When investigating headless content management systems and whether it’s the right solution for your business, you will undoubtedly encounter various pros and cons. You can simplify this process by aligning the advantages and drawbacks of a headless CMS by comparing it with a classic CMS, making the decision process a whole lot easier.
What is a headless CMS?
Nothing to lose your head over, to be perfectly honest – yes, pun intended. When you boil a headless CMS down to its essentials, you will get a database with a simple user interface. It serves your data via an API to any client (website, mobile app etc.) that may depend on it.
Similar to database tables, a ‘content model’ is a core concept of any headless CMS that, when defined, gives structure to the data. Content model examples are concepts such as ‘Product’, Contact person details’, ‘Content page’ etc.
Content models contain fields that the end-user can fill in, producing a data object which is essentially your content. Data objects are an equivalent to a table row. Most self-respecting headless CMS systems will allow you to reference other data objects in order to form advanced structure and dependencies within the data itself. A foreign key, if you will.
Now you may be asking yourself “if a headless CMS is nothing more than a database, what use do I have for it? Why not simply have a database?”
Well, you could, but you would be missing out on some key advantages that a good headless CMS will provide you and your team.
What are the advantages of a headless CMS?
When working with a headless CMS, you will benefit from easier setup, simplified maintenance and will be working with a well-tested set of tools that make content creation and validation much simpler. A headless CMS will make your data available to any number of clients across platforms and programming languages, thus allowing you to create platforms instead of simple websites. To top it off, you will also have access to built-in support for data versioning, meaning that you can correct any mistakes without dealing with database backups.
- Timesaving tool: A headless CMS is another tool in the software engineer’s tool-belt. It will save you a lot of time when building a system either for yourself or your clients. Moreover, you save even more time if the system you are building is evolving and changing, thereby requiring you to alter your data types.
The very fact that you can open the UI and create new and edit existing data types spares you a lot of effort. No need to mess around with SQL and database upgrade scripts. It is all handled by the CMS. - Validation for properties: Contrarily to a regular database, with a headless CMS, you’ll benefit by being able to define powerful validation properties. By defining the required fields as well as the string field format (email, phone, regex, etc.), managing data quality is effortless. Moreover, a headless CMS provides you with the choice of how to display input to the end-user. The goal may be to display a list of strings as a single text box that produces ‘tags’ on every press of the ‘enter’ button. It could be multiple text boxes, one below the other for easy editing; limiting the scope of available dates on a calendar; the number of decimal points for a number; type of file you want to allow your end-users to upload, or the maximum dimensions of the image.
You get the point, a headless CMS will put all these tools at your disposal with only several clicks, leaving you to spend your time writing meaningful code. - Data history and backup: Once your end-users start using the CMS, you may run into a situation where critical data is deleted or overwritten, and you need to get it back. A headless CMS will generally allow for a smooth data object audit. See who destroyed the data so they can get a slap on the wrists while you restore any lost values in just a few clicks. No need to fumble around with days old database backups that will restore your data to an ancient version only to restore one critical piece of information.
- Stability: An established, ‘battle-hardened’ headless CMS will generally be well tested, stable and bug-free. It will save you the stress of writing a custom UI for data input, much like a classic CMS will.
- Cloud: Headless content management systems are cloud-based, meaning that it is a server which is available to you and your end-users 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The only tool that you will need to access it and edit the data is a simple web browser. No specialised tools required for you or the end users.
Headless vs. classic CMS
So far, a headless CMS seems to have many advantages over a simple database, but what sets it apart from a classic CMS? Seeing how a classic CMS will usually be able to boast the same features, which of the two is better? Which one should you use? The answer depends on what you are trying to build.
If you’re building a website, a classic CMS is a perfect choice as it will allow your internal users to access it directly and preview any changes while editing the data. If you are dealing with a classic open-source CMS, you will perhaps be able to alter it and install custom plugins to allow more functionality.
But what happens when you want to build a complex platform? Imagine a project where you need to build several websites and mobile apps for both Android and Apple ecosystems which, in turn, share the data with the website. Hypothetically, the system may involve additional services that run on Linux and Windows servers. And what if you want to support third-party developers?
In this over-exaggerated scenario, a classic CMS fails to deliver, given that you would need to write your own API around it to satisfy all those apps and services. You will need to manage caching, security and data consistency, for example.
A headless CMS will provide these features to you ‘out of the box’ as the API is the primary way for you to interact with a client app, website or any other client. It allows you to specify security tokens that can only access a specific subset of data. By generating unique security tokens for each data consumer, you can create a safe way for any client apps to read and write the data that they have access to. Multiplatform compatibility is not a concern since you will generally be dealing with JSON, which every modern programming language can process.
Webhooks
Another powerful feature of a headless CMS is the ability to define and fire off webhooks. These are simple event-driven systems that send HTTP requests that you define to any URL of your choosing. For example, this allows you to notify all of your websites that a product description in the CMS has changed, and that the cache should be cleared to retrieve a fresh copy of the data.
What are the downsides of a headless CMS?
While boasting many advantages, a headless CMS is not perfect. It will put some obstacles in your way and make certain scenarios complicated to deal with. For example, difficulty in testing new features without affecting live environments, offline work for your client systems, and the fact that your data exists on a server which you don’t control.
- Testing difficulties: testing your code for various environments (test, integration, production), may not be as straightforward on a headless CMS, because many of them do not support this feature. More often than not, you will be dealing with a single environment and one set of data, which causes issues when developing new features or changing existing ones in a way that forces you to adapt the data models.
- Ideally, one would do so on an isolated environment so as not to affect the existing data. Some headless systems include tools for duplicating your data and allowing you to access it separately from the original, which solves half the problems related to this drawback. However, when making changes to content models or the data itself and the time comes to release the new feature, developers often face problems in propagating those changes back to the original environment without damaging it or causing data corruption. You can expect manual data model adjustments in some headless CMS systems.
- Always online problems: despite the benefits of a constant online presence, it can be a problem when your client software loses access to the internet. Unless you put in a lot of effort to cache your data and properly synchronise any changes with the headless CMS, it may cause you a lot of headaches when the various mobile apps, services, and applications come online and start injecting old data into the existing system. You may get messed up IDs, duplicate data, out of order data, etc.
- Data behind a paywall: in the case of paid solutions, you will be required to shell out a monthly subscription. If you don’t pay your subscription, your data may no longer be made available to you. It’s as simple as that. You may be spared this downside when using a free product, but free products often have a stigma of being of lower quality due to low incentives for developers to maintain and update them.
- In most cases, you will probably be able to retrieve your data via support staff, but unless you pay your subscription, the API access is going to be blocked, thus rendering your clients completely cut off from the data.
‘Too long, didn’t read’ summary
A headless CMS is an advanced database with a simple interface. One should view it as a tool that will save you a lot of time and effort because it will usually come with powerful features for validating data, ensuring its safety and versioning. It will generally be stable and well tested. Another major benefit is that your data will be available to you via an API 24 hours a day/7 days a week. A headless CMS’s most important feature is that it bridges the gap between platforms and programming languages, as it will generally serve your data in the form of XML or JSON.
A common problem that comes with using a headless CMS is the lack of support for data separation for multiple environments (test, acceptation, integration, production, etc.). It will often be quite a bit of work to alter production without a lot of careful, manual editing of content types. Being always online is good when it works as intended, but if your clients lose connection to the headless CMS API, you may run into issues with data synchronisation. Finally, if you use a licenced headless CMS, your data will be behind a paywall.
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Global SVP Technology & Engineering
Jonathan Whiteside
Every business has a different growth trajectory. Technology that doesn’t scale in the right directions can become a blocker to future growth, and is one of the reasons why a headless approach is increasing in popularity; as businesses can gain more flexibility and discover greater possibilities for customisation and personalisation.
There are several reasons for the shift towards headless architecture, but speed and scalability most often drive the decision to implement a headless technology stack.
Unleashing the power of microservices
By combining best-of-breed platforms, with niche functionality specialised for commerce, search, payment or data management and so on, businesses can completely customise their front-end to suit their unique needs, as opposed to working with a predetermined tech structure provided by an all-encompassing solution.
When these platforms are integrated with a headless CMS, brands benefit from a centralised content hub. This makes editing much easier: a change in one place is seamlessly deployed everywhere the content is located. Unification improves brand consistency and compliance, and gives marketers more freedom to launch and optimise campaigns in real-time. As a certified Contentful partner, DEPT® utilises the future-ready cloud-native solution to help organisations accelerate growth.
Scaling omnichannel content management
Content consumption is evolving to be more fluid with audiences moving from one device and platform to the next, looking to be immersed and entertained without any interruptions. For brands to keep up with the demand for digital experiences, they need to move fast and avoid bottlenecks of multi CMS silos that can form in different markets or sub-brands when systems’ aren’t connected.
Creating an internal single source of truth through the headless CMS connects departments and streamlines delivery. Push-button deployment moves content into production and radically increases the velocity of fresh content on a global, enterprise scale. Brands can better align content across channels, repurpose existing content to improve its impact and ensure the right message reaches each target audience. The possibilities are limitless. Contentful’s open APIs work seamlessly with other tools or microservices and equip marketers to deliver a truly omnichannel strategy.
The solution is not only favoured by businesses and their marketing teams, but also by digital builders, according to Depsters that were recently Contentful certified.
Advancing commerce and beyond
Headless commerce allows businesses to adopt new touchpoints without needing to rework everything else. Contentful’s building block approach integrates with emerging technologies like AI-powered voice assistants, wearables, and smart applications, while still leveraging traditional channels like web, social media and SMS.
“A modern stack of integrated solutions is required for brands to keep pace with changing commerce by delivering relevant content when, where and how consumers expect it. Contentful runs on the world’s leading commerce platforms, including CommerceTools and Amazon, advancing businesses’ application of these platforms by supporting features such as AWS Auto Scaling,” said Daniel Proctor, Senior Developer at DEPT®. “Wherever Contentful is integrated, its content delivery API (CDA) enhances performance with fast, flexible, caching that can be tailored to individual customer needs and locations. As a result, Contentful effectively manages large spikes in traffic, maintaining a strong cache hit ratio (CHR) and seamless scalability as businesses grow globally.”
DEPT®’s Solutions Architect, Andy Whitehead adds: “The Contentful Marketplace has so many applications available to extend its capabilities through third-party services. You can also write your own custom extensions to work for any different scenario. Contentful’s in-depth documentation and software development kits (SDKs) simplify custom work and make collaboration between developers easier, whether that’s joining a client’s in-house team or getting caught up to speed when optimising the platform down the line with new functionality.”
Content delivery plays a key role in all industries, not just e-commerce. Moving quickly, without being held back by development constraints of some more traditional CMS platforms, is critical for conversion rates and is a growing requirement when building a stable solution at scale. This applies in a B2B context as well. More than 80% of business purchasers surveyed by Salesforce want consumer-level customer experience, and more than two-thirds of respondents say that they have switched vendors to get it. There’s a huge opportunity for B2B business owners to tap into through better technology and personalisation, considering 77% of B2B buyers surveyed by Gartner described their most recent purchase as very complex or difficult.
Reducing development time
Contentful’s new take on content as a service (CaaS – a sub-group of SaaS) simplifies the set-up and deployment processes, allowing developers to get started faster and spin up solutions that reduce businesses’ reliance on technical teams.
“Contentful is programming language agnostic, meaning teams can work in their preferred language and businesses moving into the model can keep content as it is without having to migrate data, for example, as they move from an HTML site to a React single-page application (SPA),” commented Andy Blyth, Technical Architect at DEPT®.
He further adds, “Contentful is constantly adding new features and functionality, allowing businesses using the service to evolve with the latest technology. Tagging has recently been released, grouping pages or objectives by characteristics or usage, which creates content classifications and eases the process of organising various components and multimedia files for editors.”
“Contentful is constantly adding new features and functionality, allowing businesses using the service to evolve with the latest technology.”
Andy Blyth, Technical Architect, DEPT®
Publishing content at scale
Chris Eccles, Technical Architect at DEPT® describes a Contentful project currently in development: “We’re working with an online learning provider that also performs English language tests for university, professional or migration applications. Contentful is populating the platform and we’re using its new web app, Compose. Setting up structured and reproducible fields is straightforward and the content management interface is the most intuitive I’ve ever seen. It uses a page-based model to streamline the process of adding and publishing content at scale, giving editors clear and flexible templates to quickly deliver uniform digital experiences, and in this case, across all of its programmes and courses.”
Contentful’s uncluttered interface experience helps reduce the level of intimidation and complexity for the user with simple logic and drag-and-drop features. Its ability to integrate with more no-code and low-code (NC/LC) tools means people from cross-functional teams have the ability to offset business demands for development, automate processes and accelerate digital transformation.
“The content management interface is the most intuitive I’ve ever seen.”
Chris Eccles, Technical Architect, DEPT®
Solutions for future business goals
Making the move to microservices via integrated headless solutions like Contentful creates the foundation for growth, however that may relate to your business. It’s easy to look at a new piece of technology and relate to case studies that highlight how it helped other companies increase volumes of sales, but growth is more dynamic and often involves changing workflows, governance, supporting technology and even security needs.
Overconfidence in a system’s ability to scale, without taking into account growing pains and unforeseen complexities can block innovation and lead to technical depth. In today’s ever-changing landscape, it’s difficult to predict what the future will hold, therefore, creating a solution built for change will underpin any avenue.
Putting Contentful into practice
Over the years, DEPT® has supported various companies with the successful application of Contentful. We collaborated with global shipping container supplier CARU Containers on a digital transformation project that involved building a new B2B online store fuelled by Contentful and Salesforce.
The new website was launched across ten countries as part of the refreshed CARU brand. Content pages were created to tell the story of the company, the employees, and each product. Additionally, there was content for social sharing and digital advertising: whitepapers, listicles, infographics and interviews. Content was displayed dynamically and adaptive to the language and country of each visitor, allowing one site to match up with an international audience. This content suite gave CARU positioning on LinkedIn, Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and the Google Display network. During the six month period of analysis and improvement, conversion grew by 400%, a sizable improvement that any company would be happy to see.
Content was also a key ingredient in transforming the 2021 Eurovision Village into a 3D Virtual World. The Eurovision Song Contest was streamed live, alongside additional DJ sets and performances and fresh content was served up daily throughout the nine-day festival. DEPT® integrated Contentful as the CMS, enabling a partnership agency to interact with guests and communicate updates in real-time, such as changes to the line-up.
We’ve also collaborated on projects for leading seafood supplier, Sykes Seafood; B2B travel company, Cartrawler; the Global Psoriasis Atlas; student discount platform, Totum; and the world’s number one chemical distributor, DigiB.
To stay ahead of the competition, agility and adaptability is a must. If your company has already implemented a headless stack but isn’t maximising its capabilities to their full potential, or is still weighing up the options, we’re here to help.
Contact us to discuss your digital landscape and how Contentful may be able to fit into it, perhaps by enriching your product information management (PIM) solution with marketing content or translating content in a mobile app.
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Client Development Director
Katy White
HSE
Giving Irish citizens better access to health services
( Services )
- Customer Experience
- Tech & Data
The Health Service Executive (HSE) is Ireland’s public health organisation, providing healthcare services to everyone in the country.
DEPT® has been a strategic partner since 2017, helping HSE improve Irish citizens’ digital access to healthcare services. Through innovation, accessibility, and a user-focused approach, we’ve helped transform HSE into a digital ecosystem that truly serves the people of Ireland.
The vision that started it all
HSE approached DEPT® with a clear goal: to give Irish citizens better digital access to healthcare services.
While they had the vision, they needed help to innovate and bring it to life. We embedded ourselves within their organisation, working as one team. This collaboration enabled us to combine strategy, design, technology, and content to create exceptional digital experiences for patients and employees alike.
How could we use design and technology to make life easier for Irish citizens? By prioritising accessibility and addressing the varying needs of the HSE ecosystem, we helped users find the right content, understand it, and engage confidently with the Irish health service online.
Aligning technology
Technology was the cornerstone of future success. However, HSE faced challenges with an outdated CMS, a rigid tech stack, and limited automation, all of which hindered innovation and scalability.
We implemented the following solutions to align their vision with a robust technical foundation:
- New architecture: Improved service reliability (resulting in zero downtime since launch) and reduced response times by more than 50%. The system now autoscales during periods of high demand and includes regional redundancy for disaster recovery.
- Built-in security: We embedded security protocols from the outset, including penetration testing, reducing risks, and ensuring adherence to high standards. Automated testing allows efficient deployment of developments without additional effort or cost.
- A new CMS: Wagtail, the CMS that powers NHS and Gov.co.uk, was selected for its headless capabilities, security, and flexibility. This approach enabled streamlined content management and the swift deployment of new products.
Improving accessibility for HSE.ie
HSE.ie is the main domain where most users begin their healthcare journey. Our research highlighted key issues:
- Users struggled to find help or engage with the organisation
- Content was outdated and failed to meet basic accessibility standards
- Information often did not align with user intent on search engines, leading to confusion about services
To address this, we created tailored experiences across dedicated subdomains:
- hse.ie: supports users seeking healthcare services
- healthservice.hse.ie: provides resources for staff to perform their duties
- about.hse.ie: explains how HSE operates to the general public
By prioritising accessibility, we transformed the digital experience for millions. The old site’s accessibility score of 65% has now risen to 92%, far exceeding industry benchmarks.
Accelerating products and services
With a new technical foundation and improved accessibility, we turned to HSE’s next major goal: launching new products and services to enhance health outcomes for Irish users.
Thanks to streamlined processes, a headless CMS, and a containerised approach, agile development and deployment became seamless. Within a year, we launched several key products, including:
- Mental Health MindPlan: This tool, developed using Wagtail/Django, React and Salesforce Service Cloud, provides tailored mental health advice. It features a fully accessible user experience, with a +96% completion rate since launch.
- My Diabetes & My Pregnancy: To deliver consistent health reminders, we created an automated digital messaging workflow, complete with data management, email design, and a user-friendly interface.
These initiatives now serve thousands of users and continue to drive meaningful health outcomes.
-
92%
Accessibility score
-
96%
Completion rate for
My Mental Health Plan -
0
Downtime since launch
Looking to the future
We’re proud to support HSE’s mission to improve healthcare for Ireland. By focusing on accessibility, simplicity, and innovation, we continue to deliver value through consulting, technology, and marketing.
What’s next? Our roadmap includes AI integration, supporting the new HSE Patient App, strengthening security measures, and delivering managed technology training. All of this will ensure we provide the best possible service for Irish citizens.
Awards & recognition
Award
Year
Category
Ireland eGovernment Awards
2024
Digital Health & Telemedicine
Kontent.ai
DEPT® is a Kontent.ai Premium Partner, ready to help you to deliver exceptional omnichannel experiences.
The modular content platform
Kontent.ai is the modular content platform that gives power to marketing and engineering teams to create, organise, and reuse valuable content. From planning to execution, the entire content workflow is managed in the secure, cloud-based platform.
The headless CMS puts users in complete control. Whether that’s control over operational content delivery or ensuring every experience is consistent and relevant across all channels, Kontent.ai gives businesses the tools to make their goals a reality.
Omnichannel, personalised delivery
Kontent.ai enables brands to distribute content across a multitude of channels, whether that be your website, social media, a chatbot or new channels that will inevitably crop up; content is always future-ready. Create your content once, deliver and reuse. It’s really that simple.
Engage visitors throughout their entire journey by delivering contextually relevant content at the right time by using granular categorisations, global content delivery and flexible integrations. Create tailored messaging to speak to your customers and show that you truly understand them.
Key features
01 Compatible with any technology stack
Content is delivered through structured APIs, which means you can use your chosen technologies to build experiences. This approach also allows you to add, remove or replace services whenever required.
02 Headless approach
Content is created and saved without formatting – allowing it to fit any design you wish. The perfect approach to future-proof your content as channels evolve over time.
03 Cloud-based SaaS
No need to worry about performance issues or system downtime, Kontent.ai is a true cloud service offering a global footprint and high availability.
04 Scalable & Secure
Your data is in safe hands. With enterprise-grade scale and security Kontent.ai can manage projects of any size all whilst keeping your data secure.
The DEPT® approach
By combining Kontent.ai’s technology solutions with DEPT®’s creativity and data, we have the power to help organisations to accelerate.
Our in-house experts have years of experience working with a wide range of technology. Our team can support the technical aspects of implementing a CMS as well as creating digital experiences and setting up organisational processes to ensure your execution of Kontent.ai is a success.
Plus, as a fully integrated digital agency, DEPT® are with you at every step of the process, whether that’s help with branding or SEO, we’re here beyond the deployment of the CMS.
Kontent.ai x ADA/DASH
Kontent.ai is now integrated with ADA/DASH, our website accelerator that provides the building blocks for modern, headless marketing and e-commerce sites. By using best-of-breed tools and frameworks out-of-the-box, less time is wasted on duplicative tasks and more time spent creating an exceptional experience. Explore ADA/DASH.
Questions?
Global SVP Technology & Engineering
Jonathan Whiteside
The sustainable Swiss brand FREITAG, known for their bags and accessories made from used truck tarpaulins, has always stood for individualism. With the new digital tool F-Cut, FREITAG now offers its customers the opportunity to design their very own super unique items. The idea behind it was born 20 years ago – and comes from a DEPT® employee.
Desire for more uniqueness
Each of the approximately 300,000 FREITAG bags and accessories produced each year is unique. A large proportion is manufactured in Zurich, where the truck tarpaulins are dismantled and washed by FREITAG employees before the bag designers cut out the best motifs with their cutter knives and templates and these are then processed into bags.
So far, so good. But more and more often, customers inquire in the FREITAG stores whether a specific bag is also available in another color, with this or that motif. The bag makers have taken these requests for (even) more uniqueness to heart – and fell back on the diploma thesis in which DEPT® employee Severin Klaus invented, designed and programmed the first F-Cut for FREITAG 20 years ago.
Democratisation of bag design
The DEPT® team in Switzerland has been working with FREITAG since 2020 and has, among other things, implemented a bag swapping campaign on Tinder for the brand. Now FREITAG approached us to awaken the online cutting table F-Cut from its slumber together with bag and UX designers, logisticians and many other experts.
The following positioning and visions were defined in a preliminary project:
Democratisation of bag design
Every interested customer should have the opportunity to design their own unique bag according to their own taste, beyond all design guidelines.
Bringing FREITAG’s values to life
Sustainability and individualism come first. The FREITAG Sweat-Yourself-Shops are to be transported from the physical to the digital world by means of F-Cut.
Revival of a classic
The new F-Cut is to be as good as the multiple award-winning 20-year-old original, but even more user-friendly and contemporary.
Linking the offline world with the online world
F-Cut offers a unique combination of rough & real materials with digital perfection and a smooth product configuration – no matter on which device, including 3D preview in real time. In this way, the offline world of FREITAG is linked to the online world thanks to a unique experience.
For F-Cut, DEPT® not only implemented the UX, UI and the 3D preview, but also the back- and frontend. The visual identity, creative direction and copy were done by FREITAG.
From a technical perspective, F-Cut is a web application that combines various systems. On the one hand, there is of course the F-Cut app – the GUI – in which FREITAG customers configure their bags. Then there is the F-Cut backend with a headless CMS, which primarily provides a database and communicates via API with the checkout (FREITAG online store) and of course the F-Cut app. In addition, there are further admin interfaces with everyday tarpaulin management functions (configuration, orders, etc.) and tarpaulin upload, editor and export (DXF) for production.
Bag dreams come true
For the first release, the focus was on the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid): we limited ourselves to one bag type, the Messenger Bag F712 DRAGNET, which can be designed using four virtual templates from a selection of 20-50 different truck tarps. The designable bag types could be expanded in the future or the bag type could change at fixed intervals.
In order to ensure fairness and equality, new tarpaulins are silently added to the system to exclude disputes about the “good” tarpaulin pieces. Another important aspect for FREITAG was the balance between maximum design freedom and sustainability: leftover tarpaulins are used for accessory products.
A few numbers
The response to the F-Cut has been overwhelming, especially from Japan, Germany and FREITAG’s home market Switzerland.
- The virtual cutting table is very busy – between 40-60 users at a time are designing their own F712 DRAGNET Messenger Bag online every day.
- Since the launch in May 2022, more than 300 digitised truck tarpaulins have been used.
- In addition, FREITAG also received many requests from their fans to introduce F-Cut for other bag models as well.
What’s next?
Already before the go-live, F-Cut triggered enthusiasm both among the DEPT® and FREITAG teams. Several further development projects are already planned: more products and features are to follow. 20 years after the birth of the idea, F-Cut has finally awoken from its slumber and will continue to grow steadily.
Over 20 years ago, I got to implement F-Cut as a student one-man show – to rethink this project now, with the support of a fantastic team, both on the DEPT® side and on the customer side, while exploiting the possibilities of today’s technology, is a great privilege.
Severin Klaus, Tech Director, DEPT®
Meet Chris, Technical Architect at DEPT®.
10 years in, he’s practically part of the furniture. Here he tells us all about his DEPT® LIFE and why he’s stuck around for a decade.
Name: Chris Eccles
Role: Technical Architect
Time at DEPT®: 10 years
Years in the industry: 12 years
About me: I was a keen rugby player until my ankle gave up. Now have to make do with cycling.
A brief history of me
I studied Computer Science at Cardiff University and after graduating, I started my career in PHP development with an in-house development team.
I joined DEPT® over 10 years ago, starting out as a junior in the Service Delivery Support team, which is now known as Deliver Operation Service (DOS). Since then, I’ve had quite the journey, moving up to Junior Developer (.Net), then gradually to Technical Architect, four promotions later.
Life as a Technical Architect
I work on DEPT®’s client projects all the way through the lifecycle. That means I’ll get involved with the initial workshops help define the client’s requirements, develop technical specifications and proofs of concept to demonstrate how DEPT® can help solve their challenges; as well as architect the final product.
The primary part of my role is to lead the development teams that are delivering projects, supporting both front and back-end developers to resolve any technical blockers as quickly as possible. This could be anything that’s stopping them from completing their work, such as hard to replicate bugs or issues with external services. But I also get to collaborate with the wider team, working with designers to ensure the developers have all the creative assets they need to effectively build, and with QA (quality assurance) to ensure the objectives are met and the output quality meets our standards before delivering projects to clients.
A typical working day
I like to start my day bright and early. I set aside focus time in the morning to get through large documentation. This might include writing technical specifications for projects, writing up findings of a POC or prepping for a client workshop. Then I have a series of short ‘stand up’ meetings to get an update on project progression before cracking on with my own project actions throughout the rest of the day.
Developing POCs is one of the highlights for me. It’s about testing technical methodologies and approaches to give ourselves, and our clients, 100% confidence in how it should be delivered to achieve the best results. For example, I recently investigated ways to use Optimizely as a headless solution and set up visual regression testing to assess its effectiveness for a project.
I tend to work from home most days, so the vast majority of my collaboration and communication with project teams is done via Slack and Google Meet, but it’s great to also have days in the office and catch up with everyone. DEPT®’s flexible working policy suits me really well as I had my second child at the start of the pandemic, and I’m able to maintain a strong work-life balance.
The amazing range of projects and technologies I get to work on is what I love most about working at DEPT®.
Room to grow
As DEPT® is such a large agency, there is so much opportunity to learn from others’ experiences and get a different perspective on matters. The team specialises in so many different disciplines, which is great to have access to. For example, the front-end team have much more experience in React than I do, but it’s great to combine their knowledge with my expertise in back-end systems to deliver optimal, full-stack experiences for clients.
I love that I am constantly working on new technologies and have the time and space to do POC work for innovative new projects coming into the business. Digital technology moves so quickly, and it’s imperative to keep up, which we have the capacity to do at DEPT®.
When I started at DEPT® I had only ever worked in Java and PHP. Now, 10 years on, I’ve worked on CMS technologies like SDL Tridion, Sitecore and Optimizely, amongst multiple others. As well as working with different languages such as .NET, SQL, Razor, React and Angular as well as front end frameworks like Next.JS and Razzle.
I’m thankful to DEPT® for always giving me the opportunity to dedicate time for training and develop new skills, in turn helping me to learn and grow constantly. Also, a big shout out to the amazing colleagues and mentors I’ve had over the years!
Are you ready for the next stage of your career? Explore our open roles today!
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Senior Recruiter
Sarah Wilkinson
Microsoft
DEPT® has always had a strong relationship with Microsoft. As .NET experts, we know Microsoft and its services like no other.
Microsoft is constantly evolving
We have a long-term Microsoft Gold Partnership for Application Development and, more recently, added a Gold Partnership for Cloud Platform and DevOps; by expanding our capabilities, we can now provide customers with the full suite of Microsoft services.
We love Azure. Microsoft Azure is a commonly used cloud environment within DEPT® because it fits in well with the technology that we use for our clients. We also have clear agreements with Microsoft about service levels and underlying services, so that we can serve our customers even better. Microsoft’s services have evolved over the past five years, making it even more interesting for us to host our applications and solutions on Microsoft Azure.
Like DEPT®, Microsoft is constantly evolving and improving, and this is reflected in the various Microsoft features we work with. Think of developments such as AI, machine learning, API management, Azure DevOps, Azure WebApps, Cosmos DB, Azure Storage, serverless architectures based on Azure Functions and Logic Apps, and lots more. Other reasons why we use Microsoft Azure include:
Availability
Scaling up to serve regions around the world.
Security
The security services of Azure provides insight into intrusion attempts, vulnerabilities etc.
Governance & Cost Management
By using Azure Lighthouse, we can better monitor and govern our cloud infrastructures and have a good understanding of the costs incurred by the environments.
Our open-source mindset is in line with Microsoft’s strategy. In addition, the available tooling enables us to fully code our infrastructures and Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
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.
Approach
Talk to us about Microsoft
Global SVP Technology & Engineering
Jonathan Whiteside
commercetools is a headless e-commerce platform which provides the building blocks for the new, digital commerce age.
A flexible, headless commerce platform
commercetools allows brands to build and enrich their online shopping experience. In order to do so, they provide the speed and flexibility that today’s digital world demands with the use of microservices and APIs. As a commercetools partner, DEPT® is equipped to help companies implement and use this software.
commercetools is a pioneer in the field of microservices. These include all e-commerce functionalities, such as PIM, cart and order management, marketing and promotions, payments and internationalisation. A flexible and fast API connects these services to all relevant front-ends and applications such as webshops, mobile apps, voice, AR/VR applications and social networks. We have implemented this rock-solid e-commerce platform for clients including Eurail, Goudsmit Magnetics and Holland & Barrett.
commercetools operates according to the modern MACH principle: Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native and Headless.
Functionality
Microservices
commercetools’ functionalities are developed in a modular way in which each function can be used and developed separately.
API-first principle
More than 300 APIs unlock all kinds of functionalities one could desire. DEPT®-partners Contentful, Bloomreach and Magnolia provide default integrations for commercetools. Due to the ‘API First’ principle, commercetools works efficiently with any front-end solution.
Cloud-Native
commercetools runs entirely in the cloud, guaranteeing IT performance, scalability and security.
Headless
The focus of commercetools is on creating functional commerce building blocks for your webshop.
Compatible with ADA/DASH
commercetools is now integrated with ADA/DASH, our headless e-commerce accelerator that provides the building blocks for modern e-commerce sites. A composable approach impacts both the implementation of the front-end and influences the end-to-end process and methodology, from design through to deployment.
commercetools integrates with DASH and allows for faster development and deployment of your e-commerce store; less time is wasted on duplicative tasks and more time spent creating an exceptional experience.
The out-of-the-box design and development elements provided by DASH include the scaffolding, DevOps and infrastructure, localisation, CMS integration, product search integration, automated testing, performance and accessibility testing, documentation, and monitoring.
ADA/DASH can deliver headless e-commerce sites months faster than traditional development.
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.
Talk to us about commercetools
Client Development Director
Katy White
Insights
Crownpeak
The Crownpeak digital experience platform is truly cloud-native – built for providing scalable and secure websites.
A headless de-coupled platform
Integrate with all your existing applications and tools, and deliver trust-building, privacy experiences that are brand consistent and web compliant – on all devices to all users.
Crownpeak Digital Experience Manager (DXM) is an enterprise-level, cloud-native content management system. DXM provides all the multi-site, multi-language, collaboration features you expect, combined with a fast time-to-market and a flexible, headless deployment system. Being cloud-native means DXM is always up to date with the latest features and security and never needs to be upgraded.
Crownpeak takes its headless core and layers additional capabilities designed for enterprises on top to help you maximise effectiveness across your digital presence. Model your content needs, create content assets from those models, populate content into your assets using any number of WYSIWYG layouts to make sure content fits and looks great, and distribute that content. Optionally, you can even decide which pieces of content get delivered and when, across any device.
Privacy UX is a new way to approach privacy. By incorporating customer experience best practices and human-centered design into the privacy experience, you can meet customer expectations, build trust, and strengthen customer lifetime all while remaining compliant with global privacy laws.
Crownpeak is an excellent choice for compliance-conscious businesses. Create consent experiences for your website that comply with the consent requirements of the GDPR, CCPA, and other global privacy laws through a single unified platform. With flexible controls, you can leverage consent APIs and create optimised consent experiences that build trust with your audience and fit seamlessly into your overall web and customer experience.
Crownpeak’s content delivery services have been engineered for speed, scalability, resiliency, and availability. It leverages Amazon’s Content Distribution Network (CDN) technologies (CloudFront) to ensure your audience gets rapid experiences no matter where they are in the world.
The DEPT® way
At DEPT®, we combine creativity and data with technological solutions such as Crownpeak to help organisations grow and accelerate. Below are five reasons why DEPT® is the ideal partner to get the most out of Crownpeak:
Crownpeak Professional Partner
Our developers are certified on Crownpeak technology and optimally equipped to create great digital experiences.
Experienced and successful
We have been working successfully with a wide range of technology leaders for many years. With our experience in diverse sectors, we help a wide range of customers to embrace digital.
Full approach
Digital growth does not stop with the successful deployment of Crownpeak. As a fully integrated digital agency, we also support SEO, creative campaigns, e-commerce, strategy and organisation, branding, data intelligence and more to help your organisation grow and develop.
Widely deployable
Our teams have broad experience in both the technical aspects of a CMS as well as in setting up the organisational processes to use Crownpeak successfully. Besides projects, we can also temporarily strengthen an existing team with our specialists.
In-house experts
Our years of expertise in designing experiences, expandable architecture and integration of technology is not something we want to keep to ourselves. We share our knowledge as Crownpeak experts in our in-depth blogs in which we tackle practical challenges
Talk to us about Crownpeak
Technology Consultant
Phil Robinson
Umbraco
Our Umbraco specialists have been working with this content management system for 15 years, and we are actively involved in the Umbraco community.
12
Years of experience
40+
Umbraco cases
25+
Specialized developers
A unique combination of open source and .NET
It can be challenging to select a CMS, but what sets Umbraco apart is that it is both open-source and a .NET framework.
Umbraco is user-friendly and has a module structure, meaning it can be easily connected to other systems and maintained. Its open-source nature ensures that many of the modules on the market can be implemented with Umbraco. Umbraco is easy to set up and extend if your brand wants a content-driven website with many languages and countries.
- .Net Framework met MVC
- Multi-environment
- Azure Cloud of SaaS
- Headless capabilities
- Integrations via Rest API and web services
- Forms management
- Lucene search
- Secure and high-performance
Features
Umbraco CMS
This on-premise CMS option lets you choose where the application is hosted or can use an existing infrastructure.
Umbraco Cloud
Hosting is already arranged for you via Microsoft Azure, but the security and updates of your website are also provided by Umbraco.
Umbraco Heartcore
This headless CMS package connects the user-friendly back-office to any platform, device and application. Including Managed APIs, CDN, media storage and more.
Practical examples
DEPT® supports various companies with the successful application of Umbraco. Our following practical examples show how Umbraco ensures optimal digital experiences in the experience era:
Mauritshuis
For the Mauritshuis we not only used Umbraco CMS to create a multilingual website in 10 languages, but also integrated it with AdLib – a compliant software application designed for collection management in museums. This integration provides the website with all 850+ artworks, texts and media content. The CMS integration also feeds data to Android and iOS smartphone apps, so visitors can get additional information (text, images and audio tour) about artworks in the museum via the app using the QR codes on the wall.
NVM
The Dutch Association of Real Estate Agents and Valuers – better known as the NVM – has had one clear goal since 1898: to represent the interests of real estate agents and valuers and to connect them. Using Umbraco as a blank canvas allowed us to implement not only the NVM corporate website, but also their member portal with a tight integration with various existing NVM systems.
Goodhabitz
GoodHabitz specializes in online training for the B2B market in the form of subscriptions. GoodHabitz’s approach stands out because the training is as easy to watch as your favorite series. Because a Headless CMS was the most suitable platform for GoodHabitz, we chose Umbraco Heartcore as the basis for the website in eight languages and 150+ training courses.
BPD
For BPD, we upgraded over 300 different project websites to Umbraco 8, which are easily managed and extended from a central location based on a standard set of templates and customizable widgets. We use the benefits of cloud infrastructure to perform data synchronization with third-party systems, automate repetitive tasks such as creating a digital brochure, and analyze the demand and preferences of website visitors. This helps BPD to better understand its customers and thus continuously improve its offering.
Our approach
Talk to us about Umbraco
VP of Growth, Experience & Engineering
