The Unlimited Custom Content Management System – Case Study
Client Overview:
The Unlimited is a short-term insurance company.
The Unlimited deals in insurance products meant for cars and households and things alike.
Unlike long-term insurance (e.g., life insurance), their focus is on providing coverage for shorter-term needs.
Client’s Challenge:
The Unlimited faced significant challenges with their existing WordPress platform, which lacked the ability to enforce consistent branding and design across their digital properties.
The company’s domain and subdomains featured around 60 different URLs with inconsistent styles and themes, leading to confusion in website management and off-brand issues.
The lack of a cohesive system resulted in unmanaged pages, unclear ownership, and difficulties in maintaining brand consistency.
The Solution:
Co-Foundry developed a custom content management system (CMS) tailored to The Unlimited’s needs.
This custom CMS offered:
- Enhanced Brand Control: Strict templates and approval processes ensured all content and pages adhered to The Unlimited’s brand guidelines (theme, design, feel, colors, etc).
- Unified System: A platform that encompassed many features of WordPress and its plugins but with enhanced security, eliminating the need for frequent updates and reducing vulnerabilities from plugins.
- Simplified Management: Tools for easier creation and management of pages and marketing campaigns, along with a streamlined process for content approval before going live.
- Added authority: A bespoke solution that enhanced and replaced WordPress creates a better perception of the brand, its authority and credibility.
Implementation Process:
The implementation involved several stages:
- Requirement Gathering: Initial meetings to understand the challenges and goals, despite initial difficulties due to changing design teams and advertising agencies that would use the custom platform.
- Design: Working with a top Advertising Agency, a refreshed brand design was completed, together with a new website design and templates.
- Development: Building the custom CMS, with admin dashboard, content creation functionalities with templates and approval processes to enforce brand consistency.
- Testing and Launch: Ensuring the platform met all requirements and functioned as intended before going live.
- Training and Documentation: Providing The Unlimited’s internal staff with comprehensive training and documentation to use and maintain the platform.
- Ongoing Support: Continued collaboration to maintain and improve the platform, adapting to new requirements and technological advancements.
Outcome:
The custom CMS project began in 2019 and was completed to The Unlimited’s full satisfaction by the end of 2020. All previously inconsistent and unmanaged pages were redirected to standardised pages and fixed to align with current standard branding guidelines. All pages were consolidated under one unified platform, ensuring consistent branding and easier content management.
The platform’s success allowed The Unlimited to pause further development for two full years due to its stability and effectiveness. They later, in 2022 returned to Co-Foundry to upgrade the system to the latest Co-Foundry framework (version 5) to meet new technological requirements and add additional functionalities.
The project demonstrates the importance of ongoing commitment in bespoke software development to stay aligned with the client’s current & future demands as well as technological standards. Additionally, the project demonstrates Co-Foundry’s ability to stay consistent, keep up with changing requirements and build products that replaces & improves upon giants like WordPress.