sitecoreSitecore®, the global leader in customer experience management, announced recently Sitecore 8, the next version of its flagship Sitecore® Experience Platform™.

Sitecore 8 simplifies marketing by collecting and connecting data across channels, providing organizations with real-time access to a 360 degree view of every customer that interacts with their brand. The single platform tests and optimizes experience interactions, integrates with other customer-facing platforms and provides easy-to-digest reports.

“Marketers are spending too much time manually collecting data through a variety of disparate tools, resulting in an incomplete view of their customers”, said Michael Seifert, CEO at Sitecore. “With Sitecore 8 we have eliminated this complexity. Our platform provides marketers with an all-inclusive solution that allows them to spend more time on the art of marketing rather than juggling data sources and tools. This might be the world’s first practical big data solution for marketers.”

Sitecore 8 is designed to empower organizations to own the experience of every individual that interacts with their brand, across all channels.

Product features include:

  • Pervasive Optimization: Automatically tests all online changes and allows marketers and content authors to roll back any change that degrades overall performance.
  • Experience Profile: Provides a single view of all customers, available for real time personalization, analytics and segmentation. From customer service to sales to in-store interactions, Sitecore collects data about the whole customer experience, wherever it happens. This includes data from other customer-facing platforms, such as ERP, CRM and customer service, and non-Sitecore websites.
  • Big Data Analytics: Improved analytics based on the single view of the customer and reporting provide the critical information needed to inform actions, right at the point of decision. Beyond reporting on past behavior, Sitecore analytics provide insight on what’s happening right now and what’s likely to happen in the future.
  • Audience Segmentation: Allows dynamic segmentation of audiences based on demographics and any other information from the Experience Profile. Segments are directly usable with Sitecore’s automation and email marketing capabilities.

“In coming years, having a holistic approach to integrating customer data into customer acquisition strategies will be as important as product capabilities and competitive pricing as key competitive differentiators. Companies that succeed will be those that efficiently collect, connect and utilize customer data to create truly personalized experiences,” Matt Mullen, Senior Analyst, 451 Research believes. “Closing the gap from insights to action will be key to in beginning to deliver on the true promise of digital marketing”, he added.

Sitecore 8 will be available to the public by the end of 2014.

For more information, please download the white Paper: Sitecore 8: Simplifying the Extraordinary