Los Angeles, CA, August 2, 2018 – Dine Brands Global and XCentium have been named the North American winners of the 2018 Sitecore Experience Awards in the category “Best Business Return On Investment,” XCentium announced today.

The Sitecore Experience Awards recognize brands that have built a truly customer-centric digital experiences with Sitecore®, the global leader in Digital Experience Management Software. This award is the first time a restaurant company has been recognized in any Sitecore Experience Awards category.

XCentium and Dine Brands Global were recognized for the Dine Brands Global project (Applebee’s.com and IHOP.com), which uses the Sitecore Experience Platform to champion a new era in online ordering customer experiences. The “Best Business ROI” category recognizes impressive achievements against defined goals and KPIs, as well as evidence of measurable business results—increasing sales, conversions, market share and factors such as reduced costs, streamlined processes, increased efficiency and expansion of operations. Priority was also given to customer experience metrics such as Customer Satisfaction, Sitecore Engagement Value and Net Promoter Scores in recognition of the need to measure the experience that the end-customers are receiving.

Dine Brands Global selected Sitecore for their industry-leading digital experience platform to achieve Dine’s vision of an exceptional, omnichannel experience for their customers that offers integrated online ordering without linking to an online ordering software. The XCentium team used its technical expertise in innovating Sitecore solutions, including Sitecore Helix design principles, to create the best-in-industry solution, featuring a Sitecore + OLO Connector and multiple integration points. This Dine Brands’ Sitecore solution offers advanced onsite ordering capabilities in a responsive design for all devices. It also includes geo-location-based interaction, multi-lingual menus, social network integration and customer profiles synchronization into xDB, as well as a headless architecture for xDB analytics for native apps and cloud scaling ability for high traffic days.

Within the first quarter of using the new Applebees.com and iHop.com solutions, Dine Brands Global realized what it has reported on earnings calls as “healthy year-over-year growth” in online ordering, both in terms of revenue and number of orders, for both of its beloved iconic American brands.

Within the first quarter of using the new Applebees.com and iHop.com solutions, Dine Brands Global realized what it has reported on earnings calls as “healthy year-over-year growth” in online ordering, both in terms of revenue and number of orders, for both of its beloved iconic American brands.

“We share XCentium’s pride in receiving this recognition of our joint initiative,” said Charlie Jones, Executive Director, digital and guest facing technology, Dine Brands Global Inc. Our goal was to create a personalized omni-channel customer experience that would reengage former Applebee’s and IHOP online guests and attract new guests in a changing restaurant market and we are pleased to be recognized as industry leaders in this important category.”

"Partnering with Dine Brands Global and Sitecore on this strategic initiative has been a defining experience for XCentium. Assisting iconic brands like IHOP and Applebee's in achieving and surpassing their online marketing objectives has been a true honor for us. We deeply value our relationships with Dine Brands Global and Sitecore. We are grateful and humbled to have our work recognized with this great Sitecore award,” said Martin Knudsen, Co-Founder and Partner at XCentium.

About Sitecore Experience Awards

The Sitecore Experience Awards is an annual, international competition that honors Sitecore’s customers and their partners for excellence in deploying a Sitecore solution to deliver an outstanding customer experience. The 2018 Sitecore Experience Awards saw nearly 200 global entries in seven categories, with winners clearly demonstrating how the Sitecore platform was used to make significant, measurable progress in experience management for customers, business users, and stakeholders. As a category award winner, XCentium and Dine Brands Global will be automatically considered for the Ultimate Experience Award, which will be announced at Sitecore Symposium 2018.

About Dine Brands Global, Inc.

Based in Glendale, California, Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN), through its subsidiaries, franchises restaurants under both the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar and IHOP brands. With approximately 3,700 restaurants combined in 18 countries and approximately 380 franchisees, Dine Brands is one of the largest full-service restaurant companies in the world. For more information on Dine Brands, visit the Company's website located at www.dinebrands.com. 

About XCentium

XCentium is an award-winning digital consultancy. We help clients align their technology strategy with business objectives, leverage technology excellence to deliver superior results, engage customers on web and mobile, as well as help them run their business in the cloud. Our core areas of expertise are UX, CMS, CRM, Commerce, Azure and AWS. Sitecore, Own the Experience, Sitecore Experience Cloud, Sitecore xConnect, Sitecore Cortex, Sitecore Helix, Experience Platform, Experience Manager and Experience Database are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sitecore Corporation A/S in the USA and other countries. Dine Brands Global, Applebee’s, IHOP, XCentium, OLO, and all other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.