Beyond the CMS: Unlocking Real-World Scale with Sitecore's Composable Stack

Sitecore has moved well beyond its CMS roots, in recent years offering a modern composable stack with XM Cloud, Content Hub, OrderCloud, Personalise, CDP and Search. 

Their stack is purpose-built for organisations ready to move faster, adapt quicker and deliver smarter. Many modern marketers have moved beyond using enterprise platforms as glorified publishing engines. That has taken a detailed understanding of not only their own objectives, what that means in terms of organisational change but also the capabilities of modern architecture to deliver value.

The real value lies in building connected, modular ecosystems that scale intelligently and evolve effortlessly. One of the core challenges we’ve looked to solve with Recursion speaks to that - delivering scale at speed to then focus on the areas that deliver the greater value. 

We’ve been able to unlock scale by aligning stakeholders early, reducing engineering overhead, without compromising governance or quality. We’ve seen it in action across a range of verticals and the results are impressive from very early on. 

At Dairy Australia, the shift to XM Cloud and Content Hub wasn’t just a technology upgrade, it was a strategic pivot and Recursion enabled them to dismantle legacy systems, streamline asset operations and stand up a platform that now empowers content teams to move faster and serve multiple stakeholders with precision. 

Over at HIA, they crafted an equally ambitious brief to modernise services, reduce internal friction and meet evolving customer self-serve expectations. With Recursion and Sitecore, we delivered a solution that allowed for agile content delivery, scalable operations and better responsiveness to policy and community needs. What could’ve taken years was operational in months, with real outcomes from day one. 

Now, with Sitecore.ai, the composable stack becomes intelligent, from automated content tagging and AI-generated insights to predictive personalisation and experience optimisation, Sitecore.ai enhances every layer of your digital operations. It transforms data into action, helping teams make smarter decisions, reduce manual effort and deliver more relevant experiences in real time. Sitecore have always been at the forefront of this evolution, with Sitecore.ai, the power is really in your hands to realise the experience your customers not only deserve, but expect. 

Combined with Recursion, it means your digital ecosystem isn’t just modular, it’s self-improving without the tremendous overhead that’s normally required to achieve such results. 

The business impact of composable architecture, according to Gartner, says that 80% of enterprises will shift to composable architectures by 2026, driven by the need for greater agility, scalability and speed to market. This shift is already producing tangible results, with Forrester reporting that organisations embracing composable solutions achieve a 30% faster time to market and a 25% reduction in IT costs. The value of composability isn’t theoretical, it’s commercial. Faster launches. Smarter spend. Lower risk. And critically, the ability to adapt continuously, integrating new tools without rewriting the foundation. 

There are other benefits and we’ve compiled these top 5 :

• Speed to Market - Accelerate time from concept to launch with the ability to quickly respond to market shifts and customer needs.
• Scalability with Control - Expand into new regions, brands or use cases while maintaining governance, content consistency and platform stability. Sitecore’s modular architecture provides structure without sacrificing flexibility.
• Personalisation at Scale - Deliver hyper-targeted, data-driven experiences to a diverse range of audiences in real time, powered by Sitecore CDP and Personalise.
• Centralised Brand Operations - Streamline content and asset management with Content Hub, improving operational efficiency and ensuring brand consistency across the enterprise.
• AI-Enhanced Agility - Sitecore.ai brings automation, predictive insights and intelligent personalisation to every layer of your digital experience, empowering teams to make faster, more informed decisions with less manual effort. 

And then there’s the customer impact, with a composable and intelligent foundation, your CX isn’t limited by slow cycles or legacy tech. You can launch faster, iterate faster and deliver consistently across every channel, making experience your most powerful differentiator. 

Recursion is how you unlock Sitecore’s full potential, strategically, rapidly and at scale. If your platform is holding you back, it’s time to think beyond the CMS.