Spirit Super Drives Innovation with Platform Operations

Best-practice Cloud Infrastructure, DevOps Automation & Team Trust: How Dataweavers Transformed Spirit Super’s Sitecore Operations.
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About
Spirit Super is an Australian industry super fund dedicated to helping members achieve their retirement goals with personalized service, competitive fees, and a strong focus on sustainable investments.
Industry
Financial Services
Location
Australia
Products used

Dataweavers Fusion for Sitecore

Sitecore XM 10.3

Sitecore Experience Accelerator

Sitecore CLI

Sitecore Forms

Sitecore Powershell Extensions

Teams involved

Dataweavers

Question

Challenge

  • Issues that hindered website management and caused delays in marketing initiatives.
  • The team needed a partner who enabled growth and extended the internal capability to reduce reliance on external providers and enhance agility in making necessary updates.
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Solution

  • This empowered the internal IT team and facilitated collaboration with the digital agency.
  • The innovative approach with a comprehensive operating platform solution addressed infrastructure complexities.
  • A platform based on automation provided the head space to innovate.
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Outcome

  • Sitecore ecosystem availability and feature enablement removed tech blockers and enabled efficient collaboration.
  • Dataweavers Platform Operations aligns with APRA industry standards.

In the face of post-merger complexities affecting website management, Spirit Super embraced the adoption of Dataweavers Platform Operations. This strategic move resulted in streamlined operations and built increased confidence for future business growth.

Through a strategic partnership with Dataweavers, Spirit Super effectively overcame operational obstacles and streamlined infrastructure management. Spirit Super, a profit-for-members industry super fund in the financial services sector, collaborated with Dataweavers to navigate challenges following its merger with MTAA Super and Tasplan on April 1, 2021.

The Challenge

  • Operationally managing the Sitecore platform across internal and external teams proved challenging.
  • Uncertainty and delays in implementing changes due to external providers.
  • Long development timelines, website performance issues, and collaboration complexities across functions.
Our IT team had been struggling with some DevOps processes. They sat down with Dataweavers and were able to get some really simple ways to solve their problems – which we’ve been able to implement across the business.
David Roberts - General Manager of Brand & Marketing, Spirit Super

The Decision to Upgrade

Spirit Super thoroughly evaluated various options for managing their Sitecore ecosystem and upgrading the latest Sitecore version. Spirit Super selected Dataweavers based on the transformative capabilities offered by taking a Platform Operations approach to managing & maintaining Sitecore ecosystems.

Contrary to alternative approaches involving hiring agencies, utilizing internal IT skills, outsourcing to cloud hosting providers, or starting from scratch, Dataweavers Platform Operations offered an integrated solution to comprehensively address the end-to-end challenges of managing Sitecore ecosystems.

Challenges Overcome

  • Dataweavers increased the visibility of roles and responsibilities across application & infrastructure, teams are now more focused on maximizing the platform & its features for business growth.
  • Enabled clear roles, responsibilities and facilitated collaboration
  • The introduction of a hybrid approach during the transition to XM Cloud further provided flexibility, allowing Spirit Super to maximize their XP platform in the present while strategically planning for the future.

Through the implementation of best-practice DevOps processes, the Spirit Super internal IT team applied these learnings across the business, enhancing overall efficiency.

The Results

  • A comprehensive view of the Sitecore ecosystem improved operational management, this is a benefit across all digital teams.
  • A highly secure architecture that continues to enable secure & compliant access and use of customer data.
  • Dataweavers Platform Operations removed technical blockers, ensuring stability and enabling efficient collaboration.
Dataweavers had a really good discovery process that led us to getting the information and accuracy that we needed for a successful onboarding process.
David Roberts - General Manager of Brand & Marketing, Spirit Super

Unlocking New Capabilities

Dataweavers Platform Operations empowered Spirit Super to engage in:

  • Cross-team and digital agency governance & visibility, enhancing collaboration and oversight.
  • Increased productivity of the internal IT team, optimizing workflows through best practice DevOps pipelines.
  • Utilizing advanced platform features like marketing automation and personalization with trust in the platform's maintenance, ensuring it is always up-to-date, secure, compliant, and stable.

Dataweavers Platform Operations not only met but exceeded Spirit Super's expectations. The transformational outcomes, including streamlined infrastructure management, enhanced visibility, and contributed to decreased operational costs and increased team productivity. With confidence in infrastructure management, Spirit Super now focuses on maximizing platform features for continued business growth.

Partners are a strategic contributor to any business, so partner choice is really, really important. If it's not the right partner, you don't hit your goals. We picked the right partner in Dataweavers.
David Roberts - General Manager of Brand & Marketing, Spirit Super

1.3s
page load speed

ZERO
downtime deployments

Streamlined
infrastructure management