WEBSITE portfolio CONSOLIDATION
One platform strategy for your entire web estate
Organizations that grow through acquisitions, team expansion, or incremental decisions end up managing platforms they never designed as a portfolio. Each site has its own vendor, its own hosting, its own support contract. We help you consolidate — without disrupting what's live.
the real challenge
You don't have a website problem. You. have a governance problem.
Fragmentation accumulates — a new site for a new initiative, a different CMS, a merger that brings three hosting environments into one org. The cost isn't the number of platforms you run. It's managing them as if they're entirely independent.
How organizations typically approach this?
Approach
- Full rebuild
- Consolidate to a single enterprise CRM
- Manage multiple vendors
- Lift and shift each site
Where it breaks down
- High risk. Scope creep stalls delivery.
- Vendor-led. Governance improves on paper.
- Each vendor optimises their own contract.
- You've moved the problem, not solved it.
Our approach
We treat website portfolio consolidation as a connected progression. Each phase produces real, tangible outcomes and de-risks the next. The same team runs all four. And the work starts with what you have, not with what we think you should build.
Portfolio assessment
Inventory all platforms, hosting, integrations, and operational dependencies. Identify redundancies, security gaps, and consolidation opportunities. Delivered as a time-boxed engagement with a clear roadmap at the end.
Rationalization
Define future-state architecture. Evaluate CMS platforms, content models, and integrations against your organizational goals. We don't arrive with a predetermined answer and we have no licensing relationship that shapes our recommendations.
Consolidation
Migrate into a unified Azure foundation with shared security, DevOps, and identity governance. Sites continue to operate on their existing CMS platforms while the foundation consolidates beneath them. Publishing workflows are uninterrupted.
Modernization
Incrementally improve CMS, UX, and platform capabilities. New components go live on the target architecture as they're completed. Legacy elements are replaced progressively. No big bang and no cutover risk.
Our approach
We treat website portfolio consolidation as a connected progression. Each phase produces real, tangible outcomes and de-risks the next. The same team runs all four. And the work starts with what you have, not with what we think you should build.
Portfolio assessment
Inventory all platforms, hosting, integrations, and operational dependencies. Identify redundancies, security gaps, and consolidation opportunities. Delivered as a time-boxed engagement with a clear roadmap at the end.
Rationalization
Define future-state architecture. Evaluate CMS platforms, content models, and integrations against your organizational goals. We don't arrive with a predetermined answer and we have no licensing relationship that shapes our recommendations.
Consolidation
Migrate into a unified Azure foundation with shared security, DevOps, and identity governance. Sites continue to operate on their existing CMS platforms while the foundation consolidates beneath them. Publishing workflows are uninterrupted.
Modernization
Incrementally improve CMS, UX, and platform capabilities. New components go live on the target architecture as they're completed. Legacy elements are replaced progressively. No big bang and no cutover risk.
what this means for your business
The outcomes website portfolio consolidation produces
Lower operational cost
Fewer vendors. Fewer contracts. Improvements built once, deployed across every property. Maintenance costs fall as the portfolio consolidates.
Consistent security and compliance
One Azure environment, one security model. No per-site patching. No accessibility gaps that shift by platform. One audit covers everything.
Faster delivery
A shared component library means changes made once scale everywhere. The more the foundation matures, the faster delivery gets.
Lower risk than a full rebuild
No site goes dark. No publishing workflow interrupted. Each phase has defined outcomes before the next begins — no single decision bets the whole portfolio.
A foundation that scales
New sites, new brands, new capabilities slot into the shared foundation. The architecture grows with the organisation instead of needing replacement every few years.
Proof before commitment
Assessment is time-boxed and low-commitment. You get a clear consolidation roadmap — scope, complexity, no surprises — before committing to a programme.
who this is for
The situations where it matters most
Strong fit if:
- You manage 3+ websites across different platforms or vendors
- Security and accessibility vary by property — a real governance risk
- You're paying to maintain the same capabilities on multiple separate sites
- A merger, acquisition, or reorg left you with a portfolio you didn't design
- A full rebuild feels too risky, too slow, or too expensive
- You've moved to Azure and want your digital portfolio to follow
Not the right fit if:
- You have a single website with one CMS and one hosting environment
- You are looking for a vendor to execute a defined rebuild spec — this is a programme, not a project
- You need a quick fix rather than a structural solution
client success stories
Long-term partnerships in high-stakes environments
Canada's elections technology platform
Ongoing operational support including elevated coverage during active election periods. The same team that executed the Azure consolidation continues to run managed services.
- "BWA has made a big effort to get to know our business and has been flexible in working with our specific hosting needs."
20+ year relationship
Managed services across a multi-brand digital ecosystem. Assembly was instrumental in a cloud migration that delivered a $1.8M reduction in operating costs across a multi-year partnership.
- "You lead with integrity for your teams and clients. I will alway application architecture."
At the crossroads of a legacy data centre contract renewal, Assembly was instrumental in helping simplify a cloud migration path that provided a 1.8M reduction in operating costs.
ERIN, CORPORATE WEBSITES - GLOBAL 500 CONGLOMERATE
What we hear most often
00
A full rebuild assumes you know the right target state before you have done the work to understand what you actually have. It also requires a bet-the-portfolio commitment before any value is delivered. Our phased model lets you validate assumptions before committing to irreversible architectural decisions — and delivers real outcomes at the end of Phase 1 independently of Phase 2.
01
Not with the right sequencing. Phase 3 consolidates the foundation — hosting, security, and operations — while sites continue to operate on their existing CMS platforms. Publishing workflows are not disrupted. Content authors see no change. The risk of doing nothing compounds. The risk of our approach is managed explicitly at each phase gate.
02
The incremental delivery model is specifically designed to avoid this. In Phase 4, new components go live on the target architecture as they are completed. Legacy elements are replaced progressively. The team that runs the programme is the same team that supports live operations — so there is no split between delivery and stability.
03
We don't arrive with a predetermined answer. We have no licensing relationship with any CMS vendor that shapes our recommendations. The right platform depends on your content model, your team's capabilities, your audience needs, and your long-term operating model. We help you reach that decision based on evidence gathered during Phase 1 and Phase 2 — not before we start.