6 Things to Consider Before Making a Sitecore Investment

Customer experience management has become inevitable for success in the digital ecosystem. Businesses use Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) to build, deploy and continually improve virtual experiences across different interaction points.

Businesses that focus on customers see Sitecore investment as a key part of their customer experience strategy now. According to an Accenture study, 73% CEOs strive to deliver meaningful experiences to their customers.

Most DXPs, however, underperform when it comes to meeting expectations of the vision pitch delivered during the product sales cycle. This gap needs to be filled to explore the untapped potential of a business. We’ve been working with the leading DXPs in the market but Sitecore is our primary choice. The reason?

Our experience with clients like New York Road Runners (NYRR). Not only did they enhance CX across all channels, but they were able to build on new streams of revenue with Sitecore. Furthermore, it makes managing integrations, leveraging APIs, and finding actionable customer insights easier than any other DXP in the market.

This information, however, is not enough to understand the 6 parameters that a business needs to consider before making a Sitecore investment. Decision makers need a more detailed approach and research before they are ready to maximize on this opportunity.

Sitecore – The Key to Deliver Personalized User Experiences

Sitecore allows brands to test, optimize, personalize, automate content and deliver optimized virtual experiences. Sitecore is the leading DXP in the market because of its ability to deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Plus, it has transformed into a comprehensive, flexible cloud that includes the following:

• Sitecore Experience Manager (XM) — an intelligent content management system that powers omnichannel content delivery 
• Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) — a marketing automation solution to create and deliver personalized customer experiences 
• Sitecore Experience Commerce (XC) — an e-Commerce platform focused on individualized customer journeys 

Sitecore is so powerful as it connects, collects, and analyzes customer interaction data in real time with transparent metrics. Even better, all the data is stored in a single data repository called Sitecore Content Hub. The content hub enables adept content management at all stages including production, editing, personalization and distribution. Combining these three different platforms empowers brands to manage digital assets, orchestrate personalized experiences and sharpen conversions across all channels. Sitecore investment is a crucial decision that businesses undertake to empower their digital strategy. Making sure that the Sitecore investment is worth it, needs more attention to detail.

Sitecore Investment - How Sitecore Helps Businesses Achieve More with Less?

Tracking and delivering personalized digital experiences across different devices in real time is a complex job. Though, it is what all businesses desire. Businesses that have identified ways to do this find it challenging even with a big workforce. Sitecore helps brands achieve this code-free.

The future technology provides adaptability and reliability essential to handle complex tasks. An ideal long-term solution to enhance customer experience across different platforms, Sitecore helps brands to individually connect with their customers. It is goal-specific, easily compatible with other systems without restrictions and caters to unique needs and functionalities. It is the preferred marketing technology in the market for the following reasons.

A Strong .NET Framework

Sitecore is built using the .NET platform that makes it installable with an extensive API. The .NET framework provides Sitecore with the flexibility, scalability and compatibility to integrate with ERPs and CRMs. It can use the data from these external systems and present them in a contextually relevant manner across different screens. This makes data readable for all teams and makes data more useful.

One Platform, Built from the Ground Up

The best thing about Sitecore is that all software updates have been built on as incremental additions to the system. This is great for developers as the new features share a common API and code base making code management and quality better. Not only this but the UI is also standardized for marketers or editors across different features. So, it’s a win-win at both ends and greater chances of innovating and leveraging technology for success.

Personalization

Personalization is one of the core strengths of Sitecore. The default rule that Sitecore installs with, can be modified as per business requirements. For instance, we worked with NYRR and allowed community runners to generate their own content and participate in virtual experiences including training sessions and sports challenges.

Omnichannel Orchestration of Content

A primary need for great customer experience is uniformity in experience. A brand should be accessible from any device seamlessly. Ensuring that the same content is available on web, mobile, social, or app is easy with Sitecore. It allows brands to create reusable content modules within a page. These modules can be used by marketers to create new page layouts across different devices and platforms without any coding skills.

Scalability

Sitecore is known for its scalability due to its vertical and horizontal, and standalone environment scaling features that covers all aspects of how a business can successfully scale. The platform has the capability with a proven track record of successfully handling giant traffic spikes for best performing brands without any glitches or errors. That is why, a majority of brands with a higher traffic and clickthrough rate prefer Sitecore CMS for its seamless experience.

Easy Integrations

Sitecore comes with a great compatibility for different technology and software. So, using Sitecore doesn’t mean abandoning the current software. Instead, Sitecore appreciates easy integration even with non-Sitecore systems. This integration helps Sitecore to combine data across different mediums and streamline internal processes while delivering a consistent experience across channels.

6 Key Aspects to Consider Before Making a Sitecore Investment

According to a study, 76% of consumers think companies should understand their expectations and needs. This makes every customer interaction in the customer journey critical. So, the way a business communicates with its customers is of prime importance. Sitecore can manage digital experiences end-to-end but the decision is not so straightforward.

Before making a Sitecore investment, a business needs to focus on these 6 parameters to justify their decision.

1. Unique Business Needs

Sitecore has unlimited capabilities to influence what customers see. So, a business needs to primarily focus on their goals first to maximize the impact of Sitecore investment. These goals can be growth, more conversions, better brand reputation, empowering data, customer engagement or even the budget. When business objectives are clear, a business can strategize and build on diverse experiences for diverse buyer personas across all platforms and devices. The best thing about Sitecore is that it allows businesses to pick only those features that suit their unique needs. When these needs are fulfilled in the first phase, and brands start experiencing growth, they can extend their goal checklist with powerful scaling.

2. Current Technology in Use

Nowadays, Competition is fierce and technology is one of the major parameters to gain a competitive edge. When the current technology is not meeting business expectations, it’s time to move on. This decision, however, needs to be based on analysis of the shortcomings of the current technology along with the positives. Assessing both sides helps brands understand and implement what they need and what they don’t.

Businesses still using legacy systems have control over the basic functions but most of the time these systems prove to be lethal for business data. So, a business needs agile techniques like Sitecore that use AI and ML to constantly improve over time and stay on top of the competition.

3. Sitecore Capabilities

Sitecore has the highest honor of developing an exquisite customer experience. It was named the best due to its robust customer lifecycle management, headless capabilities and versatility across platforms. With the latest release of Sitecore 10.2, marketers have been empowered with more capabilities to control customer experience.

Sitecore offers you to personalize each content delivery across multiple channels through the multilingual and multisite content management features. One main feature of Sitecore is its data management competency through a centralized repository system.

The real-time analytics allow you to test and optimize your business processes from a very productive standpoint. All these capabilities make Sitecore a unique and worthwhile investment to make.

4. Customer Experiences

One of the most crucial things that matter for a business is to establish a good customer experience. Sitecore is one such platform that allows you to align and comply with your customer experience strategies properly.

It allows businesses to stay focused, deliver more than what's demanded, and have efficient internal operating conditions so they can thrive, prosper, compete, and make valuable interactions with customers simultaneously.

IT consultants, marketers, CX specialists, and other technical workers can efficiently collaborate through Sitecore to manage, optimize and personalize experiences. Only an efficient, scalable, and powerful DXP platform can ensure such highly coordinated, smooth workflows; thus Sitecore is always a step ahead for businesses to deliver more value and quality experience to their customers.

5. Implementation Journey

Sitecore investment seems to be a great proposition for all businesses due to its unlimited capabilities. This thought can only be challenged when Sitecore is not implemented correctly. So, like any other technology, it becomes critical to implement Sitecore according to the unique business needs.

We are a Sitecore certified agency and have implemented Sitecore for mid-market and Fortune 500 businesses. In most of the cases, the implementation was seamless as the business objectives and goals were clear from day one. We knew what they wanted and integrated Sitecore to help them understand their customers better and drive growth.

6. Ease of Use for Employees

Sitecore has a simple user interface as it is focused on marketers. It is completely code-free and object-focused. With AI and ML, it helps users create reusable content and design modules that can be orchestrated across different sites and platforms.

Correct implementation of Sitecore empowers a business to manage their own Sitecore solution without developers or additional development costs. With its headless capabilities, it can be used by people with marketing skill sets across an organization with the same proficiency. Even better, all this is guaranteed to businesses within a short timeframe.

How Much Does Sitecore Cost?

A common misconception about Sitecore is the cost involved in implementing it. It’s common for businesses to compare its cost with other CMS like Umbraco. This may not be the right way to approach the decision as Sitecore must not be seen just as a CMS. It is a suite of marketing technology that allows businesses to deliver experiences along with content. Another key thing to consider here is that cost is not the right parameter. What businesses need to undertake is Return on Investment and not just implementation costs.

An interesting thing about Sitecore is that websites that are not built-in on Sitecore can also be managed on Sitecore. So, this prevents businesses from undergoing complex changes in strategy. Budget is not a restraint for businesses when it comes to Sitecore as it is implemented progressively. So, a business pays only for what it needs.

Leverage Sitecore to Deliver and Manage Personalized Digital Experiences

Sitecore is a complete solution for B2B and B2C businesses that prioritize customers. We have been working with different clients to power their digital business strategy and streamline internal processes. Apart from NYRR, we have also worked with some of the prominent names include AGU, AXAXL and Skyworks.

Our clients span across different industries ranging from non-profits, luxury, telecom and logistics to retail, manufacturing, education and healthcare. They engage with customers on a global scale and deal with different demographics. Our Sitecore integrations help them take charge and proactively deliver what their customers expect. Explore Icreon's Sitecore services.