Thunderbird School of Global Management contacted KWALL to deliver a fullredevelopment of all web systems from their proprietary CMS system into the Drupal open-source platform. The legacy system contained over 3,000 static pages of content on a very rudimentary CMS system that required extensive content migration.
This ambitious redevelopment sought to:
- Ease use for administrators
- Gain efficiencies through automation
- Enhance design aesthetics
- Introduce a responsive theme
- Reimagine user interfaces
- Boost overall performance
This project showcases the ability of Drupal to meet the operational needs of a top-tier educational institution. From the marketing team and department heads, to students and alumni, all Thunderbird stakeholders will see a benefit to this redevelopment.
About the project
The new system caters to a large set of audiences including current students, alumni, faculty and prospective students. Research and care was taken to ensure that each individual is presented with content relevant to their use case in a manner that encourages further exploration and conversion. Thunderbird is an established brand backed by progressive beliefs about what it means to lead on a world stage in business. From a content strategy perspective, the goal was to embrace this culture and present it accordingly to each online audience.
This renovation has resulted in a more efficient and intelligent web system that has increased awareness, simplified systems of communication and enhanced the overall look and representation of the Thunderbird School of Global Management’s online presence.
Why Drupal was chosen
Drupal was chosen for it's user permissions, security, multisite capabilities, and the overall flexibility of it's framework. Providing a solid foundation from which we were able to build upon and extend to the needs of the school.
Technical Specifications
Key modules/theme/distribution used:
To deliver on our goals, KWALL built upon many existing Drupal features and in many cases customized new solutions to improve user experiences and empower administrators with new tools. Notable customizations include:
- A forms configurator that allows administrators to assemble forms more quickly using pre-existing groups of entity fields. Integrations of these forms with a saleslogix system, Salesforce, and internal lead systems help to streamline internal processes, while making possible “apples-to-apples” reporting for decision makers.
- Content optimizations including multivariate testing and customized content delivery options based on the visitor and their reason of interest in the school.
- A custom search solution that offers users a single point to search across all the Thunderbird sites (separate Drupal instances) at once and have results collated together.
- Responsive design to enable the entire site to dynamically resize and reorient to fit all mobile devices – a must for their target market.
- A new event calendar that feeds in events from the school’s internal systems and presents in a single interface, making all activities easier to access through dynamic filters such as event type, audience and location.
