Sitefinity 13.3 Is Here to Stay and Here’s Why It’s a Must-See

If a picture is worth a thousand words, are a couple of links worth half a picture? Close enough for me but you would know better. I mean, you must have already seen the what’s new page and the release notes.

What they don’t quite tell you, though, is what makes Sitefinity 13.3 special. Apparently, a point-three release is rare enough on its own. You’ll need to rewind to version 7 for the latest example and go all the way back to version 5 for a point-four.

Back to present time, the unique thing about Sitefinity 13.3 is the LTS designation. A first for the platform, this Long-Term Support release gives customers a superior level of stability, with our commitment to a period of maintenance of at least four years.

There is, of course, more to Sitefinity 13.3 with new features and capabilities that marketers, developers and admins alike will certainly appreciate. Coming right up.

Digital Transformation: Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Wins

So, Sitefinity 13.3 breaks what used to be a rather predictable release cycle. Ironically fitting—it seems—at a time when predictability is in rather short supply. Disruption at its best when few are safe against disruption.

It is a rapidly changing technology landscape we operate in, with dramatically shifting consumer behavior in a digital environment that’s quite dynamic, to put it mildly. Businesses increasingly rely on digital, as they’re forced to extend in-person processes online. Customer expectations are at an all-time high for personalized, omnichannel, always-on experiences.

How do we know that? At the turn of 2020, Progress asked a hundred digital experience, marketing and IT executives about the top three digital challenges their organizations are seeking to solve in 2021. Here’s what they listed as their priority objectives:

• Providing a differentiated customer experience
• Delivering more innovative products and services
• Reducing costs and improving process and employee efficiency

At the same time, these are the major technical obstacles they need to overcome as they try to achieve their goals:

• Limited IT resources
• Lack of in-house strategic expertise
• Project complexity requires phased implementation of a long-term roadmap

Within the new business environment, organizations across the globe plan to prioritize digital transformation. They look for strategic direction and planning to overcome major challenges involving multiexperience, integration, customization and scalability.

The Right Fit Experience Platform

To respond to the market challenges and to pursue success through digital, there are some critical capabilities to look for in an experience management platform.

1. Stable and reliable technology to support long-term business requirements and strategy, and a platform that is built to boost performance and bolster security
2. Superior ease of use for marketers to improve efficiency and time to market, while delivering differentiated, omnichannel customer experiences
3. Rich set of developer tools to streamline custom development requests and eliminate maintenance related tasks, while creating applications and experiences that work seamlessly on multiple platforms and devices
4. Advanced analytics, personalization and optimization features to collect insights on customer profiles, improve marketing programs, and address specific customer needs with tailored content
5. Connected and extensible platform: cloud-based, integration-ready and future-proof

So, as projects inevitably grow in complexity, IT folks would be keen on adopting a long-term supported, stable solution that offers rich customization and integration options, alongside superb development tools. Marketers, on the other hand, would welcome the new content UI and advanced digital marketing capabilities in Sitefinity Insight.

One of the great things about Sitefinity 13.3 is that it completes the series of 13.x releases to deliver a full set of feature upgrades and enhanced capabilities. And because it’s an LTS version, it means you’re getting the best of the platform so far, at near zero risk. Here goes the full rundown.

Sitefinity 13.3: What’s New

Long-Term Support (LTS)

Guaranteed stability, reliability, performance, security and version support from Progress for at least four years. With the series of 13.x releases, we’ve made significant enhancements to the Sitefinity digital experience platform. The new Content UI is now complete, spanning page management, content editing, taxonomy and digital asset management.

Our goal with 13.3 was to make the release as stable and reliable as possible to entice adopters to take advantage of these latest enhancements, wrapped into a mature, stable, long-term supported package.

Shared Content Blocks Complete the New UI

The introduction of the new shared content UI completes an entirely new and intuitive backend interface for page management, content editing, content classifications and digital asset management (images, videos, documents and files). In other words, a host of advanced features and capabilities that have been designed and perfected to help content creators be highly productive and flexible, without over-relying on IT.

The ability to centrally manage reusable content is a key part of that flexible toolset. Shared Content blocks don’t just save time and effort—they put you in control of the visitor journey and overall experience you deliver to customers. Customize content to serve different purposes while sending out a cohesive and consistent message—whether you manage a single website or deliver content through multiple channels.

Enhanced Scheduled Task Management

The centralized management of scheduled tasks builds upon several other capabilities and benefits for IT released previously, including automated upgrades in 13.1 and the custom widget designers in 13.2. Gain visibility into the progress of all scheduled tasks, including what’s pending and what has failed.

Manage tasks in one comprehensive view that allows you to delete tasks, restart failed tasks and start a pending task. Automatically detect and restart a task that has been halted due to an application recycle or system shutdown. Ensure key tasks such as search index are resumable and progress is trackable. Manage scheduled task assignment to NLB servers with a specific configuration.

Enhanced Reporting UI and Advanced Scoring Rules in Sitefinity Insight

More accurately identify highly engaged prospects that are most likely to convert with advanced scoring based on content classification and negative rules—all presented in an enhanced reporting UI.

Extended multisite management capabilities

The extended Multisite Management capabilities now allow more granular permissions and more precise control of access to site assets and backend functionality. Configure separate user groups and their permissions settings for each site to improve user access management. This configuration enhancement supplements the multisite efficiency and stability enhancements delivered in 13.1.

Wrap-up

Long story short, this is the best Sitefinity version yet but that’s hardly breaking news. I mean, we’ve all come to expect exciting new features from every release.

Long term support is the headline-grabber here, as Sitefinity 13.3 lets you protect your investment in uninterrupted, future-proof digital experience management. But the rest of the new additions are more than sensible as well. They round off a great feature set to meet growing business demands and deliver compelling and immersive experiences to customers.

If you’re considering an upgrade, proceed with confidence. Here’s all you need to know about Sitefinity upgrades. If you’re new to Sitefinity, you’re most welcome to download your free trial. Get a head start for the long run.

Try Sitefinity 13.3