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DEPT® celebrates five-time Sitecore MVP award

Alexandra Moorhouse
Alexandra Moorhouse
Marketing Director, UK&I
Date
2 February 2022

Sitecore has named DEPT®’s Client Development Director, Paul Thomas, in the 2022 Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Awards for the fifth year running.

Of more than 30,000 active community participants, Paul is one of only 63 Ambassadors worldwide. He is joined by 141 Technology MVPs and 31 Strategy MVPs. After securing a Strategy MVP win in 2018, he has been named an Ambassador MVP in the four years since. 
 
The Sitecore MVP programme recognises professionals within the Sitecore community who actively apply their talent and expertise to help others best utilise Sitecore products and deliver premier customer experiences. The MVPs are selected for the quality, quantity and impact of the contributions they made throughout the last year, including sharing product expertise and mastery of the platform to support customers and prospects. 
 
“It’s a real privilege to be recognised as an Ambassador within the Sitecore MVP community for another year,” said Paul. “The network of Ambassador, Technology and Strategy MVPs provides tangible value to Sitecore customers and prospects, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with these individuals throughout 2022.”
 
The MVP programme is more than an award; it also offers exclusive invitations to MVP discussion forums, regional meetings and exclusive events, as well as access to privileges such as early product releases, discussions with the product teams, and webinars. 
 
Dave O’Flanagan, Sitecore’s Chief Product Officer, said: “The Sitecore community is one of our greatest assets. It’s a highly collaborative environment where members freely share their knowledge and insights across numerous channels and at events. Sitecore MVPs stand out as community leaders who are dedicated to helping others build greater digital experiences for their organisations and customers. They are an invaluable resource and important part of the Sitecore user experience, for which we are truly grateful.”
 
DEPT® and London Marathon Events (LME) shared details of how they’ve leveraged Sitecore technology to fuel LME’s ambitious digital transformation journey at the 2021 Sitecore Symposium. 
 
DEPT® was brought on board to design and build a bespoke technical solution to consolidate LME’s digital estate within the Sitecore digital experience platform (DXP), as well as an expansive brand refresh.  
 
Click here or below to watch the session on demand and find out how DEPT® and LME tackled the unique challenges posed to mass participation events over the past eighteen months; and how they are using digital technologies to connect and inspire participants across the globe.

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DEPT® x LME honoured at the Sitecore Experience Awards

Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke
Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke
VP of Marketing, EMEA
Date
6 October 2021

DEPT® and London Marathon Events (LME) have been selected from over 140 submissions to receive a Sitecore Experience Award (SEA) honourable mention in the Best Digital Experience Transformation category. 

The Sitecore Experience Awards 2021 recognise brands that have built truly customer-centric digital experiences with Sitecore® technology. The SEAs are awarded to Sitecore customers and their partners whose entries clearly demonstrate their Sitecore solution is delivering ground-breaking customer experiences and great overall value to their business. The SEAs highlight best-in-class brands from four specialised categories.

DEPT® and LME were commended for the bespoke solution built on Sitecore Experience Platform 9.3 that has consolidated LME’s digital estate and provided it with more control over its digital presence, while improving the digital experience for all visitors with advanced personalisation and optimal accessibility.

“We’re very proud to have completed a hat trick in the Sitecore Experience Awards,” says Brian Robinson, UK Managing Director at DEPT®. “Over the last three years, Formula-E, Triumph Motorcycles and now LME have all received recognition for the innovation and digital transformation achieved using Sitecore’s solutions. At DEPT®, we unite creativity, technology and data to accelerate our clients’ digital business, and Sitecore plays a huge part in ensuring we’re able to deliver just that.”

“We have some of the most innovative customers and partners in the world leveraging our platform to implement digital-first strategies that dramatically enhance the consumer experience,” said Lee Miles, Chief Customer Success Officer, Sitecore. “They recognise that digital has become ingrained at every level of the customer experience. It is more than a key component for organisations that want to move beyond the status quo – it is absolutely essential to any brand that wants to make those experiences even more immersive and impactful. We are proud to honour their achievements with this year’s Sitecore Experience Awards.”

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DEPT® & Triumph Motorcycles win Sitecore ultimate experience award

Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke
Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke
VP of Marketing, EMEA
Date
28 October 2020

DEPT® has won a global Sitecore Ultimate Experience Award for its work with Triumph Motorcycles. Selected from the 20 winners of the 2020 Sitecore Experience Awards announced last month, this year’s awards further recognise five brands from around the globe whose digital transformations have elevated the customer experience.

DEPT® and Triumph Motorcycles won a Sitecore Experience Award for the ‘Most Intelligent Content Optimisation’,  and were commended for making connections between consumer motivations, content and functionality to build better human connections and personalised content.

Brian Robinson, Managing Director UK at DEPT®, and Andy Jackson, Global Head of Digital at Triumph Motorcycles, shared firsthand stories of how they shaped impactful customer experiences leveraging the Sitecore platform in an interactive panel with Sitecore CMO Paige O’Neill at the all-digital Sitecore Symposium 2020. 

“The Sitecore Experience Awards celebrate some of the most innovative implementations that are pushing the boundaries of exceptional customer experiences from our customers and partners, resulting in faster, more effective digital experiences that keep audiences more engaged and connected than ever, while maximising the use of content across an organisation’s channels and regions.” said Paige O’Neill, chief marketing officer, Sitecore. “Through the Ultimate Experience Awards, we were looking to further highlight some outstanding digital transformation stories from our stellar roster of 2020 Experience Award winners. All five companies demonstrated incredible adaptability, flexibility and empathy, which enabled them to leverage the Sitecore platform to reach and support customers at a time when impactful human experiences and connections are more important than ever before.”

Triumph Motorcycles is dedicated to delivering the perfect ride and, together with DEPT®, has created a digital roadmap to enhance the customer experience, while providing Triumph with valuable data insights and new revenue streams. From an interactive bike configurator to a new e-commerce store, Triumph is optimising every touchpoint with its customers, using the powerful personalisation capabilities in Sitecore DXP.  Andy Jackson, Global Head of Digital at Triumph Motorcycles, and Kyle Cassidy, Head of UX and Insights at DEPT®, presented Triumph’s story during a keynote session at the Sitecore Symposium

“DEPT® has been Triumph Motorcycle’s digital partner for a number of years now, and we’re so proud of what we’ve achieved together, “ says Brian Robinson, UK Managing Director at DEPT®. “Triumph is a forward-thinking brand and is getting closer to its customers via digital. From optimising the technical infrastructure of the site, to helping them to maximise the potential of advanced personalisation, building their slick bike configurator and launching a new commerce store in the height of the pandemic, seeing the tangible business benefits of the work we’ve delivered is very rewarding. Winning this award is the cherry on the top. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Triumph on the next phase of their digital roadmap.”

“We have partnered with DEPT® for four years and they were picked because they were pure digital specialists,” says Andy Jackson, Global Head of Digital at Triumph Motorcycles. “DEPT® offers a 360 set of digital solutions which support our growth as a business. We continue to work successfully in partnership and we have delivered improvements each year inline with the strategy and digital roadmap, and there’s even more we can do. It’s an exciting time ahead.”

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DEPT® & Triumph Motorcycles named a 2020 Sitecore experience award winner

Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke
Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke
VP of Marketing, EMEA
Date
18 September 2020

DEPT® has won a Sitecore Experience Award for the ‘Most Intelligent Content Optimisation’ for its work with Triumph Motorcycles.

Triumph Motorcycles is dedicated to delivering the perfect ride and, together with DEPT®, has created a digital roadmap to enhance the customer experience, while providing Triumph with valuable data insights and new revenue streams. From an interactive bike configurator to a new e-commerce store, Triumph is optimising every touchpoint with its customers, using the powerful personalisation capabilities in Sitecore DXP. 

The Sitecore Experience Awards (SEA) 2020 recognise brands that have built truly customer-centric digital experiences with Sitecore® technology. The SEAs are awarded to Sitecore customers and their partners whose entries clearly demonstrate that their Sitecore solution delivers an outstanding experience for all users, from partner developers and internal customer marketers, to business and IT users and end customers.

“DEPT® has been Triumph Motorcycle’s digital partner for a number of years now, and we’re so proud of what we’ve achieved together, “ says Brian Robinson, UK Managing Director at DEPT®. “Triumph is a forward-thinking brand and is getting closer to its customers via digital. From optimising the technical infrastructure of the site, to helping them to maximise the potential of advanced personalisation, building their slick bike configurator and launching a new commerce store in the height of the pandemic, seeing the tangible business benefits of the work we’ve delivered is very rewarding. Winning this award is the cherry on the top. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Triumph on the next phase of their digital roadmap.”

 “With digital emerging as the lifeblood for many businesses this year, intelligent content optimisation has been a key driver for stronger consumer engagement, helping to achieve business and organisational goals in today’s challenging market,” said Paige O’Neill, CMO, Sitecore. “The Sitecore Experience Awards celebrate some of the most innovative implementations that are pushing the boundaries of exceptional customer experiences from our customers and partners, resulting in faster, more effective digital experiences that keep audiences more engaged and connected than ever, while maximising the use of content across an organisation’s channels and regions.”

 SEA 2020 winners were selected as they demonstrated to the judges that they used Sitecore solutions to make significant and measurable impact in terms of experience or content management.

Through the rigorous selection process, each entry was judged by a panel of Sitecore leadership from that entry’s region. There are five regions that evaluated and approved all regional selections based on specific selection and scoring criteria.

All category winners were automatically entered for the Ultimate Experience Award, an honor given to entrants whose digital transformation has elevated the customer experience. The four Ultimate Experience Award Winners will be announced during Sitecore Symposium 2020, October 26-28.

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DEPT® wins award for most innovative use of Sitecore as a digital experience platform

Alexandra Moorhouse
Alexandra Moorhouse
Marketing Director, UK&I
Date
11 September 2019

DEPT® has been named a 2019 Sitecore Experience Award Winner in the Digital Experience Platform (DXP) category for its collaboration with Formula E. The century-old sport was reinvented with a Sitecore-powered website and app, in which smart race data, innovative Augmented Reality solutions and a live race centre come together to provide Formula-E fans with an immersive experience on race days and beyond.

It is a huge achievement for DEPT® to be recognised in the Sitecore Experience Awards (SEA), which highlights brands and agencies partners that are launching unrivalled customer-centric experiences with Sitecore technology.

“The Sitecore Experience Awards spotlight some of the most forward-thinking use cases for tapping customer experience technology to secure a competitive advantage in the market,” said Paige O’ Neill, chief marketing officer at Sitecore. 
“Our customers and partners leverage Sitecore tools and services to drive their unique digital transformation, employing superior omnichannel engagement to move the needle for their business. Their work underscores the impact of a successful digital-first strategy in building and retaining customer loyalty.”

“It’s an honour for DEPT® to be awarded Sitecore’s top award for innovation. The accolade really is a testament to our team’s passion for unleashing digital as a platform to deliver memorable experiences that drive businesses forward. Sitecore continues to be an integral technology that pivots our strategic direction, code base and creativity, said Jasper van de Luijtgaarden, managing director at DEPT® UK & US. 

The 2019 Sitecore Experience Award winners will be celebrated at the Sitecore Symposium held in Orlando, Florida on November 4-7, where DEPT® will be attending as Gold Sponsors. Find out more.

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DEPT® retains Sitecore Gold Enterprise Solution Partner status

Alexandra Moorhouse
Alexandra Moorhouse
Marketing Director, UK&I
Date
12 October 2022

After demonstrating expertise in implementing next level Sitecore solutions for customers, DEPT® has retained its Gold Enterprise Solution Partner status.

Sitecore is a digital experience platform (DXP) leader, providing end-to-end composable solutions. Their cutting-edge tools allow brands to transform their businesses and build strong, long-lasting customer connections. 

DEPT® has been a proud Sitecore partner since 2013 and, in that time, has implemented a raft of successful Sitecore solutions for some of the world’s leading B2C and B2B brands.

Earlier this year, DEPT®’s work for London Marathon Events received a Sitecore Experience Award honourable mention in the Best Digital Experience Transformation category. London Marathon Events partnered with DEPT® to deliver a bespoke technical solution to consolidate the organisation’s digital estate. Sitecore was the platform of choice to not only meets the current needs of the London Marathon Events, but provide a solution that will evolve with the organisation in the future.
 
In 2022, DEPT® also became one of Sitecore’s top five ‘go to’ partners for implementing OrderCloud, its composable commerce product, after being a first mover on rigorous team training and assessments.

DEPT®’s continually expanding team of Sitecore-certified developers continue to help global organisations to maximise the functionality of Sitecore’s leading content management system, such as its multilingual capabilities, automated marketing, multivariate testing and personalisation.

Sarah Davies, Strategic Alliances Manager at DEPT®, said: “DEPT®’s creativity, pioneering approach and agility, teamed with our international scale, enables us to deliver rapid innovation around the Sitecore stack for our clients to help them stay ahead. With this status, we look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership with Sitecore and deliver more out of this world solutions for clients.” 

Get in touch to find out more about DEPT®’s Sitecore expertise and how we can help accelerate your digital business.

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DEPT® becomes Sitecore OrderCloud enabled

Phil Robinson
Phil Robinson
Technology Consultant
Date
31 March 2022

Following a series of training and assessments, DEPT® is now technically enabled to deliver commerce solutions through Sitecore OrderCloud. One of DEPT®’s developers was the second person in the UK to achieve the qualification, quickly followed by multiple others, putting DEPT® in Sitecore’s top five ‘go to’ partners for implementing and optimising OrderCloud functionality.

Gartner predicts that “by 2023, organisations that have adopted an intelligent composable approach will outpace the competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation.” This has put agility at the top of the priority list for commerce businesses (or businesses with a commerce function) that have struggled to scale and adapt to ever-changing customer demands. 
 
OrderCloud is Sitecore’s agile commerce solution, which supports its move towards SaaS-based, composable architecture while facilitating exceptional customer experiences. The API-first, cloud-based architecture is highly customisable, giving businesses free rein over the UI of store fronts and omnichannel activity, creating a streamlined system to provide shopping solutions for even the most complex digital business processes. 
 
DEPT®’s five-time Sitecore MVP, Paul Thomas, said: “OrderCloud is an ideal tool for enterprise businesses that have complex commerce requirements, are looking to drive revenue, increase efficiencies and deliver optimal customer experiences; which leading brands such as Starbucks, Papa John’s and Aveda are already reaping the benefits of.” 
 
DEPT® is a trailblazer when it comes to commerce, working with a range of brands from KFC to Patagonia, ASOS to GANNI. It’s also a longstanding Sitecore partner, working in collaboration with London Marathon Events, Triumph Motorcycles and BoConcept amongst many others; putting it in prime position to leverage Sitecore’s technology to establish and accelerate brands’ commerce functions. 
 
Get in touch to find out more about DEPT®’s Sitecore expertise and how we can help accelerate your digital commerce business.

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Phil Robinson

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Sitecore

DEPT® is a Sitecore Gold Enterprise Solutions partner with a large team of experienced Sitecore-certified developers, all ready to help you to maximise your investment.

150+

Sitecore sites built

20+

Certified developers

Working with the world’s biggest brands

We can help you achieve higher implementation quality, reduce risk and maximise the value of your overall technology investment.

DEPT® has been a Sitecore partner since 2013 and, in that time, has implemented Sitecore solutions for some of the world’s leading B2C and B2B enterprise brands. Our Sitecore-certified developers in Europe and the US help global organisations to maximise the functionality of Sitecore’s leading content management system, such as its multilingual capabilities, automated marketing, multivariate testing and personalisation.

DEPT®’s creativity, culture and agility, teamed with our international scale, enables us to deliver rapid innovation around the Sitecore stack for our clients, globally.  Our Sitecore technical consultants and digital strategists have deep expertise in Sitecore technology, digital and marketing business processes, and the MarTech ecosystem.

We’ve delivered Sitecore projects for a range of enterprise organisations across both B2B and B2C sectors, including Formula E, Triumph Motorcycles, Johnson Matthey and many more.

Our clients

We value a great working relationship with our clients above all else. It’s why many of them have worked with us for years as their trusted partner.

DEPT®’s Sitecore practices

DEPT® has been a Sitecore partner since 2013. Since then, we’ve helped global companies to implement the full functionality of Sitecore’s leading content management system and customer experience platform, such as its multilingual capabilities, automated marketing, multivariate testing and personalisation. DEPT® blends technology and digital marketing expertise to increase the business value of your Sitecore investment.

With over 50.NET developers, 150 UX and design resources, 100+ Front end developers, 100 data & analytics experts. 350 digital marketing, and over 50 dedicated support staff, we can easily scale with your ambitions.

We have deep experience and expertise across the following areas:

  • Sitecore CMS, Sitecore EXP, Personalisation, Automation and Commerce
  • Evolving existing solutions to improve experience for users and to elevate business performance
  • Large scale design and build
  • Agile delivery of experience/platform enhancements via multi-disciplinary teams
  • Maintenance and optimization programmes
  • Continuous delivery maturity model assessment
  • Optimisation & CRO Strategy
  • Complex integrations
  • Platform migration to and from Sitecore
  • Infrastructure migration to SaaS, PaaS architectures
  • Migration to Azure, AWS cloud hosting, and Sitecore DXC
  • 24/7 hosting and support

We invest in our team & the Sitecore community

We have great experience with the Sitecore product which enables us to make recommendations that will fit seamlessly within your existing ecosystem. We excel in Sitecore and deliver the best possible customer experiences. DEPT® has active Sitecore accounts across the globe, with project experience in most sectors across the agency.

Our developers are fully trained and certified by Sitecore within three months of joining DEPT®. We have Strategy & Ambassador MVP staff within our agency. We attend all Sitecore, partner and community managed events in the UK, Europe and North America, being an active participant in Sitecore partner advisory council to bring our insight and expertise back to our clients.

With a dedicated group of 150+ Sitecore resources comprising architects, developers, UX designers, optimisation experts and digital strategists.

DEPT® has created an EMEA/US wide centre of excellence to develop best practices and strengthen capabilities with expertise across all facets of the Sitecore experience platform. Our Sitecore centres in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, London, Manchester, Boston and New York, we build secure and high performance technology products built to Sitecore Helix principles, so they can scale in line with your ambitions.

We know which features can be taken advantage of, and how to innovate the Sitecore platform to enable our clients to maximise the value of the product investments already made, in order to focus on delivering the best experience to your customers.

Sitecore – key features

Sitecore Experience Platform (Sitecore XP) is a leading Digital Experience Platform (DXP). Sitecore XP provides a comprehensive set of digital marketing tools that empower marketers to be able to deliver timely and relevant content, delivering the right message, to the right customer at the right time, regardless of their channel.

Robust web analytics

With Sitecore Experience Analytics marketers can measure which marketing activity is driving higher value user engagements, and use these insights to test and optimise marketing campaigns.

360 customer view

With Sitecore Experience Database (Sitecore XDB) and Experience Profile (xProfile) organisations can connect web analytics data with CRM data to build a 360 degree view of all customers interactions (both online and offline).

Personalisation

Using the data stored within XDB marketers can quickly create personalisation rules based on users past user behaviours and their predicted intentions.

Testing and optimisation

The easy to use interface of the Sitecore Experience Platform makes launching A/B and Multivariate testing easy, allowing you to constantly refine and improve conversion rates.

Marketing automation

With Sitecore Experience Manager organisations can launch personalised and tailored email marketing campaigns based on smart automation workflows.

Our approach

Global Gold Partner

Award-winning solutions

Integration engineers

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DEPT® celebrates Sitecore Ambassador MVP 2021

Alexandra Moorhouse
Alexandra Moorhouse
Marketing Director, UK&I
Date
1 February 2021

Sitecore has named DEPT®’s Client Development Director, Paul Thomas, an Ambassador in the 2021 Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Awards. This marks the fourth year running that Paul has been recognised in the annual award programme by the global leader in digital experience management software. Paul is one of only 81 Ambassadors worldwide, and one of four in the UK.

The Sitecore MVP distinction is awarded to members of the international Sitecore community who have demonstrated mastery of the Sitecore platform and a commitment to sharing knowledge and technical expertise with community partners, customers and prospects over the course of the past year. 

“It’s an honour to be part of the Sitecore MVP community again this year and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with these outstanding individuals around the globe. We accomplished so much in 2020; by focusing on knowledge sharing, we’ve used our expertise to help businesses across the world to accelerate their digital business using Sitecore technologies. Based on emerging business demands, we were able to provide Sitecore with vital feedback for further development and improvement, to equally benefit both our clients and Sitecore,” said Paul. 

The MVP programme is more than an award; it also offers exclusive invitations to MVP discussion forums, regional meetings and exclusive events, as well as access to privileges such as early product releases, discussions with the product teams, and webinars. Paul joins 170 Technology MVPs and 33 Strategy MVPs from more than 110 companies across 33 countries. 

“It is with great pleasure we announce these 284 outstanding leaders in the Sitecore community, especially in the MVP program’s 15th year,” said Steve Tzikakis, CEO of Sitecore in a press release. “2020 was a challenging year for everyone, but our global community remained connected with efforts from our MVPs, who were able to overcome immense hurdles and share their knowledge and experiences through their dedication to the Sitecore community.”

The Sitecore MVP Awards celebrates individuals who provide valuable expertise to the Sitecore ecosystem. When in-person events were not possible, the MVPs formed a committee to transform conferences into a virtual format. DEPT® led a keynote session at the flagship Sitecore Symposium with the Global Head of Digital at Triumph Motorcycles.

We discussed how Triumph Motorcycles is dedicated to delivering the perfect ride and, together with DEPT®, has created a digital roadmap to enhance the customer experience, while providing Triumph with valuable data insights and new revenue streams. From an interactive bike configurator to a new e-commerce store, Triumph is optimising every touchpoint with its customers, using the powerful personalisation capabilities in Sitecore DXP. Based on this work, DEPT® and Triumph Motorcycles won Sitecore’s Ultimate Experience Award.

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RIBA

Achieving a super-fast site with DevOps optimisation

RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, is a global professional membership body driving excellence in architecture, serving its members and society in order to deliver better buildings and places, stronger communities, and a sustainable environment. RIBA turned to DEPT® to help drastically improve website performance, migrate its cloud hosting, and upgrade its Sitecore Experience Platform to the latest version. The result was a 92% decrease in maximum response times and an 87% decrease in average response times.

Scoping the challenge

RIBA wanted to maximise the speed and performance of its website. The main objective of this project was to accelerate response times and eliminate downtime, to effectively sustain high profile event traffic and ensure a positive user experience.

Through a series of in-depth discovery sessions, DEPT® helped RIBA to define its challenges, priorities and KPIs. Paint points were discussed, and addressing inconsistencies across RIBA’s cloud environments and implementing software and infrastructure best practices were high on the list to tackle. 

Understanding the technical barriers that were preventing RIBA from having a well-architected, scalable and high performing site, we upgraded RIBA to a more dynamic Sitecore XP 10 solution; laying the foundations for us to implement a secure and scalable DevOps management framework to facilitate zero downtime deployments.

Embracing the cloud

RIBA’s existing solution was built on the AWS cloud platform and did not adhere to Sitecore best practice. To achieve standardisation within the organisation, we built RIBA’s infrastructure within Azure.

With RIBA keen to embrace Infrastructure as Code (IaC), we utilised Terraform as the tool to build, change and version infrastructure safely and efficiently. This allowed RIBA to keep Terraform configurations DRY (‘Don’t Repeat Yourself’), while working with multiple modules and remote states. Another benefit is that Terraform is cloud agnostic and works seamlessly with major cloud hosting providers including AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

Ansible and Packer were chosen to manage all images and configurations for VPN into the solution as well as SOLR configuration, which were tightly integrated with Terraform. 

Azure DevOps was a necessity for coordinating Sitecore Docker builds for planning and building environments with Terraform. Its suite of Repos, Boards, Wiki, Pipelines and Artifacts provides RIBA with a one-stop solution for continuous integration, delivery workflows, and solution management.

A containerised solution

One of RIBA’s main pain points with its existing solution was the inconsistencies between environments. Our experts opted for Kubernetes to facilitate a complete separation of environments. This enabled the containerisation of the server setup and the delivery of a Sitecore solution that allows the team to have complete control of the build environment while minimising the risk of inconsistency. 

Through this Kubernetes approach, DEPT® was able to rebuild entire technical environments programmatically using code in a matter of seconds. It also prepares RIBA for the future, as it lends itself to a microservice-based architecture, which Sitecore is steadily moving towards, as well as increasing efficiency by simplifying developer onboarding.

We used AKS and Helm to manage the containers, while Kubernetes automated the deployment, scaling and management of RIBA’s containerised applications, enabling the team to take advantage of automated rollouts and rollbacks, horizontal scaling, secret and configuration management. RIBA can now run Kubernetes from anywhere, while being future cloud agnostic. Adhering to best practice, SOLR, Redis and SQL clusters were built outside of Kubernetes to maximise stability and keep environments in-line.

Additional tooling

Upgrading serialisation and code generation 

RIBA previously used TDS for serialisation of Sitecore items and code generation. We recommended an upgrade to Unicorn and Leprechaun. These free, open source solutions offer much of the same functionality as TDS, while being designed to have and require as little UI as possible.

Real time insights 

With its existing solution, RIBA lacked the necessary visibility to interpret and react to the issues that were negatively impacting website performance. To combat this, our solution utilises Azure’s Application Insights, providing RIBA with information-rich insights into how the Sitecore platform and functions are performing, failures, dependency information, logs and availability. 

Used by developers and DevOps professionals, the application performance management (APM) service automatically detects performance anomalies and includes powerful analytics tools to give RIBA a greater understanding of performance and better diagnose issues.

Increasing performance

During the load testing phase, we discovered bottlenecks with the way RIBA was handling site redirects. These findings were shared with RIBA and a solution was agreed upon to alleviate any performance issues before going live. This – in conjunction with correctly scaling resources from the start, facilitating dynamic scaling with Kubernetes, and introducing a CDN to offload dynamic and static assets – has helped to drastically improve RIBA’s site statistics.

The results


Following rigorous, external penetration and load testing, DEPT® and RIBA identified and alleviated any existing performance issues before going live. After this fine tuning, the Sitecore upgrade and DevOps improvements have generated incredible results for RIBA, with every objective and KPI being met or exceeded: 

  • Average website response time is down 87% from 1.01 seconds to 127 milliseconds
  • Maximum response times are down 92% from 52.4 seconds to 4.1 seconds
  • Average throughput has increased almost 8x from 131 KB/sec to 1,036 KB/sec
  • RIBA successfully hosted the 2021 Stirling Prize Awards with no downtime, while handling more traffic than ever before.

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Liberty Global

Personalised platform content using AEM

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