Attico International completed a merge of 29 websites into a single Drupal-based medical platform for a research center of a Forbes Global company.
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CustomerThe customer, a division of an international food and beverage company, is a multidisciplinary educational organization that shares science-based information with healthcare providers. It was created in 1981 with the aim to advance global nutrition science and enhance the nutrition of mothers and children. Since then, the company has been conducting scientific research and offering continuing education for physicians, dietitians, nutritionists, and nurses via e-learning courses.
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ReasoningThe customer needed an experienced vendor to reorganize their digital landscape due to structural changes in the company. The task was merging websites into a centralized multisite platform to reduce maintenance and support expenses and simplify internal security compliance when launching new sites.
With these requirements, they turned to Attico due to our extensive history of collaboration and our track record of multisite Drupal projects.
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Project & goalsThe project goal was to reorganize the structure and design of a scientific platform to create a common style and strengthen the medical digital ecosystem. The customer also wanted to switch from a brand-centered approach to an audience-centered one. The primary task was to update 29 sites and merge them into a single medical platform that doctors and healthcare professionals would use to share their knowledge in the field of nutrition.
At the project’s start, we compiled information about the existing brands and estimated the scope of work.
When hopping on the project, our team faced a range of challenges stipulated by the current state of the customer’s infrastructure and their business structure:
Despite the tight schedule and new sites being launched simultaneously with the merge, we completed the project on time. This is due to our team’s regular sync-up meetings with the customer’s team and the workflow reorganization on the fly to enable faster task deployment.
At the onset, the customer’s organizational structure comprised three brands, each owning a set of diverse websites.
One of these brands, including its ecosystem of sites and digital products, was restructured and split between the other two. The resulting infrastructure was organized thematically into two platforms:
For doctors and healthcare professionals
For users such as parents and grandparents
Next, we integrated the websites of the three brands into a single medical platform, so that they all had consolidated content structure, features, and design conception. Our team performed the same work with the consumer platform as well but in the framework of another project.
While the platform serves as the parent site, its main features become available by default on all child sites:
This will enable swift integration of new features and innovations across all websites in future.
Drupal configuration management
From a technical standpoint, the platform is a Drupal template with an installation profile containing global code that is used on all websites. Our team used Drupal configuration management — the collection of admin settings that determine how the site functions as opposed to the content of the site — to spread settings across different websites.
Master site
The client’s essential requirement was the existence of a master site as a client-specific security compliance tool. In a multisite environment where there is a large amount of data and many users, the master site was needed to pass internal security scans every six months and after major feature releases. The master site is not available live but serves as a storefront for scanning the functionality and code of all sites.
Mobile app platform
Parallel to this, our team implemented mobile applications that use the existing Drupal solution as their backend. They are based on our proprietary Mobile App Platform and are created upon customer request.
Drupal and PHP updates
All websites of the medical platform are built with Drupal 10. During the course of the project our team updated them to Drupal 10.2. We also updated the PHP version to the most current one.
Design system development
Working together with the customer’s in-house design team, we updated the look and feel of all websites. The design of brands lacked consistency, so we implemented a design system for more harmonized user experience and more effective branding.
The project lasted 6 months and progressed through several key stages:
The initial phase involved a comprehensive assessment of existing brands, including content types, and defining the project scope.
Following scope approval, the project transitioned to the creation of new designs, led by the client’s design team with assistance from Attico’s specialists.
A pivotal milestone was the development of a master website intended to serve as the central hub for all three brands.
Rigorous security scans were performed on the master website to ensure compliance with industry standards and safeguard against potential vulnerabilities.
The project then transitioned to the rollout phase, where the first three websites were launched live. This allowed for immediate market feedback and validation of the implemented changes.
Feedback from the market was gathered and analyzed to identify areas for improvement. Adjustments and changes were made based on market demands to optimize user experience and functionality.
With insights gained from the initial rollout, the remaining websites were gradually deployed over approximately one month.
Finally, backend integration tasks were executed to seamlessly merge the functionalities of the websites, ensuring smooth operation and data consistency across the platform.
As a result of our cooperation, the customer got a 2x reduced total cost of ownership by:
Key figures:
