Seamless integration of Helvetia (formely Baloise) Design System into Magnolia across 16 sites

For a company that is active in multiple markets and stands for innovation, the web presence should live up to this perception and offer its customers an all-round excellent experience.

Helvetia was using Magnolia for several years, but the previous backend, based on Magnolia 5, was somewhat outdated technologically and no longer met today's expectations in terms of visual experience. As part of the rebranding, the Helvetia Design System was to be integrated into the content management platform, to ensure consistency across all 16 web tenants, as well as to improve usability for the editors. The vision for the new backend system: self-contained web components based on a comprehensive and token-based design system. In addition, the customer experience was to be optimized through additional services on the country websites.

Together with IBM iX as implementation partner, Helvetia decided to continue to rely on Magnolia's solutions. Magnolia's platform is easy to expand and scale. It is also known and appreciated throughout Helvetia, and the editors are well trained. In addition, a lot of content in the backend could be easily migrated from the existing legacy platform to the new one.

For the migration of the existing websites to the new environment, an Incremental Content Migration was used. The existing content was first copied and then transformed so that it could be reflected in the new information architecture. Magnolia is now used as a classic CMS to comfortably power Helvetia's various websites – for different countries and in different languages.

Through the token-based design system, integrated with Magnolia, the company's editors can easily manage the individual websites. Brand consistency is ensured through the centrally provided web components, enabling a consistent customer experience across all countries and languages.

In addition to a modernized design and a simple maintenance of brand consistency, the goal was to provide Helvetia customers with additional services on the websites. These services include a job portal and form sections for insurance contracts. The functional services had to be integrated easily and customized as required. For this purpose, various third-party systems were connected to Magnolia.

The connected systems include a job API and an active directory (AD) for user login. In addition, there are various widgets displaying on the Helvetia websites the company's share prices or an insurance calculator. Other integrations include Wallee for payment and a tool for importing ratings. The result is a solution which provides numerous services for the end users and, above all, a unified experience.

Incremental content migration was an important aspect in giving the existing content a fresh look on the new platform. Helvetia's approximately 20,000 pages were migrated in a short time thanks to this approach. With the integration of the Helvetia Design System, the new backend of the websites is now future-proof and can ensure brand consistency in the long term. The flexibility of Magnolia also enables Helvetia to quickly adapt to new requirements, and thanks to central platform management across the entire Helvetia Group, adjustments can be done more effectively for all websites and pages.