Creating a Centralised Headless CMS To Deliver Content Across Multiple Brands
A content unit that could service all business units and brands
When the client approached Endava, it was looking for a better way to deliver content. They had 27 CMS environments, and each had its own expensive licensing fee.
Combined, these environments delivered over 1,500 webpages, however 80% of the components were inconsistent with their design guidelines. Content updates were slow and expensive, as each update was reliant on a developer as there were multiple different code repositories, some static sites and legacy technology stacks.
Lastly, content updates would not deploy across the client’s suite of sites. For example, if a menu item was changed on one site, it had to be updated manually on every microsite that used that navigation, making changes labour intensive and extremely expensive.
A centralised content platform
Endava worked with the client’s team to deliver a headless platform solution, Contentful. The solution was scalable across brands, inexpensive, reliable, easy to use for content editors and had the ability to absorb their Design Language System (DLS).
Throughout the 5-year engagement, the client’s technology stacks were uplifted and unified with headless and defined scalable, lookless content models were created that supported a robust component library.
Planning the journey, prioritising the product roadmap
With the goal in place, the content services squad was created. The unit contained team members from both sides and worked as single department with combined scrums. One of the first things the squad delivered a product roadmap that would see the team tackle one page at a time. By using an iterative release plan, the squad only had to create the necessary components and content models required for each page and could reuse components in further releases. It led to smaller, faster releases and improved future releases based on user feedback.
Solution architecture
A centralised content model was built. Put simply, this allowed content to be managed in a centralised Contentful environment and served to various parts of the content environment based on an editor's specifications.
Contentful is an API-centric content platform. It has an API-first approach designed to appeal to both developers and content creators. This means that the data comes in and out of the Contentful platform using API calls. This is what makes Contentful a headless and decoupled solution for managing content. For example, a call-to-action banner could be managed from a centralised content model but served to various pages with various 'visual appearances.' This provided a simple editing experience across business units, brands, and regions.
Agile delivery for rapid releases
For each page, the project team employed an agile methodology which began with a discovery phase. Workshops were held in order to understand the business and user needs. Once these problems were established, solutions and designs were proposed including user testing if needed. Once approved, these features and requirements were then broken down into a list of epics. Developers worked on the tasks within each epic during two-week sprints. Due to our agile way of working, the Endava team would often deliver an entire page uplift or redesign within a single sprint if pre-existing components were used.
Rebranding with ease and simplicity
In 2022, the Content Service Squad was transitioned entirely to the client, which had been the plan from day one. As a final deliverable, the client asked to implement a complete visual redesign across their site in line with their corporate rebrand. This meant a change to logos, colours, buttons, fonts and icons.
Probably the greatest feature of the content platform is its ability to simply update styling across its entire ecosystem. The Content Services Squad and the Design Ops team worked in consultation to implement the code changes required to implement the rebrand in just two consecutive sprints thanks to the flexibility of Contentful.
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