As is the case with successful Brands, the company is struggling more than ever to cope with hundreds of microsites, numerous widgets and apps across web, social and mobile platforms.  To make matters worse, consumers now expect to be able to “do everything” no matter which website, Facebook app or mobile app they are using at the time.  Given these new demands, the traditional approach (pick a campaign, pick an agency, create a custom site/app) has become an inefficient, cost-prohibitive and unsustainable solution.  The end result is numerous disconnected experiences that are light on functionality, and costly to implement and maintain.

Optaros is working with PUMA on a different approach.  Instead of letting each agency pick different technologies for each site or forcing every agency to use the same software platform, PUMA has asked Optaros to create a common set of web services to enable the desired functionality in a manner that is easy for agencies to leverage.  These web services tie back to PUMA’s backend systems and provide a standard approach across microsites to enable more compelling user experiences in a cost-effective manner.

Each web service (e.g. product information management) is integrated into backend systems and exposed to agencies in the form of a well-documented API.  This approach works no matter what the existing systems.  Agencies are also comfortable with this approach.  They simply use the API to leverage the service in their app or microsite.  If they can create Facebook, iPhone and Twitter apps they can easily use any documented API or web service.  This approach is enabling PUMA to deliver more compelling user experiences online in a cost effective manner.