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Everything You Need to Know About Evaluating a Sitecore Partner

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Mar 16 2021

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So, you have decided to go with Sitecore, the all-in-one digital experience platform! You have taken the very first step to elevating your company's digital presence with powerful CMS that is constantly evolving to deliver impeccable customer experience. Now the next step is to find a Sitecore partner for the strategy and implementation. This may be one of the biggest commitments to your brand's Sitecore journey, it is crucial to do in-depth research to evaluate your potential Sitecore partner.

Evaluating a Sitecore Development Partner

Customer Experience Has Changed - But Has Your Sitecore Partner?

Today's increasingly complicated business environment means having the right partner to help you deliver the best possible digital experience. Having the right Sitecore partner can save you time, expenses, and effort. There are several partners available for Sitecore implementations, so this can be quite overwhelming to evaluate and choose the right one.

In today's blog post, we will share a simple guide consisting of the most important factors to consider while evaluating your potential Sitecore implementation partner.

Are They Known as a Sitecore Certified Implementation Partner?

In general, clients tend to specify Sitecore because they are already using it across the company and they know their expectations from the platform. Now a partner can help in meetings and hopefully exceed those expectations. Sitecore is extremely robust and sometimes complex. Inexperienced developers can’t always grasp it quickly.

For instance, a company could be hosting several of their sites on a single implementation, translated into different languages, and showcasing a myriad of products or services. There are a host of factors to be considered in terms of scalability, architecture, implementation, strategy, or orchestration.Companies need to find a Sitecore partner who can master it quickly, especially if they want to have more winning projects.

You should consider partnering with firms that cater to Sitecore and have finished an extensive number of impressive implementations. To understand the true nature of your prospective Sitecore partner, ask them questions like these -

  • How many years of Sitecore expertise do they have?

  • What services do they offer? For example - do they have experience in migration, re-platforming, custom development, and Sitecore integration?

  • What does the quality control processes look like? What type of protocols do they follow?

  • How much of their time and effort is spent doing Sitecore related work?

  • What kind of documentation will be done to ensure the efficiency of the work?

Pro Tip: Agency size doesn't matter. It is about having the right kind of Sitecore specialists who are super focused on ensuring the success of your organization.

Is Your Sitecore Partner Flexible and Collaborative?

This is where reviews can come in handy. A good review would be more than "the team was great". If a client truly valued their relationship with a Sitecore partner, they would speak about it in-depth while describing the end result. Brands look for compatibility and alignment in a partner who shares the same values as the brand. Dig a little deeper into the reviews in reputed websites like Clutch.co to compare the partners closely. Get to know if they are on the Sitecore partner list on Clutch.

Here are other important factors to consider:

  • Reviews (Both quantity and quality) - you want the partner to have good, quality reviews. You want a partner who has demonstrated an outstanding level of commitment by solving critical business challenges. Know more about their Sitecore awards and recognition for their performance and service.

  • Framework and CMS - Get to know if Sitecore is their sole focus or do they work with Ruby on Rails or Drupal as well? You require a team that is highly focused on Sitecore.

  • Leaders Matrix - Focus on partners in the Market Leaders quadrants to make sure your project doesn’t end up being anybody's sample case.

  • Service Focus - Make sure the partner firm has a service mindset when it comes to Sitecore web development - you want nothing less than that.

Pro Tip: Make sure to choose a partner that works exclusively with Sitecore. Look for the Sitecore partner level as well to get an idea about their professional services.

Do They Provide Unparalleled Attention to Detail?

The importance of "attention to detail" is significant for delivering incredible user experience. A seasoned Sitecore partner will ensure the end product functions exactly how you wanted and will test constantly to make sure the product is performing as expected. An ideal Sitecore partner agency should provide ongoing support and optimization. They would also counsel or advise your team if there is something that could create critical issues in the implementation and course-correct it in the best possible way.

Pro Tip: It is also a good idea to request a sample of an introductory design comp for the final website. Now you can see how "perfect" this potential partner can be.

Find a Sitecore Partner

It can be daunting to find a Sitecore partner. To achieve a high-performing digital product, it is crucial to ensure the partner has the right capabilities and a supporting structure. Icreon is a Silver Sitecore Certified Solutions Partner. Since 2017, we have been commended by Clutch amongst the top Sitecore Partners and Developers. We maximize Sitecore’s personalization capabilities to establish a 1:1 contextual experience that drives powerful actions across every customer touchpoint. Please connect here to discuss more of our services.