This is no modest goal, but for Link GmbH it is a firm part of the company’s philosophy. Founded in 1967 near Frankfurt am Main, this company not only has a long history to look back on, it also enjoys a prosperous present and is looking forward to a promising future. As one of the largest manufacturers of magnetic contacts in Europe, Link is a trusted name in the development and production of sophisticated safety technology components. Link is an international player that provides sensor technology solutions for monitoring the condition of doors, gates and windows, alarm glass connection technology, energy and signal transmission for windows and doors, and much more. From standard specifications to individual customer requests – Link implements its solutions quickly, flexibly, and meticulously. Efficiency is the top priority here, something that Link’s now 1000 customers really value. One aspect of quality that the company was also looking to present to potential new customers was an enhanced online user experience. But after a glance at the backend, it quickly became clear that this aspiration was going to turn into a somewhat larger endeavor.

An absent structure and a system update that was more than 3 years overdue made marketing manager Sandra Hiltscher quickly aware that a user experience would not be achievable with the way things stood. Still, that didn’t stop Sandra from getting the website back up to speed. The first hurdle in this process came when her existing service provider left her high and dry. “I took over the website project from my predecessor and soon discovered first-hand how unreliable the cooperation with our former service provider was,” says Sandra Hiltscher, “On the whole, it just didn’t work. Collaboration was unreliable, projects were not being managed, I had to wait an extremely long time for feedback, and our Pimcore CMS was no longer being worked on.

” One thing was clear: it was time to switch agencies. Shouldn’t be a problem for Google, Sandra thought, and she found what she was looking for pretty quick – but she still wasn’t completely satisfied. “A lot of agencies just generally weren’t willing to take over the project from another agency and were put off by the scale of what we were trying to do,” Sandra says, summarizing her search. One agency that was not put off by the complexity of the problems and the goals that Link had in mind was codafish.

From the agency’s point of view, no Pimcore hurdle is too daunting – although the codafish team already noted pretty much from the outset that the list of to-dos for addressing the issues with the backend was going to be a long one. But where there’s a will, there’s a programming way – and there was no shortage of motivation to get the ball rolling. Sandra sensed this directly. “Right from the first conversation, we felt that codafish had completely absorbed and understood everything that we wanted to do. On a human level, everything was instantaneously at eye level. codafish recognized the problems that were there, listened to us and immediately and proactively drew up a comprehensive project plan,” says Sandra Hiltscher. Item 1 on the agenda and the most formidable challenge: updating Pimcore to the latest version – and eliminating the bugs of the past in the process. These bugs didn’t make it easy for the team. As the content management system was not properly installed, Pimcore first had to be repaired and the modules rectified and then removed. This affected the entire entity, including the Pimcore CoreShop module, which was designed to showcase the client’s complete product landscape. After a month of work all of this was done and project phase 1, which also included a fresh revamp of the website, was successfully completed. True to the motto "Full steam ahead!,” codafish dove straight into project phase 2. More specifically, into the deep, complex strands of Link's product diversity. 

What do product information management, master data management, e-commerce and digital asset management all have in common? Correct – not only are they music to the ears of structure lovers, they’re also all powerful functions unified under the Pimcore umbrella. In short, the system can effortlessly cope with a mass of products and all the information that goes with them. Perfect for Link’s second project goal and one of codafish’s ultimate disciplines: product structuring. For this purpose, the team is currently crafting a new data model in Pimcore, which will serve as a redesign of the architecture for product updates. To achieve this, Link’s products are categorized, assigned attributes, and integrated into Pimcore.

Do you also want to spruce up your content management system, implement a new design or set up and categorize your product portfolio from scratch? If so, we’d love to hear from you! In a non-binding consultation, we’ll have a chat about your status quo and what you are looking for, and we’ll work with you to develop a project plan that will take your tech to a whole new level. And if you find yourself confronted with any internal or external challenges, rest assured – we’ll face the ups and downs of project management together with you!