Digital Transformation for a Global Christian Denomination Body

This case study outlines the digital transformation journey of a significantly large Christian denomination body with over 400 churches, a global presence, and more than 12 million members. The organization operates three key websites:

To enhance and maintain these platforms, the Church selected ekSource as its Premier Technology Partner. ekSource developed and managed these websites using Sitecore CMS (v9.0.1) on the Microsoft .NET platform, hosted in an on-premises environment.

Business Challenge

Business Challenge The Church faced several challenges in managing its digital ecosystem:

Content Volume: Managing an extensive repository of articles and media, including images, PDFs, and documents.
Searchability: Enabling efficient and quick search capabilities for content editors within the CMS dashboard for editing and publishing.
Taxonomy Management: Associating content with specific taxonomies (tags and categories) as defined by content authors.

Solution

ekSource leveraged Sitecore CMS to deliver a comprehensive solution tailored to the Church’s needs:

User-Friendly Interface: Simplified content creation and management for content authors.
Customization and Integration: Fully configurable and customizable solution with seamless integration of third-party services like Marketo.
Enhanced Search Functionality: Utilized Sitecore’s internal search powered by Solr, a Java-based search engine, to locate content efficiently.
Taxonomy Management: Enabled easy configuration and association of content with categories and tags.
Workflow Automation: Configured workflows to ensure content was reviewed and approved before publishing to the live site.

Benefits

The implemented solution provided substantial benefits:

Flexibility for Content Authors: Authors could control the placement of specific components on web pages and make configuration changes without affecting other components.
Content Preview: Allowed content authors to preview their work before publishing, ensuring quality and consistency.
Future-Ready Architecture: Positioned the Church to adopt a headless CMS approach, enabling the integration of emerging front-end technologies such as Next.js, ReactJS, and .NET Core.

Through its collaboration with ekSource, the Church achieved a modernized and efficient digital ecosystem that streamlined content management and enhanced user experience. This partnership laid the foundation for future technological advancements, ensuring the Church remains at the forefront of digital innovation in its mission to connect and engage with its global community.