The DXP Catalyst Update - Apr 10, 2025

INTRO
Welcome to This Week’s DXP Catalyst Update

In this edition of the DXP Catalyst Update, I’m stepping back to look at how macroeconomic pressure is reshaping how companies think about their mar-tech investments. Whether you’re feeling the weight of cost controls or racing to build a more scalable foundation, the pressure to make smart, strategic platform decisions has never been greater.

I landed on this topic last Friday, and it’s already proving to be a timely one given how this week is unfolding.

This week’s feature explores how both mature enterprises and growth-stage brands can navigate these pressures - either by rationalizing their current platform stack or by modernizing to support scale.

Let’s dive in.

LEADERSHIP GUIDANCE
Rethinking Your Digital Platform Stack in an Age of Scrutiny

Economic pressure has a way of surfacing hard questions.

Whether you’re a mature enterprise navigating cost controls, or a PE-backed brand chasing aggressive growth targets, there’s a growing need to examine where your mar-tech dollars are going - and what you’re actually getting from them.

Global conditions have created a perfect storm:

• Tariffs and inflation continue to impact supply chains and cost of goods sold (COGS).

• Cost of capital remains elevated, forcing careful investment.

• Shifting consumer behavior adds pressure to deliver digital value, faster.

And many organizations are expected to do more, with less. In this environment, platform decisions aren’t just tech decisions. They’re business decisions and they’re under the microscope.

Two Different Starting Points, One Common Pressure

What that scrutiny looks like depends on your context. Across some sectors I work with, I see two dominant scenarios:

Track A: The Sprawl Scenario

For established organizations facing cost pressure.

These companies - often upper mid-market and enterprise - grew fast over the past decade. They adopted platforms to solve discrete problems, sometimes across different business units, regions, or customer segments. Now, they’re dealing with the consequences.

Common signs of platform sprawl:

• Multiple CMS or DXP solutions across brands or departments.

• CDPs, analytics platforms, and personalization engines that don’t integrate.

• Overlapping licenses with unclear ownership or ROI.

• Marketing and IT teams working in parallel, not together.

• Mounting technical debt and support costs for underutilized tools.

These organizations are often sitting on six or seven figures of platform spend - some of it delivering real value, some of it not.

In better times, that complexity might’ve been tolerated. But today, that level of inefficiency doesn’t fly.

Track B: The Inflection Point

For PE-backed brands and growth-stage companies building for scale.

For leaner, fast-growing organizations - especially those backed by private equity - the situation is different. The stack isn’t bloated - yet. But the pressure is on to scale digital operations quickly and intelligently.

These companies often face challenges like:

• Outgrowing starter tools or custom-built platforms.

• Needing to professionalize their digital stack quickly.

• Building omni-channel experiences with limited internal tech teams.

• Balancing the desire to scale with the need to stay nimble.

• Choosing platforms that won’t require a full rebuild 18 months later.

In these cases, the risk isn’t redundancy - it’s misalignment. It’s investing in platforms that won’t support the next phase of growth. Or delaying platform decisions until they become urgent and expensive.

The Shared Imperative: Make Platform Strategy Count

Whether you’re rationalizing or modernizing, the objective is the same: make the most of what you’re spending, and build for what’s next.

Here are some guiding questions to help you frame the opportunity:

For Platform Rationalization

• Are multiple business units using different CMSs, CRMs, commerce solutions, or other platforms?

• Are we paying for features no one is using?

• Can we reduce TCO by consolidating or re-platforming?

• Do our platforms integrate with each other or are we duct-taping data together?

• Do we know which systems are actually driving business value?

For Platform Modernization

• Are our current tools supporting scale or creating friction?

• Are we making platform decisions proactively, or reactively?

• Is our architecture flexible enough to adapt as we grow?

• Are we prioritizing long-term interoperability, or short-term convenience?

• Can our platforms grow with us without needing full replacement?

The Shared Imperative: Make Platform Strategy Count

Whether you’re trimming or building, now is a smart time to reassess your digital foundation - what’s working, what’s not, and what’s worth investing in for the second half of the year (or into next year, depending on your fiscal calendar).

Here are a few practical steps that apply across both tracks:

1. Inventory Your Stack

Do a mar-tech ecosystem evaluation, or at least list out the key platforms in use across your digital/marketing orgs. This should include DXP, CMS, CDP, CRM, analytics, personalization, campaign tools, homegrown platforms, and digital commerce (if relevant). Don’t overlook tools adopted by specific teams or acquired through M&A.

2. Map Tools to Capabilities and Business Goals

For each platform, identify:

• What it’s actually being used for.

• What business outcome it supports.

• Whether its functionality is duplicated elsewhere.

You’re looking to assess both effectiveness and efficiency.

3. Evaluate Cost and Complexity

For rationalization: focus on total cost of ownership (TCO) - licensing, maintenance, support, training, integration.

For modernization: consider future cost of inaction - tech debt, scaling limitations, lack of insight.

4. Align IT and Marketing Roadmaps

This is critical. Whether you’re consolidating or upgrading, you need joint visibility into how platforms support business outcomes. Silos between IT and marketing will slow you down - or worse, result in misaligned investments.

5. Make the Business Case Early

Whether you’re asking for budget to re-platform or proposing a consolidation strategy, get ahead of the conversation. Your CFO doesn’t need to know every platform nuance - but they will care about reducing duplicate spend, shortening time-to-value, and improving margins through smarter ops.

Final Thoughts

The current economic climate isn’t ideal, but it’s not all downside. It’s a moment that forces clarity. And for digital leaders, it’s a rare opportunity to reset the foundation, cut through noise, and build something more strategic.

Some organizations will trim around the edges and hope for the best. Others will use this moment to align platforms with purpose to reduce friction, increase ROI, and scale with intention.