Table of Content
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 3

Reasons for Multiple Sitecore CMS Websites .............................................................. 3

2. Key Considerations and Opportunities ...................................................................... 4

Planning Phase ................................................................................................................. 4

Roadmap .................................................................................................................. 4

Supporting Technologies .......................................................................................... 5

Content Migration .................................................................................................... 5

How can eDynamic be a strong partner during the Planning Phase? ........................ 6

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 6

Build Phase ....................................................................................................................... 7

Approach .................................................................................................................. 7

Common Multi-site Framework ................................................................................. 7

Maintenance Phase ........................................................................................................... 8

Sta ng Approach leveraging eDynamic’s Sitecore CMS for the Maintenance Phase... 8

3. Global Sitecore Delivery Partner ............................................................................... 10

4. eDynamic and Multi-site Projects ............................................................................. 11

Multi site implementations – Typical Engagement Model ......................................... 11

Multi site implementations – Typical Team Structures ............................................... 11

Experience in Multi-site Initiatives ............................................................................ 11

Call us at: North America: 1-877-EDYNAMIC (339-6264)
India: +91-11-26384306-07
Email: contact@edynamic.net
Visit us at: www.edynamic.net

1. Introduction

Several organizations today are consistently using Sitecore Content Management Systems
(CMS) for building and managing multiple websites. While both, building and managing
sites on Sitecore has its own set of challenges and considerations, they remain signi cantly
di erent from a single website implementation. This paper re ects on considerations
alerting organizations regarding prior, during and after, multi-site implementations.

Reasons for Multiple Sitecore CMS Websites
Organizations that own multiple brands— such a situation can lead organizations to
creating multiple websites, with each site supporting a unique brand with its own
inimitable content and presentation.

Organizations with one brand catering to di erent audiences— this situation can
compel organizations to creating multiple websites wherein each site uses common
content and a unique presentation or device support.

Organizations providing private customer portals— a situation like this can coerce
organizations to potentially create hundreds, even thousands, of websites that
provide common functionality and content, while providing a selection of
presentation options per individual website.

Organizations providing audience or o er-speci c micro-sites—a situation like this
can drive the organization to creating dozens of websites at the drop of a hat; of
course there lurks the need to remove old and add new websites quickly, each
potentially with its own content and presentation.

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2. Key Considerations and Opportunities

Multi-site Sitecore implementations have di erent considerations and opportunities along
the lifecycle of the application—during all its phases; namely, planning, build and
maintenance phases of the websites. In this next section, we explore some of the
best-practice considerations and opportunities within each phase.

Planning Phase Build Phase Maintenance Phase

Planning Phase
The planning phase, the most pivotal to the success of any CMS implementation project,
can often be the most neglected. This is the phase were key decisions are made that can
a ect the application and your organization for years.

Roadmap
A roadmap is a common planning tool to provide a long-term perspective on the
organization’s expected capabilities, supporting technologies and sta ng around internal
initiatives.

An ideal roadmap should provide a clear line-of-site, from concept to deployment with the
objective of alienating the guesswork as at each phase of the project. Developing a
roadmap should be a collaborative e ort across business and technical stakeholders -
creating common plan for the initiative.

Enlisted below are some of the common items identi ed within a roadmap:
Expected Capabilities — Driven by business requirements and objectives, capabilities
need to be thoroughly understood, for comprehending business expectations, as
well as the required technologies and architectural approach.
Supporting Technologies — understanding the prerequisites of technology and
identifying the dependencies that require planning, forms the crux of this criterion.
Content Migration — often existing, legacy websites moved to a new platform, like
Sitecore, will continue to possess timely, relevant content that organizations would
want to move to a new platform — this migration must be planned for, within the
roadmap.
Sta ng — as the lifecycle for a website initiative unfolds, sta ng requirements will
change in support of the planning, build and maintenance phases.

India: +91-11-26384306-07

1. Introduction

Several organizations today are consistently using Sitecore Content Management Systems
(CMS) for building and managing multiple websites. While both, building and managing
sites on Sitecore has its own set of challenges and considerations, they remain signi cantly
di erent from a single website implementation. This paper re ects on considerations
alerting organizations regarding prior, during and after, multi-site implementations.

Reasons for Multiple Sitecore CMS Websites
Organizations require and implement multiple Sitecore websites to support specific
business initiatives that include:
Organizations that own multiple brands— such a situation can lead organizations to
creating multiple websites, with each site supporting a unique brand with its own
inimitable content and presentation.

Organizations with one brand catering to di erent audiences— this situation can
compel organizations to creating multiple websites wherein each site uses common
content and a unique presentation or device support.

Organizations providing private customer portals— a situation like this can coerce
organizations to potentially create hundreds, even thousands, of websites that
provide common functionality and content, while providing a selection of
presentation options per individual website.

Organizations providing audience or o er-speci c micro-sites—a situation like this
can drive the organization to creating dozens of websites at the drop of a hat; of
course there lurks the need to remove old and add new websites quickly, each
potentially with its own content and presentation.

India: +91-11-26384306-07


Migration Approach Recommended Situation

Small amount of content (<1000 pages)
Manual Content is irregularly structured on the web page
or is not available through a structured data
source

Large amounts of content (>1000 pages)
Automated Content is available in consistent, regularly
structured web page or through a structured data
source

How can eDynamic be a strong partner during the Planning Phase?
When thoughtfully performed, the planning phase provides the essential foundation for
the success of a multi-site initiative. For many organizations, a single Sitecore CMS
implementation provides su cient challenge, while a multi-site implementation provides
another level of concern.

eDynamic can complement an organization’s internal team during the planning phase in
several areas:
Roadmap planning — working with both business and technical stakeholders,
eDynamic can facilitate the process of developing a roadmap that re ects the intent
of the organization.
Technology evaluation — custom multi-site development, Sitecore Multi-site
Manager, Sitecore Foundry—making the correct decisions can be challenging!
eDynamic provides a process to capture requirements, verify the support of
requirements, outline options and then develop a proof-of-concept for nal
veri cation of the selected technology.
Content migration strategy and execution — developing a migration process that
aligns with an organization’s content inventory is important; while using the best
approach requires the previous experience of a partner.

Conclusion
The planning phase for a Sitecore CMS multi-site initiative is critical—partnering with a

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seasoned player that has ample experience in delivering multi-site solutions on Sitecore
CMS and related technologies. In the presence of an experienced hand, the organization
also gains con dence as they plan their roadmap.

Build Phase

Approach
The development approach of multiple websites on Sitecore CMS is dependent on a
number of factors, including the type of multi-site technology chosen, the planning of a
multi-site framework, and the total number and complexity of the websites. The possible
approach includes the following:
Discrete Approach
Holistic Approach

Common Multi-site Framework
The knowledge that there is a series of Web applications that must be built and deployed
on Sitecore CMS provides organizations with an opportunity. This opportunity is to build
an application framework in support of the capabilities speci c to the organization, but
common to all its Web applications.

The common application framework, once developed, provides a lever to more swiftly
deliver new Web applications with radically less work and risk. Organizations reduce
market time and cost of deployment by developing such a framework that incorporates
common functional elements used by all or some of the Web applications.

Here are some examples of potential opportunities of leverage. These include:
Improved quality — reduced development and debugging
Reduced maintenance — common code base for all applications
Common assets — content types, controls
Shared functionalities – pluggable framework
Information bus — leverage common back-end integrations

eDynamic recommends the development and use of such a common framework within
multi-site projects.

India: +91-11-26384306-07


Maintenance Phase

Sta ng Approach leveraging eDynamic’s Sitecore CMS for the Maintenance Phase
eDynamic provides maintenance and support capabilities for Web applications utilized by
both near-shore and remote/o shore organization resources. During a retained
engagement, these services are available to customers as required to support internal
customers and existing applications.
Help desk
Self Service
Health Monitoring
Service monitoring
Application lifecycle management
Knowledge Transfer (Service decommissioning)

Support Packages
eDynamic provides several levels of support packages to t needs of customers
throughout the lifecycle of applications. Though eDynamic has several common support
packages, as seen below, customers can work with eDynamic to de ne a package that is
customized to t their speci c needs.

Service Desk
Ticket acceptance and acknowledgement
Ticket tracking
Reporting
Escalation
Contact relevant person from production engineering if emergency ticket

Service Engineering / Production Engineering
Ticket resolution
Change management
Documentation
Release management
Co-ordination

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Service Quality Management
SLA adherence
Monitor Issue recurrences
Project forecast
Reporting

India: +91-11-26384306-07

3. Global Sitecore Delivery Partner

Sitecore’s mix of powerful marketing and business features, rich development support and
scalability make it the ideal solution for leading websites. From entry level to the largest
enterprise class organizations, creating and continuing to provide your visitors a
compelling Web experience has never been as easy or as exciting, serving and delighting
millions.

Sitecore partners comprise integrators, consultants, and design houses — that understand
how best to place Sitecore solutions in working more e ectively than any other.
Sitecore has partners in the following countries:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Hungary
Ireland
Japan
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States

India: +91-11-26384306-07

4. eDynamic and Multi-site Projects

Multi site implementations – Typical Engagement Model
eDynamic recommends that organizations consider two possible options:
Transactional Engagement
Retained Engagement
Internal plus outsource
Fully outsourced model
Multi site implementations – Typical Team Structures
The team structure for a transactional or retained engagement will be similar, with the
exception of the cost and exibility associated with a long-term retained team.
Onsite/Onshore team—a typical onsite/onshore team will minimally involve a project
lead, but as projects get more complex, could also include a business analyst and
technical architect. The project lead acts as the key contact for the customer, who
coordinates all communications, manages the project and may also provide technical
consulting.
Core o shore team—the core o shore team provides all the functionality necessary
for any project—technical architecture, business analysis, Sitecore development, .NET
development and web front-end development. As the needs of a long-term
engagement grow, additional members can be added from an extended o shore
team—these team members provide the headroom when initiatives demand more
resources.
Extended o shore team—the extended o shore team extends the core team with
additional resources during high-demand initiatives, while quickly shrinking back to
the size of the core team when no longer needed.

Experience in Multi-site Initiatives
eDynamic has been a Global Sitecore Partner & implementer of Sitecore CMS solutions
since 2004. Over the past 3 years eDynamic has delivered more than 25 Sitecore projects &
has more than 15 Sitecore clients globally. A number of these Sitecore implementations
have been multi site initiatives where eDynamic has been involved right from the Planning
& Roadmap phase to Maintenance & Support.

India: +91-11-26384306-07

4. eDynamic and Multi-site Projects

eDynamic has successfully leveraged its onsite (local)/o shore delivery model for all these
Sitecore projects.

Why Clients have been choosing eDynamic for Sitecore Implementations?
Proven Success: We have been implementing multi-site Sitecore projects successfully
for Fortune 500s. Our Sitecore customer list includes New York Life, Aviva, PepsiCo
among many others since 2004
Sitecore Expertise: Our expertise on Sitecore stems from our rich pool of certi ed
Sitecore developers & solution architects that has successfully delivered on multiple
Sitecore client engagements
Cost E ective Delivery Models: Our Clients claim to have saved up to 60% in
development costs with our exible delivery models based on local and/or o shore
resources
Global Scale: We are a truly global partner with o ces in the US, Canada, the Middle
East & India where we have large, certi ed Sitecore teams to serve you
Content Management System (CMS) Center of Excellence: Our CMS center of
excellence breeds cutting edge research, best practices & industry leading solutions
on leading CMS, Portal, Collaboration & Intranet products
.NET and Integration Expertise: Our Sitecore credentials are stronger than others
because we also have deep .NET development & Systems Integration capabilities that
are critical for Sitecore implementations

India: +91-11-26384306-07

Sitecore CMS for Multi-site implementation

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