Multisite Strategy

Context

Multi-brand and global businesses tend to battle to scale digital experiences - teams launch sites with ill-defined scope, alignment, and operations ownership resulting in variable quality, duplicate work, and disappointing ROI. XM Cloud provides flexibility and scale to extend beyond these limitations, but only when combined with a properly organized digital factory model that fits your business.

Execution

Multi-brand and global organizations frequently struggle to scale site launches without a shared foundation, clear operational ownership, or governance structures. Teams quickly default to siloed efforts which result in fragmented experiences.

To avoid replicating past inefficiencies, you must look at establish a digital factory mindset that emphasizes shared foundations, reusable architecture with an ownership that reflects your organization setup.

Factory Models

A website factory model provides a framework for efficiently launching and managing multiple sites. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but choosing a model needs to consider your org’s size, complexity, and localization needs.

Below are common models, each with distinct governance, ownership, and operational characteristics. Most organizations evolve from one to another as digital maturity increases.

1. Digital Factory

This is the most balanced and scalable model, blending efficiency with flexibility. A global team defines the technical and design foundation, while regional or business units execute content and experience delivery.

2. Website Factory Model

This model operates like a managed service: a central team owns the platform, builds the sites, and delivers them as packaged services to internal stakeholders. Local teams typically manage content only, or request changes via formal channels.

3. Localized Model

This model supports a global brand presence with regional autonomy. A core global site communicates the brand vision, while regional teams manage their own sites—often with different teams, priorities, and tools.

4. Decentralized Brand Ops

Designed for companies managing multiple sub-brands or business units that need independent creative direction but benefit from centralized support. This functions like an internal service bureau with built-in innovation and enablement.

Setting up for success

Based on your business setup, you will have consider the right foundation for you based on these models.

1. Start with a clear, reusable foundation

Your first implementation isn’t just a launch, it’s the model for everything that follows. Establish strong architectural and governance principles up front.

• Clearly define what will be delivered now and what’s intentionally deferred. Avoid bloated launches - your first site is the blueprint, not a one-off.
• Invest in reusable templates, components, and consistent tagging strategies.
• Define scope gates, shared terminology, and escalation paths early to manage future scale and requests effectively. Review Scope and Goverance Framework recipe for additional detail.

2. Define operational ownership

Multisite success hinges on cross-functional coordination. Establish clear roles, accountability mechanisms, and processes for stability and change.

• Align expectations across business, marketing, IT, and partners: from delivery timelines to scope boundaries.
• Set up weekly syncs and milestone reviews to manage interdependencies and reduce rework.
• Define deployment ownership, escalation procedures, observability standards, rollback protocols, and release checklists such as Go-Live checklist.

Review Testing Framework and Operational Governance recipe for additional detail.

3. Choose the right factory model for your organization

Your delivery model should reflect your structure, maturity, and goals. There’s no “best” model - only the one that aligns with your context including organization setup, size and structure.

Most organizations mature toward a Digital Factory model as they grow so align governance to your model - flexible where needed, strict where valuable. Treat your ecosystem like a product platform, not a series of projects.

4. Plan for scale

Governance is not bureaucracy, done well, it accelerates delivery and enables autonomy.

• Establish and communicate a clear vision that leadership supports and teams understand.
• Treat your first site as the foundation for future rollouts - codify what works from developer standards (example naming conventions, Git strategies etc) to UX/UI (example design patterns that support scalability) and content roll-out strategy.
• Build as if another team will replicate it, because they will.

Insights

Once your strategy, foundation, and ownership model are defined, shift from planning to execution by embedding repeatability, ownership, and optimization into your delivery motion. This transition marks the move from one-off projects to a scalable operating model.

Related Recipes

Related Documentation