Content Management excellence with CoreMedia: An emerging DAM and Content Hub Solution

Phoenix Contact has been at the forefront of technological innovation for over 100 years. With a presence in more than 100 countries and a workforce of 21,000 employees worldwide, the Phoenix Contact Group offers innovative products, solutions and digitalization expertise for the electrification, networking and automation of all sectors of the economy and infrastructure. The family-run company empowers industry and society to transform into a sustainable world with long-term growth prospects for everyone.

To meet the growing demands of a global market, Phoenix Contact identified the need to transition from a fragmented single-channel communication strategy to a unified omnichannel approach. The company's existing setup involves approximately 20 different communication channels, each managed by distinct technical solutions. This diversity leads to inefficiencies and inconsistencies in content delivery, prompting the need for a comprehensive digital transformation. 

Phoenix Contact is now collaborating with Bitgrip, a CoreMedia platinum partner, to implement a long-term content management strategy powered by CoreMedia Content Cloud. This partnership aims to unify Phoenix Contact’s content management processes, ensuring consistent and efficient content delivery across all channels in the near future.

The first phase of the project focused on integrating a company-wide digital asset management (DAM) system into CoreMedia. This integration involved creating a custom document type within CoreMedia to store and manage assets, including images and associated metadata. Over 170,000 assets were successfully migrated from the old DAM system to the new one, leveraging CoreMedia’s Ingest service and a custom-built middleware solution. 

To facilitate seamless access to assets across multiple client systems, Phoenix Contact adopted a headless approach using CoreMedia’s headless server. This setup utilized GraphQL and REST APIs to ensure efficient and flexible content delivery, allowing client systems to request precisely the data they need. CoreMedia’s Image Transformation Service (IMTS) was employed to handle high volumes of image transformation requests, enhancing performance and scalability. 

Phoenix Contact implemented an automated workflow for asset ordering and management. This workflow, supported by CoreMedia’s Event Hub service and a custom Event Hub Dispatcher, ensured that assets were created, updated, and approved efficiently. The entire process, from ordering an asset to its publication and use, was streamlined, reducing manual intervention and enhancing operational efficiency. 

The implementation of CoreMedia has already brought substantial benefits to Phoenix Contact: 

• Unified content management: CoreMedia will serve as the central hub for all assets, ensuring future consistency and quality across channels. 

• Efficiency gains: Automated workflows and integrations have reduced manual workload, allowing the content team to focus on strategic tasks. 

• Scalability: CoreMedia’s scalable infrastructure supports high volumes of content requests, ensuring reliable performance even during peak times. 

• Future-ready: The phased approach allows Phoenix Contact to gradually integrate additional channels, with plans to incorporate web, print, social media, email marketing, and blogs.

With the successful implementation of CoreMedia's content management system, Phoenix Contact will be well-positioned to continue evolving its digital ecosystem. Future initiatives will focus on further enhancing user engagement and expanding digital capabilities to meet the dynamic needs of its stakeholders. 

Through strategic collaboration with Bitgrip and CoreMedia, Phoenix Contact will successfully modernize its content management infrastructure, laying a robust foundation for future growth and innovation in the industrial automation landscape.