The best content management systems (CMS) offer flexibility, efficiency, and return on investment. Just as new versions of the Apple iPhone have brought better battery life, faster processing, and a slew of other cool features, Kentico 12 MVC steps up the platform’s offering for the strategic content marketer and modern developer.
Upgrading your website on this platform is going to empower your team—and save you time and money long term. Our clients are already benefitting from the cost-savings.
For TruGreen, the #1 lawn services company in North America, upgrading to Kentico 12 MVC produced a 200% improvement in maintenance efficiency. Moving their site to a modern and more flexible code base means less time is spent on fixing bugs and developing work arounds. Now resources can be directed to strategic, proactive digital marketing and development work instead.
What’s in it for your team?
Development efficiencies and smooth approval workflows are a must, but how else does Kentico 12 MVC benefit a cross-functional organization?
| Marketing users | Technical developers | Decision makers |
|---|---|---|
| Creating and customizing content is a breeze
| Creating and customizing content is a breeze
| Creating and customizing content is a breeze
|
Key features & benefits
On the Portal Engine interface, you must switch between multiple tabs to create a page. It can be cumbersome. With Kentico 12 MVC, creating and customizing a new page is all done on the same tab.
Another new feature is the simplified A/B testing and personalization. Within the new MVC admin, you can create multivariate and A/B tests with ease. Curious if a different call to action would perform better? Setup a test in seconds, and check the results within the CMS reporting section.
Marketing teams who invest in customer segmentation will find A/B testing and personalization features extremely valuable. The new MVC platform, when equipped with Kentico’s EMS license, makes it easy to personalize content and test targeted messaging to different audiences.
By creating customer segments in your Kentico Online Marketing features, you can easily personalize and test messaging to different target audiences. This was available in previous versions built on Portal Engine, but the simplified interface and persona profiles in Kentico 12 MVC make it much more intuitive to setup in just seconds.
Many of our clients want to personalize website experiences for different audiences. With Kentico 12 MVC, our clients can confidently execute targeted strategies because it’s so easy to setup personalized content. It’s a marketer’s playground.
Samara Bolling – VP of Strategic Services
More on development efficiency
The most significant difference between Kentico MVC and past Portal Engine versions is how the platform allows you to develop websites. This is the foundation for cost savings long-term. In versions past, Kentico sites had to be built on an ASP.NET framework using Web Forms. By developing the platform for ASP.NET MVC instead, Kentico has unlocked better scalability, performance, and sustainability for clients.
Why the shift? MVC is replacing Web Forms across the development industry. Fewer and fewer developers, and therefore fewer development agencies, will build or support Web Forms. It’s not a dead technology by any means, but the writing is on the wall.
Why an MVC CMS wins
Even the most flawlessly built site requires maintenance and new development as you add new content. When you build a website on MVC, you simplify the code between front end (what the user sees) and back end (how it’s developed to function). It’s easier to maintain because bugs can be identified, isolated, and addressed without affecting other areas of the code. A well-built MVC site often means better structured, more maintainable code. Better structured code = less QA testing = less maintenance = less money spent on technical support.
Furthermore, MVC is the fully supported future. It is the gold standard in how .NET websites are built and will continue to be for years to come.
Kentico 12 MVC is powerful, scalable, and fully supported for the long-term. Our clients are going to experience resource cost-savings after upgrading because this platform inherently improves efficiency for developers and content marketers.
Shane McCown, VP of Engineering
When to upgrade
Kentico offers full support for sites on the current version, and limited, troubleshooting support for sites on the two versions previous. Right now, there is full support for both Kentico 12 MVC sites and Kentico 12 Portal Engine sites, and limited support for Kentico 11 and Kentico 10 Portal Engine sites. However, Kentico has announced a prospective sunset date for all Portal Engine development and support. Kentico 12 will be the last version to support Portal Engine.
In 2023, the limited troubleshooting support for Kentico 12 will end (check out this recent announcement from Kentico). Don’t worry though, your Kentico site doesn’t stop working, you just won’t be able to upgrade it any further on Portal Engine. Instead, your site will need to be migrated over to a Kentico MVC version.
Although you have some time to move to MVC, continuing to update on an unsupported technology isn’t practical in the long run. If you’re planning to add new functionality or redesign your site any time in the next year, the best strategy is to scope doing so on Kentico MVC now.
By moving to the latest version of Kentico MVC, your organization will be future proofing your website for more efficient maintenance long-term. Furthermore, the marketing features will empower your team to create more competitive and personalized content for the sophisticated online buyer.
Next steps?
As technologies evolve and the online buyer becomes savvier, it’s critical to reach your customers using a flexible and dependable CMS. Moving to an MVC site doesn’t require a full website redesign, but it will require some rebuild for front end and back end. CMS upgrades from Kentico Portal Engine to Kentico 12 MVC vary based on the complexity of your site, the number of unique page templates, and intended functionality.
It’s time to actualize your website ROI, for the long game. Talk to your development partner about your digital roadmap strategy.
Whether you’re a current Kentico customer or considering the CMS for the first time, we are here to help. As a distinguished Kentico Gold Partner (Top 10 in the world), we design, develop, deploy, and host enterprise business websites. Or give us a shout to discuss your site.