Baylor's Partnership with Acquia Advances Web Development

Almost all of the 1.7 billion websites on the internet, including this one, are created and distributed through a variety of content management systems (CMS). You may have heard of programs like WordPress or Joomla, with hundreds and thousands of other CMS platforms out there, but they all serve the same core function —to distribute digital content (images, videos, etc.) to the web, social media, digital signs, mobile apps and a host of other platforms.

Baylor has used a proprietary CMS that was developed in-house in 2003, before wide-spread CMS platforms were commercially relevant.

"Back then large organizations knew they would need to have a system to manage content that was being shared on the web," said Randy Woodruff, associate vice president for digital marketing. "At that time there was not a well-developed affordable CMS on the market, which compelled us to create our own. As it turns out we ended up with some pretty advanced thinking behind the CMS we built, which we have realized in the process of adopting a new platform."

As the world’s communications have moved more and more toward digital and internet-based methods, it was determined back in early 2018 that a new solution was needed to address the needs of the University moving forward.

Through an extensive review process, Acquia, an open source digital experience company, was accepted by the University administration as the most effective partner to host and assist with the development of the next CMS on a Drupal platform.

“Being inside the Drupal ecosystem, we are part of a large community of developers who are creating tools and enhancing the system,” said Andrew Maddox, director of digital marketing development at Baylor. “On our current CMS, if we want a feature enhancement, we build it ourselves. With Drupal, we can take advantage of this community and make incremental improvements to our system over time."

A process that is approaching two years in the making continues, as the CMS Migration Team has prototyped several trial websites on the new Drupal platform.

Most visitors to a Drupal website will not see a dramatically different web environment. The look and feel of websites with the new Drupal system will be similar to Baylor's current websites. But behind the scenes and in consistent, dependable functionality, the new sites will be radically improved.

Faster page delivery, module-based pages, simplified layouts and an intentional focus on accessibility — a growing focus nationwide as the needs of all users must be met — will make the experience of visiting Baylor’s family of websites a more efficient and pleasant experience that is consistent across Baylor’s unified brand.

The scope of the migration is massive, with years of development already completed and several more to go.

Among the prototype sites, the most prominent and visible example of successful launches so far came with in June with the Baylor United Brand Guide website.

While the timeline for the expansion of the migration efforts has extended, Spring 2020 will open a new phase of migration for Baylor’s websites.

As departments and divisions across the University begin to prepare for migration, it is strongly recommended they evaluate existing websites to determine what content is effective or needed, and to remove the out-of-date or inaccurate items that tend to linger on websites.

While there is not yet a specific migration schedule in place, the CMS Migration Team will begin reaching out to managers of smaller simpler websites in the spring, working towards larger and more complex websites throughout the migration process.

While the outgoing CMS platform currently remains in operation and has served Baylor well, the Drupal-based platform is being approached with the intent to provide the absolute best web experience for the University for many years to come.