AccAnalysisAccAnalysis
Enterprise IT & Cloud

One way to run the websites of several companies

A group of companies was managing multiple websites, blogs, event pages and engagement forms separately. We built a shared content platform on serverless infrastructure so the group manages it once.

At a glance
Status
Delivered
Region
Japan
Engagement model
Dedicated team

Status: Delivered. Described from our own delivery records. Client identity, brand and commercial terms are withheld. Figures, where given, cover the period stated and nothing beyond it.

The organisation

Context

A group of related companies, each with its own web presence: a site, a blog, event announcements and forms through which customers make contact.

Each had been built and was being maintained on its own terms.

The brief

The problem

  • Every company's site was managed separately, so a change to a shared pattern had to be made several times.
  • Publishing an event or a post required knowing which system that company used.
  • Customer engagement forms fed into different places, so enquiries were handled inconsistently.
  • Infrastructure cost scaled with the number of sites rather than with traffic.
The work

What we built

A shared content-management system

Covering the group's sites, blogs, event updates and engagement forms, with each company retaining its own identity.

Shared delivery pipelines

So publishing and deployment work the same way regardless of which company's content is moving.

Shared serverless infrastructure

So cost tracks actual usage rather than the number of sites standing.

Method

How we delivered it

  1. 1

    Audit the existing estate

    What each company runs, what is genuinely different, and what only appears different.

  2. 2

    Design the shared model

    Around the real differences, not the accidental ones.

  3. 3

    Build the platform and pipelines

    With one company as the pilot.

  4. 4

    Migrate site by site

    Each with its own content and its own switch-over.

  5. 5

    Hand over publishing

    To each company's own team.

Sequence

How it was phased

PhaseDurationWhat happens
1Estate audit
2 wks

What each company runs; real versus accidental differences

2Shared model design
2 wks

Content model, identity handling, form routing

3Platform & pipelines
4–6 wks

CMS, delivery pipelines, serverless infrastructure

4Pilot company
2–3 wks

One site migrated and published from the new platform

5Migration
ongoing

Site by site

Indicative phasing for work of this shape. Actual duration varies with data quality, access and decision speed.

Hand-over

What the client keeps

  • The platform and its source
  • Infrastructure definitions in their own repository
  • Delivery pipelines
  • The content model
  • Per-company publishing documentation
Stack
Shared CMSAWS serverlessCI/CD pipelinesInfrastructure as code
Keep reading

Related

Related case studies

Tell us what your current system can't do, and we'll tell you what it would take to change that.