By investing in the Optimizely (formerly Episerver) platform, you joined the ranks of more than 9,000 leading brands committed to transforming digital experiences and elevating the status quo.  

Optimizely’s unmatched ease-of-use, combined with rich capabilities across e-commerce and experience management, AI-driven personalization and experimentation, and customer analytics, is an investment in your business that empowers your teams (developers, designers, marketers – even sales!) to deliver a better customer experience (CX) for your customers.  

Of course, your site is a living and breathing sales channel. It must be approached with a product mindset, constantly evolving and advancing to reflect changing business goals, audience expectations, and digital capabilities  

As a digital leader, you’re likely weighing the pros and cons of upgrading your website to Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) Version 12 and Optimizely Customized Commerce Version 14, built on .Net 5. For most, the performance advantages make this decision a no-brainer.  

In fact, a Forrester study found over three years, a composite organization realized 286% return on investment (ROI) and $1.5 million in savings, due to increased developer productivity and improved site performance on Optimizely Digital Experience Platform.

Let’s explore inherent opportunities gained by migrating your Optimizely website to Optimizely Content Management System 12 and Optimizely Customized Commerce 14. (Ready to explore a migration? See how we can help!)

Why is Optimizely Migrating to .Net 5 - A Quick Refresher

Optimizely Digital Experience Platform is currently built on Microsoft’s .Net Framework, which Microsoft is phasing out with the release of .Net 5. Built upon Microsoft’s .NET Core branch of .NET, .Net 5 represents a complete re-write of the platform, without technical debt, and a focus on performance modernization and cross platform support.  

All products built on the .Net Framework must migrate eventually - Microsoft will no longer invest research and development in previous versions, creating risk and performance issues over time for those who don’t migrate.  

As a Leader in 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms Report, Optimizely stays at the forefront of technical innovation to offer customers the most powerful digital experience platform.  

The newest releases of both Optimizely Content Management System V12 and Optimizely Customized Commerce V14 include a core code update to .Net 5 to continue leveraging Microsoft’s modern architecture and maximize this important technical partnership.

Optimizely .Net 5 Migration – Performance Benefits  

For existing customers, it’s hard to pass up the huge performance improvements of Optimizely upgrading to .Net 5 – we’re talking:

Faster website performance is directly related to customers’ positive user experience, increased conversion rates, and higher visibility in search rankings. Just look at the numbers:

• Nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy – poor site speed invites cart abandonment and customer churn.
• The highest ecommerce conversion rates occur on pages with load times between 0-2 seconds – the faster the site, the more likely customers complete desired actions.
• Google’s Page Experience update factors site speed and performance into search rankings – poor performance could negatively impact a site’s SEO, decrease organic audience reach, and hamper acquisition goals.

Site performance accelerates conversions, engagement, and even SEO, and is a critical differentiator for your business against slower competition.    

Optimizely .Net 5 Migration – Development Benefits  

Beyond the performance improvements and corresponding improvements in user experience and conversion rates, another compelling reason to upgrade to the latest versions of Optimizely are under-the-hood advancements making your website easier to develop and manage.  

Like replacing a factory-stock engine with a V8, .Net 5 is a more powerful development engine that improves developer efficiency through its modern code foundation and robust cross-platform support.

Development teams gain an easier development process, improved configuration management, dependency injection, better headless support, and a single set of APIs, languages, and tools to target across application types, including mobile, cloud, desktop and IoT.  

In a nutshell, they can build and launch superior sites faster.  

Who Needs to Migrate?

There are definite benefits to migrating before your peers do – ultimately, future-proofing your business, while supercharging performance – but how do you know when you’re ready?  

Jump on this opportunity if you’re:

Already Considering a Website Redesign

• It’s been years since your site launched, and it’s time for a website upgrade or redesign. The .Net 5 migration touches your entire code base and hence, is an opportune time to refactor your user experience (UX).  By combining a site upgrade with a redesign, you can gain overall efficiencies and synergies in testing and project management, versus pursuing two separate initiatives.

Your Overall Site Speed and Performance Needs Improvement

• If you are already battling website performance issues or your site is transactional in nature, then the performance benefits from .NET 5 will make a material impact on your bottom line.  The increased speed of .NET 5 will improve conversion rates and lower hosting costs, requiring less computing power to serve the same amount of traffic.

You are due for an Optimizely Upgrade

• Optimizely provides product updates on a regular basis, however most customers only apply major upgrades periodically, as upgrades require coordination and regression testing.  If your site is currently on Optimizely Content Management System Version 11 or below, or Optimizely Customized Commerce Version 12 or below, then it’s time for an upgrade.  With Optimizely no longer providing support for future releases on .NET Framework, your next upgrade needs to include the upgrade to .NET 5 anyway.

You know what they say: what should be done eventually, should be done immediately.

Partner with Whereoware to Migrate Your Site to .Net 5  

The .Net 5 migration is a large overhaul, encompassing new infrastructure setup, automated and manual code base refactoring, a complete cycle of regression testing, issue remediation, DXP upgrades, and integration updates. To go all-in, it could include a UX audit, new creative, and a more holistic redesign strategy.  

A knowledgeable technical partner is critical for a smooth migration and profitable digital strategy.  

As an Optimizely Platinum Partner, Whereoware has helped our clients maximize the Optimizely platform suite for nearly a decade. We’ve successfully led previous website migrations and have deep relationships with Optimizely’s tech teams to work through any unforeseen nuances.

Our team is trained to develop and support websites built on .Net 5. As important, Whereoware has full-service capabilities across digital strategy, UX and design, customer journey activation, experimentation and optimization, marketing, SEO and PPC, integrations, and analytics.  

We advise clients on the full spectrum of website optimization and marketing, and how to maximize Optimizely’s powerful suite of tools to achieve meaningful economic results.  

Whether you’re looking for a smooth migration, a website redesign, or a complete digital transformation, Whereoware will partner with you to upgrade your technology stack, elevate your customers’ experience, and ultimately, future-proof your business.