Using WordPress as a Distributed, Enterprise-level CMS By Eric Greenberg

WordPress as a ‘Distributed’ Enterprise CMS

Eric Greenberg

An explosion of web technologies

There’s a new Dean in townI’m only going to ask you once to get those sites branded.

A consolidation of sorts…

There’s a new CMO in townWe’re going to create a Center of Excellence.

Enter the Marketing Technology Office

Biggest Problem?

A CMS to easily create and maintain N sites

Why not a Commercial CMS?

Why not Drupal?

• Too arcane for our current staffing.• Not nearly the size of the WP community• We would again be dependent on outside

vendors for our projects and platform.

Benefits of WordPress

• We all already had WP experience• It is SEO friendly out of the box• Many editors are familiar with it• HUGE community with lots of plugins

available• It is 20% of the internet• It is actively developed• Pretty easy to extend – even for non-php devs.

WordPress Technology Stack

• WordPress (for starters)• WPEngine (host)• Premium Theme (as a starting point)• ManageWP (for bulk management)• Wp-updates.com (holds our updates)• Mission Critical Plugins

Site X

Site Y

Site Z

wp-updates.comwpengine.com

manageWP.com

Responsive Pro (Premium Theme)

Wharton Child Theme

Wharton Parent Theme

Introducing Tabula Rasa

• Our WP Template site– Contains all plugins with appropriate

Settings– Core users– Sample content– Sample Menu– Empty Wharton Child theme activated

Critical Plugins

• Akismet (spam)• Easy Post Types (customize posts)• Visual Composer (page-level

customizations)• VC Templates (Reusable content)• Capability Manager Extended (roles)• Wordpress SEO

Really Nice Plugins

• Bulk Page Creator• Admin Menu Editor• SEO Auto Links (internal linking)• JSON API • List Category Posts

The Downsides

Thank you!

• ericgr@wharton.upenn.edu• @ericmgreenberg