Lessons From TIAS Business School’s Tech Stack Transformation
- Headquarters: Tilburg, the Netherlands
- Technology Stack: Storyblok, HubSpot, Eduframe, Algolia
- Implementation Partner: Twentyseven
- <3 second Page load time
- 4,000+ Pages migrated
- 19% ↑ Organic traffic & new top 3 Google positions
Higher education institutions are competing on a global stage to convince students from around the world to shape the next few years of their lives — and future careers — with them. To stand out, schools need to do far more than publish course listings and campus photos; they need to tell a story that captures the attention of prospective students and builds trust across languages, cultures, and academic disciplines.
That story has to resonate with vastly different audiences — students, researchers, international applicants, parents, alumni, and industry partners — each with distinct motivations and decision criteria. Schools have to ensure their content is aligned with diverse audience needs without losing authenticity, adapted for these different audiences without fragmenting the brand, and delivered quickly in response to recruitment cycles and global events — all while supporting long decision cycles, high-involvement choices, and multiple user journeys simultaneously. And they need the right technology to do it.
For TIAS Business School (opens in a new window), this challenge was clear. As a globally-oriented business school with a diverse international audience, TIAS recognized that its existing technology stack — particularly its content management system (CMS) — was holding it back. They set out on a tech transformation journey with implementation partner, Twentyseven (opens in a new window), and their handpicked sister digital marketing agency, Fingerspitz (opens in a new window). That journey led them to replatform to Storyblok, giving them the single source of truth they had been looking for in their content and storytelling, and so much more.
Building Smarter, Faster, More Joyful Content Experiences
In this JoyConf interview, Rocco shares a successful case study of leveraging Storyblok as a composable piece in an enterprise-grade website for TIAS Business School, making external integrations like Algolia search AI straightforward.
Rocco Janse — Technical Director at Twentyseven
Sebastiaan van Bergen — Regional Partner Manager Benelux at Storyblok
Why Sitefinity CMS and HubSpot were flunking out
As is the case with many legacy CMS users, the team at TIAS Business School was using multiple systems — Sitefinity CMS, HubSpot, and custom tooling — to distribute content and support their multi-channel strategy. No single source of truth.
This fragmented approach created a domino effect of inefficiencies, including unintentional duplication, inconsistencies, and a slow, error-prone content-update process. Constantly switching between tools increased the risk of mistakes, and the resulting rework slowed the team down, preventing them from delivering content as quickly or effectively as they wanted. Not to mention the extra pressure on the marketing team, as their website was struggling to effectively represent the TIAS Business School brand due to mismatched content. As a business school recognized for its innovation and forward-thinking, the team knew that they could build a better system, especially when it came to future-proofing their content delivery and tech stack.
The limitations of the previous CMS compounded the problem, as new functionality and integration with third-party tools were either restricted or required significant development. This setup made it increasingly difficult to operate with the agility expected of a modern, internationally-oriented business school, as they couldn’t easily pivot to take advantage of new market or tech opportunities. They were constrained by the predefined capabilities, features, and integrations of their existing platforms, without the freedom to build a composable, flexible stack they could fully control and scale with their digital ambitions — so they set out to build one with the help of the team at Twentyseven.
The criteria for a CMS that made the grade
The TIAS Business School team put together their four non-negotiables for their next CMS solution to solve the problems they’d previously faced:
- Centralized content management: No more tool hopping — the team needed one single source of truth for creating, managing, and distributing content.
- Improved speed and reliability: Streamline updates to reduce errors, minimize rework, and ensure content can be published quickly and confidently.
- Marketer autonomy: Enable marketers to create, update, and publish content independently — without relying on developer support.
- Future-ready: Adopt a flexible platform that supports growth, integrates with best-of-breed tools of their choosing, and adapts to evolving digital needs.
While the core four capabilities remained the same, a bonus feature emerged during development: AI-based features, including Algolia Search integration and Storyblok AI translations, which enabled the team to translate entire pages from Dutch to English.
From legacy holdups to composable freedom with Storyblok
Working closely with the enterprise-grade, composable platform experts at Twentyseven gave TIAS Business School a valuable head start. With access to the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to design a future-fit digital platform, the team was able to move forward quickly and confidently, supported by an early introduction to Storyblok as a strong contender for an API-first, headless CMS aligned with their technical and strategic requirements.
After trialing Storyblok, TIAS Business School decided to move forward full steam ahead. The ease of use, combined with an intuitive Visual Editor, stood out in supporting their ambition to build a flexible, composable tech stack that empowered both marketers and developers. And that user-friendliness continued throughout the migration and onboarding process as the TIAS Business School breezed through it.
What sealed the deal for us with Storyblok was its intuitive visual editor combined with the flexible, composable architecture. It lets our team create and edit content quickly, deliver a high-performing website on a future-ready stack that confidently supports our global growth.
Beyond how simple and speedy the usability was, the team also hugely benefited from the component library, APIs, and integrations available. These features gave them the flexibility to quickly assemble and customize content, connect with other systems, and scale their digital ecosystem without relying on heavy developer resources. The results were faster delivery, greater consistency, a clear improvement in their deployment pace, and more control over their content strategy, all from one centralised content hub — an A+ result.
Our client was pretty much up to speed from the beginning, and it’s only getting better.
The final result of a future-fit tech stack
A fundamental priority for TIAS Business School was to build an agile, adaptable digital ecosystem. Whether it involved new channels, new technology, or new content, the team wanted to move quickly while maintaining a consistent, strong brand identity. Telling a consistent story at every touchpoint, and adapting that to their varied audiences was crucial — and here’s the tech stack they built to do it.
- Their CMS: Storyblok
- Their CRM tool: HubSpot
- Their student information system: Eduframe
- Their content indexing, AI-based search, and filtering tool: Algolia
TIAS set the ambition, Storyblok provided a scalable foundation, and we connected strategy to architecture. That combination allowed the platform to grow without adding complexity.
The case for headless higher education
TIAS Business School’s journey highlights why relying on outdated legacy systems can hold even the most dynamic institutions back. By moving away from bloated, inflexible platforms, the team eliminated the limitations of tools built for a different time in tech — tools that restricted agility, slowed content delivery, and made them far too reliant on their developers.
With Storyblok at the center of a composable, API-first tech stack, TIAS now has a single source of truth for content, giving marketers autonomy, developers flexibility, and the team as a whole the ability to scale and adapt quickly across markets. This system, built with the team at Twentyseven, supports their diverse, global audiences, languages, and channels without fragmenting the brand, streamlines workflows, and ensures content can be published quickly and reliably. Not to mention earning new top 3 positions in Google search and increasing organic traffic by an impressive 19%.
Higher education is complex by nature. The platform now reflects that complexity without being slowed down by it.
By taking action before their old, legacy systems could slow them down further, TIAS Business School built a platform that is not just fit for purpose today, but ready for whatever comes next. From new technologies and integrations to evolving audience needs and global opportunities — they’ve got the tools to pivot when needed. In doing so, TIAS Business School has set a new standard for composable, agile digital storytelling in higher education — and there’s plenty more to come.
