Umbraco Upgrade with PIM Integration Streamlines Product Management

Baker Interiors, a luxury home furnishings brand with a century-long reputation for craftsmanship and design excellence, faced a critical digital turning point. Following its separation from a larger parent company, Baker needed to complete the migration of its digital assets, particularly its website, independently and under a tight timeline. The site was originally built in Umbraco CMS and partially migrated to a new Microsoft Azure environment, but work stalled with their initial local development partner, leaving the project roughly 70% complete.

Baker’s internal digital team, led by a newly appointed Director of Digital Strategy and Integration, recognized that finishing the migration wasn’t just a technical milestone, it was foundational to the company’s ability to operate autonomously, communicate with trade partners, and provide a modern digital showroom experience for its high-end clientele. The website wasn’t just informational; it was integral to showroom sales, inventory visibility, and the brand’s global presence.

In addition to resuming and completing the migration, Baker needed to integrate a new Product Information Management (PIM) system to streamline the process of managing hundreds of product SKUs, with data points ranging from dimensions and finishes to stock availability and showroom location. There were also plans to phase out outdated systems and sunset certain online services from the previous ownership structure, all while maintaining continuity for customers and internal teams.

With business operations on the line and no margin for downtime, Baker Interiors turned to Emergent Software to take over the effort, stabilize the digital environment, and evolve the website into a scalable, strategic asset.

Emergent Software quickly stepped into a complex, mid-project transition. The first priority was completing the migration of multiple Umbraco websites into a secure, scalable Microsoft Azure environment. Emergent’s team conducted a full audit of the existing codebase, content, and infrastructure to identify what had been migrated properly and what still needed work. By applying a structured, sprint-based approach and collaborating closely with Baker’s digital lead, the Emergent team was able to complete the migration without disrupting site functionality.

Once live in Azure, the focus shifted to optimizing and enhancing the platform. Emergent Software implemented several key upgrades, beginning with the integration of Baker’s new Product Information Management system. This PIM system became the backbone for the site’s product catalog, enabling centralized control over item specifications, photography, and availability. Emergent built custom APIs to connect the PIM to the website, automating content updates and reducing manual data entry errors.

One of the most impactful user-facing upgrades was the addition of a global stock availability toggle: an elegant solution that provided real-time visibility into product availability. This toggle appears in the site’s global navigation and dynamically reflects stock status based on a daily refreshed spreadsheet integration. For customers and showroom sales teams alike, this feature added tremendous value, enabling same-day decisions and increasing product turnover.

Behind the scenes, Emergent also retired unused legacy services, improved content management workflows, and enhanced the site’s overall performance and reliability. Throughout the engagement, Emergent functioned as both a technical partner and a strategic advisor, offering recommendations on infrastructure, UX, and roadmap planning for future phases.

With the trust and transparency built through this process, Baker Interiors officially transitioned Emergent Software into the role of long-term development partner, responsible for supporting, evolving, and maintaining the site over time.

The result of this collaboration was a fully migrated, modernized website that aligned with Baker Interiors’ brand identity and supported its business goals from day one. By completing the migration quickly and accurately, Emergent Software eliminated the risk of site failure or launch delay, ensuring Baker could continue operating independently from its former parent without disruption.

The PIM integration brought immediate operational efficiency. Product updates that once took hours of manual entry could now be reflected across the site automatically, reducing administrative burden and improving data consistency. This was especially important given Baker’s large and evolving inventory of SKUs and finishes.

The real-time stock availability toggle quickly proved to be a valuable tool for showroom teams and customers. By making product availability visible upfront, the company empowered sales reps to close more deals on the spot, increasing speed-to-sale and improving customer satisfaction.

From a technical standpoint, the migration to Microsoft Azure gave Baker a more scalable and secure hosting environment, with faster load times and greater site stability. The transition away from legacy systems also laid the foundation for future upgrades, integrations, and digital innovation.

Today, Emergent Software continues to serve as Baker’s development partner, contributing both technical enhancements and digital strategy guidance. Rather than investing in a full site rebuild, Baker has extended the value of its existing Umbraco platform, demonstrating how the right partner can preserve, evolve, and future-proof a business-critical system.

Baker Interiors’ Director of Digital Strategy and Integration put it best: “From initial scope feedback and recommendations to collaborative build iterations to thorough QA, Emergent Software has been a solid partner and one that I recommend.”