Dymax

US manufacturer Dymax is a world leader in adhesive, coating, fluid dispensing, and light-curing systems for applications in a wide range of markets. The Bachmann Chemical & Engineering Group combines a a family of brands that are complementary to Dymax, such as Bomar, which produces the base chemistry necessary for the manufacture of Dymax adhesives. 

Its Tridak filling-systems and the application of protective coating materials and machinery brand ECT extend the customer value chain. The Dymax ecosystem of products required a coherent content platform with a future-proof technology to support the company’s ambitions. 

One of those ambitions was to allow its customers to buy directly from the site; Dymax needed a Digital Experience Platform to be able to do that, and in 2019 it embarked on a complex project of digital transformation. 

Dymax Corporation needed a DXP powerful enough to run multiple distinct brands from a single technological platform. Although the brands carry different strands of content and are autonomous in how they are marketed, the ambition was to harmonize content tools and workflows across the ecosystem of products. 

An essential improvement of the main Dymax site was a more intuitive and granular search function, and a platform with the flexibility to accommodate a vast product catalog. The content management capabilities of Ibexa DXP were more than up to this task – as has been borne out by the customer and partner feedback to the new site. 

The solution also satisfied another deal-breaking requirement: that an e-commerce functionality could be plugged in at a later date without further development. The timing itself was of less consequence than the assurance that e-commerce would be a native part of the platform. The composable architecture of Ibexa DXP allows businesses to grow and scale at their own pace – and this is exactly what Dymax wanted.

A strong case for B2B Digital Transformation with a DXP

Bachmann Chemical & Engineering family of brands bring together complementary products and services in the formulations and equipment space to serve diverse markets. Dymax is a leading adhesive, coating, dispensing, and light-curing system manufacturer for applications in a range of markets including electronics, aerospace, and automotive. 

Based in Torrington, Connecticut, the manufacturer operates nine facilities across the US, Europe, and Asia. Bomar, which makes the oligomers that go into the core adhesive products produced by Dymax, and Electronic Coating Technologies (ECT) which applies coatings to the printed circuit boards used in thousands of everyday applications. 

Tridak, a manufacturer of automated filling systems for laboratories and production facilities, and in-house light engine development will go to market as ALEO in 2023 to , further extend the value chain for the companies’ vast customer base.

The concept of an ecosystem of products underpinning a commercial strategy goes to the heart of the digital transformation project on which Dymax embarked in 2019, the year Schivley joined the company.

 “The main site was on WordPress,” says Schivley, “and it didn’t really align with the needs and expectations of a modern B2B website. From a visual perspective, the site was dated and poorly optimized for mobile. It was multilingual but the languages were maintained independently within WordPress, and [content teams] didn’t necessarily have the resources to check the quality of these translations in a timely manner. Dymax sells a lot of different products in markets with different regulatory regimes and the WordPress site couldn’t handle that kind of complexity.”

The other brands, Bomar, Tridak, and ECT had also been built on WordPress, each on a different version. Although the businesses do not share any content – it made sense to harmonize all workflows on a single platform, giving the marketing team one tool to update product information and other content.

 “It would also squeeze out all kinds of redundant costs in terms of hosting and development,” adds Kim Burns, Digital Marketing Manager at Dymax. “That was really what was driving our direction: to get us over to a more streamlined platform that was secure, had potential for growth and could align all of the brands within one tool.”

Online catalog, customer self-service and e-commerce

One of the decisive factors in the choice of Digital Experience Platform was Dymax’s ambition to enable its customers to order online for the equipment arm of the business to reduce small, repetitive orders from the multi-step customer support process and cost of sale.  

“Yes, that was a huge element in the decision-making process,” says Schivley, “the ability to easily write in the e-commerce element. We weren’t quite sure of the timing. But what we didn't want to do was build out e-commerce before we were quite ready for it, and then have to redo the website all over again when we were. We wanted something that could scale and grow with us over the years and could easily be updated to whatever the latest platform is without having to reinvent the wheel every time.”

The composable architecture of Ibexa DXP allows businesses to stagger their digital transformation at a pace that fits their requirements – and that of course is different for every business. For Dymax, the priority was to build a modern, visually engaging site that would really help customers to navigate its vast product catalog, and then to gradually migrate its other brands to the platform.

“Part of our task in 2019 was to look at the state of the website and modernize it, so that it could grow with the organization not only from like a globalization perspective, but from an SEO perspective, and from a user’s point of view in being able to find the right solution – and build it with the intention that we could plug in the e-commerce equipment business.”

Work on the main Dymax site commenced in 2019 and it went live the following year.

The multilingual site is integrated with a translation proxy, removing one of the pain points of the WordPress implementation. The main innovation of the relaunched site is an intuitive product finder. In just a few clicks, customers are directed to the right industry application, the right product, and the right product formulation for the regulatory jurisdiction of the market where the product will be used. Product quotations and test sample orders are seamless extensions of this rapid and transparent search function which takes its data not from a third-party PIM but from the backend of the platform.

The implementation of the other sites – ECT in 2021; Bomar and Tridak earlier this year – was considerably quicker because these businesses have much smaller product catalogs. “Of course we had also learned a lot from the Dymax project,” says Schivley, “although we feel in retrospect it might have been preferable to test the waters with the smaller brands, and then tackle the very complex flagship site.”

And what about the e-commerce functionalities for the Dymax equipment business?

Schivley says: “We haven’t begun to unpeel that onion yet.”

Future goals, greater stickiness and higher conversion rates

“The next goal is for the ALEO brand  to get online, followed by a very basic site for our group structure. Our sole focus for 2023 is making sure that we build that out and hopefully get it live by the end of next year. If it pushes into 2024 for a little bit then so be it, because this is going to be a massive undertaking. And then there’s the whole website piece and making sure that’s optimized and functioning properly.”

But e-commerce is still a core part of Dymax’s digital transformation as it unfolds on Ibexa DXP.

Feedback has been very positive across the board: from customers to external stakeholders such as the Dymax sales and distribution partners. “A lot of people are staying on the site much longer than on the old site,” says Schivley, “and we’re having much higher conversion rates in terms of form completion.

“There’s much better engagement. A lot of people are using the resource libraries and product finder tools that we have in there which is great. And then there are areas where we do see them dropping off. We’ve been exploring those and building out more content and doing more interlinking, so if there are additional resources that we have, it’s easier for site visitors to find them. So it’s a success that we are continually refining.”

In conclusion, Burns highlights the support Dymax has been getting from Ibexa. “I will say the other benefits that we’ve seen in using Ibexa DXP are the streamlined communication and the fast response time if there’s ever an issue, such as the site going down, which I think happened once for a very short period. The response times between the developers and the Ibexa DXP team have been tremendous in making sure that there are no major issues and keeping things streamlined and online. That’s been absolutely great.”