New website for Colruyt Group Academy: a digital leap forward
Colruyt Group Academy has a brand-new website! With its fresh look and intuitive structure, the site is better aligned with our Academy's mission: inspiring people to live more consciously. But behind this new look lies an intense process, with teams of our Digital Factory department and Colruyt Group Academy collaborating to produce a strong digital platform. We talked to Vincent Cleymans, team manager at Digital Factory, and Riemer Vanden Berghe, manager at Colruyt Group Academy, about how the project went, what went well and what the most important lessons are.
From idea to website: how to get started?
Building a new website requires a clear vision and structured approach. Vincent Cleymans, team manager at Digital Factory, tells us how they tackled the project: "Colruyt Group Academy had a clear question: a new site that is ready for the future. Our business analyst worked with the Colruyt Group Academy product owner to define the necessary functionalities. Based on that, we worked out a wireframe and UI design. After approval, we started developing in sprints, elaborating the technical blocks step by step."
One of the biggest challenges? The website had to be perfectly aligned with Colruyt Group Academy's back end, so that workshops can be easily added and customers can register easily. Even group registrations were a new feature that required extra attention. "It was a complex project, but thanks to a dedicated team within Digital Factory - with developers, a scrum master and UX/UI experts - we were able to keep everything on track", says Vincent.
AEM: a technological step forward
The previous site ran on WordPress, but we deliberately chose a new platform: Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). "With AEM, we can reuse components from other Colruyt Group websites", Vincent explains. "This ensures consistency, efficiency and a professional look."
The first reactions are positive, even if there are still points to be improved. Riemer Vanden Berghe, manager at Colruyt Group Academy, mainly sees opportunities: "The system requires a different way of working, but offers a lot of advantages as well. Thanks to the component structure, the site is more consistent and we can have it evolve more easily. We're learning every day."
With AEM, we can reuse components from other Colruyt Group websites. This ensures consistency, efficiency and a professional look.
Strong collaboration
A big project like this requires a strong collaboration. Digital Factory and Colruyt Group Academy worked with a shared vision and a clear goal in mind. Along the way, they had a few challenges but these were dealt with in a determined and flexible manner.
Riemer: "We needed steering and clear guidelines, and despite personnel changes and a larger workload than expected, we maintained our focus on the end goal. Thanks to the effort of the right people, we managed to have a strong result. The new website is not only a visual upgrade, but a future-oriented digital platform that is ready for further growth and innovation."
The switch to AEM offers many advantages, but requires a new way of working as well. We have to continue to grow in this as a team.