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Unil

The University of Lausanne streamlines its web ecosystem with Jahia

How UNIL simplifies the management of its web ecosystem while preserving the editorial autonomy of its teams.

A web estate as large as the university itself

Founded in 1537, the University of Lausanne (UNIL) is one of the oldest universities in Europe.

It welcomes more than 17,500 students and over 5,000 staff members, spread across 7 faculties, several departments and institutes, as well as 31 administrative services and units.

Its web ecosystem has to serve the needs of very different audiences: students, prospective students, the general public, staff, teachers, researchers, journalists, partners, and external institutions.

Over the years, this ecosystem grew around public sites, portals, service sites, faculty sites, institutes, and laboratories. At its peak, UNIL managed more than 300 websites. This setup answered a real need for autonomy. Each entity could publish its content, showcase its activities, and speak to its own audiences. But this autonomy also created growing complexity: redundant content, information that was hard to maintain, navigation that was less clear, and a heavy support workload.

UNIL therefore committed to a redesign program to streamline its web architecture, make information easier to find for its different audiences, and preserve the editorial autonomy of its teams

Photo ©Unil

17500
students

5000
staff members

300
websites before redesign

Too many sites, too many duplicates

Mire

Before the redesign, UNIL's web ecosystem was largely organized in silos. Each faculty, service, institute, or laboratory could manage its own content, with very different editorial practices and levels of contribution.

This setup answered a need for autonomy, but it also created duplicates, outdated or contradictory content, and information that was harder for visitors to find.

The way content was organized reflected the internal structure of the university more than the way audiences actually look for information.

The challenge was therefore to streamline a very large web estate by focusing content on the priority target audiences, without taking away each entity's ability to publish and manage its content.

The redesign also had to preserve continuity of service, support more than 600 contributors, and prepare the gradual migration of faculty, institute, and center sites.

"We had more than 20,000 pages spread across more than 300 independent sites. It had become difficult for our visitors to find the information they needed."
- Franck Canavesi, IT Program Manager, Unil

One environment, autonomous teams

Target

UNIL has used Jahia for many years to manage its web ecosystem.

The platform makes it possible to manage several sites in a common environment, with permissions tailored to roles, sites, and levels of contribution.

As part of the redesign, Jahia provides a common environment to manage sites, templates, components, and contribution rights. This approach helps UNIL maintain visual, editorial, and technical consistency, while letting faculties, services, and business teams manage their content within a defined framework.

Jahia therefore supports a balance that is essential for UNIL: central governance, editorial autonomy, and the ability to evolve the web estate step by step.

For the university, the platform is a common foundation to evolve a complex web estate without starting from scratch.

"I find the relationship of trust we have with Jahia Solutions very valuable. Being able to discuss improvements and bugs, with direct access to the right people, is really important to us."
- Rémi Georges, Digital Project Manager and Webmaster of unil.ch

From 80 sites to one unified space

web Unil

The project started with a user study to rethink how content was organized. Around 700 people took part. This exercise helped UNIL understand how audiences group information together and how they expect to find it on the site.

The teams then worked on the style guide, the mockups, the templates, and the Jahia components.

The components were designed to make the contribution experience easier, limit unnecessary or overly complex options, and reinforce the consistency of pages.

In parallel, UNIL carried out significant editorial rationalization work: merging content, removing duplicates, rewriting, and clarifying content trees.

The first major step focused on central services. UNIL moved from more than 80 separately managed sites to 1 unified site, in which each service has its own dedicated space.

This new framework lets services keep publishing, but within a common architecture, coordinated by a central service. The program continues with the gradual migration of faculty, institute, and laboratory sites. This phase has to account for existing content, contributing teams, decision-making rhythms, and the specific constraints of each entity.

Photo ©Unil

"From the start, all of the thinking around the program planned for a complete redesign of every site on Jahia. We had more than 300 sites. Each entity had its own Jahia site with its own editing rights. Once rationalized, it came down to just over 30 sites that were migrated."
- Novella Bellonia, Digital Communication Manager, Unicom and Program co-lead, unil

Less complexity, more clarity

Site

The 80 central-services sites were brought together into 1 unified site.

The redesign has reduced complexity within the scope of central services.

The content volume of the central site went from more than 3,000 pages to around 1,300 pages.

Liens

Clarified information architecture and removal of redundant content.

Improved search and access to information for users.

Star

Optimized contributor experience through more guided components and permissions management adapted to each role.

Security

Preparation for the gradual consolidation of faculty, institute, and laboratory sites.

Cloud

A common foundation put in place with Jahia to reconcile centralized governance, editorial autonomy, and the gradual evolution of the web estate.

We moved from a situation where a service had its own site, which it managed entirely on its own, to a single site in which each service has its dedicated space, but within a centrally coordinated and governed environment.

— Fabrice Marchon, Developer Analyst at Unil's IT Center

What this project shows

Unil's project shows that a multisite redesign is not about reducing the number of sites.

In a distributed organization, you also have to clarify who publishes what, within which framework, with which rights, and with which components.

Jahia lets Unil manage this complexity in a common environment. The platform helps the university reduce fragmentation where it creates unnecessary maintenance, while keeping editorial spaces suited to the different entities.

This approach makes it possible to move forward in stages: rationalize the content of central services, manage the migration of these sites (central, faculties, and centers), and evolve the web estate without starting from scratch.

Do you manage a complex web ecosystem, with several sites, entities, or contributing teams?

Discover how Jahia helps organizations streamline their sites, strengthen multisite governance, and preserve the autonomy of their editorial teams.

Talk to a Jahia expert