Powering Seamless WordPress Migrations for Enterprise Sites
WP Engine Strategic Partner Americaneagle.com helps John Bean Technologies (JBT) Corporation build a fully-integrated, centralized multisite experience with the content-rich functionality of WordPress.
Industry: Manufacturing and Distribution
Site: jbtc.com | Americaneagle.com
Challenge: Harness the powerful content management capabilities and cost-savings of WordPress ahead of a proprietary software license renewal.
Solution: Migration from Sitecore to WP Engine’s enterprise WordPress platform. To better equip JBT’s marketers with tools needed for global market expansion, Americaneagle.com built a highly functional WordPress Multisite network that meets JBT’s specific needs, including multilingual requirements across its website.
Results: Smoother site performance and streamlined content management without the high cost of proprietary software. Since migrating, the JBT website has achieved better Google Lighthouse scores and experienced a boost in engagement across its global audiences.
John Bean Technologies (JBT) is a leading global technology solutions provider to high-value segments of the food and beverage industry with a focus on proteins, liquid foods, and automated guided vehicle systems. JBT designs, produces, and services sophisticated products and systems for multi-national and regional customers through its FoodTech segment and sells critical equipment and services to domestic and international air transportation customers through its AeroTech segment.
Americaneagle.com is a family-owned, industry-leading, and full-service web development and digital marketing agency. A WP Engine Strategic Agency Partner, Americaneagle.com is trusted by a wide variety of clients, including the Green Bay Packers, P.F. Changs, and the New York City Department of Education.
“As an agency that specializes in large-scale builds and migrations for enterprise clients, it is critical we have a partner we can rely on for enterprise-level security, scalability, performance, and support.”
—Sean Blakeley, WordPress Technical Director, Americaneagle.com
Serving Global Audiences More Efficiently
John Bean Technologies (JBT) Corporation designs, manufactures, tests, and services technologically sophisticated systems and products for the food processing and air transportation industries.
Headquartered in Chicago, JBT spans three business segments including FoodTech, AeroTech, and Automated Systems with thousands of employees across the globe and manufacturing locations on three continents.
In recent years, the company has navigated the COVID pandemic and lingering supply chain issues while accommodating a surge in demand with successful global expansion.
Part of this success has been powered by enhancements to JBT’s digital footprint, including a decision by JBT leadership to migrate the company’s website from Sitecore to WordPress.
Sitecore has long been used by enterprise organizations because it’s a powerful, feature-rich software system.
It comes at a cost, though, both in licensing fees and a reliance on developers, which can hinder fast-paced content creation and management.
For JBT’s internal teams, their legacy system had become a hindrance as the company sought to reach a growing international audience with a broader cadence of relevant content.
Further, the combination of complexity and cost of their existing system made it more difficult to achieve a return on investment, which the company hoped to remedy ahead of an upcoming license renewal.
As part of the planned switch, JBT engaged Americaneagle.com, who have deep experience and expertise in complex site builds and migrations.
Creating A Streamlined Content Workflow
Several specific needs were outlined as part of the project, including an emphasis on performance and security.
The introduction of a multisite network to streamline content management across an expanding list of sites for specific regions and languages was also a critical aspect of the project.
The site includes seven languages and more than 10 million words—all automatically translated by a custom implementation of the Weglot translation tool. The integration also includes a Chinese translation, which bypasses China's "Great Firewall."
The Americaneagle.com team began by migrating the JBT site to a new WordPress environment on WP Engine’s enterprise platform. Multisite functionality was enabled, allowing the JBT team to manage its different digital properties through a single WordPress instance.
“The new architecture enables JBT to maintain multiple business divisions while maintaining a single admin interface. This is a powerful principle—the site includes 30 UI Components which are maintained centrally and distributed to the global teams across the multisite network,” said Jim Allen, Senior Digital Delivery Manager, Americaneagle.com.
To further empower JBT’s content creators within the new WordPress experience, the site was integrated with the Oasis Workflow plugin, enabling custom and specialized approval and publishing flows.
Content organization, priorities, approvals, and publishing have all improved immeasurably since.
“For JBT’s growing team of content contributors,” Allen said, “WordPress was an efficient solution to learn and use and WP Engine’s platform provided the required enterprise backbone.”
The Results
The complex migration of the JBT website was on budget and on time, providing JBT with the streamlined content workflow they needed on a platform fine-tuned for speed and security.
“WP Engine’s partnership and industry-leading performance were crucial ingredients in the success of this project,” said Sean Blakeley, WordPress Technical Director, Americaneagle.com.
“As an agency that specializes in large-scale builds and migrations for enterprise clients, it is critical we have a partner we can rely on for enterprise-level security, scalability, performance, and support.”
For site users who had grown accustomed to the previous site’s URL structure, navigation, and content, the new environment provided an intuitive, seamless transition while also creating a more engaging user experience.
“Frankly, I’m amazed by how well the Americaneagle.com team was able to migrate our website from Sitecore to WordPress,” said Rich Kearns, Web Administrator, JBT.
“In conversations throughout the process, the team provided great advice and knew what questions to ask to ensure we would be pleased with the end result."
"Since go-live, the remediation of the small list of issues that are bound to occur with any deployment has been exemplary. I would definitely recommend Americaneagle.com to others looking for a website development partner.”
Behind the scenes, the JBT site has seen an uptick in performance metrics including a significant improvement in Google Lighthouse scores.
Internally, the JBT team has been impressed with the website’s new publishing flow, which has enabled efficiency and creative agility where it was needed most.
“Where there used to be many confusing levels of access and backlogs, JBT is now equipped with a sophisticated and successful content management flow,” Kearns said.
As the company continues to address growing markets and surging demand, the new site will undoubtedly serve them well.
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