Working faster and more independently: how XBE makes a difference for RAI Amsterdam

uxbee | 11-06-2025

At RAI Amsterdam, everything revolves around experience. Large public events like the Negenmaandenbeurs (Nine Months Fair) and Huishoudbeurs (Household Fair) demand flexible, up-to-date, and visually appealing online communication. The previous platform (Sitecore XP) increasingly lacked the speed and creative flexibility the team needed. It was time for a fundamental change. Together with their MarTech partner uxbee, RAI chose Sitecore XM Cloud combined with the Experience Building Engine (XBE): a modern, modular content platform designed to make marketers’ lives easier.

The challenge: fragmented processes and limited flexibility

RAI Amsterdam’s content team worked with Sitecore XP for years. While the platform was technically solid, it had become clunky and inflexible, with little room for visual creativity. Especially in the lead-up to events — peak periods where everything happens at once — these limitations became painfully apparent.

We spoke to Paul Rozenbeek, Online Marketer at RAI Amsterdam in the ‘women and baby’ domain: “The previous system always felt slow and cumbersome. When multiple people were editing content simultaneously, it got frustrating quickly. You couldn’t easily make adjustments yourself; everything had to go through workarounds.”

Managing external developers and IT departments also consumed time and energy. The team needed a future-proof solution that would enable them to work more independently.

The solution: XBE as an intuitive and scalable platform

In collaboration with uxbee, RAI Amsterdam switched to Sitecore XM Cloud combined with XBE — a modern content platform built on composable technology. XBE brings together the power of headless CMS, personalization, workflow, design systems, and content modeling in one intelligent layer.

For Paul, the switch was a relief: “XBE is truly a living system. You can feel it evolving with you. It’s intuitive, visually oriented, and aligns with how marketers think. As someone with both marketing and design experience, that’s gold.”

The implementation was guided by uxbee, with hands-on workshops and biweekly backlog sprints. The team took RAI’s seasonal work cycles into account: intensive activity leading up to events, quieter periods in between. “I work much more independently now. Creating pages, adjusting modules, publishing articles—it’s all lightning-fast. Even interns need hardly any explanation.”

The result: faster time-to-market, more freedom, less dependence

Today, RAI Amsterdam works efficiently with XBE. During the busy lead-up to events like the Negenmaandenbeurs and Huishoudbeurs, Paul creates new content pages daily, updates program modules, and adapts the homepage—all without relying on developers or other departments. “The speed at which I can now work is probably the biggest win. I can publish pages exactly how I want them, in no time.”

The collaboration with uxbee is also positively received: “They move quickly, think along with us, and understand where we want to go. Even with all the internal stakeholders we have at RAI, they remain flexible and solution-oriented.”

Looking ahead with speed and flexibility

With XBE, RAI Amsterdam now has a flexible platform that fits the way their marketing team works. The combination of speed, visual freedom, and long-term scalability makes XBE a solid foundation for the years ahead. “You can tell XBE is a platform that keeps evolving—just like we do. It’s fast, clear, and future-ready. We’re in a good place.”