References

As an independent service provider, I played a crucial role in a multi-stage project that involved the comprehensive relaunch of the website of a renowned government institution in the finance sector in the DACH region. The project centered around replacing an outdated and proprietary system with a modern CMS and a middleware responsible for the migration of existing data, numerous publications, and the provision of custom functionalities. Due to an NDA policy, more detailed technical information cannot be provided.

The challenge involved transitioning the website to a modern CMS and ensuring a smooth migration of all existing data. Additionally, customized features were required to meet the specific needs of the client.

Drawing upon my extensive experience in backend development and knowledge of Magnolia CMS, I made a valuable contribution to the success of the project. It was an inspiring experience to be involved in such a significant project and contribute to the modernization of the website.

The Bremer Tageszeitungen AG is a regional publisher that primarily distributes various regional newspapers in Bremen and the surrounding areas. This includes the daily newspaper Weser-Kurier, which is circulated in Bremen and its vicinity.

The Weser-Kurier and the Bremer Tageszeitungen AG were faced with the challenge of integrating intelligent text recognition and classification systems into their editorial process, as well as fundamentally modernizing their web presence, encompassing both production and presentation systems.

The need for modernization was primarily driven by technical requirements, as the existing legacy systems were no longer being developed, reached their capacity limits, and offered limited design capabilities to the editors. In addition to the technical necessity, the current system provided little room for efficient integration with other processing or production systems.

We had the opportunity to provide comprehensive support to Weser-Kurier in the redesign, development, and migration from legacy to new systems. As a result, a new solution was developed in collaboration with Weser-Kurier that could meet all the new requirements.

The solution is based on Digital Collections (DCX, now Stibo DX) as the production system and Eidos CMS as the presentation system. Both systems are tailored solutions for the publishing and media industry, with Eidos CMS being used by the likes of the Washington Post.

In addition to the adjustments made to the editorial and CMS systems, we successfully created an event-driven middleware consisting of Spring Microservices and RabbitMQ, which acts as a secure, redundant, and fault-tolerant communication layer between the production and presentation systems.

Due to the replacement of legacy systems, we also designed and executed a comprehensive data migration, transferring the entire data inventory of the past 20 years. With our designed and developed migration solution, which encompassed the transformations and data transport of approximately 1 million news articles, agency reports, and photo series totaling around 3.4 million images, we achieved an extremely high conversion rate of 99.82%.

By combining DCX, Eidos CMS, and the event-driven middleware, we helped Weser-Kurier successfully relaunch their web presence.

We followed an iterative development approach, which positively impacted the close collaboration with the respective teams involved. New features and progress in the development of the middleware, data migration, and integration of third-party systems were presented at regular intervals, and continuous feedback was obtained from stakeholders. Scrum was used as an agile framework to ensure flexibility and transparency.

The new platform provided a smoother and secure process for content creation, enrichment, and publication, faster loading times, and overall improved performance. Weser-Kurier received numerous positive feedback from their readership, particularly due to the user-friendly and clearer design, as well as the enhanced automated categorization of their articles.

During my role as a consultant and architect, I had the unique opportunity to contribute to a significant project at a major German home improvement retailer. The primary focus during the presales and evaluation phase of the project was to assess the most suitable Content Management System (CMS). Through close collaboration with relevant stakeholders, we captured and defined comprehensive requirements that the target CMS needed to fulfill. By carefully analyzing and comparing various CMS systems, we ultimately identified the optimal solution for the project.

From a technical perspective, the emphasis was on conceptualizing a hybrid utilization of the CMS, encompassing both a headless and non-headless approach. This involved seamlessly integrating it into the existing content management platform and catering to multiple output channels such as web and mobile applications. To achieve this, we employed a comprehensive tech stack, which included Magnolia CMS, Kubernetes, AWS cloud services, and various microservices. Leveraging these modern technologies allowed us to establish a scalable and reliable infrastructure while ensuring flexible content management and delivery.

Participating in this groundbreaking project and developing innovative solutions was an exciting challenge. Our expertise in CMS and underlying technologies enabled us to comprehend the specific requirements of the home improvement market and find the right solution.

During my tenure as a backend developer at a leading hotel booking portal, I had the opportunity to contribute to a groundbreaking software development project. Within the scope of this project, specialized features were developed specifically tailored to the needs of business clients.

The main objective of the project was to create a sophisticated web application primarily targeted for B2B usage. The application allowed customers to log in to the portal and upload data, which was automatically transformed by the application for availability in business intelligence. Based on this information, a selection of hotels matching the customer’s criteria was presented.

To visualize the hotel suggestions, an interactive map based on Google Maps was utilized, providing geographical locations of the hotels. Upon further exploration, teasers displaying additional information and direct links to the detailed pages of each hotel listing were displayed. Once the customer made a selection of hotels, an automated yearly offer with hotel room availability was provided.

This project exemplified our ability to develop innovative and tailored solutions for our customers. Through close collaboration, we created a pioneering web application that streamlined the hotel booking process for our customers and facilitated informed decision-making based on comprehensive data analysis.

As part of a significant software migration project at mobile.de, I played a role in restructuring the existing monolithic web application. The main objective was to transform the web application into standalone and deployable microservices. A team of developers worked extensively on code separation and updating to modern technologies like Spring Boot.

During the project, we utilized a technology stack that included Spring Boot, Docker, Apache Mesos, as well as various database and messaging systems. These modern technologies enabled us to enhance scalability, flexibility, and maintainability of the applications.

The successful migration to microservices has helped mobile.de modernize its technological infrastructure and meet the growing demands. By leveraging these advanced technologies, we were able to improve the efficiency of the applications and ensure smooth deployment in a containerized environment.

It was an exciting and challenging experience to contribute to such a significant project and support mobile.de in advancing its technological landscape.

In the years 2017-2019, we had the privilege of successfully supporting Bechtle AG, one of the largest IT system houses in Germany, with our development expertise throughout the relaunch of their digital offering until the go-live.

Within the project, we designed and developed a comprehensive eCommerce solution that seamlessly integrated the full potential of Magnolia CMS with SAP Hybris as the shop backbone.

Prior to the project commencement, Bechtle AG faced the challenge of modernizing their existing eCommerce platform due to limited content creation capabilities. Alongside new design possibilities, fundamental new features were needed to meet the growing demands of the rapidly expanding market.

Another challenge was the creation of a scalable infrastructure based on the latest standards, utilizing popular container orchestration frameworks such as Kubernetes.

To address these key aspects of the project, we developed a tailored solution that integrated content with product data using Magnolia CMS and SAP Hybris. Magnolia CMS allowed us to create a user-friendly and flexible content management environment, while Spring Boot formed the foundation for developing additional microservices. This combination enabled us to customize the platform and seamlessly integrate it with other systems.

We followed an iterative development approach, working closely with Bechtle AG’s team. We implemented new features and modules at regular intervals, continuously gathering feedback from stakeholders. Agile methods, such as Scrum, were applied to ensure flexibility and transparency.

The implementation of our solution resulted in significant improvements. The new platform provided an enhanced user experience, faster loading times, and overall improved performance. Bechtle AG received positive feedback from customers regarding the new platform, its user-friendly design, and the enhanced customer experience.

We take pride in having supported Bechtle AG in this groundbreaking project and express our gratitude for their trust in our team. The successful collaboration demonstrates that our tailored solution had a positive impact on the company.