it into practice?

Time-efficient development

The platform ensures you can streamline the entire development process, from initial configuration to content creation and eventual deployment. By simplifying and speeding up the completion of development-related tasks such as page layout adjustments, addition of new pages, and implementation of content changes, Liferay significantly reduces the time and expenditures required to build and enhance your solution. As a result, the platform allows businesses to quickly adapt to business and market changes, expand functionality promptly, and stay ahead of competitors.

Improved customer experience

Using Liferay’s personalization capabilities, you can deliver tailored content and experiences to the customers, which will lead to higher engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty. Liferay’s intuitive interface will provide your customers with seamless navigation, ensuring a consistent and enjoyable user experience. Moreover, you can use built-in collaboration tools, facilitating improved communication and better support, further enhancing their overall experience. Additionally, Liferay’s analytics and reporting tools can provide valuable insights into user behavior and preferences, which you can use to optimize the quality of the provided services.

Enhanced employee productivity

Liferay facilitates seamless communication and knowledge sharing among employees. By building a centralized platform for accessing resources, documents, and other types of content, you can provide your personnel with quick access to important information and ensure smooth collaboration between departments. On top of that, Liferay’s customizable workflows and automation capabilities streamline repetitive activities, freeing up employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

Flexibility and scalability

With Liferay’s modular architecture and extensive customization options, you can adapt your platform to specific business needs. Whether it’s customizing layouts, expanding existing functionality, or integrating with third-party services, you can grow your solution alongside your business, efficiently handling increased user traffic, content volume, and other unpredictable changes.

Cost efficiency

There are several ways you can cut costs by using this platform. Firstly, as an open-source solution, Liferay eliminates the need for expensive licensing fees, allowing you to allocate your financial resources more efficiently. Additionally, Liferay’s highly customizable nature frees you from extensive development of additional functionality from scratch. Also, Liferay’s scalability ensures that you can start compelling a smaller scope of work and scale up as needed, minimizing upfront costs while getting room for future growth.

When is Liferay DXP the right choice for your company?

Considering all the benefits and capabilities of Liferay DXP, it may still be quite confusing to understand whether this platform is the right choice for your business. Based on our expertise in implementing Liferay-based solutions for our clients, we’ve prepared a list of key scenarios when Liferay may be the right solution for your company.

Case 1: Your business needs to shift from current outdated technology

When faced with the limitations of a legacy solution similar to Liferay or an older version of Liferay itself, numerous challenges, ranging from security vulnerabilities to performance issues, start jeopardizing your business. Migrating or upgrading to Liferay DXP means getting a comprehensive solution tailored to meet the demands of modern digital environments. With its robust features, such as advanced content management, improved scalability, and enhanced user experience capabilities, you can adapt to evolving market demands, increase operational efficiency, and maintain a competitive edge.

Case 2: More accurate content personalization is essential

A personalized experience is another key feature of Liferay DXP, which makes it possible to display sites differently depending on different user attributes. Pages can be adjusted for different audiences and user segments with relevant content display configuration. If your business objectives require a more personal approach to your customers, Liferay DXP offers a wide range of opportunities for content editing, faster programming, everything aimed at user experience, inline editing, and logging in with a single ID possible due to the Liferay SSO integration with Keycloak, to name a few.

Case 3: You have a complex organizational structure

If your company has a complex organizational structure with multiple departments, teams, and user groups requiring different instruments for task completion, levels of access and permissions, the platform is the right solution in this scenario. Liferay DXP’s flexibility in managing user roles, permissions, and access control allows businesses to organize users according to defined categories and ensure that each group receives tailored access to systems and resources, streamlining operations and enhancing overall efficiency within the organization.

Case 4: You require robust customization and integration capabilities

In case your company has unique requirements and needs that no ready-made market platform can meet, then Liferay is the best-fit solution in this case since it can be easily customized and integrated with existing applications, ensuring that your specific processes are optimized for maximum efficiency and convenience. Liferay DXP’s flexible architecture, extensive customization tools, and integration capabilities enable you to tailor the platform to your company’s specific needs and integrate seamlessly with other enterprise systems.

Case 5: You need to build a unified platform

If your company requires a unified platform to manage various digital experiences such as websites, portals, intranets, and extranets, it can be quite a daunting task without a robust centralized platform. Liferay DXP simplifies this complexity by offering a comprehensive suite of tools and capabilities tailored to meet the demands of modern businesses. With Liferay DXP, organizations can centralize the management of various digital experiences, ensuring consistency, coherence, and seamless integration across different channels.

Conclusion

As you can see, Liferay DXP is a robust platform with a flexible architecture, extensive customization options, and an impressive suite of tools. It provides the flexibility and scalability needed to adapt to evolving market demands and stay ahead of the competition. Whether it’s enhancing employee productivity, improving customer experiences, or driving revenue through commerce capabilities, Liferay offers a wide range of instruments, meeting the needs of modern businesses across industries.

If you are interested in benefiting from this platform and looking for a trusted partner, then don’t hesitate to contact us. Aimprosoft is a certified Liferay partner that strives to help companies transform their businesses today and help them thrive in the long run.

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