Collaborating with Canada’s Largest Insurance Mutual to Create a High-Performance Website

Evolving Web collaborates closely with Beneva, a giant in Canada’s insurance sector, to evolve and maintain a Drupal-based digital platform that is accessible, performant, and aligned with Drupal best practices. Our experts work as an extension of the client’s team of developers, content specialists, and scrum masters, providing technical assistance and guidance throughout the project.

The project began with a mandate to modernize Beneva’s website post-merger and has evolved into a long-term partnership focused on scalability, accessibility, component-based architecture, and long-term maintainability.
 

Services: Web Development, Maintenance and Support

Beneva is Canada's largest insurance mutual, with more than 3.5 million members and customers, over 20 billion CAD in assets under management, and employing over 5,000 people.

Beneva results from the merger between two insurance companies, La Capitale and SSQ Insurance, announced in July 2020. The company's head office is located in Quebec City.

Evolving Web’s initial mandate was to assist the client with upgrading their website and providing Drupal training for their staff. Given the success of this collaboration and our experience with large-scale Drupal projects, the client reached out to us for support in the launch of the new Beneva website, and we have been collaborating ever since on continuous improvements.

Our primary goal was to help Beneva launch a stable Drupal-based website on schedule. To achieve this goal, we proposed a staff augmentation to:

• Ensure the new website was built based on Drupal best practices and industry standards
• Verify that all integrations and the codebase were stable and maintainable
• Work closely with the client's teams, proposing solutions and providing feedback to guide the technical aspects of the project
• Plan workflows in collaboration with the client to meet the deadline successfully
• Transfer Drupal knowledge efficiently, empowering Beneva's technical teams to develop, configure, and maintain their website as independently as possible

Evolving Web partners with Beneva to design and deliver a flexible, scalable Drupal ecosystem that supports regional personalization, strong performance, and long-term maintainability. By combining technical expertise, collaborative workflows, and a strong focus on accessibility and quality, our team puts the foundations in place for continuous evolution. 

Our work has included:

Flexible content architecture and front-end foundations

• Website restructuring using modular components, giving content editors greater flexibility.
• Adoption of Single Directory Components (SDCs) to simplify front-end development and improve long-term component maintenance.
• Reduction of the component library from 103 to 56 components to streamline the content creation process.
• Simplified main menu markup using Drupal’s default structures to improve accessibility and maintainability.

Performance, personalization, and data integration

• Smart cache management to deliver region-specific content without compromising site performance.
• Daily, automated data synchronization from an external database into Drupal through a custom system built on top of the Feeds API.
• Migration to SearchStax to lay the groundwork for a more stable and scalable search experience.

Quality, testing, and delivery workflows

• CI/CD workflow development to automate deployments, improve reliability, and ensure consistent delivery.
• Automated testing with Playwright to simulate user interactions, validate server-side logic, and verify data accuracy during content restructuring and personalization.

Accessibility, collaboration, and enablement

• Accessibility adjustments, consultancy, and QA delivered in collaboration with a third-party accessibility expert.
• Ongoing guidance and technical support for Beneva’s internal teams, promoting best practices and efficient Drupal development.
• Content integration support for Beneva’s team of content specialists.

Project delivery and ecosystem expansion

• Agile project management, structured around two-week sprints with daily stand-ups to track progress and adapt quickly.
• Launch of more than 170 advisor microsites and 100 affiliated agent microsites within the broader Drupal ecosystem.
• Developed personalized Search Engine Marketing (SEM) landing pages to showcase the most appropriate affiliated agent to each visitor, creating a consistent user experience.

The Beneva platform now delivers fast, region-specific content through a scalable, high-performance Drupal architecture. Our accessibility improvements led to a perfect 100 score on Google’s Lighthouse audit, with accessibility now integrated into the Definition of Done. Content editors benefit from a robust library of 56 reusable components, enabling them to build dynamic pages efficiently. A detailed online user guide supports their workflow, promoting autonomy and consistency. Working as an embedded partner, our team fostered strong collaboration and trust, contributing to a sustainable development culture and future-ready platform.