How to Build a Scalable, Multi-Language Digital Platform for a Top Bioscience Company?
Industry
- Biotech
Services
- Architecture
- Web Development
- Product Management
- QA Automation
- DevOps
Technology
- Drupal 9
- Vue JS
- Nightwatch JS
- Acquia Cloud
- REST Integrations
TL;DR
- Powerful Drupal 9 based digital platform
- Web component-based design system
- Enterprize-grade SLA
- Security compliance
The challenge
Twist Bioscience is one of the world’s leading biotech companies. In 2020, Deloitte ranked the company 60th on its list of fastest-growing technology companies in America. In 2021, Fast Company ranked Twist sixth on their list of Most Innovative Biotech Companies, coming in just after Pfizer and Moderna.
To set them apart in such a competitive market, Twist needed a full-scale marketing website to position itself as an industry leader while acting as the company’s main lead-generation engine.
Due to the innovative nature of the company and the biotech industry at large, speed and responsiveness were critical. There was no room for error.
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Scale Frequently, Rebuild Rarely.
We needed an architecture that would support long-term, fast-paced growth without the need to rebuild often. -
Corporate DNA with a Start-Up Feel
Speed and responsiveness were critical factors throughout the development cycle. Caution and precise attention to detail were priorities, as befits a leading biotech company. -
Multi-Site and Multilingual Support
In addition to its main brand, Twist also has several subsidiaries, each of which needs websites. The subsidiary sites would leverage the same functionality and a similar layout as the primary site while also maintaining their own unique design identities. Twist also needed multilingual support for a Chinese website that would access the same database as the English website but with a designated domain. -
Well-Defined Roles and Permissions System
Twist’s content-rich environment required a well-defined roles and permissions system. Each department had ownership over its own section on the website and needed to be able to control it easily and independently—without overstepping or impacting other areas or users.
The Solution
Technology
Twist requested Drupal as their content management system. Their R&D team did a deep dive and concluded that Drupal would be the best solution for scalability, performance, compliance, and back-end management.
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Scalability and Freedom
Drupal offers a set of tools that can be combined in different ways according to the use case—rather than being forced to conform to a predefined architecture. Because of this feature, we were free to implement each of Twist’s requirements in ways that reflected their precise needs. The data model level (node, custom entities, paragraph, taxonomies, etc.), the different rendering options (Twig, REST API), and various front-end frameworks (Angular, React, Vue, etc.) helped us fulfill the scalability requirements needed for this project. -
Out-of-the-Box Solutions
Drupal offers beautifully designed solutions that address our main challenges in this project. The multi-site and multi-language translation architectures and the flexible roles and permissions system were ideal for helping us deliver an elegant solution with minimum risk. -
Designed for Performance
Drupal gives developers incredible control over what goes in, making it easier to create lightweight applications as its architecture minimizes the number of dependencies. -
As secure as it gets
Drupal is known as one of the world’s most secure CMSs, providing secure authentication, role-based access control and configurable permissions, advanced validation mechanisms, a Symfony-based core engine, a secure template engine (Twig), and more.
On the front end, Twist’s website uses a semi-decoupled architecture. Some site sections are generated by a template engine (Twig), and others use VueJS with REST API.
The website also uses a web components-based design system that works as a stand-alone library, integrating with the main site alongside Twist’s other digital assets.
Delivery Process
To ensure high-quality deliverables, we created a holistic process that addresses all aspects of project management and development while minimizing overheads.
Our project management approach applies Agile methodology, incorporating sprints with a predefined scope and timeline and different managerial meetings—daily, weekly, retrospectives, etc. We use Jira as the software that combines it and incorporate a mature CI/CD pipeline that automates as much as possible—from unit and integration tests to releases—to minimize human error.
Support Service
The website we created for Twist is now one of their most critical digital assets.
In addition to showcasing them as a global leader in their field, it also incorporates critical marketing and recruiting operations. As such, a high level of support is needed to ensure their teams of content editors can do their work efficiently, quickly solve any functional issues that may arise, and avoid costly downtime.
We created a multi-level support system to quickly identify and solve technical issues. We provided a 24/7 support team and implemented an automated test process that alerts the team when needed. We also established a content support team that assists and supports content-related issues with a best-in-class service level agreement (SLA).
