Five-Language WordPress Migration for EFQM, Arabic Included
Challenge
EFQM is a not-for-profit membership foundation based in Brussels, established in 1989 when the CEOs and presidents of 67 European companies committed to its mission. The foundation developed the EFQM Model, a globally recognised framework for organisational change and performance improvement.
Their digital presence had grown into a liability. Content was scattered across three separate platforms, which meant that publishing a single update could require work in multiple systems by multiple people. Pushing changes live was slow and error-prone, and the team depended on third parties for work they should have been able to do themselves.
The complexity was multiplied by language. EFQM serves a global membership and publishes in five languages including Arabic, which requires full right-to-left layout support rather than simple text substitution.
Running three platforms also meant three sets of licensing, hosting and maintenance costs. The brief was to consolidate without losing the existing design or degrading the user experience members were familiar with.
EFQM is a not-for-profit membership foundation based in Brussels, established in 1989 when the CEOs and presidents of 67 European companies committed to its mission. The foundation developed the EFQM Model, a globally recognised framework for organisational change and performance improvement.
Their digital presence had grown into a liability. Content was scattered across three separate platforms, which meant that publishing a single update could require work in multiple systems by multiple people. Pushing changes live was slow and error-prone, and the team depended on third parties for work they should have been able to do themselves.
The complexity was multiplied by language. EFQM serves a global membership and publishes in five languages including Arabic, which requires full right-to-left layout support rather than simple text substitution.
Running three platforms also meant three sets of licensing, hosting and maintenance costs. The brief was to consolidate without losing the existing design or degrading the user experience members were familiar with.
Solution
We consolidated all three platforms into a single WordPress installation, rebuilt to give EFQM complete control over their content in one place.
The existing design and user experience were preserved deliberately. Members knew the site, and the goal was to remove operational friction, not to force a relearning of the interface. We recreated the front end faithfully while replacing everything behind it.
Multilingual architecture was the core engineering challenge. We built the site to handle five languages natively, including full right-to-left support for Arabic — layout mirroring, typography and navigation, not just translated strings. Content from all three source systems was migrated and mapped into the new structure language by language.
We then took on hosting, ongoing maintenance and 24x7 monitoring, so EFQM has a single accountable partner rather than three separate vendor relationships.
We consolidated all three platforms into a single WordPress installation, rebuilt to give EFQM complete control over their content in one place.
The existing design and user experience were preserved deliberately. Members knew the site, and the goal was to remove operational friction, not to force a relearning of the interface. We recreated the front end faithfully while replacing everything behind it.
Multilingual architecture was the core engineering challenge. We built the site to handle five languages natively, including full right-to-left support for Arabic — layout mirroring, typography and navigation, not just translated strings. Content from all three source systems was migrated and mapped into the new structure language by language.
We then took on hosting, ongoing maintenance and 24x7 monitoring, so EFQM has a single accountable partner rather than three separate vendor relationships.
Results
EFQM now manages all content across five languages from one system, without depending on third parties.
Reducing three platforms to one produced significant, ongoing cost savings — fewer licences, fewer hosting arrangements, fewer maintenance contracts. The saving recurs annually rather than being a one-off.
The site performs measurably faster than the system it replaced, and publishing that previously required coordination across platforms is now a single action.
The design and user experience were preserved intact through the transition, so the operational gain came at no cost to members' familiarity with the site.
As their Global Head of Digital Services put it: "A very professional digital agency, which is helping us developing further the EFQM AssessBase platform, proactively providing solutions to our developments. Great team to work with, great support throughout the whole project."
EFQM now manages all content across five languages from one system, without depending on third parties.
Reducing three platforms to one produced significant, ongoing cost savings — fewer licences, fewer hosting arrangements, fewer maintenance contracts. The saving recurs annually rather than being a one-off.
The site performs measurably faster than the system it replaced, and publishing that previously required coordination across platforms is now a single action.
The design and user experience were preserved intact through the transition, so the operational gain came at no cost to members' familiarity with the site.
As their Global Head of Digital Services put it: "A very professional digital agency, which is helping us developing further the EFQM AssessBase platform, proactively providing solutions to our developments. Great team to work with, great support throughout the whole project."