The Schwabe group comprises several different affiliated companies in the pharmaceutical and health industry. Operating in 16 different markets worldwide the company was facing problems managing their online businesses, with maintenance costs going up and increasing complications with security updates. To gain control the company decided to start developing a multisite solution for future web properties and that’s where 1xINTERNET got involved.
Who is the Schwabe Group?
The Schwabe Group comprises several different affiliated companies in the pharmaceutical and health industry. All of the companies within the Group focus on plants as the basis for developing pharmaceuticals and health products.
The original form of the Group’s parent company, which is now Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH & Co. KG, is one of the oldest pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe and has a company history dating back over 150 years.
What was the challenge?
When Schwabe Group reached out to 1xINTERNET the digital landscape of the company was run on different CMS systems or using static websites created with a very limited budget. There was a lot of inconsistency between the web properties and no exchange between the markets.
One of the biggest challenges was to ensure security and compliance. The web properties were hosted on different platforms and updates had to be done manually on each individual platform.
For Schwabe Group, market coherence is essential and even though not all website designs are demanded to be the same, flexibility and consistency are required to be able to grow in a competitive market.
What was the solution, what did 1xINTERNET do?
Schwabe Group asked 1xINTERNET to build a new Web CMS platform that would solve their problems and offer a consistent brand and user experience across all markets. The platform should leave enough space to show the individuality of each brand and at the same time enable the company to deliver high-quality, relevant and well-prepared content for all markets. The ultimate goal was to increase awareness and visibility of all products on the web and thereby generate more leads and boost sales.
This was achieved by breaking down the corporate design of each brand to see how it could be reflected in a design system. A design system, using Storybook, was created for all needed components that could be shared between all websites across the organization. Starting with implementing four basic templates for the first set of product websites: Umckaloabo®, Gaspan®, Tebonin®, Lasea®, few weeks later, over 10 brands had been added to the design system.
After the successful design system launch, 1xINTERNET needed to create a powerful CMS for it to run sustainably. 1xMSM Multi Site Management system, a Drupal backend based technology was implemented and hosted on Site Factory from 1xINTERNET Premium Partner, Acquia.
A Multi-site solution allows centrally managed code in one code repository. When new components are developed, each website gets an update and all new features can be used immediately on all websites. The components were built with Paragraphs, which enables the editor to have maximum flexibility when creating content. The system had to be optimized for editorial experience and ease of use as Schwabe Group has multiple and worldwide operating editors, working with the web properties with different skill sets. Allowing editors to choose between defined and existing brands of the implemented Design System, a uniform corporate design for all future websites is guaranteed.
More features and highlights for the editors:
- Intuitive UI, easy onboarding
- Drag and drop functions
- Direct frontend editing
- System-wide content templates and features
- Automatic content checks
- Quick and easy website launch (approx. 15 min)
- Economic & modularly expandable (Brands can be easily added)
- Efficient security and code maintenance
From the client
"Implementing this multisite solution for our company has been a game-changer for us. In a competitive online market like ours, we need to have modern solutions that makes it possible for us to act fast and still have a full overview of all of our websites. With 1xINTERNET amazing results have been achieved in such a short period of time. At Schwabe Group, we are looking forward to future projects."
Alexander Reisenauer, Director Global Digital marketing
Recently launched websites at Schwabe Group
Why choose Drupal and Site Factory?
Schwabe Group decided to use Drupal after doing extensive market research and comparison across multiple content management systems. Drupal was chosen because of its flexibility as an open source solution combined with enterprise features in areas of security, scalability and availability.
When looking for hosting solutions, 1xINTERNET recommended Schwabe Group to use Site Factory from our partner Acquia to manage and host the web properties portfolio. By using Site Factory, Schwabe Group can manage all of its websites effectively from one single dashboard. It only takes around 15 minutes to spin up a new website, select a template, grant access to editors and start adding content.
The main features of the project
Fast to market
- With this new multi-site solution Schwabe Group can react very fast when launching new websites. Within two months of applying the 1x Multi-site solution , the company launched the first two websites and another 10 are being prepared for launch. There is no limit for the amount of websites or apps that can be launched so expanding should not slow things down.
Site Factory
- One central dashboard to manage and build all new web properties within a matter of minutes.
Multi-language
- All the new websites have multi-language functionality which is essential for company operating on different markets around the world
Cost savings
- Total cost of ownership per web property gets lower with every new page that uses the platform.
Central design system
- With a central design system, especially set up with Schwabe Group requirements, the brand managers finally achieve consistency across all markets by using reusable components.
Editorial roles management
- With one central multi-site solution it's easy to manage all editorial and admin roles from one place to keep the overview and management up to date from one day to the next.
