5 benefits of choosing a MACH Alliance vendor

The rise of MACH

MACH is a modern approach to building enterprise tech stacks whereby every component is pluggable, scalable, and swappable. The approach is rapidly growing its influence, with Gartner predicting that by 2027 at least 6 out of 10 new B2C and B2B digital-commerce solutions developed for the cloud will be aligned with MACH architecture principles. The MACH acronym stands for systems that are:  

• Microservices-based (M): Built from a collection of small, independently deployable, and scalable components or services.
• API-first (A): Application programming interfaces (APIs) are treated as the primary way for applications and services to interact, ensuring that 100% of functionality can be accessed through them.
• Cloud-native SaaS (C): Solutions are designed and built to take full advantage of the cloud-computing model, with its scalability, elasticity, and automatic updates.
• Headless (H): Backend functionality (e.g. data management and business logic) is decoupled from the front-end presentation layer (the user interface and experience), which means you can adapt to new technologies and trends without needing to modify core functionality.

The MACH Alliance is a not-for-profit industry association that brings together software providers committed to delivering transformative solutions at scale. Established in 2020, the Alliance serves to educate the global marketplace on the many benefits of these open, agile, and composable technologies, empowering modern organizations to achieve long-term, sustainable business success.

MACH-certified members are trusted industry leaders who provide leadership and direction in an increasingly complex global market. All members adhere to the principles of MACH and are committed to delivering best-of-breed technological solutions to companies across all industries, sectors, and markets. Here are just some of the benefits of choosing a MACH Alliance vendor:

1. Future-proof your tech stack

The MACH Alliance champions commerce systems that are ‘composable.’ This means they can be broken down into smaller, modular components and then combined in different ways to meet specific needs.

A core benefit of ‘composable commerce’, a term coined by Gartner in 2020, is that companies are not locked into the offering of a single vendor, with a generic platform that needs wholesale replacement when it becomes obsolete. Instead, they can craft their own bespoke platforms out of best-of-breed solutions from different vendors. Able to add, remove, and swap functional capabilities at will, they can flex according to their ever-evolving needs.

One month they might add a Product Information Management (PIM) solution from one vendor and a Content Management System (CMS) from another. In due course, they might swap their shopping cart for a slicker solution or upgrade their payment processing facility. This modular approach gives them the flexibility to adapt easily to changing business requirements.

2. Faster innovation and time to market

One of the key benefits of choosing MACH Alliance vendors is that MACH architecture allows businesses to innovate faster and bring new products, features, and updates to market more efficiently. MACH Alliance vendors focus on giving businesses the flexibility to make changes in specific areas of their systems without affecting the entire architecture.

For example, if you need to roll out a new feature or tweak part of your customer experience, MACH architecture enables you to do so without massive downtime or resource-heavy deployments. This flexibility allows you to respond to market trends, customer feedback, and opportunities at breakneck speed – giving you a distinct edge over competitors still tied to monolithic, slower-moving systems.

3. Seamless integration and customization

Every business has unique needs and one of the benefits of choosing a MACH Alliance vendor is that you don’t have to fit your business into a one-size-fits-all tech stack. Instead, you get an API-first approach, allowing for seamless integration with other systems and tools you are already using. This approach enables you to build a highly customized ecosystem tailored to your exact business requirements.

MACH Alliance vendors eliminate vendor lock-in by allowing you to choose the best-in-class solutions that work for your business, rather than being stuck with a monolithic suite of tools from a single provider.

4. Enhanced performance and reliability 

MACH Alliance vendors harness the power of cloud-native architecture to enable automatic scaling to handle fluctuating demand. Whether you’re dealing with a sudden spike in traffic during a sale or managing global operations, cloud-native infrastructure ensures that your services remain reliable.

MACH Alliance vendors also focus on delivering robust solutions that minimize latency, increase uptime, and provide a smooth, seamless experience for users – no matter where they are in the world. This ensures that your digital experiences are always as good as they can be, even during peak times, which is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty.

5. Empowering teams across the organization

One of the most underrated benefits of MACH architecture is how it empowers closer collaboration between different teams. The modular nature of MACH means that business teams can make changes – like updating content or launching new services – without needing to rely heavily on IT for every adjustment. This gives teams more autonomy to act quickly on business goals and objectives while leaving the more complex, technical changes to IT when necessary.

By choosing a MACH Alliance vendor, your business becomes more agile. Cross-functional teams can collaborate more effectively, ensuring that business and IT are aligned in meeting goals. The end result is a more efficient, responsive organization where technology doesn’t hold you back – it propels you forward.

inriver: A certified member of the MACH Alliance

Inriver is proud to be a certified member of the MACH Alliance, a global community that empowers businesses to build transformative composable tech stacks that meet needs today, tomorrow, and beyond. Being a member of the MACH Alliance means the vendor-neutral and non-profit industry body has scrutinized our technology, references, and roadmap and concluded it can recommend the inriver PIM solution. As a fully composable PIM solution, the inriver platform is able to integrate into any tech stack to provide operational excellence to our global network of valued customers.