“Union Investment has relied on Magnolia as our central DXP for nearly a decade. The best-of-breed approach guarantees seamless integrations and maximum reliability. As equal partners, the collaboration with Magnolia is extremely valuable. Magnolia is essential in helping us reach our target audiences more effectively and supporting our growth on an ongoing basis. Especially valuable is the collaborative partnership with PRODYNA, which is always based on transparency and trust. PRODYNA is a reliable partner for us, supporting us in further developing and operating our DXP.”

- Christopher Chard, Head of Web Content Management Systems at Union Investment

About the client

Union Investment, an active asset manager based in Frankfurt am Main, was founded in 1956. They offer a wide range of investment solutions across various asset classes and regions.

Before migrating to Magnolia, Union Investment managed 70 separate websites and portals based on different code bases. The migration project aimed to consolidate all multilingual websites and components, decouple the user interface from the backend implementation, and migrate the platform to the Microsoft Azure Cloud. At the same time, Union Investment's marketing team introduced a new corporate identity and style guide.

The challenges

A complex architecture developed over the years had to be transformed‍

Union Investment faced the challenge of operating and maintaining their 70 different brand and promotional websites at an excessively high cost. With the increase in the number of websites and associated applications such as search functions, financial calculators, and fund databases, complexity also increased, making management increasingly cumbersome and expensive. Therefore, it was necessary to simplify Union Investment's online presence.

To create a unified code base and technology platform, address design issues, and reduce manual effort in user management, Union Investment decided to migrate all their B2C websites to a single Digital Experience Platform with Magnolia at its core.

Reaching the goal

Implementing a One-DXP-Strategy

Union Investment reduced the number of their editorial components from 100 to 40 to create a unified set now used across all websites. To facilitate the work of editors and improve the acceptance of the new platform among internal users, Union Investment supported business units through automated content migration. This was carried out through a Robotic Process Automation-based approach, greatly reducing the need for manual content transfer.

As a Magnolia Platinum Partner, PRODYNA worked closely with Union Investment's architects to implement the DXP strategy. PRODYNA implemented the aforementioned component set, various content apps, and additional features such as localized URLs. Additionally, PRODYNA supported the implementation of business applications on the websites, as well as the ability to create multiple brand identities using the same component set.

PRODYNA played a key role in integrating Magnolia with Union Investment's Azure Active Directory via Single Sign-On (SSO), allowing business units to easily manage access permissions for Magnolia—an advancement that renders manual user management obsolete.

Thanks to PRODYNA's support, not only all B2C brand and campaign websites are now running on Magnolia DXP, but also Union Investment's B2B portals.

Consistently separating data management from presentation

A significant drawback and a major reason for the high costs of the previous CMS solution lay in the heavily integrated implementation of the frontend. For every customization, numerous revisions were required, involving the participation of at least two external agencies.

The implementation addresses this by incorporating web components that encapsulate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript logic for presentation. PRODYNA implemented a template-free approach, utilizing Java classes instead. These are easier and faster to develop, quicker to debug, and more efficient to test.

Modern Infrastructure

Union Investment decided to operate Magnolia in the Microsoft Azure Cloud. PRODYNA created a scalable concept and implemented pipelines that utilize Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) to operate Magnolia on three stages.

PRODYNA also implemented REST interfaces to allow third-party applications to interact with Magnolia through Azure API Management.

The current infrastructure implementation supports straightforward and rapid vertical scaling and also offers the possibility of horizontal scaling should it be necessary later on. Additionally, the new configuration promotes parallel development by different teams by providing dedicated Magnolia environments for each new feature. These environments include a complete set of test data managed in a central Magnolia instance.

The product

A flexible DXP platform for cost reduction and faster implementation.

The collaboration between Union Investment, PRODYNA, and Magnolia to realize the One-DXP strategy led to an improved user experience for both editors and end-users. This resulted in significant savings in operational and maintenance costs and increased efficiency in making changes and introducing new web presences. With the seamless integration of static web applications and versatile headless APIs by Magnolia, Union Investment now has an adaptable and future-oriented platform. Additionally, utilizing a major cloud service provider allows for vertical scaling and keeps options open for potential horizontal scaling.

PRODYNA’s Services

PRODYNA has been working very closely with Union Investment in the context of the Magnolia Digital Experience Platform since April 2020. The following services have been provided since then from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Serbia, and Greece.

• IT cloud architecture; solution design, and implementation
• Implementation of Terraform scripts and Azure Pipelines (DevOps)
• Magnolia, Java, and frontend implementation
• Implementation and configuration of Azure Functions, Azure API Management, Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS), and Azure ADB2C
• Operations, maintenance, and support of the AKS clusters and the Magnolia DXP
• Requirements engineering and business analysis
• Support for agile transformation with agile coaches and Scrum Masters
• Test management
• User experience design
• Terraform and Kubernetes trainings