Codein is May's Ibexa Partner of the Month

Why Codéin is Hooked on Ibexa

Codéin is our Partner of the Month for May. The French digital agency and Ibexa Silver Partner describes itself as pure player agency with expertise in open source digital engineering, comprising a team of enthusiasts whose work ethic is founded on the quality of service combined with technical expertise that it delivers. Codein has been working with the Ibexa DXP to deliver successful projects to clients as diverse as the French golfing federation  and the DELABIE Group, an industrial player, which is the European leader in plumbing and sanitary equipment for communities and healthcare establishments.

“We have used Ibexa DXP, or eZ Platform as it was called then, since the very beginning of 2014, and it is still the only Digital Experience Platform we present to clients,” says Laurent Esposito, head of projects and one of the four co-founders of Codéin.

 Simon Jenn, fellow co-founder and director of the Strasbourg agency, adds: “We have seen Ibexa evolve. We have seen that the core of what was eZ Publish is still present in Ibexa. It’s a technology that has been validated for many years and is stable.”

 This confidence in the solution itself, and in Ibexa’s vision of the future, is reflected in the fact that over three-quarters of Codéin developers are Ibexa-certified – five of whom are certified on the v3.3, the latest version of Ibexa DXP.

 With 22 employees and offices in Montpellier and Strasbourg, Codéin is a growing digital agency. “We position ourselves as a pure technical player,” says Simon, “and we work with specialist partners who have expertise in UX/ UI and SEO to provide high quality services to our customers.”

This technological savoir faire, allied with the quality and reputation of Ibexa, is what enables Codéin to punch above its weight.

“We remain a small agency compared to the big French technological players however a reliable solution like Ibexa DXP enables us to work on large-scale projects,” declares Laurent Esposito.

Simon Jenn confirms this, saying, "The collaboration with Ibexa allows us to respond to projects of high complexity, particularly with regard to the problems that we can solve because we have a solid knowledge of the platform."

The make-up and size of our agency has other advantages, as Angélique Daudé-Tavaud, head of marketing and communication, points out. “The strength of Codéin is the fact that all developers wear multiple hats,” she says. “They are as much a project manager as a technical expert, this guarantees responsiveness, analysis and optimal anticipation. It is also the assurance that our customers will get an immediate response to their questions, whomever they are talking to. Codéin's promise is, of course, our technical expertise, but it is also a pleasant and efficient collaboration thanks to a dedicated and really available team!

Simon et Laurent understand Ibexa’s focus on B2B as this is the segment of the e-commerce market that is most intensively engaged in digital transformation, but in their vision (and practice) the DXP is equally at home in B2C.

One of its reference clients, FFGolf, is a good example of this.  The French Golfing Federation runs a B2C site for its 420,000 affiliated members on the Ibexa platform. The migration from eZ Publish to Ibexa DXP was implemented by Codéin in 2017. The technical challenges of the migration centered around content retrieval and synchronization via APIs, and the re-direction of URLs. In addition, Codéin helped embed functionalities for filterable geographical searches (Which golf courses are within 25 km of my location?) and a searchable events calendar (What tournaments for my level of play are planned for October 2020?).

Integrations with other systems and solutions is straightforward according to Simon. “We create specific connectors for most of our projects because each context has its particular constraints, and we rarely see generic needs. The fact that Ibexa is built on Symfony makes it quite quick for us to connect to any API,” he adds.

Sometimes the integration is not even necessary, as was the case with DELABIE, a B2B site for taps and sanitaryware, relaunched on Ibexa in 2019. Codéin rebuilt the back office to function as a PIM, a use case for Ibexa that is being increasingly deployed by manufacturers with extensive product catalogs. DELABIE products are now pre-filtered by segment in the product tree and can be linked to each other across product categories, a powerful marketing functionality.

 “DELABIE is one of the many projects we undertake for the industrial sector,” says Laurent. “The fact that Ibexa now specializes in B2B is a good thing, because it strengthens our position in this area even more.”

 This what drives Codéin in its relationship with both its clients and Ibexa: going from strength to strength.

If you have a digital project you would like to discuss with Codéin don’t hesitate to fill in the contact form or give them a call on +33 9 72 42 26 03 (Montpellier)/ +33 9 72 58 09 96 (Strasbourg). Also read Codéin's blog post on how to choose a DXP.