Volkswagen AG InfoPortal

The Volkswagen Group IT required a new multi-brand communication and information platform designed to maximize value by seamlessly connecting Volkswagen AG manufacturers with their dealership and service organizations. The project was developed in cooperation with their partner, Porsche Informatik. To ensure a successful implementation, drunomics was invited to join the project team as a recognized Drupal expert. By migrating the brands Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and AUDI from existing legacy systems to this new centralized multi-brand solution, it was possible to leverage valuable synergies and streamline cloud operations. The shared editorial backend enables both cross-brand and brand-specific content creation. This new architecture, based on Lupus Decoupled Drupal, Nuxt, OpenSearch and AWS Fargate, enables easy and scalable integration of additional brands in a way that will be easy to maintain and keep up-to-date with new emerging technologies.

All images are © Volkswagen / AUDI and taken from publicly accessible websites. Texts were also either sourced from public sources or formulated as placeholder texts to avoid publishing internal details.

To build a scalable, multi-brand, cloud-based communication and information platform, a CMS was required that could support standardized content structures and workflows while remaining flexible and customizable. Drupal proved to be the ideal solution due to its:

• Proven Content Management & Customization - A mature and reliable CMS with robust functionality, allowing for easy adaptation and customization to meet customer requirements.
• Open-Source & Cost Efficiency - No vendor lock-in or licensing fees, ensuring full ownership and freedom for future development.
• Scalable, Cloud-Ready Architecture - Designed to operate seamlessly in cloud
  environments, supporting performance and scalability as the platform grows.

This combination provided a solid, efficient and future-proof communication platform that could remain adaptable according to customer needs.

• Enable content distribution across multiple brands.
• Standardize and streamline content management for various brands.
• Reduce operational and development costs.
• Support cloud-based scalability and high availability.
• Provide a modern, user-friendly interface.
• Ensure compliance with the latest industry standards for architecture and security.
• Maintain regulatory compliance with GDPR and company-specific standards.
• Facilitate seamless data migration from legacy systems.

• Develop a multi-brand platform with a user-friendly frontend and a centralized backend.
• Design a modern, responsive frontend user interface that enables dynamic navigation and personalized content.
• Manage content and metadata to support workflows for various content types, such as articles and brochures, including media assets like images and videos for streaming.
• Implement a powerful and efficient search function with synonym search and ranking mechanisms for quick and accurate content discovery.
• Enable role-based access control for secure and efficient user management.
• Integrate APIs and interfaces to connect with internal systems.
• Incorporate and develop additional features and custom tools.
• Ensure GDPR and company regulation compliance by implementing a data retention and deletion policy.
• Deploy on a cloud-based platform to ensure scalability, high availability, and flexibility.
• Integrate a CI/CD pipeline for automated testing, deployment, and seamless updates.
• Adopt DevOps practices to streamline development, enhance collaboration, and improve system reliability.
• Migrate and transform exported content per brand.
• Ensure high performance and scalability through intensive load testing.

The project delivers a scalable, cloud-based multi-brand platform with a centralized backend and decoupled user-friendly interface for Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and AUDI. Standardized content management and optimized workflow reduces costs, while advanced search functionality enhances usability and improves user experience by ensuring quick access to relevant information. Additional features, such as customized Newsletters, Sales Promotion Manager, a Promotion Combination Matrix, Goodwill tool for car purchase and self-created web forms enhance functionality, providing added value for all brands. With Lupus Decoupled Drupal, the backend and frontend were developed independently, enabling parallel work, greater efficiency, and seamless collaboration. Together with Volkswagen, we designed a custom serverless architecture using AWS Fargate, ensuring high availability, scalability and security through a joint DevOps and CI/CD approach. Rigorous performance testing, validated by impressive metrics - with simultaneous load from 500 working editorial users and 5000 frontend users - confirmed the system’s reliability and efficiency. GDPR compliance and robust access control safeguard data and seamless migration of legacy content, incorporating lessons learned from past migrations, ensures an efficient transition of future brand migrations.

This project stands out due to its unique multi-brand architecture, allowing different brands to operate independently while sharing a centralized backend. Further, the setup ensures that content can be efficiently distributed by editors across multiple brands and tailored to specific target groups without interfering with each other. Despite the centralized backend and feature set, the system remains highly adaptable and scales effortlessly with increasing users, traffic, and new brands joining the platform. The cloud infrastructure also enables seamless integration of new features, ensuring that all brands benefit from continuous improvements. With modern DevOps practices and a CI/CD pipeline in place, the platform guarantees high availability, automated updates, and future-proof scalability. This combination of flexibility, efficiency, and technological innovation makes the project a strategic milestone, providing a scalable, secure, and future-ready communication platform for evolving business needs.

Not only were Porsche Informatik and drunomics able to resolve the business requirements listed above, but the project drove technical innovation. More detail is given in the “Why These Modules Were Chosen” section.

The content creators, including editors from the sales and service departments, successfully transitioned to the new system. Overall, the feedback was positive, with smooth launches and only the expected minor hiccups. The platform has proven to be reliable — newsletters are being sent seamlessly, fine-grained content visibility is supported, and key business challenges have been addressed.

• Clients:

  • AUDI AG

  • Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge

  • Volkswagen AG

• Implementation Partner: drunomics GmbH in cooperation with Porsche Informatik Gesellschaft m.b.H. (a.k.a. POI)