Why Hire a Sitecore Architect When You Can Outsource It?

You want an experience that beats the rest. This isn’t a project that you should DIY. Why hire an architect when there are outsource options who know Sitecore like the back of their hand. Get a partner who knows what they’re doing, and have it done right, the first time around.

Let’s say you just bought a lot of land on a steep hill. Now it’s time to build your house.

You think to yourself, “I don’t need an architect. I can do this myself! I laugh in the face of mudslides and possible collapse!”

Sounds reasonable? We didn’t think so.

Your Sitecore implementation is like that house on a hill. For it to perform optimally, and pay off as a business investment, it needs to be architected by a professional.

But, we’re Sitecore partners. Of course we’re going to say that.

Why should you believe us? Read on.

3 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Sitecore Architecture

Below we break down three major reasons why you should leave your architecting to the pros, instead of hiring a Sitecore Architect in-house.

Reason #1: Only a Sitecore partner has the breadth of experience required to architect Sitecore correctly and efficiently.

No matter how up to speed they are on Sitecore best practices, an inside developer is basically only familiar with one Sitecore implementation—their own. Maybe it was done well, maybe it wasn’t. They may not have even been around when it was originally built. They’ve only spent time maintaining it.

Maintaining Sitecore vs. architecting Sitecore are two very different skill sets, and to ensure your Sitecore implementation is architected properly, you need a professional with the right skill set.

Even if your developer was involved in the architecting of your current Sitecore site, frankly, it’s simply not enough. There are a million ways to build things in Sitecore, and only a Sitecore partner has the experience of building multiple implementations. They’ve got the hands-on knowhow of integrating different features, designs, and business needs—and architecting your Sitecore implementation to make them happen.

Moreover, only a Sitecore partner architect has the experience of looking at lots of implementations. They’ve seen what’s gone well, and what hasn’t (and they’re often the ones who are brought in to fix it).

Your Sitecore implementation deserves the breadth of experience that only a Sitecore partner can offer. It’s the best thing you can do to future-proof your Sitecore website and ensure you stand up a solution that will serve you, your team, and your customers well.

Reason #2: Sitecore Certified Architects stay informed on the latest best practices.

Not only are Sitecore Certified Architects constantly gaining real-world feedback on how to architect Sitecore the right way, but they also stay abreast of the latest and greatest features Sitecore has to offer.

Sitecore partners hear about new features before the general public does. They have a direct line to Sitecore. They know the Sitecore team and they’re in regular communication with them. Sitecore trusts their partners to implement Sitecore for clients, so they keep them informed on new features and changes in best practices.

Even if your in-house developers read up on Sitecore documentation, they’ll always be on a delay. That delay can be the difference between your implementation using an updated, significantly improved feature that helps your content perform better—or not.

Reason #3: You only pay to implement Sitecore once.

You shouldn’t have to pay to implement Sitecore twice. You should only pay once.

But if you trust your Sitecore architecture to someone who’s not deeply knowledgeable in Sitecore best practices, all the functionality this platform has to offer, and how to implement it in a way that’s uniquely suited to the needs and goals of your organization… you may find yourself having to rebuild it all over again.

When you have non-experts architect your Sitecore solution, you end up with an non-expert solution. That can lead to a lot of issues, which in the long term, often end up compounding upon each other.

For example, in the Experience Editor you might have a two-column page, and only so much fits in the narrow right rail. An experienced Sitecore architect will know that you need to explicitly assign what needs to go in there, while an inexperienced architect won’t know, leaving your content editor with the frustrating experience of having to figure it out themselves.

Or, developers coming from a traditional background may be thinking in terms of architecting on a page-to-page basis, when that’s absolutely not the way you want to approach things with Sitecore. An experienced Sitecore partner architect understands the nuances of creating a best-performing Sitecore implementation, and the fine details of making that backend work efficiently for your content editors.

This isn’t just about making life easy for your content editors. Typically, the things that become frustrating for your content editors end up creating major Sitecore performance issues later on. And they all could have been avoided—had you only worked with an experienced Sitecore partner who offers architecture as a service.

Don’t leave your Sitecore architecture to amateurs

At Oshyn, we’re often called in to conduct a Sitecore audit and fix things after they’ve gone wrong. For years, we’ve discovered the pitfalls of bad architecture, and how difficult it is to maintain. Clients get frustrated with the platform; when, really, the way it was architected is the issue, not the platform.

If you do nothing else right, you need to get your architecture right. If you mess this up, you’ll mess up your whole implementation and be suffering for years.

Outsourcing Sitecore architecture for success

It’s essential to have the planning and architecting of your Sitecore implementation done by someone with expertise. By that, we mean an experienced Sitecore partner who has built multiple large-scale implementations.

Oshyn is one of those partners.

We understand many clients want to get their developers up to speed on Sitecore best practices and become self-sufficient.

Our Design Support for Sitecore service gives you the freedom to be self-sufficient while ensuring your implementation is performant, is easy to maintain, and prevents you from wasting time and money on fixing it later.

Contact us today to learn more.