UCLA Division of Student Affairs Taps Pantheon to Automate, Innovate, and Accelerate Public-Facing Websites

Challenge: Legacy Systems Threaten Brand Design and User Accessibility Compliance

The legacy web environment was self-hosted, with no centralized management capability for dozens of departmental websites. Simply maintaining website consistency was impossible, threatening brand design and user accessibility compliance. 

The accessibility provisions were especially challenging. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) stipulates that all universities need to provide accessible online experiences to receive federal funding. However large amounts of unstructured and arbitrary HTML existed across all 64 websites. Without the ability to centrally manage the sites for orphaned HTML, dozens of websites were potentially out of compliance with federal regulations and UCLA branding policies. 

In addition to poor accessibility, troubleshooting was time-consuming. When one website showed an error, it was difficult to track down the error, let alone fix it. When multiple websites reported errors, the team had to troubleshoot each one individually. If the team fixed one website, there was no guarantee that the same solution would work for similar errors on other sites. 

The infrastructure could not reach the team’s objectives for security, performance, or testing for quality assurance. Even planned downtime was an issue. The team couldn’t fully test an update before performing it, and they would need to scramble to fix issues caused by updates, which meant that there was no way to accurately predict how long an update would take.

Matthew Geddert, Manager of Design and User Experience at UCLA Student Affairs IT, said, “We needed a change. Our overarching mandate was a system that would ensure accessibility and security. We also needed to automate updates and workflows and provide consistent management and performance across all our websites.” 

Why Pantheon: Intensive Automation

Pantheon’s biggest attraction for the team was its high levels of automation and detailed technical documentation that enabled the team to automate their challenging manual processes. Pantheon was also an established organization with proven longevity. 

Geddert said, “We felt confident with Pantheon’s reputation and length of time at the top of the market. And when we looked at the wide adoption of Pantheon at other UC campuses and other departments at UCLA this made us feel confident in choosing Pantheon as our platform.”

The Division also cited excellent support options from Pantheon and its partners. The team contracted Pantheon’s Diamond Tier Support program and partnered with Pantheon strategic agency partner Molly Duggan Associates. 

Results: Highly Accessible and Highly Manageable 

Pantheon performance is consistent for users and developers. Pantheon automation remains fast — even when major background processes are running. The team achieved and maintained their targeted accessibility, performance, and testing metrics, which they could not attain within the legacy environment. 

Importantly, the departmental websites maintain their content independence but with centralized design and management that comply with federal and UCLA accessibility guidelines.

Automating management and security updates keeps the site highly secure and easily manageable. Automation also freed IT to pursue strategic initiatives. Geddert said, “What would have previously taken three to four people, or four times as long, can now be done with one person. All of us have more time for high-priority projects."

The key is that as Pantheon adds tools and services to the platform, Pantheon removes even more complexity from our daily operations. Before, we would spend at least half a day on manual maintenance and upgrades. Now, Pantheon just does it.

Matthew Geddert, Manager of Design and User Experience at UCLA Student Affairs IT

Geddert summed up the team’s experience with Pantheon. “Our legacy environment was unsustainable and we spent our time just making sure the platform kept running. With Pantheon’s expertise and automation, we freed up time to work on strategic initiatives to deliver even more value.”