Cambridge Innovation Institute Streamlines 100+ Sites and Sharpens Lead Generation with Progress Sitefinity DXP
Challenge
Solution
- Centralized 100+ event sites using the multisite management and master templates of Sitefinity DXP.
- Automated agenda updates and reduced manual editing with custom widgets and APIs.
- Used Sitefinity Insight for behavioral lead scoring and cross-site analytics.
Result
- Reduced active content editors from 80–90 to roughly 30–40.
- Maintained consistent branding using shared global content and templates.
- Accelerated site launches and reduced operational bottlenecks across 180 managed sites.
Full Story
Challenge
By 2018, CII was managing nearly 100 independent event websites on the legacy Ektron CMS (now Optimizely)—each requiring separate maintenance, updates and brand oversight. The company needed a unified, multi-site solution to manage frequent event launches, maintain consistent branding and support both marketers and sales teams more efficiently.
Additionally, traditional conversion activities, such as brochure downloads were declining. CII needed smarter, behavioral-based tools to identify and qualify event attendees and sponsors while keeping operational costs manageable and improving marketing agility.
Solution
CII selected Progress® Sitefinity® CMS for its robust multi-site management, master templates and cost efficiency in maintaining its own server infrastructure. The platform’s integration with Telerik® DevCraft™ Complete—Progress’s UI and component library for building rich, responsive digital experiences—and its extensibility made it the clear choice over alternatives such as Sitecore.
Streamlined, Multi-Site Management
The migration from Ektron was a complex transformation involving large volumes of content, detailed audits and a mix of manual and automated transfers across dozens of sites.
Today, CII manages over 100 sites—about 60 active at a given time—using shared templates and SiteSync for hourly updates. Marketers can publish changes without IT involvement, reducing bottlenecks and accelerating timelines.
Operational Efficiency and Workflow Automation
Custom widgets and API-based integrations automatically populate conference agendas and session data. This dramatically reduced manual editing and optimized the content editing process from 80–90 editors to around 30–40 active contributors. A shared staging environment supports collaborative updates while maintaining consistency.
Data-Driven Lead Management with Sitefinity Insight
Progress® Sitefinity Insight® enables CII to prioritize outreach based on true buying signals, supplementing traditional conversions and helping maintain strong sales pipelines even as brochure downloads decline.
Future-Ready with AI and Personalization
CII plans to deepen automation through AI-assisted marketing, tying Sitefinity Insight into various marketing platforms for personalized outreach. The team is also exploring new Sitefinity capabilities in hyper-personalization and generative content.
Result
With Sitefinity DXP as its digital backbone, CII modernized how it manages events and engages audiences:
Multi-site scalability: 100+ event and publication sites, with 60 active sites managed through shared templates and global content.
Operational efficiency: Editorial resources reduced by approximately 60%, enabling teams to focus on strategy and quality.
Brand consistency: Shared design components and centralized updates maintain consistency across multiple divisions.
Lead quality and sales enablement: Insight-driven behavioral scoring replaced declining brochure downloads, strengthening sales pipelines.
Agility and control: Marketers independently deploy updates and new event sites, reducing IT load and improving speed-to-market.