Central Content Platform for Internet and Intranet at Chemetall

The user-friendliness of the FirstSpirit CMS and its integratability into SAP NetWeaver Portal were decisive

Chemetall, a specialty chemicals company operating worldwide, has opted for the FirstSpirit content management system (CMS) from e-Spirit. The CMS will be the central content integration platform for the corporation's international websites and the intranet. Initially the bilingual corporate website is to be rebuilt with the system, followed by the national websites. After that the new intranet will be implemented based on SAP NetWeaver and FirstSpirit as the seamlessly integrated CMS. By using FirstSpirit, Chemetall will minimize the time and effort required to maintain its internal and external online presences – thanks to the uniform technical basis and the user-friendliness of the new system, content can be published more easily and faster in the various channels and national websites. The relaunch provides more up-to-date content for the company's customers, partners and employees as well as clearer layouts and navigation elements in the Internet and intranet.

The consultants of NetFederation GmbH are responsible for the content, structural and technical conception and the design of the internet presences. The project implementation, templating and migration are being carried out by the IT service provider SHE Informationstechnologie AG.

Central platform for all countries and requirements

The important deciding factors for Chemetall were the possibility of using FirstSpirit as a uniform content platform for the Internet and intranet, as well as the CMS's integratability into the existing system landscape, the convincing SAP portal integration and the high degree of usability in the editing process. In future, globally distributed employees will be able to work with the CMS, easily and without major training expenditure, even without specific portal know-how or having to go through the IT department. This will not only relieve the workload of the central marketing communication department and the IT administration personnel, but will also ensure higher quality, up-to-date content. FirstSpirit provides the technical conditions for this out-of-the-box, with its clear editing environments (the intuitive WebClient and a JavaClient for power users), flexible permissions and role management, its integrated Media Store and the multilingualism of the system. In addition, the CMS convinced the decision-makers with its best-of-breed approach and the associate openness and flexibility with regard to linking external applications.

"We are rolling out a uniform CMS for all national companies as well as for all kinds of different projects and output channels. The objective is to merge our system landscape in a central content integration platform and to minimize the time and effort required to create, manage and maintain web projects and content", says Sandra Zirm, Global Marketing Communications Manager at Chemetall. "With FirstSpirit we have opted for a solution with a high degree of future security, integration strength and usability, which optimally supports our current and future planning."