Volkswagen AEM Platform

Worldwide AEM platform for markets, distributors and suppliers

Websites integrate editorial content, vehicle data, and applications

The leading automobile manufacturer Volkswagen group operates many websites worldwide as well as intranet and extranet presences. As one of the first major Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) projects in Germany, pro!vision - a subsidiary of diva-e - relaunched the Volkswagen sales and marketing platform for the VW Brand website and worldwide market presences. The AEM CMS enabled VW to run highly integrative applications for their web presences and their customer and partner portals. Adobe AEM provided the professional solution for the successful presentation of editorial content, vehicle data and the secure integration of complex backend systems. Data from various legacy applications was merged into the integrated web presences. The core function of the country-specific Internet presences were the online car showrooms which displayed the entire VW model range. The required vehicle data was taken directly from the vehicle production.

90

markets

600

vw partners

840

sites worldwide

1 Mio.

AEM pages (approx.)

Objective

Optimizing user experiences and editors' work

The main goal was the graphic redesign and to improve the further processing of product data for interactive sales. Instead of continuing to manually transfer product data to the online car showrooms, product and marketing data should be more closely integrated in the future and the showrooms should be generated "data-driven". This aimed to create the basis for product and marketing data to be used by other applications such as the Auto Configurator in the future.

Implementation

Generating car showrooms automatically

A hierarchically structured repository, the so-called Marketing Object Model (MOM) based on Adobe CRX, was developed to map the VW product catalogs. It contained all the information related to models, equipment, prices and the associated media objects used for the online presence. Technical product data was automatically imported from various backend systems. The technical data was enhanced editorially with marketing texts, images, videos and legal information. The models for the car showrooms were automatically generated from the technical and enhanced data.

Result

Acceleration and cost savings

Costs were significantly reduced due to optimized and accelerated workflows, a shortened time-to-web and the global reusability of the marketing material. The AEM CMS also allowed the markets a high degree of flexibility while maintaining the corporate design and guaranteed a globally consistent brand image. In addition to the graphic relaunch, the project also included a change in technology and upgrading the CMS platform to version 5.6. The results at a glance:

  • Global CMS platform for approx. 90 markets

  • Websites for over 600 VW partners (dealers, authorized workshops and parts suppliers) in Germany

  • Unified CMS platform for the entire group

  • Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

  • Integration of numerous backend systems

  • Integration of the national subsidiaries' own applications

  • Implementation of a Sales Product Repository (Marketing Object Model)

  • Development of an own media library

  • Mix of editorial content and integrated applications

  • Car showrooms as the core of the Internet sites

  • Ensuring performance with over 1 million pages in the system

  • Integration into the IT landscape at VW

With Adobe CQ, we can go live very quickly in new markets with a compelling web presence - with a high degree of flexibility while ensuring a consistent look and feel around the world.
Christian AdamVolkswagen AG | Head of the rollout-team

Partner in the project