Challenge
By the time Sitecore 8.x was released to the market, the business community faced increased challenges in the development and deployment of its Sitecore-based solutions. Current methods were time-consuming and took a lot of resources to implement, sometimes lasting years. The challenge was to partner with an experienced development team that can take all the processes needed for optimization and streamline the functions either by automation or streamlining procedures.
Being implementation experts in Sitecore development, SaM Solutions took the initiative and created its framework to address deployment speed and time to reach peak performance. The creation of this Sitecore accelerator’s sole focus is to speed up the deployment and optimization processes without compromising the quality and results of the solution.
Solution
SaM Solutions was able to quickly assemble a team of experienced Sitecore CMS engineers to develop ways to make onboarding to Sitecore technology easier for Sitecore customers. With multiple years working with Sitecore, the team was able to analyze the best practices used and created a framework for building an accelerator for Sitecore 8.x.
The accelerator integrates a batch set of pre-configured processes. Some areas that have been packaged in this preconfigured setup include a startup development process in Visual Studio and an eCommerce module.
The deployment of this prepackaged framework substitutes the tedious and time-consuming process of the Sitecore 8.x CMS implementation. The Sitecore accelerator solution has been known to save clients upwards of 2 months of deployment time. Some of the key features that allowed this abundant amount of time savings include the following core features:
- Baked in Glass.Mapper ORM for a wide choice of domain design, easy unit testing and significant reduction of development time
- Baked in Bootstrap for highly responsive website design and easy customization
- Integrated Angular framework for streamlined and fast-tracked frontend development
- TDS- and Unicorn-based synchronization of Sitecore updates for improved team integration and reduced deployment time
The batch set of the accelerator’s components and features includes:
- A website template with basic settings and the home page
- The processing of 404 and 500 errors suitable for providing specific redirect pages
- Column containers
- Basic navigation, content management tools and SEO integration (sitemap, robots.txt, pages’ metadata)
The accelerator’s eCommerce module empowers seamless shopping experience by integrating content management capabilities with eCommerce functionality. The module is based on Sitecore Reference Storefront, a startup commerce project.
Toolbox
Success
The Sitecore accelerator project proved to be highly successful for both SaM Solutions and some of its customers. In most cases, the new accelerator package saved them upwards of 2 months of implementation time. It also freed up additional resources to concentrate on other developmental needs. Ultimately, the new Sitecore solution created a higher level of customer satisfaction with an enhancement to the overall customer experience.
