FirstSpirit optimises shoe retailer's website

German shoe retailer Goertz has stepped into the 21st century by using a content management system from e-Spirit to optimise its website and support expansion.

Globalisation is a challenge for all retailers - and traditional, well-established players are often at a disadvantage.

They need to adapt their existing infrastructure and sometimes change processes and systems that have worked well for decades in order to get ahead of the competition and remain fit for business in the 21st century.

The companies that embrace this shift are evident, through rising stock prices, higher margins and international expansion.

Those who don't are likely to be consigned to history or at the very least find their prospects for growth severely curtailed.

The challenge German shoe retailer Goertz was faced with exactly that scenario.

A traditional company with more than a century of trading under its belt, Goertz was highly successful in its sector - but the board members realised that resting on their laurels was not enough.

The business needed to look online and expand internationally if it was to prosper further.

Goertz's organic growth over decades was also reflected in its disparate IT infrastructure.

Both, the online store website as well as the corporate website were hosted by a company that specialised in e-commerce.

Although ideal for an online shop, Goertz employees weren't able to access and manage any content of the corporate website directly due to its static HTML structure.

A potential source of error was also the missing link between the actual website and the intranet, requiring the same content to be added several times (eg update of store opening times).

"We found ourselves in a difficult position - we had a business which had been successful over many years, but which needed to adapt in order to thrive," said Michaela Witz, PR Consultant at Goertz.

"We clearly wanted to embrace new ways of doing business, but without throwing out many of the processes and systems which have worked so well.

"The most effective way of doing this was to deliver far more effective links to our external online shop front and the internal systems in place".

In order for Goertz to move to a modern company structure online, the layout, functionalities and content of the corporate website therefore needed to be improved.

A main requirement was to enhance the user friendliness by implementing a dedicated Content Management System (CMS), which could be managed in-house including the hosting of suitable hardware (IBM Linux/Intel based server with Apache, Tomcat and IBM DB2 9.0).

Goertz selected Ethalon, an expert in developing corporate portals and websites as well as optimising business processes by focusing on solutions based on IBM technology, to supervise the project.

The project was kicked off at the end of 2006 and the new corporate website was soft launched in April 2007 after no initial test phase.

To resolve the website management issues Ethalon turned to CMS manufacturer e-Spirit.

Renowned for its capability to reduce content conflict across disparate global sites and subsidiaries ensuring consistency of information and documentation, e-Spirit was the ideal partner needed to meet Goertz's specifications.

To provide Goertz with a platform for standardising and managing company data, applications and processes e-Spirit deployed its flagship product FirstSpirit.

The flexible CMS separates structure, content and presentation, this enables content to be edited once and reused in different contexts, meaning a website can be restructured in any manner in a matter of seconds.

Compatible with leading IBM products (eg IBM Websphere), FirstSpirit offers a range of opportunities through its scalable, flexible infrastructure and the easy integration in existing IT infrastructures through a range of out-of-the-box functionalities.

Meeting various editorial user requirements, the platform features both a Java client for demanding tasks such as content management and administrative tasks including rights management and template creation as well as a web-based editor for simple daily editorial activities.

The results of the four-month project became apparent immediately after its completion.

For a start, the management of the corporate website through the CMS was taken out of the hands of IT and given to marketing and HR staff - those best placed to use it effectively.

These teams were able to upload and preview content without needing in-depth technical skills - both saving time and reducing costs, as well as empowering staff to do their jobs effectively.

On the HR front, the company would also benefit from an improved recruitment process via the effective use of online application forms.

Perhaps the most important part of the project is not the immediate benefit but the future possibilities - enabled by the platform that Goertz now has in place.

"The platform will allow us to present the website in other languages and currencies extremely easily, but without compromising on consistency or appearance," continued Witz.

"This allows us to be highly flexible and responsive as an organisation and will underpin our international growth strategy.

"Just as importantly, it will help us to recruit from the global talent pool much more easily.

"With FirstSpirit's multilingual capabilities and the ability to support literary languages through Unicode, Goertz will be able to offer the website not only in English but also in other languages in line with the company's growth plans.

"This project has put us several steps closer to our aim of becoming a truly international business.

"Wherever customers, suppliers or talent may reside we can now reach them quickly and easily.

"In the competitive world of retail, this is not just desirable, it's the only way that we can move forward confidently as a 21st century business", added Witz.

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