Bridging the Gap: Integrating Legacy Systems with Composable Solutions
What does “going composable” really mean?
We’ve looked at the rise of composable commerce and how conversations around it are evolving. Now I want to tackle a tricky question: Where do we draw the line on composability? Or, one step further: Do we?
In part one of this series, we discussed "dabblers"— vendors who treat composability as an afterthought, not a core feature. However, the essence of MACH and composable solutions is seamless integration and adaptability. Businesses don’t need to adopt it as a whole-system solution, presenting both opportunities and challenges for MACH-native solutions and the MACH Alliance.
Understanding the Challenge: Legacy Systems and Composable Commerce
Existing platforms represent a significant investment of time, money, and resources, but as digital demands evolve, they can hinder innovation and growth. They’re built for steady-state operations; they can’t provide the flexibility modern digital environments require. So customers are now challenging vendors to integrate their existing platforms with new composable solutions— without disrupting business.
In response, a new breed of vendors offering partial composability and headless-adjacent solutions has emerged. But can they actually meet customer needs?
The MACH Alliance has grappled with this question since its inception. For customers, they provide the foundation for determining what will (and won’t) support their business objectives and they work to reflect the current market, not some outdated sense of where it was a year or two ago.
“The MACH Alliance codified what it means to provide a true composable solution by talking about what is truly MACH and what is not. Not all things are equally MACH,” said Gabriel Dillon, Head of Partnerships at Ninetailed by Contentful. “And that standardization, that sort of rubric where we can talk about how MACH something is, and if it's truly MACH, gives us a common vocabulary.”
Recent membership criteria updates demonstrate the Alliance’s strength and adaptability, allowing for an expanded view of what constitutes MACH while upholding a substantial barrier to firms who are merely dabbling. We know MACH is the best foundation for composability—with optimal speed, less risk, and better outcomes—and firms that don’t make a meaningful commitment to those principles have a high risk of failure. The updates strike the right balance and prioritize what matters most: Ensuring customer success.
Strategic Integration: Phased Approaches and Risk Management
Maintaining business continuity while adopting new technologies is challenging, but a phased approach, integrating components one at a time, takes advantage of the agile nature of composability, minimizing risk and ensuring a measurable, manageable process. Fortunately, there is a growing cohort of MACH Alliance members who are serving as a bridge between modern and legacy systems.
Mo Afshar, CEO and Co-Founder of Pipe17, has seen first-hand how customers are moving towards this style of composability. “[M]any customers want an incremental approach, and this offers two things: one is kind of 'use what we want and not have to take the whole kitchen sink.' And the other is being able to incrementally grow functionality over time, and have some level of assurance that things are going to work well together,” he said.
A phased integration allows businesses to test and validate each component before fully committing. By starting smaller, companies can identify issues early on and adjust their strategy accordingly, which reduces the risk of disruption and allows for a smoother transition overall.
“These early stages are a little bit about experimentation: show the results and then continue to grow,” added Afshar. “If they want to do more, they can. I think it's interesting as partners to our customers to figure out how we can help them incrementally adopt, to lower the barrier of entry and really prove that [composability] works. We fundamentally feel bridging the legacy and modern/composable world is really critical for everybody, not just for us, but also for our community.”
Jim Herbert, CEO of Patchworks, believes this approach can serve customers better. “Ultimately, it's all about getting the right tools in the hands of the right users… [T]hat's how composable can really, really work. But to get it right you do need experts in the room, and that's where the agencies really come in.”
All-in-one solutions were designed to be self-contained, not easily integrated with others. But in a composable architecture, all components must work seamlessly. System integrators like Orium play a pivotal role here, providing a thorough understanding of both the legacy systems and the new composable components being integrated, ensuring they’re optimized to work together.
Overcoming Resistance: Change Management and Training
Integrating legacy systems with composable solutions is not just a technical challenge, it’s also a human one. Change management is crucial to the success of any integration project, especially when dealing with systems that have been in place for many years, because it’s not just time and money invested, there’s an emotional investment there as well.
People are familiar with these systems and may be resistant to change, even if the new solution offers clear benefits. Stakeholder buy-in is essential, so it’s important to involve them in the process early, communicate the reasons for the change clearly, and demonstrate how the new composable solutions will improve their daily operations.
From there, empowering teams to take ownership of the new systems can foster a sense of investment in the project, which means making a commitment to communication, education, and training.
“It is actually kind of the boring stuff around training, making sure you've got the right documentation. I think that's absolutely key for the adoption going forward,” noted Herbert. “And that's not all about technology, right? That's about making sure you've got the right part of your organization to be able to go and do that for people.”
Education is key to helping employees feel comfortable with a new system, but it’s also key to expanding the community interested in composability. The MACH Alliance has played an active role in this area, launching rideMACH to provide education and empowerment to the border community. Comprehensive training and support reduces the fear of the unknown and encourages a more positive attitude towards what is still, for many, a new technology approach.
Measuring Success: KPIs and Continuous Improvement
With any major technology initiative, it’s essential to measure the success of the program. This involves setting clear key performance indicators (KPIs)—both short- and long-term—and regularly reviewing progress against these metrics.
In the short term, businesses should look at metrics like system uptime, data accuracy, and user adoption rates to provide an early indication of integration success. In the long term, KPIs like ROI, time-to-market, and customer satisfaction will be more indicative of the overall success of the project.
Following the initial integration, it’s important to regularly review and update the systems to ensure they continue to meet the company’s needs. This might involve integrating new components, updating APIs, or optimizing data flows. Arguably, what matters most is continuous improvement. The goal is to maintain flexibility and agility in the technology stack, allowing the business to stay competitive in a rapidly changing market.
A Balanced Approach to Integration
Integrating traditional systems with composable commerce solutions is a complex but necessary step for businesses looking to modernize their operations and remain competitive in the digital age. We’ve discussed the reality for most brands, as well as the role of the MACH Alliance and its members in helping bridge these two worlds, which leads directly to our next topic: The role of ecosystems and alliances.
Jason Cottrell
Founder and CEO, Orium
Jason Cottrell is the CEO & Founder of Orium, the leading composable commerce consultancy and system integrator in the Americas. He works closely with clients and partners to ensure business goals and customer needs are being met, leading the Orium team through ambitious transformation programs at the intersection of commerce, composability, and customer data.