6 months into the global pandemic, COVID-19 has already turned into a monstrous wildfire. This has played havoc with most businesses that relied on physical communications to drive customer acquisition and revenue. At this juncture, managing online experiences with strong content management systems and content capabilities have become mission critical.

Sitecore, the leader in CMS space and the global leader in digital experience management just released its latest version of Sitecore Content Hub 3.4. The new content hub is a robust, streamlined and scalable solution that will help brands accelerate their digital transformation journey.

The need for businesses to manage and leverage massive loads of content and digital assets has become manifold, in the new normal. Sitecore understand this pain point and therefore, its Content Hub 3.4 offers brands with Digital Asset Management (DAM) capabilities that comes packed with AI and video capabilities along with an improved workflow, ease of use and third-party integrations.

Let's take a deep dive into the new features that Sitecore Content Hub 3.4 brings to the table:

1. AI-enabled image and video discovery & production

Marketers can now instantaneously access alternative images or related images in the Sitecore DAM, thanks to the in-built AI capabilities of the new content hub. The images can also be reused and repurposed rather than always creating newer ones - thereby, saving both cost and time spent.

For example, if you are using an image of people shopping in the mall, content hub will identify different elements in the image and offer you similar photos of the group in the mall settings to help you shorten the content creation process, and the cost and time associated with it.

Over time, production and consumption of video content has seen a tremendous rise and brands are witnessing a colossal increase in video consumption in the new normal. However, managing video content for brands was never an easy task. Content Hub 3.4 helps mitigate this challenge by generating meta data and transcripts from video content seamlessly with the help of AI analysis from Microsoft Azure Cognitive services. It also supports time and range-based annotation, cropping and subtitles - to help marketers improve automation capabilities & increase engagement metrics for a wider audience.

"Our vision has always been to streamline work and take the tedium out of the creative process for our customers," said Tom De Ridder, CTO, Sitecore. "With version 3.4 of Content Hub, we've taken several massive steps to further drive this mission with new capabilities, enhancements, and integrations in a SaaS product that makes it easier for all content stakeholders in a distributed environment to work together to solve the content crisis - all in a single solution that distributes content to all channels."

Also read: 4 aspects of Sitecore Content Hub to enable speedy go to market

Moreover, Content Hub 3.4 offers DAM search panel that helps users upload and access assets from InDesign Photoshop and Illustrator, thereby improving workflow and ensuring ease of access. Users can preview work-in-progress within InDesign documents directly in DAM without packaging and work on finished assets directly into DAM from InDesign.

2. CHILI Publisher Integration

Production of graphics involves huge cost and time along with the need to comply with rules and governance requirements. This often creates multiple challenge in terms of scalability and time to market.

The new Sitecore Content Hub 3.4 packed with web to print capabilities, along with tight integration to CHILI Publisher simplifies and automates graphic production across digital and print. Chili smart templates can be then connected to content hub assets to create customizable assets with an ability to embedding brand identity.

Thus, Content hub 3.4 lets you deliver customised, brand-compliant and ready-to-use digital and printed assets at scale. Thereby, ensure that Sitecore CMS can support employees through extended WFH periods, rising online traffic, and a shift in marketing strategy.

3. JavaScript Development Kit

With the new update, Sitecore has also released JavaScript SDK to make the flow of assets from one application to another swift and seamless. This will make the Content Hub more extensive with accelerated and minimise development and integration efforts for third-party solutions.

All in all, the all new Sitecore content hub 3.4 would mean lesser time and cost incurred in production of your digital assets. Personalizing content and delivering it faster with better time to market won’t be a challenge anymore.

The new update with enhance AI and automation, simplified workflow, ease of use, ensuring brand compliance and scalability will mean marketers can now carve a sound digital asset management strategy to reach their customer with more personalised, contextual and relevant content - at scale and in a record turnaround time.

Espire is a Sitecore global partner with 100+ Sitecore projects delivered for global locations and clients across multiple industries. We are enabling digital transformation & personalisation by crafting awe-inspiring Customer Experiences. Reach us at marketing@espire.com for any further queries pertaining to the release or any assistance to the new upgrade and implementation.