The Challenges Of Building A Sitecore Digital Marketing Platform
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The Challenges Of Building A Sitecore Digital Marketing Platform
- 1. The Challenges Of Building A Sitecore Digital Marketing Platform. Sitecore Partner Pulse Live 5th December 2013
- 2. About me
- 5. Building Sitecore solutions The IT/Marketing Gap Introducing CMS into an already digital solution Organizational Maturity Business Critical Content in Sitecore Strategy vs. Operations Multi-Site vs. Multi-Solution Multiple Implementation Partner Strategy
- 10. The IT/Marketing Gap Introducing CMS into an already digital solution
- 11. The IT/Marketing Gap Introducing CMS into an already digital solution
- 15. Organizational Maturity Business Critical Content in Sitecore
- 19. Strategy vs. Operations Multi-Site vs. Multi-Solution
- 20. Strategy vs. Operations Multi-Site vs. Multi-Solution
- 21. Strategy vs. Operations Multi-Site vs. Multi-Solution
- 22. Strategy vs. Operations Multiple Implementation Partner Strategy
- 23. Strategy vs. Operations Multiple Implementation Partner Strategy
- 24. Strategy vs. Operations Multiple Implementation Partner Strategy
- 25. Conclusion
- 26. Conclusion
- 27. Summary The IT/Marketing Gap Introducing CMS into an already digital solution Organizational Maturity Business Critical Content in Sitecore Strategy vs. Operations Multi-Site vs. Multi-Solution Multiple Implementation Partner Strategy
- 28. Thanks for listening Thomas Eldblom CTO, Pentia A/S te@pentia.dk @teldblom
Editor's Notes
- About me CTO for Pentia Based in CPH 60 people only doing Sitecore First Sitecore partner in the world 2-300 Sitecore implementations – from version 3 to 7. Some not so successfull Certified Sitecore Developer since 2002 MVP since 2005 Architect and advisor for clients worldwide Thank Anthony and Sitecore UK for inviting About the talk: Non-technical talk No code Not much Sitecore Address something even more important: The people involved in the process
- Moving fast for Sitecore. Moved from the mid-market to enterprise. Digital Marketing or Content Management moved low priority to business critical. When building enterprise Sitecore solutions we do the same as before. The atomic units are the same. What has changed is the scaling - # of business requirements - # of goals - Size of the organization - Size of the technical solution - # of channels. - # of Target groups. Point: Not how we build the system, its what we plan for in the proces
- Point: We have to plan for the future, because as dimensions scale, the challenges we face becomes more apparent.
- These are the challenges I will touch on today. I’m sure you can relate to most if not all of them.
- Common for all these challenges are: All relates to the governance process. The competencies involved in the proces The way we corporate The way we understand each other Sitecore has a new strategy: Customer for Life. We need to tackle even the organizational and political challanges to succeed with this. First challenge:
- Communiction across competencies. Technologist joke about - Hot air - “business needs” - Requirements are all over the place - They never know what they want Marketing joke about: - Nerds down in IT - Got their priorities mixed up - Focus on tech not business - Showstoppers We all know that success requires cooperation between marketing and IT. Marketing guys understand technology Techies understand business. Point: But there is a challenge getting there. We still have a lot of work with cultural understanding, setting up communication lines and integration. And this goes both ways!
- Different approach to projects and operations: Typically, IT systems are built, and then the resources are moved to other competencies. - Focus on long term business needs - Build the system -> support With marketing, change never stops. - Focus on short term business needs - Support change wherever. - Flexibility Budgets are separate Resources are separate.
- Different Cultures Case: One of the largest Danish commerce sites. Suggested Front end dev in marketing division Fought both from IT manager and from the technologies himself. In IT devs are gods, in marketing they are in the bottom. Point: We need to be able to understand each better to succeed
- Present challenge Two cases: Case: Major worldwide entertainment provider. Thousands of visitors business critical website. Massive development organization. IT owned the solution. Marketing’s hands ties. Decision to implement CMS to give Marketing power. Solution from IT: Implement secondary pages – the help section. Result: Failure to implement CMS.
- Case: European commerce site. Thousands of visitors Business critical website. Business driven organization. Business own the platform. Decision to empower the marketing division fast. Solution from Marketing: Implement front-page! Result: Success to implement CMS. Point: What is most important: flexibility or stability. We need to agree before starting the process!
- Big platform - small organization to support it. No apparent governance model or little or no awareness about the competencies involved. Point: A marketing platform is not a platform which is deployed and run. It is a platform under constant development and optimization. All competencies must understand this to succeed. Case: Working with a non-digital client in Denmark. Marketing/IT far from each other. CMS and DMS is an IT purchase - ambitious. Marketing division not ready – no concept of engagement value. IT organization is a hosting organization - not ready for a flexible marketing platform. Much work to be done – not technically but on the governance model.
- Great “Customer Experience Maturity Model”. Only centered around the business part of the governance circle. Must have all the competencies involved and assessed. We need to be equally mature in all levels. …and building and running a digital platform requires a lot of skills and competencies
- Explain model Point: A Sitecore CEP platform is a platform under constant development. Where all competencies are constantly being used, and where all competencies are equally responsible for the success. Case: Non-digital company with a clear strategy of moving to digital - and have a long term vision. Started with: - Marketing campaign - Pilot sign-up - Nation-wide launch Each step closely monitored, analyzed and optimized. Pragmatic and one step at a time Seems like the perfect DMS project and client. Problem: Change request to the shopping basket flow. “I just spent a week building what you want!”. Point: Maturity is about the full circle of competencies. We are often focused on marketing being immature in using the platform. IT needs to be mature too. We need all the involved competencies on board, we also need to get them in line with the strategy.
- Critical content in marketing systems or CMS’s are often challenged or misunderstood. Case: International b2b client Large and very complex product catalogue. Present in 20 countries Made a very substantial investment in Sitecore. Global corporate site, portals, consumer sites, apps and more all fed with content from Sitecore. Implement a b2b webshop, opting for a Microsoft AX/Sharepoint solution. In the very short run, good idea But make the client aware of the features they are missing out on by choosing this solution. Using DMS they will miss out on a whole part of the buying cycle. Point: I often meet a fear of integrating business critical functionality into a CMS. “Hey this is just a CMS, not a real database”. Fear of loading Sitecore with too much data – or even to vital data. We have to be true to and believe in the platform They have bought a Digital Marketing Platform, not an editing tool or WCMS. Joachim: Email integration with CRM. CRM synchronization only each month. Too business critical for CMS.
- Taken a strategic decision to run Sitecore. Made because it will optimize their business. The investment makes sense if a number of sites or functions will be built within the platform. Success is the adaptation of the platform. The challenge is that typically not all parts of the organization do. Point: We need to help the client focus on their strategy by helping them build the fitting governance model – whether it supports strong central control or power to autonomous divisions.
- Case: Largest municipalities in Denmark. A lot of autonomy in public sector. Before: The CMS landscape consisted of a number of different system Strategic decision to centralize the websites – service for the citizens save money Local motivation was to save money – and so they moved to the new platform. Exceptions: Local management - special needs People with ambitions beyond platform’s capabilities. Strong central management Change-requests have to be filtered through a central governing body. The platform is relatively each to support and maintain Success for low cost strategy. Point: It is easy to tell all clients that they need a strong centralized governance model when implementing a marketing platform. But this is not always a guarantee for success.
- It is often the case that local competencies are present and strong, and in our experience adaptation is difficult is typically: - Local requirements are not met - Local competencies are overheard Case: Danish companies with US offices. US offices always knows best Always have different requirements Always wants to build their own Reason: - Size of market = many resources They have already built their governance model. And if the local competencies are not respected or overheard, they will feel threatened and will fight against the strategic platform. Point: Be aware of whether you are building a platform requiring a strong centralized governance model or a platform which can incorporate local competencies. Both is possible – but requires very different governance models.
- Many sites in one solution or many Sitecore solutions for one client Common solution = the multi-site solution There are numerous reasons why this is a good idea: - Functionality sharing - Content sharing - Single system to maintain And the most common: licensing issues. Point: No technical reason for one or the other. What to factor in when deciding is the working governance model and client maturity
- Case: Worldwide enterprise company Many isolated brands with different target groups and product ranges Each brand had their own marketing division. Strategic decision to build one single digital platform for all brands Multi site solution Primarily a cost and licensing issue. After a while, requirements started moving all over the place Rapid developed marketing sites. b2b partner portals. immediate response in all parts of the world. Failure! They built a platform requiring a strong centralized governance model – but the business did not have one. Point: The architectural (of cost-wise) decision hinder the brands room for maneuvering = hinder business optimization.
- Case: Umbrella organization. Started on a Sitecore Foundry solution. Autonomous organizations forced inappropriate changes (Client lacked enough power to withstand). Switched to a multi-solution setup Offering base website to the different autonomous organizations. Partly a success but failed miserably in other areas (governance). Just exposed the client’s lacking governance model (technical responsibility). Same amount of technical challenges in both, merely different architectural/governance needs Point: Multi site: Needs a strong central governance model Strong internal architecture Withstand feature pressure Multi-solution: Strong IT governance Strong branching/release architecture – withstand quick-and-dirty solutions. We need to understand the clients competencies before strategy.
- Case: Trusted advisor to a global company based in South-East Asia Marketing and sales offices all over the world Strategy is to have a clear multiple-implementation partner strategy. Local partners: Servicing the local offices. Local market and domain knowledge Centrally appointed partner Solution architecture Limits and possibilities for the other partners. Point: no technical reason We can help the client achieve success if we provide the governance model and it the clients understands the responsibilities involved.
- Clients who did the same for other reasons – some for negotiation reasons. Case: Sales meeting with three other Sitecore partners. Divide the work between us – no desire to run the interaction between partners. The client though. best prices best solution – more competencies We got out as fast as we could
- Having multiple technical teams working on the same platform can succeed. Strong control organization. Make the client aware of their own responsibility Hire a QA responsible partner. Clear and flexible architecture If the architecture is not apparent = smells and the solution will start to rot. Strong IT governance: Release mgt QA No practical excuse, build the right governance model, maturity of the people and organization involved.
- Building Digital Marketing systems is not about building the system – it’s about building for the people and business who are going to use and develop it.
- Building the governance model is even more vital than building the platform. As partners we needs to understand that most challenges are often related to governance or organization. We need to help bridge the gap between marketing and IT or between competencies. Point: If we do not mature all competencies and make them collaborate, we will at most build mediocre digital platforms. But if we succeed with the governance model, we will build better business-optimizing, award-winning solutions for our clients – and help them and us to make customer for life