DIHK

Standardizing 84 chambers (88 tenants) on one multi‑tenant, multi‑language platform—with a clear path to events, portal, and AI‑assisted publishing 

The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) represents the interests of more than three million companies in Germany. It is the umbrella organization for 79 local Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IHKs) and works closely with the worldwide network of German Chambers Abroad (AHKs) across more than 90 countries—bridging regional, national, and international priorities in a single economic network. 

DIHK’s digital program set out to make the chamber network “more digitally available” to members and stakeholders, while simplifying operations for editors spread around the world. After a competitive evaluation, DIHK chose Ibexa DXP as the central platform. The network is now live with 84 chambers across 88 tenants (some chambers also run topic‑specific microsites), supported by roughly 120–150 active editors who publish in about 35–36 languages. 

"Ibexa provided more capabilities for our new needs—modern, intuitive and easier for editors worldwide to learn. It helps us make the network digitally available to our customers.” 

Christine Müller
Project Officer / Business Product Owner, AHK Digital

From fragmented tooling to a common platform 

Historically, the software tool landscape of the network was very fragmented—especially in CMS-adjacent systems such as CRM, where as many as 36 different CRM systems were in use at one point. As DIHK planned a member portal and a unified approach to events (registration and online payments), the program deliberately narrowed the technology estate and established Ibexa as the leading experience system, connecting to a consolidated Microsoft Dynamics CRM rather than many local tools. This reduces point‑to‑point integration, simplifies governance, and provides a single, extensible front door for content and services. 

How Ibexa DXP is used today 

The editorial experience centers on Page Builder, allowing editors to assemble pages visually, preview by device, and schedule publication—an approach that accelerates page creation without developers in the loop. The balance DIHK sought—editorial flexibility with design control—is achieved by letting chambers compose content within governed layouts and blocks. 

Media operations were consolidated into Ibexa’s Media library. Beyond the convenience of “everything in one place,” DIHK now tracks asset usage and will introduce a quarterly deletion process to remove unused files soon, preventing the slow drift into digital clutter that often plagues large organizations. 

Governance is pragmatic. Today, global and local admins cover most needs. As the portal comes online, DIHK will introduce more granular roles—for example, users who can create but not publish content—so chambers can delegate work safely without sacrificing standards. 

“Page Builder gives editors the flexibility to build pages and immediately see what they’re creating, while we still keep control over design.”

Christine Müller
Project Officer / Business Product Owner, AHK Digital

Events and payments: built into the platform 

Across the network, events are the most universal digital use case. Rather than bolt on a third‑party events suite, DIHK is implementing events inside Ibexa using Ibexa Commerce and Virtual Products (to represent tickets/registrations). This native approach supports online payments and reporting without custom frameworks and stays true to the program’s “use out‑of‑the‑box first” principle—important for an organization focused on maintainability and public‑funded efficiency. 

AI‑assisted publishing with Ibexa v5 

With the rollout of Ibexa DXP v5, DIHK is enabling AI Actions to lighten editorial workloads where it matters most: translations, SEO metadata, and alt text. Advanced editors can fine‑tune; everyone else will at least publish with a strong baseline. As taxonomy and capacity mature, DIHK can extend into AI‑suggested taxonomy to make tagging consistent at scale. These capabilities are part of Ibexa’s v5.x evolution, which also brings collaboration and search enhancements. 

For us, AI starts with efficiency: translations, and consistent SEO/meta and alt‑text suggestions. Advanced editors can fine‑tune; everyone else at least has a solid baseline.”

Christine Müller
Project Officer / Business Product Owner, AHK Digital

Rollout, enablement, and adoption 

DIHK adopted a repeatable onboarding rhythm. A tenant typically took around four weeks to provision in the program’s release cadence; chambers used that window to audit content, plan IA, and prepare essentials. Some sites launched an MVP in about four to five weeks by prioritizing critical content first. Training included monthly live sessions (fundamentals and advanced), time‑zone friendly webinars with recordings, and a detailed editorial guide. Content ownership is usually not split by language, since many editors are bilingual and cover multiple locales; notable tenants such as

Key Implementation Focus Areas leveraging Ibexa DXP: 

Key takeaways

AI technology was used as a supportive tool to assist with [drafting/brainstorming/summarization], while all final content was reviewed/refined by the Ibexa marketing team.