A playful twist on “BOM,” traditionally known as a Bill of Materials, feels entirely appropriate given the explosive growth of digital experiences built from an ever-expanding set of vendors. Today’s e-commerce and digital business leaders aren’t managing single, monolithic systems—they’re orchestrating a vast array of technologies, each promising improved customer engagement and higher conversion rates.

But here’s the challenge: How do you measure performance, pinpoint issues, and optimize business outcomes in an ecosystem that often feels fragmented, overwhelming, and noisy?

The Journey Here: How We Got Composable

E-commerce software for selling online has evolved through three distinct phases:

• Phase One: The Monolithic Era
  Companies chose “all-in-one” platforms like IBM WebSphere Commerce, Intershop, and later Magento, aiming for a single solution that delivered everything from product catalog management to checkout.
• Phase Two: Headless Emergence
  The rise of the iPhone and social media changed the game. Suddenly, brands needed product information and commerce functionality not just on their website, but across mobile apps, social networks, and other digital touchpoints. Commerce platforms became “headless,” decoupling the storefront from backend operations. New specialized solutions emerged rapidly, commoditizing traditional e-commerce platforms.
• Phase Three: Best-of-Breed Explosion
  Today, according to Gartner, “by 2026, at least 70% of organizations will be mandated to acquire composable digital experience platform technology, compared to 50% in 2023.” Companies large and small now actively mix vendor software, open-source solutions, and custom development to create highly personalized digital experiences. 

Composable digital experiences are no longer just a trend; they’ve become the new normal.

The Analytics Mess We’re In

As experiences got more sophisticated, analytics splintered. Companies now juggle at least three types of analytics solutions, each with its own perspective and agenda:

• Digital Analytics: Dominated by tools like Google Analytics (GA4) and Adobe Analytics, focusing on consumer engagement and conversion metrics.
• Performance Monitoring: Tools like Dynatrace, New Relic, and Catchpoint focus on technical IT metrics, such as server response times and app uptime.
• Product Analytics: Companies like Amplitude and Quantum Metric focus on detailed user behaviors within digital products.

Each category generates massive amounts of telemetry data. But here’s the rub: How do these analytics translate into actionable business insights and measurable commercial outcomes?

Forrester introduced their “Digital Intelligence Stack,” recognizing the need to unify analytics data with actions that lead to improved business outcomes. Gartner labels this merging analytics field “Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM),” recommending that IT teams shift from purely technical metrics to business KPIs—such as customer satisfaction and quality of experience.

Yet even these frameworks leave a critical gap: translating metrics directly into action-oriented insights about vendor performance and measurable commercial outcomes.

How About Business Outcomes Monitoring (BOM)

Enter the ‘potential’ era of Business Outcomes Monitoring (BOM)—an integrated analytics approach explicitly designed for composable digital experiences. BOM focuses not just on data, but on connecting that data directly to business outcomes:

• Vendor Performance Insights: Rather than just uptime or technical speed, BOM would pinpoint which vendor apps and integrations directly boost—or hinder—conversion rates and revenue.
• Cross-Channel Optimization: Rather than siloed metrics, BOM continuously tracks and experiments across multiple digital touchpoints, allowing consistent, personalized experiences that lead to demonstrable commercial value.
• Actionable Experimentation: Moving beyond A/B testing button colors, BOM could leverage sophisticated experimentation approaches (feature management and server-side testing) to validate larger, more impactful changes across customer journeys.

With composable architectures now standard and companies employing 50-100 vendor applications on their storefronts, real-time understanding of each vendor’s contribution to business success isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.

The Opportunity: From Data to Dollars

The shift from fragmented analytics to BOM creates a powerful opportunity. Gartner notes DEM can measure vendor SLA compliance, allowing businesses to demand service credits or prioritize investments based on direct business outcomes.

Early market signals suggest a ripe opportunity for vendors and analysts alike to rethink how we frame, measure, and manage digital experiences. Companies embracing BOM will inevitably build a competitive advantage—faster experimentation, precise investment, and clearer pathways to growth.

This is just the beginning of a significant shift—one I’m eager to explore further with peers, analysts, and industry experts alike.

How are you approaching this analytics evolution? I’d love your take. We’re working on this at Yottaa.