SEATTLE, August 21, 2018

Avanade, the leading digital innovator on the Microsoft ecosystem, announced today that the company, as well as several of its clients, are regional recipients of a 2018 Sitecore Experience Award. The awards honor leaders using Sitecore technology to significantly impact the customer experience. Avanade received the award for the Fastest Time to Market (North America) and is identified as a partner company on three other Sitecore Experience awards:

• Merck & Co. Inc (North America): Best Web Content Experience
• Volvo Cars (Nordics): Best Use of Sitecore as a Digital Experience Platform (DXP)
• Open Universities Australia (Australia & New Zealand): Best Business ROI

The Sitecore Experience Awards recognize brands that have built truly customer-centric digital experiences with Sitecore®, the global leader in digital experience management software.

Avanade’s Fastest Time to Market honor recognized work with brand experience evolution. Using Sitecore Experience Manager, Avanade revamped its website, better positioning Avanade as the leading digital innovator on the Microsoft ecosystem. Visitors can more easily access relevant thought leadership content and information about business solutions they are seeking, while also finding specific client case studies detailing those solutions. Since implementing Sitecore Experience Manager, the company has seen a 72% improvement in visitor click-throughs and an increase in the engaged user base, with more than 30% of users actively interacting with the brand.

“As the platform behind our website, Sitecore helped us realize results quickly, leveraging the same agile principles, methods and tools we use with our clients to design, develop and launch transformational brand experiences,” said Stella Goulet, CMO, Avanade. “It’s important to help position Avanade as the leading digital innovator on Sitecore and the Microsoft ecosystem, as well as serving as an example of how we help clients transform their own organizations by enhancing their customer experience.”

Merck & Co. begins a new chapter for the Manuals

The Best Web Content Experience awarded to Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, recognizes the company’s efforts to digitize and modernize a set of medical reference materials known as The Merck Manuals in the United States and Canada, and MSD Manuals across the rest of the world. The company used the Sitecore Experience Platform to help meet its goal of bringing high-quality, trustworthy health care information to 3 billion health care professionals and patients worldwide by 2020. Following the deployment, traffic to the Manuals’ website increased to approximately 450,000 impressions garnered each day, with more than 14 million sessions logged each month.

“This is a great example of good user experience, “said Michael DeFerrari, director of digital publications for the Merck Manuals. “Not only does the end consumer—such as physicians and patients—get a great experience, so do those who update and publish the content. It is critical to have an excellent platform with efficient, user-friendly, and well-configured tools.”

Volvo Cars’ digital transformation drives innovation

Receiving the award for Best Use of Sitecore for DXP, Volvo Cars used several Sitecore products, including Sitecore Experience Manager, Sitecore Experience Platform and Sitecore Federated Experience Manager. The digital experience initiative redefined the way people experience Volvo Cars online, helping to deliver an agile, innovative and efficient digital experience for customers on a global scale. In fact, Volvo Cars has seen a 31% increase in total web traffic and a 7% increase in global sales.

“With many consumers already decided on the car they want long before visiting a dealership, selling is increasingly occurring online,” said Rowan Holloway, senior platform product manager at Volvo Cars. “This initiative has not only provided us with a new and profitable sales channel that will only grow over time, but also places Volvo firmly at the forefront of digital transformation.”

Open Universities Australia makes higher education more accessible via online marketplace

Open Universities Australia (OUA), an education marketplace positioned as the go-to destination for online higher education in Australia, received the Best Business ROI award from Sitecore. OUA has leveraged the Sitecore Experience Platform as the foundation for transforming the experience of prospective and existing students across their journey from choice through to successful study completion. The platform also provides a more seamless experience for university providers. The new platform has begun to drive a significant increase in online lead capture and new student enrollments and represents an exciting new phase of growth for OUA.

“This project has fundamentally changed the way OUA delivers access and choice to students seeking higher education opportunities,” said Catherine Reynolds, head of consumer marketing at OUA. “It has also provided the foundations for future improvements, allowing us to address immediate challenges while building solutions that will drive results for us long-term.”

About the Sitecore Experience Awards

The Sitecore Experience Awards is an annual, international competition that honors Sitecore’s customers and their partners for excellence in deploying a Sitecore solution to deliver an outstanding customer experience. The 2018 Sitecore Experience Awards saw nearly 200 global entries in seven categories, with winners clearly demonstrating how the Sitecore platform was used to make significant, measurable progress in experience management for customers, business users, and stakeholders. As category award winners, Avanade and its client partners are automatically considered for the Ultimate Experience Award, which will be announced at Sitecore Symposium 2018.

About Avanade

Avanade is the leading provider of innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions and design-led experiences delivered through the power of people and the Microsoft ecosystem. Our professionals bring bold, fresh thinking combined with technology, business and industry expertise to help fuel transformation and growth for our clients and their customers. Avanade has 30,000 digitally connected people across 24 countries, bringing clients the best thinking through a collaborative culture that honors diversity and reflects the communities in which we operate. Majority owned by Accenture, Avanade was founded in 2000 by Accenture LLP and Microsoft Corporation. Learn more at www.avanade.com.