5 Highlights from Mach Alliance Report 2024

The MACH Alliance – of which Actindo has been a member since 2020 - has released its latest annual "state of the industry" report, with some eyecatching findings.

It covers topics such as the evolution of MACH investments, including in the US, and how these have impacted organizations facing volatile markets and the specter of their own legacy systems.

The MACH Alliance represents a group of currently 110 independent technology companies that are committed to open, first-class technology ecosystems. Every year it surveys global IT executives about their experiences and results of implementing MACH technologies in their organizations.

MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless) stands for a modern, open and future-proof software architecture. It gives companies more flexibility and agility to meet today's business and customer-specific requirements.

Here are 5 of our key takeaways from the MACH Alliance Annual Research Report:

1. Investments continue to rise

In the last 12 months, investments in MACH have increased by an impressive 85%. At the same time, 87 percent of those surveyed reported an increase in the use of these infrastructures.

In an industry comparison, the retail sector leads with the highest MACH investments, followed by professional services and the financial sector:

This increase is due to the many benefits of MACH, including more flexibility, greater scalability and the ability to innovate and respond quickly to market changes. 

Companies with a higher MACH adoption rate are also confident that they are more likely to keep pace with customer demands and stay ahead of the competition, as opposed to those with lower MACH integration.

2. Clear ROI through MACH technologies

One of the key points we see in the report is the clear correlation between MACH and return on investment (ROI):

85% of respondents confirm a noticeable return on their MACH investments. According to the data, companies can reduce costs more effectively and react more quickly to market changes thanks to MACH.

Furthermore, 91 percent of IT decision-makers are convinced that MACH technologies will be decisive for corporate success in the next five years.

3. MACH-advanced companies are more competitive

The MACH architecture also creates enormous competitive advantages by driving innovation and enabling companies to respond quickly to customer expectations:

The report shows that an increasing proportion of companies see MACH as key to increasing their competitive advantage - 49 percent in the current year compared to 39 percent in 2023. This demonstrates the growing recognition that MACH principles can lead to a stronger market position. 

The vast majority (87%) of respondents say that MACH enables them to meet high customer expectations in the market. The greater the share of MACH in the IT infrastructure, the more likely decision-makers are to believe that MACH helps them to do so.  

4. Focus area is on optimized business processes 

At the same time, support for MACH from top management has increased. Currently, only 18% of participants still see a lack of backing from the board or managers as a barrier, compared to 28% in the previous year:

Organizations invest in three focus areas that are crucial for future-oriented business development with MACH: 

• Customer service and support 
• Workflow optimization 
• Process management 

It is therefore clear that the introduction of MACH is a central component of the transformation agenda at management level and at the same time plays a holistic role in the company. The priorities chosen also show that companies want to streamline and accelerate their work processes. 

With a composable commerce ERP platform such as Actindo Core1, which is based on MACH, individual workflows can be created and business processes orchestrated across channels. 

In addition, all business data from each channel is consolidated in near real time in the central DataHub. This enables teams to work collaboratively and make decisions more quickly in a rapidly changing environment.

5. The cost of old legacy systems is an expensive ongoing problem 

The latest study also looks at the financial challenges that companies face when modernizing their legacy systems. According to the report, the cost of upgrades is an ongoing problem, and upgrades continue to take up a significant proportion of the IT budget:

Companies whose IT ecosystem consists of more than 75% outdated systems spend 71% of their budget on upgrades. If, on the other hand, the proportion of old devices is less than 25 percent, only 29 percent of the budget is spent on such updates. It is therefore clear that early adopters of adaptable IT structures have secured a clear advantage.  

For retailers, brands and manufacturers with monolithic systems, however, there is a decisive opportunity right now to break up old structures and make their IT infrastructure more flexible and agile. 

But which use cases are most important for your company? And how can modernizations and expansions be implemented cost-effectively? In this phase, it is crucial to have an experienced partner at your side for realistic use cases. 

Take off with Actindo and MACH

As a global leader and pioneer in Commerce ERP and Digital Operations Platform with more than 15 years of experience, we at Actindo recognized early on the need for a flexible and modular software architecture for retailers, brands and manufacturers. 

That's why Actindo has been part of the MACH Alliance since 2020, and since February 2024, CEO and co-founder of Actindo, Boris Krstic, has been a member of the MACH Alliance C-Suite Board. 

Actindo Core1 is the world's most flexible, API- and cloud-based commerce platform with MACH certification and brings together the building blocks of composable commerce. Thanks to its MACH architecture, Core1 can be easily integrated as a central solution or as a scalable layer on top of existing monolithic legacy IT systems, depending on individual requirements.  

Whether you are at the beginning of your digital transformation or looking for ways to expand your IT ecosystem, Actindo Core1 offers the right solution for your e-commerce goals. Find out more about Actindo Core1 here:

Download the full MACH Alliance Research Report 2024 here