Bekaert Sitecore Site of the Year finalist and winner in category 'Manufacturing'

Bekaert, global market and technological leader in advanced metal transformation and advanced materials and coatings, has been elected International Sitecore 'Site of the Year' finalist and the winner in the category 'Manufacturing' with its brand new website www.bekaert.com.

The Bekaert website was developed by The Reference in close collaboration with Bekaert’s Corporate Communications Team. Selected from more than 1 500 users, Bekaert and The Reference are being recognized for their use of Sitecore technology in developing effective and advanced online strategies.

The new global corporate website focuses on uniform and consistent communication in order to strengthen the Bekaert brand and its online presence. Bekaert succeeds in managing thousands of web pages by means of a powerful content management system. Bekaert CMS users from all over the world can contribute to the site via Sitecore, without losing the advantage of centralized content validation.

“Bekaert and The Reference have demonstrated excellence in creating a website that combines a creative design with rich data sources and applications to guide, inform and motivate site visitors.” said Kim Elsass, Chief Information Officer of Sitecore. “We were impressed by the nature of the overall user experience, and we are proud to recognize and congratulate Bekaert and The Reference on their achievement.”

“Before making our selection, we studied all major CMS-vendors”, said Stephen Delvoye, e-Communications Manager at Bekaert. “The Reference suggested the implementation of Sitecore. I have to admit that I was surprised about the usability of this CMS and it is a pleasure to see that all of our future plans – mobile, extranet – seem to fit perfectly into this system. The overall advantage of Sitecore is the ease-to-use (just half a day of training) and the fact that all content contributors worldwide can manage their part of the website without the necessity of calling a helpdesk”.

“The Reference was the first agency in Belgium to start using Sitecore as a CMS. This award clearly demonstrates this was a good decision and acknowledges our leading position in content management solutions for international organizations”, says Anja Cappelle, Managing Director at The Reference. Sitecore’s 'Site of the Year' contest recognizes customers who have leveraged Sitecore’s technology to develop the most outstanding websites. 
 

About Bekaert
Bekaert (www.bekaert.com) is a global technological leader in its two core competences: advanced metal transformation and advanced materials and coatings, and a market leader in drawn wire products and applications. Bekaert (Euronext Brussels: BEKB) is a global company with headquarters in Belgium, employing over 23 000 people worldwide. Serving customers in 120 countries, Bekaert pursues sustainable profitable growth in all its activities and generates annual combined sales of € 4 billion.

About The Reference
Founded in 1993, The Reference (www.reference.be) was the first Belgian Web Agency and a European pioneer. Today it is an established and leading full service interactive agency, part of the Emakina network, listed on Alternext. It focuses on building brand experiences that work. The Reference is located in Ghent, Belgium, from where it serves its clients internationally. A team of 60 highly qualified professionals explore and extend the borders of strategy, creativity and technology, mixing these heterogeneous skills in attractive, usable and powerful web projects.