As the world's leading IT training and certification provider, CompTIA serves millions of learners across 225 countries annually. With 80% of revenue generated through e-commerce, their digital platform isn't just important — it's central to the business.

For seven years, CompTIA's e-commerce operations were managed by a third-party vendor. The arrangement worked, but it created limitations. Simple website changes required long approval cycles, and the team lacked direct control over a platform driving the majority of their revenue. When Todd Thibodeaux, President and CEO, decided CompTIA needed to bring operations in-house, the choice came down to finding a platform that could handle their scale without forcing compromises.

CompTIA chose Optimizely One for its integrated suite — commerce, content, experimentation, and analytics working together without complex integrations. CompTIA eliminated over $2 million in annual vendor fees while achieving a 25% increase in conversion rates and a 15-20% lift in average order value. Faster iteration cycles to better site personalization, the shift from third-party management to owned operations unlocked capabilities that weren't possible before.

Plus, Todd's history lessons and advice on AI are valuable enough for any executive to learn from.

CompTIA's Global Scale and Mission

• Todd Thibodeaux has served as President and CEO of CompTIA for 18 years, overseeing the organization's growth from a single certification to a global leader serving 225 countries
• CompTIA's products reach millions of individuals annually across diverse markets: schools, businesses, governments, and militaries worldwide, with nearly 100 million people impacted since the company's founding in 1995
• The mission is simple: help people improve their lives through better job opportunities, whether they're upskilling into new IT roles or entering the field for the first time

From Third-Party Frustration to Owned Operations

• For seven years, CompTIA's e-commerce platform was managed by a third-party vendor running on Kibo, creating frustrating bottlenecks where simple changes required long timeframes and constant pushback
• When CompTIA decided to bring operations in-house, they chose Optimizely for its complete integrated suite — eliminating the need to piece together multiple vendors and manage complex integration work
• The platform's data layer became critical for CompTIA's business model: with most visitors making one-time purchases, the team needed to maximize every interaction while balancing transaction efficiency with educational content that serves partners and schools

Serving Two Audiences: Transactions and Career Exploration

• CompTIA's products were strong — subject matter experts conducted job task analysis to ensure certifications reflected real-world requirements — but the old platform only served customers who already knew what they wanted
• The site worked fine for transactional buyers purchasing vouchers, labs, or learning products, but it offered nothing for career-intent visitors exploring whether tech was the right path for them
• CompTIA needed a platform that could handle both: efficient e-commerce for existing customers alongside educational content that helps new audiences browse the industry, close the confidence gap, and discover if tech careers are right for them — because real growth comes from converting incremental visitors, not just serving people who already know CompTIA

Seamless Experience Drives Time on Site Up Over a Minute

• Since implementing Optimizely, time on site has increased by more than a minute and 20 seconds, a significant gain driven by the ability to merge video content, blog posts, and content from secondary sites like Reddit and LinkedIn into a seamless experience
• The platform's flexibility is critical: while transactional pages remain static for SEO and GEO performance, the rest of the site needs to be highly changeable and malleable to capture organic traffic from CompTIA's naturally low customer acquisition costs
• CompTIA benefits from massive complimentary advertising done by customers, driving organic search traffic from many different pathways — the platform needs to serve all those entry points effectively, not just optimized product pages

The Business Case? $2M Saved in Commerce Fees

• CompTIA was paying over $2 million annually in transaction fees to Pearson — credit card fees, PayPal fees, plus vendor transaction fees on top — creating built-in ROI that gave the team runway to invest in more capabilities with Optimizely
• The financial calculation was clear: alternative options like Shopify would have simply shifted fees from one vendor to another without real savings, while owning their platform meant spending on annual licensing and still being better off financially
• Beyond cost savings, the decision came down to integration requirements — as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM house (not Salesforce), CompTIA needed a platform that could handle diverse B2B buying pathways, including ACH payments, POs, and checks, while integrating seamlessly with backend financial systems
• Optimizely's built-in analytics templates and extensive customer case studies were valuable for a company without a large internal analytics team, providing proven frameworks rather than starting from scratch
• Todd's evaluation focused on the experience CompTIA wanted to deliver to customers and what gave them the best chance to achieve it — people had gotten used to the old platform without realizing what they were missing until new functionality arrived

Transforming Customer Experience with Data and Self-Service

• Optimizely's integrated data platform enabled CompTIA to track visitor behavior more effectively — identifying behavioral personas based on page traffic patterns and improving abandoned cart recovery by capturing email addresses earlier in the journey
• The Commerce Connect launch transformed B2B customer experience: smaller accounts (under $10,000 annually) can now log in, access loyalty pricing, choose payment methods (check, PO, ACH, credit card), and get products faster without waiting for sales rep attention
• CompTIA streamlined their product catalog from scattered offerings to a centralized structure where customers build their own bundles at full price rather than purchasing pre-bundled discounts — creating both better UX and improved margins
• The platform's transparency replaced the "black box" of their previous system, making content creation and editing simple rather than mysterious
• AI-powered prescriptive routing is the next evolution: using chat integration, inside search, and career quizzes to quickly guide visitors from overwhelming industry complexity to relevant content and purchase paths based on their specific situation

The amount of daily transactions that we're seeing now is phenomenal... It's led to a higher degree of customer support. And I think it's just been a better experience for the consumer as well.

Todd Thibodeaux — CompTIA

AI Adoption and Early Performance Wins

• CompTIA's teams have been using AI for years — translations, exam development, and daily GPT usage that climbs week after week — and Todd believes the key to AI implementation is letting employees use it freely to discover creative applications rather than forcing top-down systems
• Todd references MIT research showing that while 95% of corporate AI implementations produce no results, individuals are achieving massive productivity gains — similar to how PCs didn't deliver real impact until email and connectivity arrived
• Since launching on Optimizely, CompTIA has seen significant engagement improvements: bounce rate down by five points, increased time on site and time on page, with net traffic up even though gross traffic hasn't fully recovered post-transition
• The new platform's experimentation capabilities are particularly valuable for CompTIA's business model: with constant new visitor flow, the team can test aggressively without worrying about mistakes affecting repeat visitors
• Next priorities include upgrading lead capture using Optimizely Forms, segmenting B2B and B2C experiences for divergent personalized journeys, and leveraging AI to fine-tune these persona-based experiences

I think this is the thing that businesses are not quite understanding... The place to start is by letting your employees use AI as much as they want every day, because that's where the ultimate creativity comes from.

Todd Thibodeaux — CompTIA

Personalization, Rapid Fire, and Historical Wisdom

• CompTIA's personalization strategy focuses on behavioral personas rather than user-configured preferences — starting with B2B versus B2C segmentation, then creating distinct experiences for visitors who click into enterprise, academic, higher ed, delivery partner, or military sections
• When asked if Optimizely is worth it, Todd emphasizes the importance of choosing a platform that's extensible, scalable, and keeps pace with technology trends rather than stagnating or hesitating to adopt new functionality, and he believes Optimizely is that
• Todd recommends Ezra Klein's podcasts, Scott Galloway, and has a softspot for Pop Culture Happy Hour; then goes deep into the book The First Tycoon, talks history, and explains how commerce is basically the same now as it has been for the last few hundred years!

It's been a great platform. We want stuff that's extensible, that's scalable, where the company is keeping up with the trends in the technology... It's tough for companies like Optimizely to manage [feature requests], you have to choose features everybody wants. And sometimes that can lead to a slowdown, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Look for a company that does that [well], and you don't have to look any farther than Optimizely.

Tood Thibodeaux — CompTIA

The Fallacy of Now and AI's Real Timeline

• Todd coined "the fallacy of now" — the belief that current times are uniquely amazing when history continuously repeats itself, a perspective shaped by his love of business history
• On AI transformation: Todd has seen technology waves come and go throughout his career (starting with programming in the late '70s and early '80s), and believes we're overestimating AI's short-term impact while likely underestimating its long-term effects — echoing Bill Gates' famous observation
• Neural networks and AI concepts have existed for decades with fits and starts; the technology could plateau tomorrow, or continue advancing toward AGI — but regardless, the current hype cycle follows familiar patterns from cloud computing, data analytics, and other "panic moments" in tech history
• Reading recommendation: Derek Thompson's 2015 Atlantic article "A World Without Work" explores potential AI outcomes — from utopian scenarios with universal basic income to dystopian realities where automation eliminates jobs without creating sustainable economic models
• CompTIA has been discussing this workforce transformation for 10 years, giving them perspective on how slowly major shifts actually unfold compared to the breathless predictions

Taking Ownership of Digital Operations at Global Scale

CompTIA's migration to Optimizely One wasn't just a platform change — it was about reclaiming control over digital operations that drive 80% of their revenue. After seven years of third-party management creating frustrating approval bottlenecks, Todd and his team brought their e-commerce operations in-house with measurable impact: over $2 million in annual vendor fees eliminated, 25% conversion rate improvement, 15-20% lift in average order value, and significant engagement gains including a five-point bounce rate reduction.

But the transformation runs deeper than metrics. CompTIA now serves two critical audiences on a single platform: transactional buyers who know exactly what they want, and career-intent visitors exploring whether tech is the right path. With Optimizely's integrated suite handling commerce, content, experimentation, and analytics without complex integrations, the team can finally iterate quickly, test aggressively with constant new visitor flow, and use behavioral data to create prescriptive routing that guides people from overwhelming industry complexity to relevant next steps.

Looking ahead, CompTIA is building on this foundation with AI-powered personalization, segmented B2B and B2C experiences, and enhanced lead capture. Todd's team has been using AI for years — translations, exam development, daily CPT usage that climbs weekly — and they understand that real AI value comes from letting employees discover creative applications, not forcing top-down implementations.

The lesson from CompTIA's journey? When you're serving 225 countries with millions of annual interactions, you can't afford a platform that requires approval cycles for simple changes or forces compromises between competing tools. You need an extensible, scalable solution that keeps pace with technology trends — and the direct control to move as fast as your business demands. That's what ownership looks like at global scale.