Aperto and Magnolia Implement New CMS Infrastructure for Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC Group) in Dubai, UAE

Aperto AG has successfully carried out the portal relaunch of MBC Group, the largest media group in the Pan Arab Region. Aperto deployed Magnolia CMS for all portals and created a custom-tailored editorial environment featuring efficient workflows, replacing the previously used Vignette system. MBC Group can now reach its 165 million viewers faster, better and more inexpensively over the web.

Aperto successfully deployed Magnolia CMS Enterprise Edition for the largest media group in the Pan Arab Region, MBC (Middle East Broadcasting Center) Group and implemented MBC.net based on the Magnolia STK (Standard Templating Kit). Thanks to efficient workflows and an editorial environment tailored to the group’s specific needs, content can now be updated within minutes on the group’s web portals – and in the multiple languages Arabic, Persian and English. Systemic long delays are a thing of the past. The portals’ target group, roughly 165 million MBC viewers, can now stay on top of the latest information on MBC’s portals. Live TV and radio reports can be supplemented online as cross-media. Managing the portals’ 55,000 items and 50,000 assets is now also much simpler with the newly implemented web content management system. MBC not only profits from the faster editorial processes and decentralized access in various countries though: Magnolia CMS is highly scalable, flexibly upgradable, inexpensive in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO) and offers all the benefits of standards-based open source software with professional support from the vendor.

Once again, Aperto has shown with this project that technical complexity and usability can indeed go hand in hand for editors and users alike. The Berlin agency deployed Magnolia CMS and designed the system’s architecture for heavy server loads. To meet the special demands of MBC and the Arabic language region, Aperto customised the editorial interface of Magnolia CMS with the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). This innovative development ensures editorial workflows are fast and efficient. There are a few new different applications too, such as a TV programme timing app, which was also developed based on the Google Web Toolkit. In addition, Aperto trained the 60 online editors and MBC Webmaster in Dubai and Cairo. The manual and automated content migration from the previous CMS, Vignette, began already during the developmental phase. This ensured that enough content was migrated and made accessible within the tight timeframe by launch day. The longstanding specialist for international Magnolia projects will continue to support the future growth of the MBC portals.

“A major international project like this is not only conceptually and technically challenging, but can also be demanding in terms of intercultural collaboration. We fulfilled the customer’s ambitious goals and delivered on time, on budget and in top quality. Apart from the Chinese market which we've been successfully active on for years through our subsidiary, the Middle East is an exciting region for Aperto,” adds Kai Großmann, COO of Aperto AG.

“Thanks to the highest degree of flexibility and unique Standard Templating Kit, Magnolia Enterprise Edition makes it possible to deliver even the most challenging project on time and on budget, as MBC.net has shown. Seven percent of the world’s largest companies therefore rely on the Magnolia CMS when it comes to their virtual presence,” says Pascal Mangold, CEO Magnolia International AG.