May. 19, 2020

Tom Humbarger

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5 min. read

Austin-based Engagency is featured in our latest Solutions Partner profile. Our SearchStax Solutions Partners work with us so they can spend more time building exceptional customer experiences while we worry about deploying and managing the Solr search environments that are critical to their projects. To show our appreciation, we regularly produce profiles on our blog so others can see what makes our partners special.

Who is Engagency?

For over a decade, Engagency has helped brands and agency partners get the most out of their Sitecore implementations. Jason Perry and Carla Romaine founded their Martech Systems Integration firm in 2002. In 2008, they decided to transition from being the typical jack-of-all-trades agency to specializing in Sitecore. At that point, the enterprise CMS solutions had all grown increasingly complex. At the same time, there was a push to consolidate licensing and build complete omni-channel Customer Experience Management suites around the industry’s top CMS solutions. 

“It felt like a big gamble at the time, but it seemed obvious that with increasing size and complexity, there would be increasing demand for platform-specific expertise. There was too much to know about any one platform, and we really wanted to focus on helping our clients get the full value out of their investments and ensure that every project was a success,” shared Perry. “We saw the jack-of-all-trades agency model as a huge liability going forward. We’re relieved that our assumptions were correct, and that we invested the time in becoming experts in the world’s leading .NET platform. We’ve built a whole business around Sitecore – and we’ve had the privilege of helping nearly one hundred brands over the past twelve years.”

To share their insights and thought leadership with the community, Engagency regularly publishes blog articles and white papers about Sitecore best practices in their Learning Center including:

Engagency has received numerous kudos over the years including being named as one of the world’s top 10 Sitecore Development partners every year since 2015 by independent research firm Clutch. Engagency is also a Sitecore Certified Partner.

What Types of Services Does Engagency Offer?

Engagency offers Sitecore Enablement, Implementation, and Support Services.

Sitecore Enablement Services provide training and assistance to companies to help them get started in the right direction on their Sitecore projects. The services augment their customers’ staff and use best practices to bring them up the learning curve to self-sufficiency. Services include:

  • Sitecore Personalized User Training
  • Sitecore Co-Development & Training 
  • Sitecore Architecture

Sitecore Implementation Services are projects where Engagency implements and integrates all of the components necessary to deliver an exceptional digital experience ecosystem using Sitecore, including:

  • Sitecore Lift & Shift Implementation
  • Sitecore Custom Implementation
  • Sitecore Search Implementation
  • Sitecore Salesforce Integration
  • Sitecore Commerce Implementation

Sitecore Support Services provide remediation, maintenance, and ongoing support for a healthy Sitecore implementation. Services range from problem identification and remediation to feature enhancements and upgrades, including:

  • Sitecore Implementation Audit
  • Sitecore Upgrades
  • Sitecore Managed Services

Engagency helped ICF build out a newly branded website with search functionality.

Engagency has completed hundreds of Sitecore implementation and upgrade projects for customers throughout the US in industries ranging from Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Suppliers & Distributors, Energy, Food & Agribusiness, Chain Restaurants, Consumer Packaged Goods, Software Vendors, Data Providers, and Child Care & Day Care Centers.

Why did Engagency Partner with SearchStax?

Engagency has extensive experience with implementing Apache Solr for complex search solutions. They wanted to find a Solr-as-a-Service partner that would help streamline rollouts, eliminate ongoing support and maintenance, and provide a fully managed solution that supports rapid scalability and high availability with ease. SearchStax was recommended to Engagency by Sitecore, and the two companies hit it off and started working on an implementation project together immediately.

What Projects Have You Worked On With SearchStax?

Engagency and SearchStax have collaborated on one project, recently launched a project for another joint customer and several more projects are in the works for later this year.

Our first mutual customer was a large global consulting and technology services provider that recently upgraded and launched a new website built on Sitecore. The cutting-edge and futuristic website is very interactive and responds to the user’s touch, encouraging visitors to engage and explore the brand. 

Where Do You See the Sitecore Search Implementation Market Going?

The future of the web is being shaped by a number of different forces. It’s an unprecedented and exciting time in this industry. On one hand, many organizations have data privacy and accessibility laws, as well as responsive best practices to contend with, which is improving the user experience for all visitors in profound ways.

On the other hand, many organizations are realizing how beneficial it is to better organize and structure their marketing processes, data, content, and digital assets with third-party solutions like digital asset management (DAM), product information management (PIM), and marketing resource management (MRM).

Plus, just about everyone is looking to create a new search experience that is better than all their competitors and creates customer loyalty. Features such as typeahead autosuggest, search facets and filtering, and personalized search results pages are becoming table stakes in today’s competitive environment.

In short, the future of the web is really about integrating the right ecosystem of solutions that enables organizations to create the customer experience their buyers expect. 

Sitecore is a lot more than just an award-winning CMS; it’s an integration platform that brings together all the solutions clients need, from Solr to Salesforce and everything else in the Martech stack. Sitecore has also made significant investments in Sitecore Commerce and Sitecore Content Hub, which integrate enterprise commerce, digital asset management (DAM), product information management (PIM), and marketing resource management (MRM) all into one comprehensive suite. 

“We love exceeding expectations for our clients, and being part of a transformation that increases topline revenue, and decreases headaches. Working with partners like SearchStax makes this transformation process a breeze.”

Jason Perry, President & CEO, Engagency

By Tom Humbarger

Senior Product Marketing Manager

“…search should not only be for those organizations with massive search budgets.”

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