Practical Sitecore 8 Configuration and Strategy (eBook)

Phil Wicklund is a regional practice manager (responsible for the Sitecore team) at RBA, Inc. He provides managerial, operational, and profit/loss oversight across RBA's portals, business intelligence, enterprise social, collaboration, and managed services teams within RBA's North region. Phil started working in IT in 2003 and has since designed and deployed many dozens of large-scale enterprise solutions, including many for Fortune 50 companies.  As a regional practice manager he owns the profit/loss for his practice which has him performing many activities beyond a typical technologist, such as ownership of a great employee experience, ensuring unparalleled customer satisfaction, opportunity tracking/planning in CRM, pre-sales solution alignment with customers, account strategies, go-to market strategies, marketing/promotion strategies, and fiscal budgetary responsibilities. Phil is currently in his 2nd year of Doctoral studies at the University of St. Thomas. He works to extend his studies in technology and business by deepening his understanding of Organizational Leadership, working toward a dissertation that combines the three disciplines. He hopes to graduate in late 2016 or spring of 2017.

Chapter 1: Administering content in SitecoreGoal: This chapter provides a foundational understand of Sitecore to the reader. It focuses on core item/content management technical and best practices. Additionally, this chapter will help the reader understand how and when to work with a developer for more advanced customizations. Lastly, the chapter will introduce the reader to the example site/project used throughout the book. A highly customized site will be developed over the course of the book to serve as a real world backdrop to what the user is learning.What is Sitecore?High-level architectureWhen do you need a developer?Content editing toolsBasic content editingAdvanced content administrationManaging rich mediaContent publishing and workflowWorking with layoutsLocalization and translationWorking with developers for advanced customizationsChapter 2: Using SPEAK for rapid site developmentGoal: SPEAK is a Sitecore module that allows for rapid site development through a suite of out-of-the-box layouts and components. This chapter walks the reader through the process and best practices for using this module.Overview of SPEAKWhen to use SPEAK, and when NOT toSPEAK layoutsSPEAK componentsBuilding a SPEAK site from scratchChapter 3: Web forms for marketersGoal: Web Forms for Marketers is a great module within Sitecore that allows non-technical users an easy and flexible way to create web forms out-of-the-box they can publish to their web site for marketing campaigns, etc. This chapter walks the reader through the process and best practices for using this module.Hello World web formActionsValidationLocalization and translationPublishing a web form from scratchChapter 4: Experience optimization, user profiling, and personalizationGoal: This is a core chapter in the book. This chapter helps the reader understand strategies for, and how to create personalized experiences on their web site based on user behavior, user profile data, and other optimization techniques such as A/B testing.Content profilingContent A/B testingConfiguring personalizationCustomizing the experience profileUsing explore mode for user simulationCreating engagement plansExperience optimization testingChapter 5: Marketing campaign managementGoal: This chapter walks the reader though campaign management within Sitecore, as well as guidance on how to use the email and print experience manager modules.Working with campaignsWorking with channelsEmail experience managerPrint experience managerChapter 6: Site SearchGoal: This chapter discusses how to configure site search and best practices around UX and faceted search. It also covers how to tie into external data sources to create a federated experience.Search architectureSearch UX configurationConfiguring advanced search and facetsSearch federation with external sourcesChapter 7: Search Engine OptimizationGoal: SEO is a significant concern to most readers and marketers. While not directly a Sitecore concern, it is very complimentary to this book and will be a welcome addition for readers who need a primer on SEO and any configuration implications for Sitecore.Content strategy and information architectureMedia strategyKeyword strategyURL strategySEO and a great user experienceGaining authorityMultichannel optimizationGoogle webmaster toolsChapter 8: Analytics and reportingGoal: This chapter discusses the analytics capabilities within Sitecore. However, it also walks the reader through an example measurement strategy case to help apply the concepts in a "real" scenario. The chapter concludes by applying that example into external sites with the federated experience manager.Sitecore analytics and reporting overviewCreating a measurement strategyConfiguring analytics for your measurement planUsing the federated experience managerChapter 9: Sitecore ArchitectureGoal: This chapter marks the demarcation where things start to get more technical by providing an overview of Sitecore’s technical architecture. It begins by helping the reader plan their installation, such as capacity planning and hosting/cloud considerations. It wraps with a discussion on code release best practices, and finally performance tuning considerations.Architecture overview and optionsxDBCapacity and high availability planningInstalling SitecoreCode deployment and release planningPerformance tuningChapter 10: SecurityGoal: This chapter begins with a rather docile discussion around user and role management, however it goes deep pretty quick by discussing identity federation and best practices for security hardening.User and role administrationIdentity federation and social connectHardening strategiesChapter 11: E-commerce with InsiteGoal: Many web sites are also commerce sites and this chapter helps the reader understand e-commerce integration options with Sitecore. In particular, the chapter does a deep d="" insite,="" a="" popular="" 3rd="" party="" sitecore="" partner="" providing="" e-commerce="" capabilities.Insite architecture overviewWorking with the Sitecore connectorManaging products and personalizationProduct searchCheckoutAnalyticsERP and CRM integration