Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA) Partners since 2019

A Faster, More Secure Digital Experience for ECA

The Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA), the UK's leading trade association for the electrotechnical and engineering services industry, partnered with Cantarus to revitalise its digital presence by upgrading from Kentico Xperience 11 to 13. This transformation has resulted in a high-performing, visually engaging website that not only addresses critical security concerns but also significantly improves user experience and efficiency in content management.

As an existing Cantarus client, ECA entrusted the agency to lead the upgrade to Kentico after facing an end-of-life status on their website, which was built on Kentico Xperience 11.

The Challenge

This project aimed to enhance site performance, address pressing security concerns, and deliver an engaging, redesigned interface for a better user experience. The outcome is a high-performing, visually appealing website that empowers the ECA team to manage content more efficiently.

The primary objective was to upgrade from Kentico Xperience 11 to 13, ensuring the new platform would meet ECA’s current and future needs. Specific goals included:

Improving site performance and security
Redesigning the interface to improve user experience
Empowering the ECA team with an intuitive, seamless content management experience

The migration to Kentico Xperience 13 not only aimed to enhance these elements but also to future-proof ECA’s digital presence against emerging industry challenges.

Cantarus’ expertise as a Kentico Gold Partner made them well-equipped to help ECA with this vital upgrade. Kentico's robust feature set, scalability, and intuitive content management experience made it an ideal fit for ECA’s needs. As an agency that has seen Kentico's proven success, Cantarus recognised it as a strategic, yet organic choice for ECA’s project, providing a secure and adaptable foundation that would serve them well into the future.

One of the foremost challenges when upgrading from Kentico Xperience 11 to 13 was the requirement of an extensive code base migration to Kentico’s MVC architecture. This included porting numerous controllers and services to .NET 6 and converting outdated Webforms to Page Builder Widgets. Additionally, inherited poorly constructed code required careful restructuring to ensure the site’s performance and long-term maintainability.

Our Solution

Cantarus' approach to the upgrade involved a series of critical steps to ensure the project’s success:

Initial Setup and Migration: Cantarus began by establishing a fresh Kentico Xperience 13 instance, migrating existing page types and porting controllers to .NET 6.
Migration to MVC: Legacy Webparts and Templates were converted into Page Builder Widgets and Templates, aligning the site with modern development practices.
Content Structure and Migration: Cantarus optimised the content management structure, migrating thousands of pages into the new Page Builder templates to enhance usability.
Secure Content Access: Cantarus implemented Page Level Permissions to ensure secure access to membership-related sections, protecting sensitive information.

Cantarus' design team revamped the site’s layout and navigation, introducing new button styles to prioritise information. By removing outdated image effects, the site now has a more contemporary look and feel.

ECA’s website also leverages Kentico’s marketing tools to enhance engagement, promote relevant content, and streamline communication with their audience. The platform efficiently guides visitors to membership-related information, highlighting the benefits of an ECA membership and improving user interaction via targeted content.

Results and Impact

The website relaunch has achieved outstanding performance improvements, reducing load times from 8.3 seconds to 3.7 seconds—a 55.42% decrease.

The redesigned interface has also enhanced user engagement, creating a visually appealing, highly functional platform that meets ECA’s technical and audience requirements. Further enhancements are scheduled to continue refining site performance.

Building on Cantarus and ECA's previous collaboration, in which they developed the MyECA mobile app to enhance member engagement and accessibility, this website upgrade further strengthens ECA’s engagement ecosystem. The seamless integration between the app and the new website provides members with a cohesive, user-friendly experience, ensuring consistent access to resources and information across the two platforms.

The ECA upgrade project exemplifies Cantarus' commitment to delivering high-performance solutions and a collaborative approach, creating a strong digital foundation for future growth. The website stands as a prime example of digital innovation and collaboration, meeting and exceeding expectations to serve the needs of ECA and its members.

Back

As longstanding clients of Cantarus, we were really impressed by the enhancements they brought to ECA's web performance through this upgrade. The decision to select them as our partner for long-term support of our Kentico web estate was easy; their Gold Partner status instilled confidence in their ability to deliver an end result that exceeds expectations. Thanks so much to Cantarus - we’re exceptionally pleased with the results!

Daniel Bailey Head of Digital Development, ECA

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Our Chief Delivery Officer, Brendan Killough, is always happy to chat with you about your website needs.

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A Faster, More Secure Digital Experience for ECA

The Challenge

Our Solution

Results and Impact

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Powering the Future for the ECA

Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA)