Sitecore Advantage: Closing the gap between features and value

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During the Sitecore Symposium keynote in Orlando, most attention naturally went to MarketingIQ, AI agents, and the new capabilities Sitecore is bringing to its platform. But towards the end of the session, another announcement caught my attention: Sitecore Advantage, a new approach to helping customers get more value from their Sitecore investment.

It might not be as exciting as a new product launch, but I think it addresses a challenge that many customers and implementation partners will recognise. Delivering new capabilities is one thing. Making sure customers actually benefit from them is something else entirely.

Keeping up with an evolving platform

One of the challenges with modern SaaS platforms is the pace at which they evolve. A customer implements a solution, gets everything running and moves on to other priorities. Meanwhile, Sitecore continues introducing improvements, new capabilities and increasingly sophisticated AI functionality.

During the keynote, Sitecore shared some impressive adoption figures, including more than a thousand agents built by customers and partners since the introduction of Agentic Studio. At the same time, it acknowledged that adoption differs significantly between customers. Some are already making extensive use of the new capabilities, while others are still figuring out where to begin.

I recognise that challenge. Even when you're working with Sitecore every day, keeping track of everything that becomes available takes time. For customers, whose primary focus is running their business rather than following every product release, that challenge is even greater.

This is where Sitecore Advantage comes in.

Bringing Sitecore closer to the customer

With Sitecore Advantage, Sitecore wants to take a more proactive role in helping customers identify opportunities to improve how they use the platform. The initiative introduces what Sitecore calls forward-deployed engineering, bringing product specialists closer to customers to help them connect new capabilities to their business challenges.

The published service terms describe a tiered advisory model covering activities such as architecture reviews, technical guidance and optimisation. Hands-on implementation remains outside its scope, which is an important distinction when considering how this fits alongside existing implementation partners.

Personally, I welcome the initiative. Customers already expect Sitecore to contribute its perspective, particularly when discussing product direction, new capabilities and opportunities to get more from their investment. Having that expertise more directly involved can only help, provided everyone is working towards the same objectives.

Better together

During the keynote, Sitecore emphasised that Advantage is intended to complement implementation partners rather than replace them. I think that is exactly the right approach.

Implementation partners generally have a broader understanding of the customer's technology landscape, integrations, business processes and previous architectural decisions. They should continue to lead the solution architecture and implementation, while Sitecore contributes its detailed product knowledge and insight into where the platform is heading.

These perspectives complement each other, and I believe the customer benefits most when they come together. A new Sitecore capability might look promising, but understanding whether it fits an existing architecture and actually solves a business problem requires both product expertise and customer context.

The important thing is to avoid creating separate conversations where Sitecore and the implementation partner independently advise the same customer. That introduces unnecessary complexity and potentially conflicting recommendations. Instead, Sitecore Advantage should strengthen the collaboration that already exists, with everyone aligned on the customer's priorities and the best way to address them.

Turning capabilities into value

What I like about Sitecore Advantage is the recognition that releasing new features doesn't automatically mean customers will use them or benefit from them. Especially with the pace of AI development, having additional expertise available to identify relevant opportunities is valuable.

Of course, the success of the initiative will depend on how it works in practice. The advisory model needs to deliver more than occasional product recommendations, and the collaboration between Sitecore, customers and partners needs to be effective.

But the direction makes sense to me. When Sitecore brings its product expertise, partners contribute their architectural and business knowledge, and customers provide their priorities, we have a much better chance of turning new capabilities into meaningful improvements.

And ultimately, that's what matters: not how many features a platform offers, but how much value customers get from using it.

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