Enterprise content management is the defined process, strategy, and tools that help a business acquire, organize, store, and effectively deliver important information to its employees and customers.
ECM has evolved rapidly as various types of content have been introduced into the work environment. However, these tools continue to focus on managing digital company information in a central repository and using digital content to support business processes and help achieve goals.
Enterprise content management does not refer to technology or process. It is an overarching term that refers to a combination of methods, tools, and strategies that support the management of content, as well as the security, protection, and dissemination of their entire lifecycle.
The three main types of CMS software are proprietary, open source, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) CMS. This also includes cloud-based solutions.
What Is Sitecore Experience Platform?
Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) offers a complete solution for providing seamless digital experiences across numerous digital channels.
It is an ideal platform for companies that want to access advanced features such as multi-site management, omnichannel support, multilingual content, etc. Businesses continue to look for technologies that can improve their performance and brand presence online. This is why you should choose Sitecore for your business.
How Sitecore Works
Asking yourself “What is Sitecore and why it is used?”. Keep reading to find out!
Sitecore is the leading digital experience software used by organizations around the world to create seamless and personalized digital experiences. Sitecore’s core product is the Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) which combines their powerful content management system (CMS) Sitecore Experience Management with the Sitecore Experience Database (xDB).
Sitecore is constantly changing, and each update brings new tools and features to its users. The cloud-based digital experience platform also provides shopping experiences through Sitecore’s Experience Business.
Sitecore Commerce
Take control over your product page, storefront, checkout, and cart, all in one place. You can also manage your marketing automation, content management, and user analytics.
Nurture customers throughout their journey and show them personalized content, even after they complete their transaction, and across multiple digital platforms by following the Sitecore development best practices.
Why do I need Sitecore Experience Commerce? What are the Sitecore features?
- Personalized presentation: Provide personalized and personalized content to your visitors, including instant promotions and prices.
- Full control: Complete management of products, inventory, and catalogs to manage your digital storefront and grow your business.
- Built-in marketing automation: Cultivate your leads and drive conversions by sending offers to your database.
- Place: To view and manage customer accounts and orders, operate your business, and manage content.
7 Sitecore CMS Development Mistakes to Avoid
1. Not putting your business goals first
Many businesses have failed due to a lack of proper planning and direction; Sitecore implementation or development is no different. For example, using Sitecore Experience Accelerator (XA) instead of Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) or Sitecore Experience Manager (XM) can reduce your business growth potential.
Plus, you’ll have an uphill battle to make sure you get all the features you want as quickly as possible. Finding the right Sitecore solution can have a huge impact on your bottom line.
Before starting your Sitecore implementation process, you should consider all current and future business goals, and understand the cost, scope, and benefits of each solution.
2. Building without a plan
Even with a clear plan of what you want, you can damage and destroy your business or content publishers with problems in the future if you do not define everything in the document of Sitecore architecture. This document is essential for explaining and simplifying the complex relationships between your content.
To do this, make sure you have a Sitecore company document that has content configured and uploaded to Sitecore. Identify, document, and map exactly how publishers will build and manage pages, layouts, and resources.
3. Professionals are not included
Who should be involved in the implementation process? Having the wrong set of actors can lead to poor Sitecore development that doesn’t do any business. Creating solutions that meet business and user needs requires input from senior management.
It’s more than just executives, it’s the people who will be using the CMS every day, including those in other countries/regions. From the beginning, you need to find out that engaging the right actors will provide the best information and input to ensure that the project will be successful. And if you plan to manage the website yourself, having good skills in navigation is important, whether it is .NET, JavaScript, or HTML skills.
4. Ignoring content load time or content transfer time
If you think you have to live after building and testing a website, you are probably wrong. Loading content into your new site takes a long time. Normally, you won’t be able to start uploading content until two prerequisites are met:
- Your editors are trained in the new system.
- The development of the model is at least 80% complete and stable.
Once these two criteria are met, the placement of content depends on how many people do it and how much content are used. In addition, you will need to select a new image and restart the content interaction. During this content creation phase, you’ll want to keep changing the HTML.
5. Make difficult and expensive improvements to custom code
Software development is an inevitable part of any software development. They bring the power for change and progress to keep up with the changing world of technology.
Sitecore development tools offers many features, but some customers or companies may still choose to add custom code for a specific feature designed for a different use case. However, the wrong equipment can make it difficult or impossible to upgrade your CMS or website.
This is especially true when your site includes many customized features. With that in mind, you want to make sure that your developers or the Sitecore company aren’t adding custom code to the implementation.
6. Failure to prioritize user testing
The Sitecore implementation or development process can take time, sometimes taking up to 6 months. Implementing a Sitecore project without including enough QA engineers or testers in the development process can be disastrous. You don’t want to wake up to a site one day with performance lags or downtime.
More than that, user acceptance testing, unit testing, and quality assurance helps ensure that bugs and missing features aren’t overlooked. Be sure to keep them in mind when you start your project.
7. Bad word processing
When Sitecore is not configured properly, you will have performance issues that will affect customer experience and ultimately revenue. For example, an issue could be media security that can affect performance, cloud computing that affects scalability, or configuration files that introduce security vulnerabilities.
With Sitecore’s powerful infrastructure, you can dive into hundreds of configuration issues without the help of a Sitecore expert.
Conclusion
Any Sitecore development or implementation project is a time-consuming and expensive undertaking. A poor development process can leave you behind your competitors or take a long time to settle – if that’s possible and you don’t have to start over.
The 7 common mistakes with Sitecore implementations listed in this article are a great starting point too guide your ecommerce journey.
Most of these mistakes are overcome by having a rational and selective process from the end of which CMS works for everyone, writers, translators, administrators, and computer scientists. Start by understanding content management terms, weigh your options, and most importantly, set clear business goals as soon as you can. These will help you determine the requirements for your CMS solution. Success depends on who will use the software daily, and the ability of your organization. And no matter how you structure your business options, these tips will help.
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