Sitecore has been a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management (WCM) and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for a decade. In many ways, Sitecore is like many other content management systems in the space, delivering similar features and functionality. But there are a few reasons the platform is so celebrated by Gartner, and why so many health care systems are selecting it to support their digital transformation efforts.
5 reasons health systems select Sitecore
When it comes to CMS platforms in healthcare there’s a lot to choose from. Each comes with a list of different pros and cons, especially for health systems. To avoid confusion, it’s important to remember why you are embarking upon the process of selecting a new content management system.
For many health systems, digital transformation and digital front door initiatives are the motivation behind rethinking their digital technology. These strategies focus on creating opportunities across channels — including web, mobile, call center, chat, and more – to connect patients with appointments and services. They rely on data-driven decision-making that is centered around a unified view of each consumer in order to make more intelligent decisions that connect both marketing and clinical operations.
With that in mind, here are the top five reasons healthcare organizations are picking Sitecore Experience Platform™ (XP) to help move their digital strategies forward:
#1: Personalization
Marketing is all about creating emotional connections, so it’s no surprise the idea of creating more personalized digital experiences is appealing. In fact, personalization can be a critical part of creating a user experience that truly coveys the personal, local care that patients can expect. It’s become a necessity for the streamlined navigation of complex health systems with hundreds of care locations. All of this is a key part of why Sitecore is a popular option.
Sitecore XP offers multiple approaches to tailoring the user experience on your site. Rules-based personalization can use a wide variety of available data about each visitor to make decisions about how different elements throughout your site should respond — showing, hiding, swapping, or customizing information as desired. Additionally, Sitecore XP can take some of the manual aspects of personalization and automate it, integrating customer data, analytics, AI, and marketing automation capabilities into the CMS.
For most health systems, the idea of personalization is intriguing, but few have the on-team resources to really invest in it. In fact, Geonetric’s recent 2020 Healthcare Digital Marketing Survey results showed just 21% of respondents were using a personalization strategy on the web. Of those who use it, only 25% agree or strongly agree that personalization has improved their digital marketing. It’s important to realize that personalization can quickly create an exponential demand for new content and creative assets. If personalization is important to your strategy, it’s critical to find a partner that can help to create a plan that improves the user experience, aligns with business goals, and is sustainable for your team.
#2: Content flexibility
Creating and maintaining a cohesive online user experience with the help of multiple content authors and editors can be a challenge. Efficiently reusing and repurposing content is critical to making the most of your content development efforts. The solution to both of these challenges is structured content. Rather than open-ended web pages or “blobs” of text, a structured content approach defines reusable content types with discrete “chunks” or fields that create consistency and can allow for some or all of each content item to be reused in multiple ways and across multiple channels.
Sitecore XP supports the creation of custom content types (data templates) that can help ensure consistency, promote reuse, simplify governance, and drive a user-friendly experience. The platform’s approach is forward-thinking in separating content items from the legacy of web pages, supports a robust taxonomy structure, and fits with a variety of search solutions to ensure your content gets found. It’s a fantastic set of building blocks that, combined with content strategy expertise, can be used to enable your team to create and manage content efficiently and effectively.
#3: Digital asset management
When you think about all of your digital assets – photos, graphics, videos, and more — keeping everything organized and up-to-date is a chore. Especially for health systems with numerous care locations and publishing to multiple marketing channels. That’s where Digital Asset Management (DAM) software comes in. DAM software stores all of your assets in one place and allows you to categorize them for easy search and retrieval. You can upload, edit, or delete in batches and share links.
But, that’s just the start. Going a step beyond basic DAM systems, Sitecore Content Hub is an integrated add-on that allows you to plan and execute content marketing efforts, as well as managing a broad range of marketing operations, reviews, approvals, and projects. Altogether, this creates a platform that keeps your marketing team moving quickly, creating and publishing high-quality digital content.
#4: Mature, enterprise-level features
Large, complex organizations tend to have large, complex needs when it comes to managing their web presences. Features like extensive, detailed user rights and flexible management workflows enable organizations to distribute authorship and management of sites to many contributors from across the enterprise. With an increased number of users single sign-on options can help make user management simple and consistent with your other enterprise systems.
On the delivery side, you need a web platform that supports high-performing, rapidly scalable hosting approaches to ensure a snappy, seamless user experience. Sitecore XP supports multiple approaches to scaling your web management architecture – from splitting web application roles across servers to adding load balancing to better handle surges in traffic.
#5: Microsoft .NET ecosystem
Since many healthcare systems already use Microsoft widely, .NET makes sense from an operational and resourcing standpoint. The .NET framework, along with Microsoft Azure, offers enhanced security and safeguards.
Sitecore XP is built and runs on .NET. By selecting a platform that relies on this well-known, stable framework healthcare organizations can build on their current technical capabilities and create consistency across their selected technologies.
Sitecore brings a lot to the table – but it doesn’t come with strategy
When evaluating all web content management systems and DXPs, there are tradeoffs between what the platform can do and what your team can manage.
To make the most of Sitecore XP and the depth of the functionality it offers often requires a strategic digital partner to come alongside the development and implementation. From developing the personas, journey maps/digital relevancy maps and structured content that make personalized experiences run to creating site content that follows the patient journey for top services, finding a partner who gets healthcare makes a big difference.
If you’d like help deciding if Sitecore is right for your organization, or have already decided on Sitecore and are looking for an agency with healthcare experience to ensure you’re making the most out of your platform, contact us.
