Meet the Finalists for the Sitefinity Website of the Year Awards

Meet the Finalists for the Sitefinity Website of the Year Awards

Posted on April 16, 2020 0 Comments
Website of the Year Vote Now

The Progress Sitefinity team is proud to announce finalists for the 2020 Website of the Year Awards.

The Website of the Year Awards contest began in 2011 and was created to recognize the unique and powerful use cases of how Progress Sitefinity enables organizations to deliver engaging digital experiences.

Clients who implemented or revamped their websites within the year are eligible to nominate their website. Out of those nominations, finalists are shortlisted by an internal Progress jury and put into contest categories based on their use case.

Then, it’s up to the public to vote for their favorite in each category and decide the winners of the Website of the Year Awards.

It’s Time to Vote

The voting is officially open. Get your votes in now because voting will close May 1 at the end of the day (Eastern Time).We need your help to decide who the winners for 2020 will be.

Winners will receive an engraved physical award, special digital badge and industry recognition via a Progress press release and social media promotion.

We’ve identified 39 websites across 13 categories (some based off of industry and some based off of use case) as finalists. Read on to learn more about the finalist websites within each category and the details behind their implementation such as graphic design, integrations, personalization campaigns and results since using Sitefinity.

2020 Website of the Year Award’s Contest Categories: 

Associations & Nonprofit

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the associations & nonprofit industry.

Association for Institutional Research

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) integrated with association accreditation software ACGI to ensure users could seamlessly navigate the site and prevent a broken user journey. Consistent, reliable content delivery from the cloud and enhanced security was important to AIR, and was able to easily monitor, maintain and manage their website with Sitefinity. AIR has received tons of positive feedback from their customers since their recent website overhaul: “The new website looks GREAT! Congratulations to you and the AIR staff on a job well done!”

Implementation Partner: Americaneagle.com

New Jersey Society of CPAs

New Jersey Society of CPAs (NJCPA) recently upgraded to the latest version of Sitefinity to revamp its customer journey. They integrate with association management system, job board, online community, content sharing tool and email address verification tool to ensure every customer need and interaction could happen digitally. In the first three months of the new site, they’ve seen a 73% increase in percentage of visitors accessing their site via mobile.

Implementation Partner: Americaneagle.com

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits used Sitefinity to deliver event suggestions to personas based from the users’ interests and location. Additionally, they enhanced their search experience, allowing users to search for content by content type and category, as well as adding additional event search filters. Graphically, the sire uses tons of bright visuals and images to help users navigate content and topics.

Implementation Partner: Vanguard Technology

Consumer Goods & Services

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the consumer goods & services industry.

Rhea Lana’s

Rhea Lana’s is a children’s consignment store that franchises across the U.S. Much of the site content is tailored based on location, sharing franchise information, local events, and stores associated with the closest store to the visitor. With bright pink and green visuals, along with tailored content, Rhea Lana’s saw 7.7% increase in users a 12.65% increase in sessions, and a 4.59% increase in sessions per user.

Implementation Partner: Team SI

Dawn Foods

Dawn Foods supplies a complete line of bakery products such as mixes, bases, icings, glazes, fillings, dough and equipment to the food industry—worldwide. They recently enhanced their end user experience by upgrading Sitefinity and implementing new reusable widgets. They target many diverse audiences and engage them with specific journeys, content and visuals. Dawn is now able to present a more modern experience to visitors, while scaling user productivity and decreasing administration costs.

Implementation Partner: Springthrough

Celebration Cinema

Celebration Cinema has a number of locations across Michigan. They were able to implement and manage several subsites for some of their other ventures such as Studio Park and Listening Room, all controlled by one system, Sitefinity. With the help of Sitefinity, Celebration Cinema was able to successfully start a VIP program and attract more than 1,000 patrons to subscribe.

Implementation Partner: Springthrough

Education

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the education industry.

Coast Mountain College

Coast Mountain College recently rebranded and renamed and needed to effectively showcase all that they had to offer to their various personas such as students, prospective students and faculty. They integrated with MailChimp email marketing, CourseLeaf curriculum management, and library catalog search. Lastly, they incorporated fly-outs on the right side of the homepage that provide updates on recent news, events and campus pages to ensure students could find the exact content they were looking for, in the right place at the right time.

Implementation Partner: Graphically Speaking Services Inc.

Singapore University of Social Sciences

Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) adopted Sitefinity to provide more relevant, engaging information for potential students to understand and select their respective courses. Using personalization, SUSS is able to deliver a tailored content specific to each visitor’s user journey. Additionally, by providing clear navigation paths by persona, overall site usage and engagement has increased.

Implementation Partner: Bray Leino Splash Pte Ltd

Murdoch University

Murdoch University was looking to completely revamp its recruitment efforts by creating a website dedicated to recruiting and educating students about the university. Ultimately, they created a responsive website that reacts to visitor interactions and provides a journey that is extremely straightforward to the visitor. Multisite and headless capabilities allow users to manage multiple sites and publish dynamic content and layouts easily.

Implementation Partner: Isobar Australia

Financial Services

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the financial services industry.

Hughes Federal Credit Union

Hughes Federal Credit Union moved from a content management system (CMS) lacking API-integration to Sitefinity, enabling them to integrate with industry specific platforms, and the site search platform, Hawksearch. With Sitefinity, they were looking to consistently represent their brand, implement a mobile-first experience, make it easy to find and open new accounts and comply with ADA regulations. They now have the No. 1 branch website in the credit union for direct membership, No. 1 for deposits (nine times more than any physical branch), and No. 2 for loan balances.

Implementation Partner: Americaneagle.com

North American Savings Bank

North American Savings Bank (NASB) was looking to present its banking solutions on the website in a way that was more relevant and engaging to visitors. They integrated a custom locations finder tool to manage all local information and a custom rates management tool to easily update rates and minimize compliance risk. NASB achieved 15.2% increase in number of sessions per user, 43.76% increase in average session duration and 23.08% increase in average session duration from mobile.


Website: www.nasb.com

Implementation Partner: ZAG Interactive

GTE Financial

GTE Financial needed a highly responsive mobile experience to appeal to its customer base. Sitefinity’s mobile content management and intuitive responsive design allowed them to easily build an streamlined, engaging experience for any device. With Sitefinity, they’ve experienced improvement in mobile visibility along with lower bounce rates and longer stays on pages.

Implementation Partner: Americaneagle.com

Healthcare

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the healthcare industry.

UC Christus Health Network

UC Christus was looking to increase two key conversions with its website: appointment bookings and medical program registrations. They took advantage of Sitefinity’s built-in analytics and personalization capabilities to tailor their online experiences to a vast number of personas, while using email marketing connectors to extend the digital experience beyond web. In turn, conversion increased for the health program increase around 80%.

Implementation Partner: LFi

Spectrum Health Lakeland

Spectrum Health needed a website that supported the creation of a loyal customer base and enabled hundreds of employees to manage content independently. Utilizing Sitefinity’s headless capabilities, content development and deployment is agile, allowing Lakeland to easily update content across all 32 microsites. Ultimately, Lakeland serves a clean, easy to navigate website with relevant, updated content to attain and retain customers.

Implementation Partner: Enqbator

Premier Health

Premier Health migrated nine sites and 5,0000 pages to Sitefinity from an old CMS system—all done completely in-house. They used this opportunity to launch their new brand and brand voice and successfully integrated with PayPal, Trust Commerce, Mailjet, Jotform and Stericycle. By having a CTA oriented and search-first experience they deliver a straightforward and conversion optimized experience.

Implementation Partner: Internal Implementation, Premier Health

Manufacturing

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the manufacturing industry.

Algol

Algol moved from an old CMS to Sitefinity, to gain a more flexible, extensible and easy-to-use experience for end users. They utilize load balancing, localization, multisite management, and roles and permissions to develop digital experiences that are easy to create and manage. They have included new content on their website such as news, articles and blogs from subsidiaries.

Implementation Partner: Kraftvaerk Finland

Aprilaire Partners

Aprilaire was looking to encourage more users to sign up through the site to become an Aprilaire Partner as well as increase the number of active Aprilaire Partners with dashboard logins and activity within their dashboard. They implemented a mobile-first experience so that partners could login to their dashboards on-the-go to find access documents, check their leads, and manage their account. Their join page has seen an a large increase in number of visits.


Website: https://www.aprilairepartners.com/

Implementation Partner: Xivic Inc.

Stoner Molding

Stoner Molding was looking to move its large, technical product catalog from a current system that was difficult to maintain and update. They integrated Sitefinity with SmarterCommerce to allow users to easily shop their products online, through their many offering categories. The site offers an easy experience that reduces developer backlog and encourages CI/CD.

Implementation Partner: Internal Implementation, Stoner Solutions

Public Sector

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the public sector industry.

Aquarion Water Company

Aquarion Water Company wanted to enhance and streamline business processes while making critical information easily accessible to the public. Using Sitefinity’s module builder, custom content types, and Progress Kendo UI, they built a custom building a new alerts and outages system. By utilizing roles and permissions, workflows and site sync, content that took hours to update now takes only minutes.

Implementation Partner: Chateaux Software Development

Central Bank of Chile

The Central Bank of Chile aimed to increase the applications for admission to training programs through their website, while delivering a very secure experience, being a financial institution. They took advantage of Sitefinity’s leading security practices and intuitive UI to create a streamlined user experience across various personas. With their new digital experience, participation in their programs increased by 55% and associated development costs reduced by 35%.

Implementation Partner: LFi

ALCOSAN

ALCOSAN (Allegheny County Sanitary Authority) wanted to find a CMS that would enable it to showcase information in a clean, easy to navigate way, utilize web analytics to improve the journey, and connect to existing databases. They utilized Sitefinity’s advanced form capabilities as well as its flexibility to connect to Everbridge. This enabled ALCOSAN to ensure visitors had a streamlined experience—no matter what device they were using, where they were, or what they were looking to find.

Implementation Partner: McCormick Taylor

Technology

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the technology industry.

Smooth Fusion

Smooth Fusion was looking to convert more of its site visitors to leads, with more engaging design and content. They rebuilt the site from scratch when upgrading to the latest version of Sitefinity to incorporate eye-catching graphic design and a clean navigation. They were able to rebuild the site using only Sitefinity modules and were able to go-live with the new implementation in record time.

Implementation Partner: Internal, Current Sitefinity Partner

Bayshore Solutions

Bayshore Solutions wanted to showcase its own branding and technical capabilities that they offer to clients on their company website. They moved from an old CMS to Sitefinity and utilized its ease of use and SEO functionality to improve aesthetics, drive search engine optimization and improve site performance. With Sitefinity, they achieved 26% increase in traffic from organic, paid, and referral searches and increased the number of qualified leads.

Implementation Partner: Internal, Current Sitefinity Partner

Dock9

Dock9 was ready to roll out of our new brand experience to increase online engagement. They utilized Sitefinity’s responsive design capabilities to allow visitors to receive a seamless experience no matter what device they’re on. They were able to implement a new site in less than two months with only a four-person team, while delivering an experience that is leading to higher engagement and conversions on the site.

Implementation Partner: Internal, Current Sitefinity Partner

Transportation & Logistics

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the transportation and logistics industry.

Titan Machinery, Inc.

Titan Machinery wanted to move to a CMS that ensure high site performance and intuitive content organization and editing. They synced with New Holand AG and Case IH and targeted based on location, to show visitors the most current, relevant offers, in addition to connecting to Eloqua CRM to track users across the entire buyer journey. Because of these efforts, they saw a 153% increase in sessions, 127% increase in users and a 57% decrease in bounce rate.

Implementation Partner: Team SI

Premier Trailer Leasing

Premier Trailer Leasing’s goal was to provide users a modernized online experience through an advanced customer portal and real-time access to trailer information. With Sitefinity, they implemented a digital experience that appeals to both audiences—offering a single point of entry for the consumer facing website and authenticated portals for customers/clients and employees. Using the MVC widgets, they greatly reduced the time to market of the new site launch.

Implementation Partner: Internal, Premier Trailer Leasing

Dublin Airport

Dublin Airport redesigned its old Sitefinity site in hopes to create a great user experience for travelers, improve brand awareness and drive conversions of revenue generating services. With the new implementation business travelers can securely purchase add-on services to their flights without leaving the airport website, positively impacting sales. On top of that, their website was named in the top three most secure international airports, by ImmuniWeb in January 2020.

Implementation Partner: Arekibo

Travel & Tourism

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation within the travel and tourism industry.

Carnival Grand Port

Carnival Grand Port wanted to facilitate effective internal development and content creation workflows, as well as communication to visitors on upcoming events. They utilized roles and permissions to drive internal productivity while Sitefinity’s ease of use allows timely information to quickly be added to the site. They were able to implement their new site within just 30 days from when the initial concept was finalized.

Implementation Partner: Bayshore Solutions

Smile Acadimos

Smile Acadimos’s goal was to heighten its brand identity by providing a modernized website with a clean layout and a smooth navigation that would be a breeze for any type of visitor or persona. Using Sitefinity, they were able to represent their vast different types of offerings that change due to seasonality in an engaging way that drives conversions. They saw 22% increase in sales autumn 2018 vs. autumn 2019, 22% increase in sales Christmas 2018 vs. Christmas 2019.

Implementation Partner: DOPE Studio

Best Western

Best Western wanted to drive mobile conversions, ultimately driving user convenience and revenue. Their Sitefinity implementation was redeveloped with MVC and Kendo UI which aided the designers and developers to create an enhanced UX that enhances the sites functionality and conversion rates. In turn, mobile conversion rates jumped from 1.3% to more than 2%.

Implementation Partner: Spinbox

Multisite Management

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation for implementations focused on managing multiple websites.

Mapei

Mapei needed a CMS that could manage Mapei Group’s multiple website environments and was easy to update for several users. Sitefinity enables them to manage five websites, 62 different languages, 240,000 web pages, and 66-plus active custom modules in one system. With Sitefinity, they’re able to handle large numbers of traffic across all sites with strong performance—managing 7.3 million pageviews and 1 million file downloads in one year.

Implementation Partner: MediaEngine

Nova Scotia Power

Nova Scotia Power wanted to digitally transform its visitor experience—while being able to manage 950 pages, 1,080 images and videos and 2,578 documents. They integrated with critical solutions to streamline cross-functional business processes such as Kubra, Azure Search, Azure AD, Today’s Power and Taleo. Sitefinity’s hosting architecture proved robust enough to handle large spikes in traffic—handling a double in traffic in an eight-hour period.

Implementation Partner: SilverTech Inc.

Chumash Casino

Chumash Casino wanted to drive conversion rates and user productivity for its multiple corporate websites. They created a custom promotions management module that displays casino promotion data across all pages automatically, eliminating repeat tasks to update that information. Single sign on was implemented to ensure secure access back office system data.

Implementation Partner: Visus LLC

Ecommerce

These websites were recognized for their excellence in design, user experience and innovation for implementations focused on ecommerce.

Leer

Leer wanted to drive more B2C commerce with its website. By leveraging the SmarterCommerce for Sitefinity integration, they effectively showcase its trucks and equipment and facilitate purchases. The site showcases currently available Leer products that match the visitor’s vehicle and routes customer leads to selected dealers and allow for the necessary communication and follow-up. Site Sync facilitates faster transitioning from development to staging and to production deployment.

Implementation Partner: SmarterCommerce by Premier

State Electric Supply Company

State Electric needed a new site that could function and display as good as, or better than any major online competitors. They integrated Sitefinity with ROC Commerce and SharpSpring SXe Punchout which runs on Progress OpenEdge to deliver a high-quality B2C look and feel while having the functionality B2B users need. By streamlining the customer journey, they have increased conversion rates by 120%.

Implementation Partner: Americaneagle.com

Kirby Risk

Kirby Risk had two platforms were implemented over the years, but both fell short in developing new functionality and effectively driving productivity for end users UI/UX. Looking to achieve B2B/B2C operational efficiency, Kirby Risk integrated with ROC Commerce, Eclipse Ariba Punchout Coupa Punchout, and SciQuest Punchout, which runs on Progress OpenEdge. By utilizing Sitefinity partner integrations, Hawksearch and Live Chat, they’re able to engage customers in real-time.

Implementation Partner: Americaneagle.com

Graphic Design

These websites were recognized for their excellence in user experience and innovation for implementations focused on exceptional, eye-catching graphic design.

Pro Beauty Association

Pro Beauty Association needed find a new CMS because only technical staff could even make updates on the old one. They chose Sitefinity so that they could enhance the UI/UX and marketers could continuously update marketing messaging and content to deliver a modern experience. Since moving to Sitefinity, they’ve reduced their bounce rate and increase time on the site.

Implementation Partner: Vanguard Technology

MasterControl

MasterConrol wanted to revamp its brand to show and stand out in the crowded technology industry. Sitefinity’s ease of customization and flexibility enabled them to integrate several external systems intetnally—Salesforce, Pardot, Youtube, Uberflip, LMS, ServiceNow, Influitive, Showpad, Onetrust, Dialog tech, Evergage, Mouseflow and GTM. They use Sitefinity’s multilingual capabilities to translate 3,000-plus pages in two languages.

Implementation Partner: Internal Implementation, MasterControl

Family Building Society

Family Building Society was aiming to optimize its customer journey to reduce call volume and increase site traffic. The site is personalized for every audience—with a personalized homepage for first-time visitor and personalized dashboard for brokers to log-in to. This digital experience automated various manual processes of underwriting, driving operational efficiency, and increased site traffic by 60%.

Implementation Partner: Appius International Ltd

Give a standing ovation for our 2020 Website of the Year Finalists. And don’t forget to vote for your favorites.

Amy

Amy Ward

Amy Ward was a Senior Product Marketing Specialist at Progress.

Comments

Comments are disabled in preview mode.
Topics

Sitefinity Training and Certification Now Available.

Let our experts teach you how to use Sitefinity's best-in-class features to deliver compelling digital experiences.

Learn More
Latest Stories
in Your Inbox

Subscribe to get all the news, info and tutorials you need to build better business apps and sites

Loading animation