The Client
Saint-Gobain is a worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction, designing, manufacturing, and distributing materials and services for the residential, non-residential, and infrastructure markets. Its integrated solutions are built around sustainability, performance, and well-being, serving customers and construction professionals worldwide.
The Situation
Saint-Gobain Denmark operated four separate brand websites across different Drupal core versions, each requiring dedicated teams, separate maintenance budgets, and individual content updates. The fragmented setup created high operational costs, inconsistent brand experiences, and prevented cross-selling across brands.
Specifically, the company’s business objectives were to:
- Unify four brands (Saint-Gobain Denmark and three other brands) into a single Drupal-based multi-brand website on Acquia Cloud Platform
- Reduce maintenance and infrastructure TCO significantly
- Deliver a seamless, unified customer experience across all brands
- Enable PIM integration for product data centralization
- Integrate Marketo for marketing automation and personalized customer journeys
- Launch interactive calculators and configurators to drive customer engagement and specification
- Strengthen brand recognition and digital visibility
- Establish a flagship example of digital maturity to be replicated across other Saint-Gobain Group markets
The Challenge
The primary challenge was architectural: the company needed to merge four distinct brands, each with its own design language, content structure, and target audiences, into a single, coherent platform without diluting their individual brand identities.
From a technical standpoint, challenges included:
- Migrating legacy Drupal instances of varying versions
- Establishing a shared but flexible content model
- Integrating external systems (PIM and Marketo) at scale
On the design side, Saint-Gobain needed a unified navigation framework based on the building process rather than target groups — a significant departure from existing site structures. Accessibility presented another challenge: the company wanted all brands to go beyond WCAG compliance requirements. Finally, the platform needed robust security and bot protection to safeguard brand integrity and maintain infrastructure performance as traffic increased post-launch.
The Solution
Acquia partner JAKALA led Saint-Gobain Denmark's digital transformation by integrating four brands into a single Drupal multi-site platform on Acquia Cloud Platform. Each brand retains its own UX/UI and features while sharing infrastructure to lower costs and simplify maintenance.
At the heart of the solution is a central Nordic Content Hub with PIM integration, ensuring product data is accurate and distributed efficiently. Marketo automates personalized marketing and interactive tools, plus a customer portal adds value throughout the building process. JAKALA redesigned navigation to appeal to building professionals, preserving the company’s brand identity by including distinct design elements and embedding sustainability in content.
Acquia Governance provides continuous accessibility monitoring, exceeding WCAG standards and supporting inclusive design. Acquia Edge Security protects against bots and DDoS attacks, maintaining site performance and stability while reducing infrastructure costs. Together, these solutions demonstrate effective brand protection and digital accessibility in action.
The Results
The transformation project received impressive results.
- Traffic growth: The new unified platform delivered 3x the traffic of the previous fragmented websites, demonstrating significantly improved brand visibility and digital reach.
- Maintenance efficiency: By consolidating four brands into a single Drupal instance on Acquia Cloud, Saint-Gobain reduced maintenance efforts by 4x, freeing internal teams to focus on content strategy and customer engagement rather than operational upkeep.
- Infrastructure cost savings: With Acquia Edge blocking 95%+ of unwanted bot traffic, the platform operates more efficiently, reducing server load and lowering infrastructure TCO.
- Security and stability: Blocking most malicious bots improved platform stability and uptime, protecting the brand’s digital presence and user experience.