A leading utility provider in New Zealand had ambitious plans to expand beyond energy and enter the telecommunications space. Their strategy hinged on the ability to cross-sell new services to an existing customer base via a smarter, faster digital experience.
Technical Debt Blocking a Strategic Market Expansion
However, their platform told a different story.
Years of unstructured development had left them with a heavily customized Sitecore implementation, stuck on an unsupported version. Critical features like personalization and analytics weren’t usable. Page load times were poor, and the user experience was falling behind industry expectations.
To make matters more complex, the business was undergoing a transformation to split wholesale and retail operations, adding urgency to the need for a flexible, scalable platform.
Growth Stalled by Legacy Technology
Despite committing to a new three-year Sitecore license, the internal team was seriously considering walking away. A projected NZ$1M+ rebuild was on the table-just to bring the platform up to date, without unlocking any new business capabilities.
- Marketing couldn’t execute personalization.
- IT was overwhelmed with maintenance.
- And the business couldn’t move at the speed it needed to stay competitive.
A Costly Fork in the Road
Without a resolution, the utility risked missing key growth targets-especially around customer acquisition in new product lines. They needed to act fast, but both available options came at a cost:
- Start from scratch, losing time and sunk investment
- Or stay stuck with a platform that couldn’t evolve
Neither outcome supported their expansion strategy.
Growth Plans Couldn’t Wait
The business had already begun offering new services to existing customers. Campaigns were planned. Revenue projections depended on execution. There was no time to wait for a long rebuild or get trapped in further tech debt.
They needed a partner who could help them move fast, preserve their investment, and unlock the full capabilities of their Sitecore stack. That’s where Dataweavers came in.
Upgraded, Optimized, and Future-Ready
Dataweavers deployed its Fusion for Sitecore platform to upgrade and modernize the customer’s Sitecore environment without starting over.
Here’s what changed:
- Upgrade to the latest Sitecore version, completed with automation
- Cost of upgrade amortized over the existing license term
- xDB analytics and personalization features fully enabled
- Hosting moved to Azure PaaS, improving reliability and cost efficiency
The business impact:
- 60% cost reduction on Azure, from $20K/month to $8K
- 3x performance improvement, with page load times dropping from 15 seconds to just 5
- Personalization and analytics activated, enabling targeted cross-sell campaigns for the first time
- Avoided a complete rebuild, saving significant time and budget
