Thread

We’ve been using a variety of Open Source CMS frameworks for a number of years and, while we will continue to use them in certain instances where client requirements dictate, we’re finding more and more clients are requiring a simple to use framework with multisite capabilities which I why we’ve started analyzing EE as a possible solution.  Our largest client is the franchisor of multiple franchise ‘brands’ worldwide that typically has some/all of the following requirements for all of the sites it provides to its franchisees:

1. ability to create/provision new sites quickly/easily from the ‘top-level’ \
2. have a ‘roll up’ of usage statistics for all sites to the main site - also ability to ‘drill down’ to view stats at a individual ‘sub site’ level.
3. ability to put separate Google Analytics tracking on each ‘sub site’
4. ability to ‘push’ content/template updates to individual or all sub sites
5. ability to define which pages can be updated by which user groups at the sub site level - ideally be able to ‘lock down’ control of content at down to the paragraph level within the content page.
6. ability to give sub site users ability to create new or change existing content but with notification to the ‘top level’ administrator with administrator review/approval required prior to publishing.
7. easily ‘push’ core/security/template updates down to all sub sites.
8. ability to create/manage/update banner or similar ads down from the top level to individual/all sub sites with top level admin and advertiser visibility to ad effectiveness.
9. ability to ‘pull’ information(typically office/contact/location information but can be a bit more complex such as businesses for sale listings data) out of backend CRM and similar systems and have them displayed apparently ‘integrated’ into the presentation/content level.
10. an office/branch zip/postal code locator feature(with location/postal/zip pulled from the same backend system as in #9 above)

There’s probably more but I think that’s enough for now 😊

Any insights as to how/if EE might meet some/all of the above would be very helpful in our decision making process.

If EE is the answer, this could open the door to use EE for the nearly 2000 existing franchise locations of this particular client as well as numerous other(2000 or more) locations worldwide.

Hi, smueller - welcome to the forums!

1.  Yes, you can copy from an existing Site to a new Site.

2.  ExpressionEngine only has basic statistics, so you’ll likely want a third-party solution here.

3.  You control the templates so you can use the appropriate tracking code in the locations of your choice.

4.  You can cross-reference data using Site variables and parameters.

5.  Yes, you can control member groups per Site though the actual membership database is installation-wide.

6.  This would be an entry status workflow. For existing content I believe that both Solspace and LG have potential solutions you’d want to look into.

7.  You can call templates across Sites, so you can use embeds to make sure recurring data is in only one place. For system updates it is all one set of files and one database.

8.  This would be handled via your setup in the templates.

9.  That would be a custom solution using your CRM’s API and our EE’s API.

10.  This would need to be a custom solution.

Is it your intention to run 2-4000 Sites under one EE/MSM installation?  This may take some thought and strategy on your behalf as you will likely need to break this up into several EE + MSM clusters.  If you would like to discuss this further, then please email sales so we can go into more detail.

And don’t forget about our trial options.