Building a Digital Ecosystem for Educational E-commerce That Drives Results

PESI Inc LogoFounded in 1979, PESI Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing high-quality accredited continuing education programs for healthcare professionals, including psychologists, therapists and counselors, behavioral and mental health specialists, nurses, nutritionists, and more.

Based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, PESI partners with the world's leading experts to develop and produce the most robust continuing education library available, which includes seminars, conferences, videos, and books for their customers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia.

Overview

In 2021, PESI partnered with Marathon Consulting to evaluate their U.S. website, which was running on an outdated version of WordPress. Through an in-depth requirements analysis, Marathon helped identify key functionality needs and long-term scalability goals, allowing the PESI team to make strategic plans for a more scalable and future-ready digital platform.

The outcome was a migration from WordPress to Umbraco, providing a flexible, enterprise-level platform that elevated PESI’s online experience, met the needs of their global audience, and positioned the organization for scalable growth.

Following the success of the initial analysis project, PESI expanded their engagement across Marathon's entire range of services—including IT advisory, staff augmentation, data solutions, application and mobile development, digital marketing, UX, and web development—fostering a trusted, ongoing relationship that continues to deliver lasting value through customer-focused solutions and measurable growth.

Featured Project:

Umbraco CMS Multisite Implementation with E-commerce Platform Integration and Support

With a strategy in place to migrate from WordPress to Umbraco, PESI also needed to address an upcoming license renewal for their U.K. website, which was running on Kentico. The Marathon digital team adjusted the project roadmap to accommodate this need, first migrating the U.K. site from Kentico to Umbraco, and then implementing the platform’s multisite functionality. This approach brought multiple websites—including U.S. and Canada—into a single, centralized CMS streamlining content management, improving performance, and ensuring consistency across brands.

This approach not only saved PESI significant Kentico CMS licensing costs but also began consolidating a fragmented digital ecosystem—spanning more than eight websites, tens of thousands of content pages and ecommerce products, numerous complex features and integrations—into a streamlined, centralized platform.

A key component of the website migration project involved streamlining integration with PESI’s e-commerce platform, a custom .NET-based product inventory management (PIM) solution that serves as the organization’s central business system.

Over time, many organizations expand their software beyond its intended purpose, adding custom features that can slow performance and complicate workflows. Marathon's solution architect and development team addressed this challenge by evaluating the e-commerce platform’s customizations, then streamlining the system to focus on its core e-commerce and PIM capabilities. Supporting features were rebuilt and integrated into the new Umbraco multisite, resulting in improved performance, simplified processes, and a scalable digital ecosystem designed for long-term growth.

With the new Umbraco multisite implementation and full integration with the e-commerce platform, PESI now benefits from a range of enhanced capabilities. A custom-developed product picker leverages Azure AI search for fast, intuitive product discovery, while a new Google Ads integration allows marketing campaigns to be set up directly within the CMS backoffice. Optional unique theming provides flexibility across the various websites, and the multisite setup gives PESI the scalability to launch new sites in just days, enabling faster time-to-market and streamlined digital operations.

Solutions Overview

  • Umbraco CMS Multisite Implementation
  • Language Translation
  • Custom API Development
  • E-commerce Development and Support
  • HubSpot Integration
  • Azure AI Search Functionality
  • Native Mobile Application Development and Support for iOS and Android
  • Software Application Architecture for Continuing Education Content and Service Management
  • Database Architecture and Enterprise Reporting

Conclusion

Through multiple projects, this collaboration has unified—and continues to enhance—PESI’s websites, e-commerce platform, mobile app, and a new custom application for managing continuing education content and customer accreditations. Bringing together experts from across Marathon’s service areas, we continue to partner closely with PESI to evolve a fully connected digital ecosystem, extending the organization’s enterprise platform and providing even greater value for their customers.