Scaling Consumer Web Content with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

Project Overview

While at Epsilon, I led the content authoring implementation of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) as the company's first enterprise content management system. Epsilon is a data-driven marketing and technology company trusted by major automotive brands to collect, analyze, and activate large volumes of consumer data. Despite its advanced data capabilities, Epsilon lacked a centralized content management system (CMS), relying instead on fragmented workflows across marketing, engineering, and client teams.

Context & Challenges

As Epsilon's first enterprise CMS, the implementation of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) was a critical initiative to centralize content management, improve efficiency, and enhance the quality of digital experiences for clients. The project faced several challenges, including:

  • Fragmented Content Workflows: Prior to AEM, content management was decentralized, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies across teams.
  • Reliance on Developer Resources: Content creation and management required significant developer involvement, creating bottlenecks and resource constraints.
  • Complex Stakeholder Landscape: The project required collaboration across multiple departments, including marketing, engineering, and client services, each with different needs and priorities.
  • Change Management: Introducing a new CMS required significant change management efforts to ensure adoption and minimize disruption to existing workflows.
  • Lack of Standardized Taxonomy and Metadata: The absence of a unified content taxonomy and metadata schema hindered content organization and discoverability.

Key Responsibilities

As the content manager, I partnered with stakeholders across marketing, product, design and engineering to establish Adobe Experience Manager as Epsilon's first enterprise CMS, owning the content authoring initiative end-to-end, from planning and platform definition, documentation,content migration, authoring, QA, to launch and ongoing governance.

  • Established AEM content information architecture, taxonomy, for AEM Assets and Sites
  • Defined content governance, workflows and publishing processes
  • Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder engagement
  • Content operations, documentation, training
  • Collaborated with development team to establish AEM component catalogs to scale reusability.
  • Supported SEO, accessibility, and brand compliance.

AEM Sites and Assets Information Architecture

GMF Homepage

AEM Content Request Workflow

Epsilon AEM Content Request Workflow

AEM Custom Component Catalog

AEM Component Catalog

Outcomes & Impact

The implementation of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) as Epsilon's first enterprise CMS resulted in significant improvements across the organization:

  • Content Governance: Establishment of clear content governance policies and procedures, ensuring consistency and compliance.
  • Centralized Content Management: AEM provided a unified platform for content management, and publishing, eliminating the fragmentation that existed previously.
  • Improved Efficiency: By reducing the reliance on developer resources for content management tasks, teams could focus on higher-value activities and accelerate time-to-market.
  • Enhanced Digital Experiences: The standardized content architecture and governance processes ensured consistent, high-quality digital user experiences.
  • Scalable Reusability: The establishment of AEM component dictionaries enabled the reuse of design elements and functionality across different projects, promoting consistency and efficiency.

Reflections & Learnings

Reflecting on the challenging implementation of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), several key learnings emerged:

  • Plan vs. Execution: The gap between initial planning and actual implementation highlighted the importance of realistic timelines and resource allocation.
  • Stakeholder Alignment & Adoption: Ensuring all stakeholders were aligned and committed to the new system was critical for successful adoption.
  • Change Management: Implementing a robust change management strategy helped ensure smooth adoption of the new CMS.
  • Training and Support: Providing comprehensive training and ongoing support was essential for maximizing the benefits of the new platform.
© 2026 Ronald Figueroa