As new Sitecore CEO Dave O’Flanagan said at SUGCON Europe last month, “XP is going nowhere”. In addition to the literal hundreds of updates that go live with XM Cloud in the background without the need for a platform upgrade (you can keep track of them at this link – you’re welcome!), XP is certainly not being left out with the launch of Sitecore XP 10.4 this week.
We’ve had to wait a bit longer than usual for this update (10.3 was released in December 2022) but it’s well worth the wait. Here are some of the highlights from the 200 updates that are coming with 10.4 (you can check out the full list here in the Release Notes).
Personalisation improvements
Along with the future-facing migration and integration tool updates, there are a bunch of new features that will help you create value straight away, specifically when it comes to personalisation. You will now be able to personalise more effectively by targeting specific audiences with custom languages, which is great for global companies targeting across different geographical locations. There’s also more intuitive customisation of visitor data tracking and targeting which can help marketers create personalised experiences based on behaviour, preferences, and demographics without the need for developer involvement.
Along with the above, there is the added ability to trigger campaigns or goals based on rules, which is great if you want to display content from a campaign only when certain pages have been visited. According to Sitecore, it’ll be easier to add new facets for segmentation, personalisation, analytics, and marketing automation too.
Easier composability
The integration updates in 10.4 will let clients connect XP more effectively into their composable marketing stack and more easily sync XP analytics data with third party CRM, CDP, marketing automation tools, and other marketing systems. Expanded integration with Sitecore Connect gives clients the ability to connect their XP instance with over 1,000 martech solutions.
XM to XM Cloud Migration Tool
This has been somewhat of a bugbear for clients who have been migrating to XM Cloud from XM / XP so far, so it’s great to see the addition of a tool to help with migrating content, media, and users from a source XM instance to an XM Cloud environment. According to Sitecore, this tool “provides an aid for the routine and sometimes recurring back-end migrations, so our customers/partners can focus on migrating and developing new front-end sites”. For clients who might not be ready to migrate to XM Cloud just yet, this gives them peace of mind that it will be easier to do so from 10.4 in the future if they so wish.
xDB to CDP Migration Tool
Similar to the above, for clients looking to take advantage of some of the recent suite of composable tools, this will make it easier to migrate your xDB data to CDP. According to Sitecore, this tool can be used for “transferring site visitor contact facets to Sitecore’s CDP and Personalize products, and also via Sitecore Connect to external systems”. This will let you use ready-to-go connectors to combine Sitecore xDB data with other data sets to enrich the migration and gain deeper insights by exporting and combining faceted contact data in Power BI.
Looking toward the future
The above only scratches the surface of course, but it’s some of the main highlights that jumped out to us. You can check out the full list of feature updates here. Mainstream support will be available until the end of 2027 and extended support will be available until the end of 2030 which offers peace of mind to clients that are considering upgrading from an older version of XP to 10.4.
If you’re thinking about moving to XP 10.4, or even if you’re weighing up the benefits of moving to XM Cloud, get in touch with us and we’ll help you make the decision.
