It might across a weird topic, but we have a client who has put the need for .net CMS and has mentioned Sitecore.
Obviously working on Umbraco, we would like to propose Umbraco as prefered CMS.
But we are unsure if all features would be able to be extended.
For example, is it possible to send mailing campaigns who the back-office and tracks customer experience?
Or alternative build a customer intelligent experience via an Umbraco website?
It's true that Umbraco doesn't have "everything" built in. I find that a great relief because I've never wanted "everything".
Instead, Umbraco focuses on being an amazingly competent CMS with a multitude of places to easily extend the functionality of websites and of the CMS itself. Such extensions don't modify the core of Umbraco so they are contained, small, and don't get in the way of upgrading Umbraco.
There are few things I've ever wanted to achieve that someone else hasn't already been done well (or at least started and with code available to refine).
And of course, there's the community itself with its collective wisdom and super-friendly and supportive environment of sharing and caring that you won't find elsewhere.
Oh, and should you find you have come across a need that isn't already catered for in the core or with a community package... what you've saved on license fees for the CMS can become available for development of your custom functionality. You'll get exactly what you want and probably still end up saving money (do share what you've created with others if you can!). I call that a win-win.
And Umbraco has no problem running "enterprise" sites. Just look at some of the nearly 400,000 sites that run Umbraco.
I used to work with sitecore in the past (v6) and can compare some of your requests.
Sending out email campaings is done with the ECM-module for sitecore (this how it was called in the past, name has changed I believe).
This module had an additional license fee on top of the normal sitecore license. Also e-mails were sent using sitecore mail servers where you have to pay a fee for x amount e-mails you sent. But like I said this is old info. So you better off using one of the packages mentioned in this topic or integrate mailchimp or something else.
For personalisation you can use the packages Doug mentioned. PipelineCRM is very extendable.
Just looking at the initial license fee of Sitecore you can do a lot of custom development for that price.
And Sitecore also has a annual recurring license fee which is x% of your initial license fee just to be able to upgrade. So the customer can use that budget for doing additional development on their site.
Taken that into account I would always try to convince the customer to use Umbraco.
A big plus for Umbraco is that it's really easy to extend the backoffice to tailor it for your client needs. That used to be a pain in the *ss with sitecore, and maybe still is.
I've worked with both Sitecore and umbraco - although in sitecore only as an editor.
A few things about sitecore first:
Their mail campaign is not that great. Like in, you know, bad.
You can not adjust the mail templates yourself - like mailchimp
The editing experience is horrible - and it seems very much like a side project they don't care about.
The complete tracking/experience system might be fantastic when you read about it. Fact is though, no one knows really how to get the most out of it. And it is so confusing that you really need to have your agency do all the setup and adjustments.
With that said, it's easy to tell what Sitecore is not good at, they still have the tools. Umbraco don't. I do hear good things about PipelineCRM and Footprint for umbraco, but never used either.
Here is what I would do: I would have a meeting with the client, and simply ask them this:
Let's assume you have these customer experience tools - what would you
want to do with them? What will you track and how much personalisation
would you like.
My experience is, the clients don't know. They just heard about personalisation, and think of it as the new black. When they answer that question it's much easier for you to search for a solution.
Ok, i am not that active more in this great community, but i felt that i should give my opinion . I have a background on Episerver, Sitecore and off course Umbraco. Sitecore sounds like a great product if you look at the specs, almost every "marketing" feature is on board, but my experience is that implementing those features is hard, and often not well documented, not to speak about (performance) bugs. To be honest, i would never choose for sitecore my self, in most cases Umbraco would be a good fit, but in some cases like multi lingual sites, or continuous delivery i would prefer Epi server.
I would also note that i would prefer specific products for specific jobs, and not to use build in tooling, these are never that superior and why to pay for all those features you don't need?
Umbraco v/s Sitecore
Hi there,
It might across a weird topic, but we have a client who has put the need for .net CMS and has mentioned Sitecore.
Obviously working on Umbraco, we would like to propose Umbraco as prefered CMS.
But we are unsure if all features would be able to be extended.
For example, is it possible to send mailing campaigns who the back-office and tracks customer experience? Or alternative build a customer intelligent experience via an Umbraco website?
Any insights would be much appreciated.
Thank you
Ahsinah
Hello Ahsinah
Depending on your needs maybe one of these packages can solve your problem?
Free and basic features https://our.umbraco.org/projects/backoffice-extensions/perplexmail-for-umbraco/
More full-featured but commercial solution https://www.newsletterstudio.org/
/Frederik
Thank you Frederik
I will have a look.
Cheers Ahsinah
It's true that Umbraco doesn't have "everything" built in. I find that a great relief because I've never wanted "everything".
Instead, Umbraco focuses on being an amazingly competent CMS with a multitude of places to easily extend the functionality of websites and of the CMS itself. Such extensions don't modify the core of Umbraco so they are contained, small, and don't get in the way of upgrading Umbraco.
There are few things I've ever wanted to achieve that someone else hasn't already been done well (or at least started and with code available to refine).
Regarding customer experience tracking and guidance, check out https://our.umbraco.org/projects/website-utilities/personalisation-groups/ and https://growcreate.co.uk/services/web-development/pipeline-crm-for-umbraco/
And of course, there's the community itself with its collective wisdom and super-friendly and supportive environment of sharing and caring that you won't find elsewhere.
Oh, and should you find you have come across a need that isn't already catered for in the core or with a community package... what you've saved on license fees for the CMS can become available for development of your custom functionality. You'll get exactly what you want and probably still end up saving money (do share what you've created with others if you can!). I call that a win-win.
And Umbraco has no problem running "enterprise" sites. Just look at some of the nearly 400,000 sites that run Umbraco.
Hope this helps.
cheers,
doug.
Hi Ahsinah,
I used to work with sitecore in the past (v6) and can compare some of your requests.
Sending out email campaings is done with the ECM-module for sitecore (this how it was called in the past, name has changed I believe).
This module had an additional license fee on top of the normal sitecore license. Also e-mails were sent using sitecore mail servers where you have to pay a fee for x amount e-mails you sent. But like I said this is old info. So you better off using one of the packages mentioned in this topic or integrate mailchimp or something else.
For personalisation you can use the packages Doug mentioned. PipelineCRM is very extendable.
Just looking at the initial license fee of Sitecore you can do a lot of custom development for that price.
And Sitecore also has a annual recurring license fee which is x% of your initial license fee just to be able to upgrade. So the customer can use that budget for doing additional development on their site.
Taken that into account I would always try to convince the customer to use Umbraco.
A big plus for Umbraco is that it's really easy to extend the backoffice to tailor it for your client needs. That used to be a pain in the *ss with sitecore, and maybe still is.
Dave
Thank you Doug! Thank you Dave :)
Certainly your insights have been very helpful for building the presentation for the client.
Cheers, Ahsinah
Hi Ahsinah,
I've worked with both Sitecore and umbraco - although in sitecore only as an editor.
A few things about sitecore first:
With that said, it's easy to tell what Sitecore is not good at, they still have the tools. Umbraco don't. I do hear good things about PipelineCRM and Footprint for umbraco, but never used either.
Here is what I would do: I would have a meeting with the client, and simply ask them this:
My experience is, the clients don't know. They just heard about personalisation, and think of it as the new black. When they answer that question it's much easier for you to search for a solution.
Hope this is of any help to you :)
best regards, Brian
Ok, i am not that active more in this great community, but i felt that i should give my opinion . I have a background on Episerver, Sitecore and off course Umbraco. Sitecore sounds like a great product if you look at the specs, almost every "marketing" feature is on board, but my experience is that implementing those features is hard, and often not well documented, not to speak about (performance) bugs. To be honest, i would never choose for sitecore my self, in most cases Umbraco would be a good fit, but in some cases like multi lingual sites, or continuous delivery i would prefer Epi server.
I would also note that i would prefer specific products for specific jobs, and not to use build in tooling, these are never that superior and why to pay for all those features you don't need?
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