Damen Shipyards Group wins Sitecore Business Transformation Award

Damen Shipyards Group, together with its website partner Evident, has won the ‘Benelux Sitecore Experience Award 2014’ in the category ‘Business Transformation’. This prize is awarded to the best Sitecore solution, meaning a solution which generates measurable, effective business results and a very good user experience. It was Damen’s online product catalogue www.products.Damen.com that was favoured by the jury. This commercially successful website is gradually transforming Damen’s sales processes, the company said in its press release.

The online product catalogue serves both existing and potential clients by being aimed at their inquiries and needs with a visually and powerful presentation of vessels and services. This happens at a detailed level – if the required vessel type is in Damen’s portfolio, you find what you seek. This makes it user-friendly and clients actively recognize this.

Indeed, the goal of the new product catalogue is lead generation, followed by concrete sales. Several vessels have already been delivered to new customers who handled their orientation, lead-qualification and first contact online. Damen’s platform is based on CMS Sitecore.

Björn Smets, Damen’s Online Marketing Manager says: “The new Online Product Catalogue shows more than just vessels. Almost our entire product portfolio is now online, from tugs to freighters and from ferries to fast crew suppliers. We don’t only show a list of technical details; the content and information is neatly wrapped-up and the ‘story’ is told in a powerful way with video’s, graphics en 3D-visualisations. Of course we still have some way to go to do all this for every single vessel type, but we are getting there fast. We aim to provide the best online product experience for the customer.”

“We show different content to different audiences,” Björn Smets continues, “The thing they have in common, of course, is that they are searching the internet for a commercial ship to suit their immediate or future needs. The system is interactive, which results in Damen continuously being in online contact with existing and potential clients.”

The Sitecore Experience Award was presented to Damen and Evident at a dedicated event in Hal 4.1 in Rotterdam on December 10th, 2014.

Damen Shipyards Group
Damen Shipyards Group operates 32 ship- and repair yards, employing 8,000 people worldwide. Damen has delivered more than 5,000 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers approximately 160 vessels annually to customers worldwide. Based on its unique, standardised ship design concept Damen is able to guarantee consistent quality.

Damen’s focus on standardisation, modular construction and keeping vessels in stock leads to short delivery times, low ‘total cost of ownership’, high resale value and reliable performance. Furthermore, Damen vessels are based on thorough R&D and proven technology.

Damen offers a wide range of products, including: tugs, workboats, naval and patrol vessels, high-speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, vessels for the offshore industry, ferries, pontoons and super yachts.

For nearly all vessel types Damen offers a broad range of services, such as maintenance, spare parts delivery, training and transfer of (shipbuilding) know-how. Finally, Damen offers a variety of marine components, especially nozzles, (flap-type) rudders, steering gear, anchors, anchor chains and steel works.

Damen Shiprepair & Conversion
In addition to ship design and shipbuilding, Damen Shiprepair & Conversion offers a network of 16 repair and conversion yards worldwide, with dry docks ranging up to 420 x 80 metres. Conversion projects range from adapting vessels to meet today’s requirements and regulations to the complete conversion of large offshore structures. DS&C handles 1,500 repair and maintenance jobs annually.