Helios re-platformed its digital experience on Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service—replacing TYPO3 with an indication-driven patient journey across 120+ hospitals. A data-driven experimentation program then delivered +150% appointment clicks and +270% applications.

The Challenge

Helios needed to replace a legacy CMS with an enterprise-grade platform that could unify content across 120+ hospitals, empower 2,000+ editors, and turn its website into an active channel for patient acquisition and employer branding.

The Solution

From Legacy CMS to AI-Ready Experience Platform

Comwrap Reply and Up Reply delivered Helios’s digital transformation in two integrated phases—platform relaunch followed by continuous, data-driven optimization.

Phase 1: Platform Relaunch

Comwrap Reply re-platformed the entire Helios web presence on Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service, replacing the legacy TYPO3 system within 10 months. The core innovation: a sophisticated Content Fragment architecture that ensures service information is authored once and dynamically reused across ~120 hospitals based on each hospital’s master data. This eliminated thousands of duplicate content entries and gave editors a single source of truth.

The redesigned patient journey shifted from generic hospital listings to an indication-driven experience—guiding patients from symptom to specialist to appointment. Over 2,000 editors received a simplified authoring interface, dramatically reducing training overhead and content production cycles.

Comwrap Reply also implemented Adobe Launch, Adobe Analytics, and Adobe Target on the new platform—laying the analytics and experimentation foundation that would power the next phase.

Phase 2: Experimentation & Optimization

With the platform live and instrumented, Up Reply introduced a structured experimentation program combining quantitative analytics with qualitative research. The approach included expert reviews, cognitive walkthroughs, usability testing, and AI-supported conversion audits—all feeding into a prioritized test roadmap.

For patient acquisition, Up Reply developed scalable campaign blueprints using personalized appointment widgets and UTM-based audience mapping. Patients searching for specific conditions now see relevant specialist options immediately—instead of navigating a broad, generic directory.

For employer branding, remote usability tests and user interviews uncovered friction in the applicant journey. Targeted exit-intent overlays and optimized application flows were validated through A/B tests before rollout.

Verified campaign blueprints are documented and reusable, enabling local hospital teams to adapt and deploy at speed while maintaining consistency across the network.

How we did it

Reply Group End-to-End Delivery

Platform Architecture & Migration

• AEM as a Cloud Service: Full re-platforming from TYPO3, including content model design, template architecture, and editorial workflow configuration

• Content Fragment Architecture: Complex but editor-friendly data model enabling single-source content reuse across ~120 hospitals

• Adobe Launch + Adobe Analytics: Comprehensive tracking concept for patient and applicant journeys

• Adobe Target: Technical setup and integration, ready for A/B testing and personalization at scale

• Content reorganization and migration from legacy CMS

• Editor training and enablement for 2,000+ users

Experimentation & Optimization

• Adobe Target activation: A/B tests and personalization campaigns across patient and applicant journeys

• Mixed-methods research: analytics deep-dives, expert reviews, cognitive walkthroughs, remote usability tests

• AI-supported conversion audits for accelerated insight generation

• Scalable campaign blueprints with UTM-based audience–experience mapping

• Governance framework with clear measurement criteria and reusable building blocks

What made this distinctive: The Reply Group’s integrated model meant the platform and the optimization layer were designed to work together from the start. Comwrap Reply built the foundation; Up Reply activated it. No handover gaps, no re-instrumentation, no lost context.

About the Client

Helios is part of the Fresenius healthcare group and is Europe’s leading private healthcare provider. Across more than 80 hospitals, around 220 outpatient care centres, six prevention centres and 27 occupational medicine centres throughout Germany, approximately 78,000 people are employed. Around 5.5 million patients are treated annually, of whom more than four million are outpatients. Helios generated revenue of approximately €7.7 billion in 2024. Headquarters: Berlin.