CASE STUDY a headless cloud architecture powered by a REST API layer and Next. js. From a front-end development perspective, we used the Chakra UI component library. This setup allowed for a highly flexible and scalable digital platform.
Thanks to Sitefinity’ s drag-and-drop interface, developers and marketers could work simultaneously – developers focused on widget development, customisation and back-end integrations, while marketers created pages without dependencies on developers. This significantly reduced development time and prevented disruptions in our operations and public facing facilities.
The Brand Agency designed a unified information architecture, using shared taxonomies to structure content efficiently. This enabled better search functionality and improved contextual links between content and race data.
The project was completed in eight months, with a 30 – 50 per cent reduction in time required to develop individual components due to the optimized development workflows and the use of Sitefinity Next. js.
The Brand Agency’ s technology team brought deep expertise and an innovative approach that hugely contributed to the project outcomes. They worked closely with Progress’ product engineering team, which played a crucial role in ensuring that the new platform was optimised for high performance.
What benefits / outcomes came out of this project? showcasing our commitment to innovation. The successful execution of this project has not only streamlined content management, but it has also set a new industry standard for racing organisations looking to modernise their digital presence.
Looking at the future, are you planning any other major developments around your website and / or to help improve customer experience overall?
CB-S: Individualized customer experiences are what ultimately keep people engaged and coming back to the site. We plan to leverage Sitefinity’ s AI-powered personalization capabilities to deliver tailored user experiences, keeping visitors engaged and driving more interest in the racing industry.
John Yang, VP, Progress APJ: Progress’ collaboration with The Brand Agency on Racing WA was a very important project because they were the first organisation worldwide to pilot Sitefinity’ s newly introduced headless Next. js capabilities, which were later released in November 2024.
Introducing native support for Next. js, a React framework( also available in Blazor and Angular flavors) enabled Sitefinity customers and prospects to leverage one of the fastest growing frontend frameworks for developers to create modern, state-of-the-art digital experiences. The work we’ ve conducted with Racing WA showcased Sitefinity’ s flexibility and strength in handling complex integrations and we are happy to see the great results they achieved. p
CB-S: By consolidating all racing-related content into one cohesive platform, we have been able to significantly enhance the user experience. It is now easier for Racing WA’ s visitors to find news, industry resources, ownership details and animal welfare information in one place.
The integration of race data with editorial content creates a more dynamic and engaging website, offering users a richer, data-driven experience.
Looking at our operations internally, the fact that we’ ve reduced by 30 – 50 % the time required to build components means we can now develop and roll out features more quickly, as well as scale at a faster pace. Furthermore, our ability to create and manage pages without dependencies on technical resources reduced our ongoing costs.
The wider adoption of Next. js technology positions Racing WA as a pioneer in web development,
John Yang, VP, Progress APJ
www. intelligentcio. com INTELLIGENTCIO APAC 59