SUGCON EU 2024 | New Sitecore CEO, SITECORE XP 10.4 & The Future of Sitecore

Welcome everybody this is Matthew McQueen from Konabos with several members of Konabos here  we are in Dublin Ireland at croak Park but the really big announcements here were the Dublin-based new CEO  previous Chief product officer Dave o Flanigan he gave his first really public appearance keynote today to the community and we have Vaishali Dialani here Kamruz Jaman and Lukasz Skowroński from Konabos and I'm going to go first to cam who's been very long in this community Kam what did you think about  Dave o Flanigan's  his keynote and some of the things he said yeah it was it was great I it was interesting because I've been as you mentioned I've been in CLE for a very long time and back when I started it was the passion project initially of Michael ciard lar  and the two other original Founders but they were very instrumental in getting cycle to where it was until 2016 2017 um and then obviously we had Mark Foster the CEO after that and  Steve since 2020 2021 whatever it was what I for me what's been really interested is for Dave he was the founder and CEO of box ever um so it's almost like it's going back to its owner operator kind of root you know and that kind of philosophy where it's your project it's your baby it's your passion and you're driving that product right not just based on hype you want to see it succeed for its excellence and I think that's what we heard a lot of from Dave is they are going to reinvigorate the focus back onto product and delivery  on what that product will deliver um for customers so Lucas you've also been a long time in sore I believe you got your eighth MVP this year Sitecore MVP you're also an organizer of this event which I know is quite a passion project of your own it goes on for much of the year a lot of work that goes into it  from your Vantage Point as an organizer of this event as a Sitecore MVP  what are your feelings about um Dave of Flanigan speech and kind of what we're hearing from the direction of Sor so early in his  in his leadership here as CEO yeah well from my point of view it's great that he's here in person right that's a huge change  and you know everything what he said is showing that  sore is like thinking out of making the sore XP XM and composable too right as a part of bigger picture so that that's great I really appreciate that CYO is here and help us right the C people are here also to talk with everyone  and like answer the questions of the people that are here and then we would be remiss if we did not bring up byal here who in her only second time at San also gave her second presentation this one lasting 45 minutes whereas last year was 15 so she's happy to be through that one  velia what are your feelings on this event year two now that you're a veteran and maybe  just a little bit into what you spoke about as it relates to customer experience yeah so I'm very excited to be here I think it's so nice to meet the community in person I am met them recently at DX sore in Dubai and then just the aspect of seeing everyone together having that kind of sore energy in place is just phenomenal um having it even being here for the second time I think just a jittery feeling that you have I just hope that never Fades off no matter how many times I continue to be a part as a speaker or in any other aspect of the event because it's a really good feeling to have and I really want to hold on to that cam I'm going to go to you on this one here  again when we talked about the your history with the platform the overall industry has gone from this on premise solution that was based on upgrades it's nothing different about Sitecore is how much of the industry was and then it went forward in the industry to this headless composable thing Sitecore ultimately caught up with that and has a product suite for that but I think what we're hearing now is this thing we've talked about a lot  even with vehicles and cars is you know we had electric vehicles and then now a lot of people are using hybrid electric vehicles are you know kind of what are you feeling about Sitecore as it relates to that where they went ahead they have this composable solution but it seems like they're kind of coming back home to meet the customers where they are now well I think cyos always had this product and this Suite of solutions it's just they were vocalizing the XM Cloud more than they were vocalizing the other option right so it's not like they've just reinvented a new product that product was already sitting there they just restructured it now to actually give a clear a message to the customers um that if you're not quite ready yet we're still here for you we still have you still have other options available for us it was great for them to double back down on their support and continue support an innovation around xxm that will give a lot of people a lot of certainty now that they can continue on with this product and they it's not just I know the 2030 announcement was made recently for extended support for 10.4 especially um but it's not just that we are going to be doing things beyond that there was mention of things like you know we will need to relook at the content editor and the experience editor right and we had this before with Horizon and it had just got there and it got yanked back in 10.3 and people are it sends a different message right where you were putting this Innovation and you no longer are but they're sending this clear message now you know we are continuing on with XV XM you can still use it I I we've talked about this a lot I think XM is an ex is a really great platform it always has been  XP is has been tricky to use around the personalization and you know the scalability of that personalization particularly  this is why I passionately feel that XM is a great platform for those customers out there you can you can supplement it with CDP and CLE personalize CLE send if you want to use some of the emails tools or use whichever email tools that you want to use um but you can then use that XM base to actually be XM cloud ready you can start to move those projects one by one piece by piece get it onto a headless architecture on Prem still using your existing licensing and your existing infrastructure it gives your teams time to up skill as well um and I think psyo is seeing this now that there is this medium path where you have to take your C csyo has to take their customers on this journey right you could we we've had this before where they're like right you we are now moving from web forms to MVC but that didn't happen overnight it was a journey for all of them and people were able to transition and they need that same breathing Rune now to make that transition Lukasz my last question for you  put your solution architect hat on  you are working every day very much on the on premise solution upgrades that world with very large customers might I say when you look at that when you look at the customers work with and then you look at these very composable headless announcements does this path where they're saying there's a place for customers to move at a nicer speed that must be a breath of fresh air or relief to you yeah it is in fact but  I think that it would be good to add at the point that side is not only like preparing a path to migr but they also say that  they will support customers that needs more time to move on to the other stock right so they won't let customers to stay behind right they are ready to like support everyone on their path to the composable world right so that's also something that was mentioned today and made a really good impression yeah that was that was a very interesting announcement actually because that's something we've never heard before they specifically mentioned if you're on a 9.3  we will continue to support you um and help you with the transition right because a lot of people might not want to upgrade right now to 10.3 10.4 because they're like well we want to transition so there's no point but then you don't want to be stuck on an old system either which is unsupported by shall I last up with you here  you're kind of a different breed from I don't mean in general but you're kind of a you're kind of a different breed of maybe the typical sugcon developer based  individual like our friends over here but they're not they're not only that too  how do you feel when you're bringing you're kind of educating these folks  this this  this part of the market on this whole foofy customer experience thing which is really important but what is it like seeing kind of the light bulbs turn on for them  about the importance of this and you know maybe being the first person who's introducing these Concepts to them that's a great question and I I couldn't agree more I do feel like a black sheep  sometimes but you know being recognized as a strategy MVP this year for the first time I also feel like it's given me that credibility of the efforts that we as Konabos are trying to put out for our clients and do that on regular basis but it's just now channelized and more visible for Sitecore of what everything that we're doing internally and with our clients so and the response that we're getting is phenomenal from the CYO Community you know people are reaching out they're asking person even my feedback post the session about like oh what do you think how can we improve XP based on Journey mapping or whether it is how much are you looking forward to the next updates on 10.4 XP 10.4 so there's so much Acceptance Now um that it's an interesting time and an interesting space to be in at this moment of time as a c CX strategist Thank You by Shall we yeah I'd like to thank all the organizers say these guys did a amazing job um and the psycho community in general I think they've they do support this event immensely it's one of us as traditional cycle developers it's one of our favorite events  we really enjoy it the networking part of this the socializing part of it right is immense it's amazing it's it feels much more natural right we're not we we're like friends at a at an event getting back together right we look we look forward to seeing each other and it was really great to see the reinvigoration with all the people actually at cycle themselves right talking with them they're super excited to have this new products Le approach to what they're doing now to what they're building  there's a there's a they're still the same passion and the same goal but they they're looking at things with a seems like they're looking at things with a slightly longer term Vision than they were maybe 6 months ago or a year right and it's no secret that you know cyc was trying to find a buyer and it felt like that's now that's now gone that's passed and then now looking at how do we make this the best product for the long term um and yeah great having those conversations with all those people at Sitecore we had a great conversation with Ste with  with Dave for  it's a good 10 15 minutes and this is not a conversation we've had with the CEOs prior to like L and Michael back in the day but  and Dave was genuinely interested in what we're talking about what we're saying and some of the things that we're saying would help our customers right on this journey so I just want to add on one more thing is I absolutely agree on the long-term Vision that you spoke about but I also think they're looking at things from a more holistic perspective um by prioritizing CX or personalization conversations and you know expanding the marketer track they are showing that we're looking at things from a 360 perspective and a long-term Vision which is very very very exciting M cam Lukasz thank you in this beautiful Stadium empty waiting to be filled by us so thanks everyone we'll talk to you soon.