Sitecore 8.2 Tuesday, September 13, 2016 By Bryan Archer (CTO) It’s always exciting when a new version of Sitecore arrives because it usually means bigger and better functionality for us marketers. Our CTO, Bryan Archer, has taken some time to point out some of the more substantial changes that could help marketers improve their performance. Let’s start with the experience editor because there have been a number of changes that ultimately result in a more fluent editing experience. Experience Editor Improvements If you’re using the experience editor, check the “Associated content” checkbox. Data-sourced items will be highlighted in a green frame making it easy to differentiate them from the items that live within the page. The toolbar of each component now shows the datasource item's workflow and the number of pages that use the same datasource item. This will save you from overusing the same banner, whilst also pointing out the items which could also be better utilised. If you find the experience editor to be a little slower than you would like, it could be due to the ribbon at the top of the page. Before version 8.2, the ribbon would load everything upon opening the experience editor. Now, we’ve got lazy loading which improves performance by only loading the components you need when you need them. It’s also now possible to see the workflow state of each item within each page, which is great for organisations that have a multiple point approval process in place, and new notifications have also been implemented to prevent authors from publishing broken pages. Analytical Enhancements If you love analytics you’ll love these new features. Experience Analytics now supports historical re-aggregation meaning that any historical data added to the xDB after its initial deployment can be viewed in Experience Analytics. A simple KPI (Key Performance Indicator) chart has been introduced. The chart shows the average or sum for the Visits, Value, and Value per Visit for the selected period. It’s also now possible to visualise data using a combination chart when you select two metrics in Experience Analytics. Marketing funnels are a great new feature. They allow you to define and track specific steps that visitors makes on their website, and visually illustrate the data within a funnel. Essentially, new visitors or prospects enter the funnel based on a specific action, and their subsequent activity dictates their position in the funnel, with the end result being a desired outcome such as a purchase or a form submission. Each step of the funnel displays the visitor traffic drop allowing for a more detailed analysis on potential bottlenecks throughout the marketing process. Other Improvements... The Marketing Control Panel now has a new tab for Rules and Predefined Rules to enable users to see which pages have personalization rules applied, making it easier to manage the content within the page. Besides all of these improvements, there have also been a number of other enhancements which make using the system, as a content editor, more pleasurable. There have also been a host of technical changes brought in, including but not limited to important fixes for version 8.1. Learn more about Sitecore 8.2 Get in touch today to find out more about the Sitecore’s latest features. As a Sitecore Gold partner we offer full system upgrade, comprehensive one-to-one Demos, and Sitecore platform audits.
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