October 17, 2019
We love the Silverstripe CMS at Newedge. And this isn’t some kind of fanboy-like infatuation - it’s real.
The reason is simple; beyond its ability to create beautiful, mobile-ready websites, Silverstripe is one of, if not the most, customisable content management platforms available today.
However, with so many other platforms vying for your attention, we thought it might pay to offer some examples of just how flexible it is. And we need look no further for those examples than our latest work with Silverstripe.
Modern mobile design has expanded far beyond responsive design. At Newedge, we design separately for both desktop and mobile to ensure a consistent, perfect experience on any sized screen.
We couldn’t do this without Silverstripe.
The Window Emporium website is a perfect example; most of their customers are likely to find the company on their mobile phones, which is why the site needed to work flawlessly on screens of that size. By creating a block-based design, we were able to fine tune the website perfectly for mobile usage.
Think the term ‘intranet’ went out with the 90s? Think again.
When we were approached to build an internal system for staff at Harley Davidson, we knew Silverstripe would be the ideal platform. Yet, most people view it as a web design platform for, well… websites. Funny how things work out when you dare to go deeper, isn’t it?
So, with thousands of Harley Davidson stores in need of a system that would help with visual merchandising, shop layouts and the myriad of brand-specific requirements, we set about creating an internal platform that was secure, easy-to-use and, most importantly, totally engaging.
Hands up - we love a bit of sport at Newedge. Therefore, when a project like Football Winners knocks on our door, we can’t help but get involved.
The difference with Football Winners was that it was far more than just a website; it was intended to be a fully-interactive game that would draw in thousands of players and keep them engaged for season after season.
As it turned out, Silverstripe was perfect for the job. Not only did it allow us to create a gamified front end for players, but also a brilliantly intuitive back-end system that will enable game design without any coding knowledge.
Content Director is a place on which content creators can find buyers for their hard work - consistently, and it’s where businesses who need the best possible content can find it, quickly.
So, how do you create a platform that aims to disrupt an industry? You once again turn to Silverstripe.
The power and customisability of this platform made it the perfect fit for Content Director. We simply couldn’t have built the same website with something like Wordpress, due to the front- and back-end requirements.
It needed to be ultra-easy-to-use for people searching for content and even easier to administer at the back end.
Silverstripe delivered - big time.
Anyone familiar with eCommerce will know how tricky it can be to tame both from a development and maintenance perspective.
There’s the design of the site itself, but then the immense work required to configure it for paying punters. And then you’ve got the absolute hell hole that can be back end management for the business owner going forward.
It shouldn’t be this horrible, and that’s why we use Silverstripe for eCommerce, too. Nitrac, for instance, needed to display around 9,000 product pages, which would be hellish in a traditional eCommerce platform. With Silverstripe, we were able to create just one page while still retaining the significant SEO requirements.
We can’t stress enough the fact that it would have been near impossible to design and build the exact same websites listed above on other CMS platforms.
We’ve only scratched the surface on this blog when it comes to what the Newedge team have achieved with Silverstripe, and we can’t wait to see what we come up with next.