Magnolia CMS
Aerospace Corporation EADS Streamlines Communication with Magnolia CMS
EADS is Europe’s largest aircraft, aerospace and defense group. Aperto, a Magnolia Partner, assisted the corporate group with the relaunch of its websites and oversaw its technical implementation with Magnolia CMS Enterprise Edition. Based on the new CMS infrastructure, EADS is now moving ahead to migrate the Web sites of its business divisions and international subsidiaries.
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- EADS Web site
EADS is the world’s leading corporation in the aircraft, aerospace and defense industry and related service sectors, with an annual turnover of 42.8 billion euros in 2009 and over 119,000 employees. Airbus, Eurocopter, EADS Astrium and EADS Defence & Security all belong to EADS.
Statistics
| Client | European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) www.eads.com |
| Implemented by Magnolia Partner | Aperto AG |
| Infrastructure |
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| Number of Sites | 1 |
| Number of Pages | 16000+ pages, 6000+ documents (PDF, XML and JPG) |
| Number of Authors | 100+ content editors, including experts with backgrounds in various fields like economics, politics and sociology, and editors with significant Web development experience |
Case Study Video and Slides
The Problem: Improving Communication and Ease of Use
EADS' existing Web site had not seen an update in some time, and site users had frequent complaints about the difficulty of navigation, lack of "push" information and static content. Keeping these criticisms in mind, EADS decided to update its Web site to improve usability and make updates easier.
Clear, user-friendly, emotional and concisely structured: this is what EADS wanted for its new look on the Web. The goal was to create a corporate Web site that served as an international, modern platform for the company's communication and marketing. A scalable, sustainable enterprise CMS was needed for the company’s clients, and it also had to be intuitive and easy to use for editors.
The use of the Magnolia CMS and its STK makes fast, efficient and high-quality project implementation possible in a way I have never experienced with any other CMS product.
Ingo Werren, Senior Project Manager, Aperto AG
The Solution: Enhancing and Integrating Magnolia CMS
Some of the key requirements of the desired solution were:
- Support of accessibility standards
- Seamless support for blogs, Flash content, and simple cross-linking
- Easy integration with third-party SAP ERP
- Multi-language interface
- Low editor training requirements
- Scalability and ability to host multiple sites in a single installation
Based on these requirements and following an in-depth evaluation, EADS decided on Magnolia CMS Enterprise Edition and chose Aperto as an experienced partner for the implementation of this large and complex project. Aperto used the Magnolia STK to implement the new design.
Rapid Development with the Magnolia STK
Within six weeks of starting the project, Aperto had set up the editorial templates so that EADS could start filling individual pages with content. EADS was also provided with bespoke functionality, such as the integration and management of Flash applications from within the Magnolia workspace. Other focal points of the project included the customization and extension of the Magnolia workflow to meet the client’s demands.
Apart from the technical implementation of the project, Aperto helped set up the necessary infrastructure, held international editorial training sessions, and provided editorial support.
The Result: An Award-Winning, Modern, International Web Presence
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- EADS website wins Gold
The relaunched EADS Web site has a modern, standards-compliant user interface that also complies to Web accessibility guidelines. With Magnolia CMS' internationalization support, content authors are able to add and edit content in multiple languages, thereby supporting audiences in different European and Asian countries. The site also boasts filterable multi-repository full-text search, a feature that is built into Magnolia CMS and therefore required minimal development effort.
The content pages of the site are generated using Magnolia STK templates, and the Magnolia STK remains the basis for further development. Aperto plans to use the STK solution to build new templates or paragraphs, and to generate a consistent editorial feeling for everyone working with the system.
The site also won Gold at the Hallvarsson & Halvarsson Webranking France awards 2010.
By sticking closely to the Magnolia STK, we were able to provide real HTML prototypes right from the very beginning of the project to help the client decide on a design. This also enabled a highly iterative and agile approach in which we could deliver releases very quickly and complete the technical development in just two month’s time.
Ingo Werren, Senior Project Manager, Aperto AG
Business Benefits
Benefits of Magnolia CMS for the EADS project
- Faster time to market and lower risk with STK technology
- Improved user experience through internationalization and WYSIWYG editing features
- Efficient business process integration with pre-existing ERP infrastructure
- Easy integration of custom workflows
Conclusion
Based on the new CMS infrastructure, the international roll-out of the site is proceeding gradually for multiple countries (EADS China) and across business divisions (EADS Cassidian). Due to Magnolia's modular architecture, the door is open for EADS to easily integrate external business applications in the future, as well as gradually replace or integrate other isolated applications within their infrastructure with one main platform based on Magnolia CMS Enterprise Edition.