Creating families with Virtus Health

Global leaders in assisted reproductive services

Virtus Helth: the roster of websites shown on series of handheld and desktop devices.

Virtus Health Limited (ASX:VRT) is the market-leading Assisted Reproductive Services provider in Australia, Ireland, UK, Denmark and Singapore. Pivale built the following websites for Virtus Health around the world: Virtus Health | IVF Australia | Melbourne IVF | Queensland Fertility Group | Tas IVF | Virtus Fertility Centre | The Fertility Centre | Sims IVF | Rotunda IVF | Complete Fertility Centre | Trianglen Fertility Clinic | Aagaard

Identify

Virtus Health approached us with a portfolio of websites for their European clinics that needed to be unified with their existing sites across Australia and in Singapore. Pivale were able to identify and explore consolidation opportunities that would help the whole group, regional operations, and individual clinics:

  1. Engagement and conversion rates

    We identified specific problem areas where potential leads would likely 'drop out' due to poor design decisions or placing too much burden on the user. First and foremost, any new website strategy needed to prove its worth in terms of return-on-investment. By focusing on new enquiries, and other conversion metrics, we were able to advise which improvements should be prioritised over others.
  2. Brand consistency

    Branding and messaging across the group lacked consistency due to multiple designers and developers having built the various websites. This could be greatly improved by making important decisions once and gaining the benefit across all sites.
  3. New site rollouts

    Virtus Health had recently begun its acquisition strategy in Europe and found it slow and cumbersome to bring the acquired businesses under the Virtus Health umbrella. Virtus Health needed a documented 'playbook' for further acquisitions that would streamline the rollout process, coordinate teams for content curation and translation, and save money from the efficiencies gained.
  4. CMS multisite strategy

    Rather than managing individual websites in isolation, Virtus Health would benefit from a platform that would support easy expansion, share common functionality between sites, be future-proof, and easier to maintain than many individual sites. Being able to adapt quickly to new requirements was an important consideration that needed to be supported by a modern and flexible platform.
  5. Development and support

    Rolling out new developments and security updates across the group were time-consuming, sporadic, and expensive. Innovations on one website would be exclusive to that site and not shareable across the other websites without additional expense. This effort should be consolidated.
  6. Complicated hosting

    The Virtus Health website portfolio was hosted across multiple hosting platforms and DNS servers, creating a web of confusing and expensive invoices. It also made tracking and resolving issues more complicated given the differences in infrastructure. There were no staging environments for testing changes and safely rolling out changes to the live sites. We advised how to improve the infrastructure for best practices that would allow for getting changes live faster than before.
  7. CRM integration

    Some websites were integrated with the group's CRM whilst some weren't meaning a lack of oversight on essential data for the business as a whole. The CRM system is a very important part of tracking Virtus Health's KPIs, so first-class integration was very important.
  8. Compliance

    With evermore attention given to personal privacy online and emerging localised legislation, it was important to enhance the level of compliance Virtus Health could implement.
Four iphones and an iPad demonstrating the visual unity between the five European Virtus Health websites.

Qualify

As with any major overhaul of websites one of the key focuses was ensuring a good return on investment.

As Virtus Health had many websites they were keen to ensure that any solution had the right balance of long-term efficiency and flexibility. With this in mind, Pivale were able to identify Assemble: Multisite Solutions as the perfect solution for Virtus Health.

12 websites serving...

  • 3

    continents

  • 5

    countries

  • 40+

    fertility clinics

  • 60+

    laboratories

  • 7

    specialist day hospitals

A visual breakdown of the design of the Virtus Health multisite project.

Engage

Virtus Health were looking to consolidate and enhance the way they interact with patients through improved user journeys, and provide a future-proof way of managing a full lifecycle of engagement.

This meant being able to help patients from the very first contact right the way through to conceiving and starting a new family.

With all the key stakeholders united behind a vision for a more cohesive approach to workflows and branding around the world, the scene was set for Virtus Health's digital transformation journey.

The Virtus Health portfolio was built with:

Assemble: Multisite Solutions

The smarter way to manage many websites. Boost innovation, unify branding and save time.

Discover Assemble
The Virtus Health pattern lab application being viewed on an iMac.

Challenges

Bringing five separate brands under one roof and creating a sense of unity was never going to be a simple task. From early on in the design phase we had to plan meticulously to allow each brand to have its own identity whilst placed within a framework that would be shared amongst all of the sites.

On previous sites such as Adelco's we used Pattern Lab to build a pattern library for maximum brand consistency. We started to consider whether such an approach could extend to a number of different websites and through a lot of trial and error we were able to build a single pattern library that would help with cross-brand consistency whilst allowing each individual brand to shine.

In addition to this we needed to make sure that each site could have its own unique functionality such as content, menus and forms whilst also sharing functionality such as tools, content types and design patterns. This is where Assemble: Multisite Solutions comes in. We've built a unique system that handles all of these complex requirements with any degree of flexibility and customisation required.

Pivale have transformed the way we manage websites. As a global business that is rapidly growing through acquisition and consists of multiple brands, in multiple countries, and multiple languages; we were burdened with the continual cost of building and rebranding websites. Pivale offered us a unique solution to streamline the process and provide a framework whilst being flexible enough to accommodate different brands and be adaptable for the future. Pivale have been able to significantly reduce the lead time and costs involved in developing and launching new websites and have enabled us to invest instead. The multi-site architecture means that any improvements can be leveraged and applied to all sites quickly and easily. The resulting websites not only provided a cost-effective solution but look great and perform well as an effective tool to generate leads. The solution was initially trialed in our European market and following the success of the project, was quickly rolled out globally. Pivale are responsive, agile and work as an extension of our team. We trust them to provide expert advice and deliver a solution that will meet our business objectives.

Natalie Woodbridge - Marketing & Public Relations of Virtus Health

Natalie Woodbridge

Marketing & Public Relations

The Aagaard website shown an an Asus Zenbook.

Solutions

As Virtus Health were already familiar and happy with Drupal as their CMS, Pivale 's Assemble: Multisite Solutions solution was the natural evolution to power their website portfolio. This allowed Virtus Health to incrementally roll out new websites in a manageable way to fit within the timelines of the content teams.

We worked through the requirements of each website one-by-one, constantly sharing the latest innovations on each site with the previous ones due to the shared system we'd built.

The sites each integrated with Google Maps, Google Tag Manager and Analytics and Salesforce. Local Danish laws meant that Trianglen and Aagaard had to have all their forms removed and replaced with a secure email facility to comply with enhanced GDPR.

Each site launched successfully and in quick succession of one another, with Aagaard being the final launch in Europe which also featured multilingual translations in Danish, English and German.

Thank you for the incredible work you have been doing on our websites which look fantastic.

Sue Channon - Group Chief Executive Officer of Virtus Health

Sue Channon

Group Chief Executive Officer

The six Australian clinic websites shown on six iPhone X devices.

Evolutions

As a result of the success of the European development and launches, we were promptly asked to turn our attention to the websites across the rest of the group's clinics in both Australia and Asia. A total of 6 further clinic sites and the corporate site for the Virtus Health were identified as being candidates for rebuilding in the new multisite system.

These sites brought a whole host of new requirements and innovations that were then in-turn shared with the European sites, allowing the group to benefit as a whole from the ongoing work.

As the Australian sites needed to be hosted in Australia instead of Europe we built a separate multisite stack, and broke out all of the shared functionality between the two so that each region could pull in the latest updates. This meant that as soon as new development took place all sites across the world could benefit immediately upon re-deploying.

Our experience with Pivale has been seamless and enjoyable from the beginning. We set the task of building new websites for our multiple brands (5 sites for Australia, one global corporate site, and one site for the Singapore market). The Pivale team were quick to find a solution that not only saved us time but also halved the cost to build 7 traditional websites. They listened to our requirements, and were able to adapt and optimise at every stage. Nothing was ever off the table. With our headquarters based in Australia, there were no adverse effects or delays in the process. We were still able to have regular calls and contact to keep the project flowing smoothly.

Niki Evans - Digital Marketing and Campaign Manager of Virtus Health

Niki Evans

Digital Marketing and Campaign Manager

Two pages from the Virtus Health corporate site shown on Apple MacBooks.

Outcomes and next steps

The project was a massive success for both Pivale and Virtus Health. This was the first real test for our Assemble: Multisite Solutions platform and proved the value of the service.

Virtus Health were able to achieve their goals for half of the cost of developing these sites in the traditional manner, whilst also ensuring that no site fell behind in terms of security, compliance, or innovation.

Next, we are lining up another series of websites and applications to be redeveloped in the new multisite system, to allow the sites to share blog content, as well as users to navigate donor information when going through the IVF process.

Visit the websites

Barry Fisher - Director

Does the Virtus Health project resonate with you?

Give us a call or send us an email to talk through your project

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email[email protected]

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