One publishing platform for 80+ agency websites: shared templates, security and accessibility

Ask a state CIO how many public websites the state runs and the honest answer is usually "more than we'd like." Each agency built its own on its own budget, with its own vendor and content system. Each one has to be patched, secured, tested for accessibility and paid for separately, and residents have to learn a new layout every time they move between agencies.

Why every agency builds its own

Agencies don't fragment their web presence out of stubbornness. They need control: their own news, their own urgent alerts, their own editors who can publish without filing a ticket. Any shared platform that takes that control away will be quietly worked around.

What we built

We delivered agency sites on Georgia's shared publishing platform, built on Drupal and hosted on Acquia. Each agency gets its own site, address and editors. Underneath, every site uses the same tested library of page templates (homepage, news, topic page, guidance, data table, contact), the same hosting, and the same security and accessibility standards.

Where agencies keep their identity

Inside the shared rules, each agency chooses its own photography, accent color and homepage arrangement. A department of insurance and a department of administration can look clearly different and still be maintained as one platform.

What changed

A security fix or accessibility improvement goes out once and reaches every agency site. New agencies launch from the existing templates instead of starting from scratch. Small editorial teams publish on their own.

If this sounds like your state

You may be ready for a shared platform if your agencies run several content systems, accessibility audits come back with the same issues across sites, or every redesign starts from zero. We've done this at state scale and can help you plan the move one agency at a time.