Contentstack Headless CMS Services the SAP Cloud Platform

SAP was faced with a challenge. Potential opportunities were being lost because Sales needed a Content Management System (CMS) to complete its SAP Cloud Platform offering, especially since having a compatible, flexible CMS frequently came up in sales conversations. To provide a holistic portal, SAP selected Contentstack to deliver integrated content services for the SAP Cloud Platform Portal. Now, SAP customers can quickly and easily create portals, sites and apps with embedded, turnkey content management capabilities – all without the hassle and complexity of a traditional CMS.

Why Contentstack?

The primary use case was to deliver relevant information to employees, as effortlessly as possible. SAP decided to forge ahead with a headless content management system with robust API support so that they could easily integrate SAP Cloud widgets with the new CMS. A headless CMS decouples content presentation on the frontend from its management in the backend. Unlike traditional CMSs that require developers to work directly within the CMS to make front and back-end changes, a headless CMS lets developers work on the back and front-end without interrupting content creation, thus saving SAP customers time and resources.

Another requirement was to find a CMS that enables multiple content contributors and business stakeholders to create and edit content, assign reviews and workflows, schedule the date and time of publications, as well as preview pages before going live. Additionally, SAP wanted support for the delivery of content to mobile devices. After reviewing multiple content management systems, SAP chose Contentstack as their CMS of choice, since there was a natural pairing between the two platforms. Contentstack had the necessary API support to deliver content and SAP Cloud had the platform to build powerful front-end applications. Additionally, SAP chose Contentstack because they wanted a scalable system, so they could continue to add new functionality and omnichannel delivery as efficiently as possible. SAP and Contentstack began a partnership to work together to architect a new scalable portal solution that could be used to demonstrate the power of SAP’s Cloud platform.

The SAP People Portal

Working together, the SAP Cloud and the Contentstack teams built a use case of an easy to manage, public-facing portal named the SAP People Portal. This portal was the example use case that could be leveraged to help SAP Cloud sell their solution to enable any business to deliver omnichannel content efficiently. The SAP People Portal includes the following:

• Company news
• Company upcoming events
• Company procedure updates
• Benefits/reimbursement info
• Team information
• Nice reads
• Successful deals and new products updates
• A word from the CEO
• Birthdays and info on new employees getting on board
• Open Positions
• Testimonials

Making the Transition

SAP provided detailed guidelines for each user experience, and both SAP and Contentstack teams worked together to build the system. WIth Contentstack managing content, SAP proceeded to develop widgets that would act as modular page content using APIs in the front-end application. Using a proxy-based cloud solution, SAP was able to white label the domain, allowing users to rebrand any domains to appear as SAP, instead of exposing the Contentstack domain. The SAP Cloud platform application seamlessly connects to Contentstack and delivers SAP mobile cards, and SAP widgets to deliver content to desktops, laptops, and mobile devices.

The Future of SAP and Contentstack

Working together to demonstrate the exemplary power of the SAP People Portal is just the beginning of the story. Since a headless CMS backs the portal, developers can continue to hone the user interfaces as well as add SAP Cloud functionality to deliver scalable content on any device. Contentstack is committed to working with SAP to continue to iterate and expand its portal offering.