e-Spirit: Degussa Bank Even Closer to the Customer with FirstSpirit CMS

New Internet presence for 200 branches / central content platform for the future

Degussa Bank GmbH is expanding its sales channels for private customers via the Internet. FirstSpirit, a content management system (CMS) provided by e-Spirit AG, is at the core of the campaign. The websites of more than 200 branches are redesigned based on the new system as an initial step. Future plans call for the implementation of the entire website www.degussa-bank.de through the CMS along with the integration of banking functionality. Customers will benefit from a more attractive, flexible and location-specific online offering combined with excellent page performance and fast access. The advantages for Degussa Bank include shorter implementation times for individual web projects, decentralized content management and lower operating costs. As a bank for private customers, the financial institution offers a range of modern products and services including financial investments, securities transactions, private loans and construction financing as well as telephone and online banking. The branches are located in industrial, business and technology parks as well as major commercial districts.

Short project timelines and low training costs

Among other factors, the outstanding characteristics of FirstSpirit in terms of reusing content and templates proved decisive in choosing this solution. Thanks to the generic template concept, Degussa Bank is able to implement projects rapidly – for example in order to compile offerings and information tailored to regional requirements. Projects can be created centrally and. Microsite templates can be provided very quickly following a modular concept. Branches are granted editing rights, allowing them to supplement the content locally and tailor it to their respective offerings. The time and effort required to instruct and train these “occasional editors” is extremely low. This is ensured by features such as the WYSIWYG live view, the real-time preview, drag & drop support and editing directly in the page preview, making FirstSpirit intuitive and easy to use.

High performance, low operating costs

In addition to this flexibility and user-friendliness, FirstSpirit also meets the high standards of Degussa Bank in terms of performance, security and compliance. For example, the system offers comprehensive historization. Via a reference graph, the CMS not only tracks individual objects but all templates, content, database content and encapsulated media – such as PDFs with terms and conditions etc. – at the respective point in time and in relation to each other. This makes it possible to track how a page appeared at any time and what content, documents and media were offered there. Another important advantage of the new solution is the decoupling of the editorial and live systems. Since the pages to be published in the CMS are not provided dynamically in FirstSpirit, but are generated in advance and made available on the live server, performance is improved. Hardware and operating costs are also reduced since only the live server needs to be configured for high availability. This significantly reduces the required server capacity.

“With FirstSpirit, we have chosen a future-proof solution that supports our long-term Internet strategy,” said Norbert Obergfell, Project Manager at Degussa Bank. “The system is fully scalable and will form our central content integration platform. We were able to implement our initial projects very quickly while keeping training costs low.” With the acquisition of the new customer, e-Spirit AG is further expanding its expertise in the financial sector. “Banks and insurance companies in particular have very high performance, security and compliance standards,” confirmed Jörn Bodemann, CEO of e-Spirit AG. “Our system fully meets these requirements. In addition, the solution is flexible and user-friendly, which ensures excellent acceptance among the employees.”