Something new on the Horizon - Sitecore 9.1

The latest version of Sitecore – Sitecore 9.1 – has been unveiled and includes a number of new features and enhancements. 

Among the highlights is the early access availability of a new user interface called Horizon, which was first spoken about at the company’s 2017 Symposium. Horizon is the result of an overhaul of Sitecore’s back-end and an upgrading of its authoring experience. It promises to be a truly intelligent tool and transform the way marketers can create and design pages – offering drag and drop functions and analytics.

The 9.1 version also offers the general availability of Sitecore JavaScript Services (JSS) which, according to Sitecore means you can now support a marketer’s need to collect interaction data or personalise the experience. In simple terms, you can create content once and use it everywhere. JSS lets developers build solutions using Sitecore and JavaScript and they can therefore deploy to any platform in a headless configuration.

This roll-out also includes enhancements to Sitecore Experience Analytics and to the features in the machine learning capabilities in Sitecore Cortex. Sitecore Experience Analytics enable marketers to track traditional web metrics - visits, journey patterns, downloads, conversions and keywords etc - but with the added advantage of precisely discovering results for each digital channel and effort. Updates to Sitecore Cortex will utilise machine learning to further improve automated personalisation and segment discovery. 

The 9.1 version also has benefits in terms of performance with a promise that the application will fire up quicker than before. In addition, there are search improvements, Helix enhancements and upgrades to item inheritance and content delivery. 

Sitecore Accelerator Framework (SxA) has also been updated to include more accessibility features including large clickable actions for people with motor disabilities and components which can be configured for people with disabilities. 

All in all, Sitecore 9.1 will enable marketers to increasingly deliver a personalised customer experience more easily and to share content more quickly. 

If you want to find out how the new features of Sitecore 9.1 can benefit your business, give us a call today. 

Article Details

Ian Jepp
09 January 2019