Ruukki had several options to consider, including SAP which it already used for enterprise resource planning. But after consideration, the team determined the best approach was to keep Sitefinity as its content management system (CMS) and migrate from Web Forms to ASP.NET MVC, “With MVC, you can prioritize how the images JavaScript, CSS and overall delivery of the content load. The structure of the HTML is free of complexities, making it ideal for developers and for a highly optimized site.”
Being experienced in MVC, Ruukki’s implementing partner made a straightforward Web Forms to MVC transition. “We rewrote the widgets that we had, but managed to keep all the integrations, the data models, the modules in the module builder and all the content in those. We did an information architecture facelift for the new brand and some of the content, but it wasn’t a big deal to recreate the pages,” said Jovchev.
The team also preserved Ruukki’s technical independence, “With Sitefinity, we can do most of the work on the website ourselves. We maintain more than 30 sites and launched campaigns with a fairly small team,” said Mika Autio, Web Manager of Ruukki Construction. “The template editing was something that no other CMS on the market could offer—and still doesn’t.”
Centralized management was key, given that Ruukki has both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) channels and a wide dealer network coming to Ruukki.com for product information, resources and documentation from many countries, speaking many languages. To efficiently run its business, the Ruukki site has vital integrations with SAP, Eloqua, AWS, InRiver and more than a few country-specific chat bots—making site performance critically important. The new site would dramatically improve and modernize the company’s overall digital experience.