HCL Commerce+: Make More of Your Commerce Investment

A Customer Perspective on Practitioner Productivity, Practical AI, Developer Experience, and Technology Value

By Johnn Tinch, Commerce Customer Success Leader, HCLSoftware

In my role as Commerce Customer Success Leader, I look at commerce technology through the eyes of the organizations that use it.

That means looking beyond individual features and focusing on practical questions. Will an update help commerce teams work more effectively? Will new technology improve the experience for buyers? Will a new architecture give developers better ways to support the business? And will a new solution help the organization get more value from the investments it has already made?

That is the perspective I bring to every customer interaction I have. It is all about the outcomes and the value a change in architecture or technology will bring.

Existing HCL Commerce customers already have a great commerce foundation. They have invested in proven commerce environments, skilled teams, business processes, integrations, and customer experiences. With the introduction of HCL Commerce+, our next-generation enterprise commerce platform, there is actual value I would like to tell about here.

HCL Commerce+ combines the proven transaction foundation HCL Commerce customers know with modular business capabilities, connected services, improved business and developer tooling, and AI capabilities across the commerce environment.

The question is not simply what new technology HCL Commerce+ introduces. It is how that technology can help customers gain more value from their wider commerce investment.

The Four Areas Where HCL Commerce+ Creates Value

1) Give Commerce Practitioners Better Tools

The people managing commerce every day understand the products, customers, commercial priorities, and experiences the business needs to deliver.

They should have the tools to manage more of that work directly.

Business users often need support from technical teams to complete routine commerce activities. Some technical involvement will always be necessary, particularly for integrations, extensions, and complex business requirements. But not every content, catalog, merchandising, or experience decision should have to become a development task.

HCL Commerce+ provides tooling designed to give practitioners greater control over the commerce activities they understand best.

This creates a better balance between business and technology teams. Practitioners can manage more of the day-to-day experience, while developers can apply their expertise to the areas that require deeper technical knowledge.

For customers, the value is practical. Commerce decisions can be made closer to the people responsible for the business outcome, and technical resources can spend more time supporting the organization’s most important requirements.

2) Apply AI to Recognizable Commerce Needs

AI is part of almost every technology discussion today. But customers need more than a broad promise about what AI might do in the future.

They need practical AI applications that support familiar commerce goals.

Product discovery is one clear example.

HCL Commerce+ includes AI capabilities that support upsell, cross-sell, product recommendations, and “more like this” experiences. These capabilities can help buyers discover relevant products and give businesses more opportunities to improve engagement.

This is where AI becomes meaningful to a commerce team. It is not a separate technology story. It is a way to improve an established part of the customer experience.

The same principle should guide AI use across commerce. The most valuable capabilities will be those that help customers find what they need, help practitioners work more effectively, and support better commercial decisions.

AI should make commerce more relevant and productive, not introduce another disconnected tool for teams to manage.

3) Support Development Teams With an Updated Foundation

Customer-facing capabilities are only part of the value of HCL Commerce+. The development teams supporting the commerce environment also need tools and technology that help them work efficiently.

The HCL Commerce+ Transaction Server updates the underlying technology stack, including application-server and supported-database options. It carries forward the enterprise transaction foundation customers have relied on while positioning it within the wider HCL Commerce+ solution.

The developer experience is also evolving.

Development teams can work with widely used environments such as Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, and Eclipse. They can also bring AI-assisted coding tools into their workflows.

This matters because technology choices affect more than the platform. They influence the skills organizations can access, how quickly people can become productive, and how effectively development teams can respond to business requirements.

Using familiar development tools can make relevant skills easier to find and reduce dependence on specialized knowledge. AI-assisted development can also help teams accelerate parts of the development process while keeping technical oversight in the hands of experienced developers.

For customers, this creates value on both sides of commerce. Business users gain better tools for managing the experience, while developers gain an environment better aligned with the way technology teams work today.

4) Look for Value Across the Wider Technology Environment

The business case for HCL Commerce+ should not consider the commerce platform in isolation.

Enterprise commerce environments frequently include separate applications for content management, digital asset management, catalog management, product information, recommendations, and other supporting functions.

Each application may address an important requirement. But organizations can also find themselves maintaining overlapping capabilities, additional integrations, and multiple technology investments.

HCL Commerce+ brings content management, digital asset management, and catalog capabilities into the wider commerce solution.

For some customers, this may create an opportunity to consolidate overlapping functionality or reduce reliance on separate point solutions. It may also allow the organization to offset some existing technology costs while bringing related commerce activities into a more connected environment.

The opportunity will be different for every organization. Some businesses have highly specialized product information, content, or asset-management requirements that continue to justify dedicated solutions.

The important step is to evaluate the full environment.

Customers should consider not only what HCL Commerce+ adds, but also whether it can simplify parts of the technology landscape, reduce duplicated capabilities, or improve the value they receive from their overall commerce investment.

Focus On the Value HCL Commerce+ Can Create for You

The value of HCL Commerce+ is not based on a single capability.

It comes from the combination of better practitioner tools, practical AI, an updated development foundation, and the opportunity to simplify the wider commerce environment.

When evaluating HCL Commerce+, you should ask:

• Where could our business users take greater ownership of commerce activity?
• Where could AI improve product discovery and relevance?
• How could updated development tools and a broader skills base help our technology teams?
• Where might HCL Commerce+ reduce overlapping capabilities or technology costs?

Ultimately, you want to reduce cost and dependencies while gaining more capabilities, improving conversion, and responding faster to changing customer needs. HCL Commerce+ can help business and development teams move faster, make changes more easily, and bring new experiences to market sooner.

Less complexity. Faster change. More value from your commerce investment.

That is the opportunity I see for our customers with HCL Commerce+.

To explore what HCL Commerce+ could mean for your organization, contact your Commerce Success Director or complete this form to connect with our team.