Multi-platform strategy for an outstanding customer experience: a future-proof digital ecosystem

Sector(s)

Team Members

simonbaese, Matisembisa, fynn, JaninaMatthiessen, Moritz E

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Organizations Involved

Factorial GmbH

Community contributions

The Symfony Mailer Queue Module extends the existing Drupal Symfony Mailer Module by integrating it with queue systems for sending emails. This extension ensures that emails are sent asynchronously, which noticeably increases the performance and reliability of the website. The queue settings can be configured flexibly via the ‘Mailer Policies’. The module offers various configuration options to ensure seamless integration into existing queue systems, particularly in the event of failed e-mail dispatch. It also provides events that enable other modules to react to certain processes.

The External Roles module integrates seamlessly with Drupal's Access Policy API to extend role-based access control. It enables the assignment of authorisations to users based on external roles. This makes it an ideal solution for projects that require integration with external systems or configurations.

During project development, we fundamentally modernised and expanded the existing Layout Paragraphs Iframe Modal module. The module allows content to be edited via Layout Paragraphs in the frontend theme, while the editing mask is displayed in the admin theme. This ensures a consistent user experience and makes it easier to design frontend themes without having to integrate complex form elements. As the original module is no longer actively maintained, we have applied for ‘’Project Ownership‘’ and plan to release a new major release with these improvements.

For our client Finstral, we developed a customised multi-platform strategy to future-proof their digital ecosystem. With Drupal as a powerful backend foundation, a seamless and efficient implementation and optimisation of all existing and future web services is ensured. The goal is an innovative, integrated customer experience that meets the demands of digital transformation and ensures maximum scalability. This solution is the strategic foundation for a modern, future-proof digital infrastructure.

Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome)

Finstral has been delivering outstanding windows, doors and glass walls for 50 years - thanks to a holistic approach to production. Complete control of all processes, from profile development to in-house production and assembly, results in customised solutions with maximum design freedom. With 14 production plants, 27 studios and 1,600 employees manufacturing profiles and insulating glass in-house, quality and reliable delivery are guaranteed.

Together with Finstral and brand agency MAKE, Factorial has developed a comprehensive digital strategy and is modernising the company's entire digital ecosystem. As part of the multi-tenant platform project, all systems will be gradually rolled out, integrated and optimised over the coming months and years. The implementation will enable seamless integration of content between the various web applications, as well as centralised management and control.

After an intensive discovery phase, an architecture was developed based on a scalable design system that allows changes to be rolled out centrally and standardised across the system. Systems already implemented and under development:

Finstral Support: A digital tool for the partner network, providing easy access to product manuals and multimedia content.

Finstral Jobs: The official career site, which uses templates to publish job advertisements quickly and efficiently and provides an interface to other areas of the company, such as the HR tool.

Finstral Cloud (relaunch): A platform to manage and deliver product updates and information to over 900 partners* in Europe, including extranet access, contract management tool and service ticket creation. A new Digital Asset Management (DAM) system was also integrated.

The relaunch of the corporate website Finstral.com is planned for the end of 2024 and a new tool for digital price lists is under development. With the multi-tenant platform, Finstral is undergoing a comprehensive digital transformation that will increase efficiency, reduce costs and provide a first-class user experience.

Goals & Outcome

The new web services are designed to strengthen the brand's position as a market leader in the premium segment. The focus is on optimising the user experience across all touchpoints to ensure a strong and consistent online presence. This premium experience will be seamlessly extended to all the brand's touchpoints by transferring the existing offline experience to the digital world with a focus on individualisation, user centricity and intuitive usability.

By automating routine tasks and optimising processes, the project will create scope for even greater customer focus. At the same time, the customer benefits from centralised administration and rapid provision of content via a central content management system that standardises and simplifies processes. External systems such as search servers and digital asset management (DAM) are seamlessly integrated into all web services.

Interfaces already implemented:

Search server: Consultancy and implementation
Finstral Cloud API
HR tool exchange of application data
Finstral ERP: Exchange of partner data

Further connections according to the roadmap:

Ticketing system: processing tickets directly in the cloud (in progress)
DAM: comprehensive consultancy, restructuring, rights management and migration (ongoing)

This approach strengthens the brand, improves efficiency and enhances the customer experience.

Challenges

One of the major challenges of this project was the seamless integration of new solutions into an existing heterogeneous system landscape, including a complex legacy system. It was essential to ensure interoperability as well as the sustainability and connectivity of all new services as part of the overall modernisation of the digital ecosystem.

In addition, the project team faced the challenge of coordinating and communicating with a diverse set of audiences. As the new multi-tenant platform will be used by different business units and stakeholders, the solutions had to be designed to create synergies and enable efficient collaboration.

Why Drupal was chosen

Drupal serves as a powerful framework that can efficiently manage complex digital ecosystems. One of the key reasons for choosing Drupal was its unique ability to create synergies between products and business units - from data sharing and collaborative content creation to role-based access and self-service capabilities.

In addition, Drupal demonstrates a core ability to seamlessly connect and integrate disparate systems, justifying the decision to implement Drupal as the central administration tool, managing the complexity of the platform structure.

The essential technical capabilities of Drupal that enable the creation of efficient, scalable and future-proof solutions that directly contribute to the success of the organisation was making a decision in favour of Drupal easy. The project showcases the true strength of the framework and illustrates how technological excellence leads to competitiveness in the digital age.