The Swedish Veterinary Agency

SVA

The Swedish Veterinary Institute (SVA) is a Swedish government institution with expert competence in identifying and treating diseases in animals. SVA carries out one of Sweden's most socially critical missions. Through research, diagnostics and advice, SVA contributes to safer food production, healthier animal husbandry and a stronger preparedness system - from antibiotic resistance to wildlife surveillance and management of zoonotic outbreaks. With the largest veterinary laboratory in the Nordic region and close collaboration with both authorities and the research community, SVA is a central cog in Swedish public health work.

Challenges

SVA was in great need of a new web solution that could meet today's demands, both technically and communicatively. The previous solution was based on an older version of Umbraco built by another agency that had become difficult to maintain and develop. As the content grew, the need for a more flexible structure, smarter management of research pages, disease pages and news also increased. SVA wanted to be able to create new content and new pages on the website themselves without having to rely on developers for smaller tasks that they should be able to handle themselves.

Solutions

One of the biggest goals of the project was to make everyday life easier for the editors at SVA while also providing a better experience for the users. To achieve this, we developed a new solution that is both modern, easy to use and tailored to SVA's specific needs. We ensured that all content, whether it was about research projects, disease information or news, is easy to work with and easy to find for the users. The structure is clear and the editorial work is now both faster and more intuitive. As part of the project, we also reviewed the choice of e-commerce platform and found one that better suited SVA's needs and provided a good experience for the customers. Through close collaboration, we created a website with high performance and a clear structure for SVA and their visitors.

Tech Talk

The website was originally built on Umbraco 13 to ensure optimal performance, security, and a stable foundation. Since then, we have upgraded SVA’s solution to Umbraco 17, securing smoother upgrades going forward as part of that work.

To streamline both development and operations, we chose to continue using Umbraco Cloud as a hosting platform. This provides the customer with automatic upgrades and a secure, scalable platform over time. The previous website was on a dedicated server, but after analyzing the performance requirements of the new solution SVA was able to switch to a standardized and more cost-effective hosting plan within Umbraco Cloud instead. The base for the flexible solution is a starter kit called Igloo that provides a solid base with smart standard content features, freeing up time for the team to focus on what really makes a difference for SVA.

A central part of the project was to have a content system that is both flexible and powerful. Using our proprietary tool Dynamic Content, SVA can tag content and products and then use Dynamic Content to create dynamic listings with advanced filtering functionality on the website itself. For the e-commerce part, Umbraco Commerce was implemented. We also implemented integrations with external systems to retrieve products, press releases and research projects. The project resulted in a powerful and stable website that is adapted to SVA's needs.

For SVA, the top priority is to have a stable website with up-to-date and accurate information. We chose to build a number of flexible components, which gives editors the freedom to create and present content for different scenarios. It feels like the right way to go. At the same time, we have reduced the solution to a more lightweight application with standardized technology, which makes it more secure and easier to maintain.

Oloph Demker
Head of Web development at SVA

Results

The result was a modern and flexible solution that goes hand in hand with SVA's purpose and goals. With the new website, SVA has gained a unified platform where they can easily manage everything from content, e-commerce to news and research information in a way that supports their important mission.

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