The Sitecore Community is one of the best communities we as a firm have been privileged to be a part of. For me, the community is amazing because of its people and their contributions to a greater goal. For what is a great community without amazing people all over the world? I have been working with Sitecore since version 6.2 in 2010 but I never really understood the hidden value of the community until 2017 when I attended an event. I did not realize there were so many different people working on amazing things willing to sacrifice their work and personal time in order to help you or teach you new knowledge. Like others, I was helped on Twitter and Slack on some of my craziest challenges as a Sitecore Architect.
The Sitecore MVP award is a humble honor to those in the community who give back on a month to month (yearly) basis. It celebrates the most active members around the globe striving to make a difference in the customer experience era. To me, the award highlights what all professionals should strive to be as it is more than Sitecore or Technology. It is camaraderie and volunteered service.
A special thank you to the following people for their mentoring and advice!
- Una: For your all-around awesomeness and knowing the answers to everything
- Chris: For your advice on community contribution and the definition of a Sitecore MVP
- Corey: For your advanced knowledge on JSS/Headless Sitecore ( and the mustache)
- Dylan: For your advice on Sitecore issues and all your YouTube videos I used in training
- Nabil: For advice and allowing me to partner with your firm to Train new Sitecore Developers
- Isabel: For your knowledge on all things Coveo and your dedicated travel schedule
- Martina: For your all-around awesomeness and pointing me to Sitecore documentation
- Jason: For your Sitecore dedication and answering my partner questions
Ambassador
Sitecore describes the Ambassador MVP as:
“An individual with solid knowledge of the latest Sitecore offering who provides value for Sitecore, by influencing partners, industry, customers and decision makers and who provides product feedback, supplies references and case studies.”
My focus for being a Sitecore Ambassador is as follows:
- Bring more people into Sitecore and find them employment.
- Network with Community Members to solve real-world challenges.
- Provide Business value to the community through Free Training and Partnerships.
- Provide Free Open Source Sitecore Knowledge and Code in Analytical Artificial Intelligence.
2018 Sitecore Community Contributions
In 2018, I sought to pay the community back for all the unique content and advice from 2017 that truly helped on client projects. I wanted to pay it forward through free training, advice and sharing content from community members in order to expose them to new audiences.
- Blogs
- Authored Sitecore content with a community sales value focus
- Sitecore Feedback
- Provided customer product bugs and change requests to both Sitecore developers and support teams
- Provided customer sales feedback to Sitecore Regional Sales managers and associates
- Training
- Provided Free Apprentice Training to People who are changing careers or out of work
- Created a course curriculum based on experiences learned at Fortune 500 customers
- User Groups
- Helped Organize and spoke at ANANT Business Platform User Group in DC
- Attended Sitecore and other Technology User Groups in various cites
- Networking Events
- Digital Destiny: Attended Digital Destiny and Networked with Sitecore Partners
- Symposium 2018: Attended Symposium and Networked with Sitecore Partners
- Partner Webinars: Attended Virtual Webinars from Sitecore and Sitecore Partners
- Architecture & Development
- Worked on a Sitecore xDB DataStax connector to allow for true planet-scale analytics (like Apache Cosmos but for on-premise or hybrid cloud). This will be open sourced.
- Social Networking
- Sitecore Slack Group
- Networked with members to place them at Customers with active Sitecore Projects
- Provided Customer Feedback
- LinkedIn
- 3300+ Connections of Stakeholders, Recruiters, and Sitecore Professionals
- Posted weekly Sitecore Content
- 40+ Sitecore Endorsements
- Twitter
- 2000+ Followers
- 70% of my followers are New to Sitecore so room to bring them into the product and community.
- 330,000+ Impressions over a 90 Day Period
- Posted daily Sitecore Content
- 2000+ Followers
- Sitecore Slack Group
2018 Successful Sitecore Projects
- CSL
- Worked on the Sitecore Architecture team to deploy the product for the first time
- Sales Engineering: Sitecore 9 Migration
- Sitecore Global Site Development and Implementation
- Worked on the Sitecore Architecture team to deploy the product for the first time
- Mckinsey & Co.
- Worked on the Sitecore Architecture team
- Sales Engineering: Sitecore 9 Migration
- Sales Engineering: Azure Migration
- Worked on the Sitecore Architecture team
- Exxon
- Worked on the Sitecore Architecture team for an internal IT Unification site
- The site is used by 100,000 Global Exxon employees for there IT needs
- Sales Engineering: Sitecore 9 Migration
- Sales Engineering: Azure Migration
- Sitecore Global Site Development and Implementation
- Worked on the Sitecore Architecture team for an internal IT Unification site
- TechGuilds
- Trained students on Sitecore
- Held bootcamp on Sitecore Architecture and Development
- Sales Engineering: Sitecore 9 Migration
- Taught students the reason why they should upgrade their clients to the latest version if possible
- Taught students common issues when starting a Sitecore project from scratch
- Trained students on Sitecore
2018 Sitecore Partnerships
- Sitecore Partner: Helped the firm I co-founded to become a Sitecore Affiliated Partner in 2018
- Coveo: Influenced developers and customers to use Coveo for their Search Challenges
- DataStax: Influenced Sitecore developers and customers to vision DataStax as an xDB option. Worked on a connector that will bring together the two platforms.
- SearchStax: Influenced Sitecore developers and customers to use SearchStax if they have Apache Solr deployed
- SC Consulting: Influenced customers to use SC Consulting for their Sitecore resourcing needs. Partnered with SC in order to deliver successful Sitecore projects.
2019 Roadmap for Ambassadorship
Below is a list of planned items for 2019 to form the basis of my Ambassadorship:
- Bring in New People to Sitecore
- Influence Sitecore customers to use virtual community contractors especially those who lack the talent locally
- Perform Sitecore Presentations at our Business Platform User Group
- Answer Questions and Spread Community knowledge across social platforms
- Train as many developers as possible on Sitecore for Free
- Influence new Partners to work with Sitecore
- Introduce Sitecore customers to Community Lead Projects
- Attend Sitecore Events, Webinars, and User Groups
- Report Customer bugs and requests to Sitecore Sales Teams, Developers and Program Managers
- Provide a Free open source Sitecore xDB DataStax connector
Contact Information
I have provided my content information if you would like to support my MVP campaign. I humbly ask you for your support and wish everyone good luck on their nominations!
- Eric Ramseur
- Email: ramseur@anant.us
- LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericramseur/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RamseurANANT
Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash
