What is Sitecore? A beginner’s guide to Sitecore

Sitecore is emerging and growing rapidly today. But let as a beginner, as a layman, there are still always a lot of questions. What is Sitecore? What is Sitecore used for? How can it benefit a business? So many questions and queries. In this blog, you will understand thoroughly all the basics of what is Sitecore.

First of all, let us address the most important and at the same time, most easy to understand question: What is Sitecore?

What is Sitecore?

Sitecore is one of the world’s leading digital experiences providers that is preferred around the world by companies big and small (including fortune 500 names.) Sitecore is known for creating seamless digital and personalized experiences through its solutions, offerings and digital marketing tools.

Sitecore is powered by .NET technology and is constantly evolving, innovating and updating. Each new iteration of Sitecore is always better than the previous one which allows the editors, developers and marketers a huge cart full of tools and services to play with.

Using the tools, the services and the solutions provided by Sitecore, companies are able to create revolutionizing and impactful projects, products and businesses. The main motto or we can say the concept behind these tools and services is for the right people to get the best of the best at the right time.

What is Sitecore CMS?

Let us now focus on the second important question: What is Sitecore CMS? Sitecore offers a major product which is a Content Management System (CMS.) According to Gartner, Sitecore is currently leading as a .NET CMS globally. But there is more than meets the eye when it comes to this highly growing and evolving CMS.

Using the Sitecore CMS, you can test your content, automate your content, personalize your strategies, offerings, and again content which will in return help your business grow. How? In this particular context, what is Sitecore used for? Sitecore connects you with the right people at the right time to deliver them the right message needed for building a community and developing your business.

Ever since it was launched back in 2001, Sitecore has always used .NET, which has now gained a lot of popularity. They have the advantage of flexibility, scalability and most importantly, security of the .NET frameworks.

Benefits of Sitecore for your business

Why is Sitecore different from others? What makes it stand out among the cut-throat competition in the market and why is Sitecore growing at such a rapid speed? Because of all the benefits that it has to offer for your business.

Sitecore is not just limited to a content management system. It is so much more than that. It has a very powerful suite of personalized designs, features and functions that will help your business grow.

Sitecore provides experiences that convert your leads into customers and your customers into fans. 

• Sitecore allows you to collect data and gives you an overall, real-time view of your customers’ behavior, buying patterns, and their journey, all being made available in a single repository.
• Hyper-personalization through the Sitecore CDP is also the powerhouse behind the success of Sitecore. Every single customer gets special treatment due to this and thus, your marketing teams can execute their strategies with ease along with more chances of better ROIs.
• With Sitecore, you can do more than just content management. You can track and analyze data, build marketing campaigns, optimize your content, and deliver exceptional experiences end-to-end.

Another reason why Sitecore stands out than others? It is extremely flexible across all kinds of devices that you have. You can access all your customer touchpoints and push personalized content across channels they use such as:

• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Desktops
• Laptops

Sitecore also has the Sitecore Experience Database which can be very easily linked to your CRMs for having a single view of your customer data in real-time. To complement the Sitecore Experience Database (XDB,) Sitecore also has the Sitecore Experience Profile (Sitecore XP.)

Sitecore Experience Profile creates individual profiles and identities of each customer using the data of their journey on your platform. The profiles constantly get updated in real-time with each click of the customer and each second that they spend time on your website.

If you have an eCommerce business, even for that Sitecore has some of the world-class solutions built on cutting-edge technology. With the commerce tools of Sitecore such as Sitecore Experience Commerce and Sitecore OrderCloud you can develop a dynamic platform for your eCommerce business.

Apart from these, another major benefit is the fact that when you want to take your business global or international, Sitecore has just the features for that. The CMS support multi-language and multi-currency modules where quick translation is done as well as local currency is shown quickly to the customers based on their preferences.

Another interesting feature is Marketing Automation and A/B Testing. You can set up marketing campaigns as well as try A/B testing to achieve your goals.

What is Sitecore used for? How does it work?

You must be wondering what is Sitecore used for? It is a CMS which is now used by major companies including Fortune 500 companies for building a secure, robust and flexible platform. Sitecore provides headless integrations in its CMS which makes it one of the most preferable choices of a lot of customers.

What is headless CMS? It is basically an integration that allows the front-end or back-end to be modified independently without affecting either.

How does Sitecore work? Getting used to the ins and the outs of Sitecore is a piece of cake. Even when Sitecore is new and unique, it is not that difficult to get a grip on it. Sitecore offers a variety of certifications, courses and training for developers, marketers and anyone in general who wants to learn and master Sitecore Services.

The global developer community of Sitecore makes it very easy for you to get started with everything Sitecore. The organization even regularly hosts user groups at various regions around the globe to encourage the developers and bring together the community. They are open and helpful, often offering demos on whatever they are working on.

What is Sitecore Development?

Sitecore has a huge range of offerings but what is Sitecore development? Sitecore Development is when your website is migrating to Sitecore Implementation by launching a new website or updating your already existing business website to Sitecore’s experience platform and Sitecore CMS.

Using Sitecore Certified developers, you can implement a full Sitecore development project starting from custom web to app development. Major fortune 500 companies are also nowadays shifting to having a Sitecore base in their websites.

Why do you need Sitecore?

Maybe the old CMS is not working properly? Then what? Even if it is working properly, you have to be up to date with what is latest in the industry. These are some of the reasons to go for Sitecore Implementation. But, let us dive deep to understand why Sitecore is the best and you need it.

Your company needs more than just a regular brochure-type look and feel. You need it to give the users an experience that makes them stay or switch over to your brand.

Let us take for instance, a huge business house. If you have requirements for multiple websites, multiple landing pages, you need a CMS platform where all-in-one development is done. A CMS platform that allows you to manage every domain of yours from one place.

You need the kind of CMS that will enable economies of scale. It must eliminate maintenance costs, provides support as well as helps you enable multiple functions and features as per your business needs. Even if you already have layouts, it should allow you to reuse it.

You need a platform that will also support your international domains along with features for supporting multi-language and multi-currency across devices and across channels.

Most importantly you need a CMS that will allow you the best kind of security there is when it comes to online platform and web development. Security is one of the most important aspects in development and your CMS should provide you with just that by complying with data privacy and security laws, rules and regulations.

This is why you require Sitecore Development. This is why going for Sitecore is one of the best choices your business will ever make.

Who is using Sitecore?

As mentioned above many times, Sitecore is nowadays preferred by a lot of major organizations and people are shifting to Sitecore as a base for their websites. Globally, major bands have now implemented Sitecore Development.

Some of them are:

• L’Oreal
• Atlantis, the Palm
• The British Red Cross
• Cricket Australia
• American Heart Association
• Papa John’s
• Swiss Post
• Aruba Bank
• Bank Central Asia
• Brooklyn Law School
• Adani Enterprises
• Aditya Birla Capital
• Ball State University
• GE Healthcare
• Village Roadshow Theme Parks
• Northwestern Kellog School of Management
• University of Chicago

How to do Sitecore Implementation?

Knowing about the benefits and perks of Sitecore, you must have a question in your mind. How to do Sitecore Implementation? Sitecore Implementation can be done by partnering with a Sitecore Development Company.

The Sitecore Development Company will have certified teams and certified developers who specialize in Sitecore Implementation. Any developer who possesses such skills is trained and put through rigorous training and cross-functional learning. This makes them unique and experts in Sitecore implementation.

Sitecore Implementation is not an expense but a great investment for your business. If implemented correctly, all your imagined possibilities related to your business are going to come true. Once you have chosen a Sitecore Implementation Partner, you have to determine your business needs.

Create a plan and a strategy, with all the issues that need to be taken first and all the important aspects that need to be worked on, as a priority. Establish timeline with the Sitecore Implementation Partner.

Understand the costs and the implementation process. This is basically similar to implementing a project of any web development but this one would be with Sitecore CMS.

Why go for Sitecore Partnerships?

The full potential of Sitecore can be leveraged only by getting a Sitecore Implementation Partner. When it comes to developing or implementing Sitecore Solutions, there is no one better than the Sitecore Implementation Partners to do it right.

Sitecore Implementation Partners are reliable and can be trusted. They are vouched for by their customers. The biggest priority is to maintain a long-term, good relationship with the customers and provide value-added, quality solutions.

This is why it is always ensured that the partners are the ideal fit for the customers. Only then and then, they are assigned to work on the Sitecore Implementation projects. 

What is important is the win-win situation for both the partners and the customers. Also, the team you get for Sitecore Implementation are always the most trained experts who are proven specialists. They earn specialization badges and dedicated work on the solution. 

They are not only trained but also always in touch with the latest tech stack. Constant learning leads to constant grooming of skills and addition of new skills which in turn is beneficial for the customers’ business needs.

The partners are fully capable of optimizing Sitecore services to the fullest to provide the best solutions to the customers. The skillset which is owned by Sitecore Implementation Partners is unique and one of a kind which is impossible to find in other organizations.

Some of these major skills that they excel at are Customer Experience, IT, Marketing Strategy, Implementation, Data Analytics, Data Science among others. With our Sitecore Implementation Services, you be assured that your time to market will be reduced.

Sitecore is emerging to be one of the leading preferences of web development among some huge names in the market. It is fast-growing and your business can leverage the full power of Sitecore CMS and Sitecore Implementation by migrating to Sitecore.

Jayes Kapadi- CEO of ADDACT

CEO

Jayesh, CEO of Addact, brings over a decade of expertise in enterprise CMS services. Leading a team of certified experts, he helps businesses build scalable, personalized, and future-ready digital experiences. Reach out at jayesh@addact.net to explore the right CMS services for your business growth.