Everything you need to know about Sitecore Experience Platform 9.3
Sitecore Symposium 2019 in Orlando was chock-full of insights and revelations, including the unveiling of Sitecore 9.3, Sitecore AI, Sitecore SaaS and several other features. In this blog post we'll take you through some of these new products, including what to expect in Sitecore 9.3, what's changing, and how to get the most out of the platform.
It's no surprise that Sitecore 9 is already one of the most comprehensive platforms available today, with the ability to craft a personalised commerce experience for your audience, but there are a number of enhancements and features that are coming in the latest version of Sitecore that you should be aware of.
First up, there is a new content editing experience called Horizon. This will improve the way marketers and content editors add and edits pages, view analytical insights, and conduct page previews on different devices. The philosophy behind Horizon is to have everything one click away, making the jobs easier for everyone involved. This enhancement reduces the time it takes content authors to add information, and allows them to simulate a user's experience in a meaningful way.
Other enhancements to Horizon include:
As this is the first iteration of Horizon, there are a number of features that are yet to be implemented, but in the meantime, it provides many major improvements.
The next big announcement that came from Symposium was Sitecore AI. Traditionally, creating and applying personalisation rules was long and tedious work. As customer's preferences are ever-changing, this requires us to be constantly learning and applying new rules based on these insights.
Enter Sitecore AI. This is a brand-new product that identifies visitor trends, creates segments, and automatically manages personalisation rules for you. All you need to do is select the components on your website that you want to auto-personalise, add content (variations) to a component, and let machine learning do the rest. You are even able to combine with existing rules as well. Think of the possibilities!
Another big announcement made at the conference was Sitecore SaaS, the first software-as-a-service model to come from a major CMS such as Sitecore. Set to release in mid-2020, Sitecore SaaS will not be a replacement for its traditional customers who require omnichannel content delivery, deep data analytics and marketing automation. However, it will appeal to the needs of lower mid-market customer looking to build basic websites and get them up and running quickly.
It's important to keep in mind that Sitecore's SaaS offering is an entirely new platform; it is not a progression of the current Sitecore digital experience management platform. As such, it will provide a great foundation for those types of customers who have limited requirements or are looking to test out the platform.
As if this wasn't already enough to get excited about, there is more to come.
Some other updates planned for Sitecore 9.3 include enhancements to Sitecore Forms, allowing editors to publish directly within the forms module. Additionally, it contains increased performance and scalability, noting that critical KPIs could be 4-10x faster than XC 9.1.
It also includes new templates within EXM, allowing marketers to choose between new modernised email templates right out of the box. Sitecore 9.3 will also come with the Sitecore Installation Assistance (SIA), which makes installation faster.
It's easy to see how Sitecore 9.3 has become the platform of choice for so many organisations. With technology that's on the cutting edge of digital, and an offering for everyone, there's no better time to embark on your digital transformation.
Get in touch if you'd like to learn more about what Sitecore can do for your organisation, or if you'd like a partner on your digital transformation journey.
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