CGCOM

Shared identity, organizational independence

Large institutions often need to maintain a network of subsidiary entities, each with its own website and specific needs. Reducing duplication while maintaining interdependence and ensuring independence is paramount to success.

Since the end of the 19th century, in Spain, membership has been mandatory for all doctors wishing to practice as such. In addition, the creation of a College of Physicians for each of the provinces was planned.

The Organización Médica Colegial de España (OMC) is the public law corporation for the regulation of the Spanish medical profession. The highest governing body of the OMC is the Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Médicos (CGCOM), which groups, coordinates and represents the 52 Colegios Oficiales de Médicos at national and international level, and is responsible for the exclusive representation, organization and defense of the medical profession.

To fulfill its role, the CGCOM is also the sponsor of several foundations that carry out important social work in various fields: the Foundation for Social Protection (FPSOMC), the Foundation for Training (FCOMCI) and the Foundation for International Cooperation (FCOMCI).

The project

CGCOM relied on Metadrop to modernize its digital communication tools and adapt them to the changing times.

The project affected the main CGCOM website and its three foundations, but it had to be carried out ensuring the maintenance of a common corporate identity and the establishment of a shared code base to accelerate development and reduce costs.

At the same time, there were important needs for interoperability and, at the same time, independence between the various sites, as well as maintaining previous developments and introducing some new functionalities.

Specifically, the CGCOM communications team needed to be able to centralize all news and events to be published and shared among the four sites without interfering with each site's ability to manage its own unique content.

Design, UI & UX

CGCOM also commissioned Metadrop to analyze and propose a new design for the four sites, based on the existing corporate identity and modernizing it to bring it closer to modern standards and needs.

The study also addressed the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), performing a detailed breakdown of the new functionalities into reusable and configurable components, taking into account the different devices (mobile, tablets) and the variations and adaptations required for each foundation.

The result of this process is not only a solid base for the developer: it also provides extremely useful documentation to the client, allows to solve doubts and ambiguities before undertaking the development and helps to exhaustively define the scope of the project, reduce uncertainties and improve communication.

A place to rule them all

CGCOM and its three foundations are a Drupal 9 multisite install, so they benefit from sharing a single code base.

Reduce costs and speed up deliveries: Having a common base significantly accelerates development by not having to maintain each site separately, as well as ensuring that each site's functionality remains aligned with the others and that any updates or enhancements only need to be implemented once.
The best inheritance: On top of this Drupal proprietary system, Metadrop has additionally developed a way for the front layer to be inherited between the different sites, further reducing duplication. This system is able to concentrate most of the development on a single site, which is able to generate the code for the others, so that the foundations' websites only have to take care of their small specificities.
Keep your own voice: Sharing is all well and good, but some foundations have special needs: a user area? or perhaps an announcement system? Thanks to the system of shared and specific configurations, each site can separate itself from the common backbone where it needs to, either to add new functionality or to redefine what already exists.

Interface for editing a Press Release in CGCOM

Control and flexibility for editors

CGCOM's Communication team needed a way to remotely control certain content of the foundations without the problem of having to access each of them with a different user and copying and pasting the same content over and over again.

Edit once, publish infinitely: Thanks to the remote content sharing system implemented by Metadrop, CGCOM editors can register their Press Releases and Events and choose in which sites they should be published. The other sites will be updated with the new information automatically, so that certain information can be shared on four sites with a single click.
An administration interface that helps, not hinders: CGCOM's websites host a large amount of information that needs to be updated frequently. It is important that the various departments find an interface that is on their side: modern, agile, intuitive, adaptable and beautiful.
Gallery of reusable components: CGCOM editors and its foundations have at their disposal a gallery of more than 20 reusable and configurable components specifically designed for this project with which to compose pages of all kinds.

A personalized newsletter

CGCOM wanted to continue using a customized newsletter composition system integrated into Drupal in order to control the design of the mailings using the system's own tools.

Custom design and easy editing: We developed two types of newsletters (communications and news), the first focused on sending official communications and the second on content summaries. Editors can compose the newsletter and add the content they want from the same editor they work with on a daily basis, without using third-party services and using the tools they already know.
Preview and sending system: To provide greater security and allow fine-tuning down to the last detail, newsletters can be previewed directly in the browser.
Sending using Mailjet: We use CGCOM's preferred system, Mailjet, to send using its API. Campaigns are automatically generated and sent without the publisher having to take any additional action.

Content migration

When it comes to such a major transformation, a migration can help reduce the burden considerably.

Over many years, the CGCOM team had generated an enormous amount of content, articles, documents, press releases and events. To facilitate the translation of some of this content, it was decided to develop automatic migrations that would take care of converting the data to the new formats.

In this way, the old information is not only preserved but is given a new life by automatically and immediately benefiting from the new developments.

Search and find

When it comes to complex websites with a large amount of content of different types (events, press releases, articles, pages...) a good search engine is crucial. At Metadrop we have great experience in using Solr and faceted searching to help users find what they want quickly and easily.

Tailored search: Search engines are complex elements that may frustrate the user. On CGCOM sites, the user can choose the display mode (grid or list) and has clear and concise filters to narrow down the results.
Faceted search: This type of search reduces uncertainty by successively narrowing the search by additional criteria (type, year) and eliminating options that will not yield results. The goal: never see the "no results found" message again.
Navigable search: For better usability, the search engine incorporates a results summary that allows you at any time to know the filters applied and to remove them individually, thus being able to "navigate" within your own search.

Down to the smallest detail

Over the years, CGCOM departments have used different tools to achieve their objectives. The ability to integrate and replicate these tools on the web was another objective met in the development.

Flippingbook Publishing: Magazines published by CGCOM are transformed into HTML minisites using the popular Flippingbook publishing tool. Metadrop improved the existing system from an FTP upload to an auto-generation of the minisite through an attached ZIP file.
Optimized SEO: When it comes to sharing content on major social networks and appearing on search engines, the meta-tagging of pages is paramount. We ensure that all data is present and allow publishers to define images and text that should represent the content on third-party platforms.
Membership system for FFOMC: The Training Foundation needed a complex user system whereby certain individuals would have access to post content on the Bulletin Board - but only for their College of Physicians. Metadrop developed a granular permissions system to allow this very specific type of access.

The future

Thanks to the work developed by Metadrop, CGCOM will be able to renew its entire ecosystem of websites, benefiting from a modern design and a series of architectural and editing interface improvements that will free up time and resources in its teams.

In addition, should the client need to launch new sites in the future that maintain and extend the same functionalities and corporate identity, this can be done with ease thanks to the common code base and theme inheritance strategies implemented.