Project Summary and Client Background
The intent of the new Mapex brand website is to impart compelling information to influence or aid in the purchasing decisions of the Mapex consumer. The site was developed to provide the Mapex customer with quality information that is easy to find and would help engage them in a meaningful way to make them active participants in the Mapex brand marketing.
The Challenge
- Migration of data from multiple disconnected ERP systems to produce the product catalog.
- Build a UI for artists to manage their own bios without giving access to the CMS Desk, but still adhering to a workflow.
- Producing an optimal experience and performance across mobile devices with such a media rich site.
- Build live integration with Mapex’s Facebook and Twitter feeds. Geo-location based redirections to direct users to the specific culture version based on their location.
- Develop a dealer locator with a custom interactive map
The main goals of this project centered around empowering more people on the Mapex team to managed the site and content and improve end-user experience. Mapex also needed the site to provide translated content and product offerings to their global markets.
The Solution
Scheduled Tasks were used to pull data from staging tables and create/update the product catalog within the site. This solved the challenge of migrating data from the disconnected ERP systems.
We leveraged Kentico’s API to create a customer interface that would allow Artist’s to manage their bios without having access to anything else in the system. We also used the API to pass the updates through a workflow that allows Mapex to approve the changes before they actually become live on the site.
To produce the live integration with Facebook and Twitter, we used .NET libraries for each. This pulls in the latest posts and displays them in the matrix on the home page. To provide optimal performance in a high-load situation, we cache the results to prevent pulling the same data over and over.
Using JavaScript and the Google Maps API, we were able to produce the dealer locator functionality with a custom maps using Mapex branded pushpins. This map will center on the address the user searches with and will display all the dealers within the visible map area.
To provide the optimal experience for mobile users, we developed the site using Responsive Web Design (RWD) techniques. In additional, we wrote custom code to serve optimized images to the mobile devices where necessary. This provided the consistent and optimal experience for mobile users and desktop users.
The Result
Mapex is still experiencing the initial impact of their newly deployed project. The vital insight into the traffic sources, types of devices, and content that their market is using and interested in is helping their marketing teams craft the right messages and make the necessary changes in real-time to begin to truly connect with their customers and deliver the value that is expected by their customers. Since implementing the new website with the Kentico Enterprise Marketing Solution, Mapex has seen a 17% decrease in the bounce rate from their site. They have also seen a 41% increase in the number of page views and also an 22% increase in the number of overall site visits.