Transforming Patheon™: A Strategic Website Relaunch

A comprehensive AEM-powered digital transformation for Thermo Fisher Scientific's global pharmaceutical services division, delivering enhanced user engagement and digital performance.

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Patheon Website Relaunch - Digital Transformation Case Study
Development AEM Enterprise
Client: Thermo Fisher Scientific – Patheon™

Global leader in pharmaceutical services across the complete drug development lifecycle

About the Brand

Patheon™, a division of Thermo Fisher Scientific, is a global leader in pharmaceutical services. The brand supports clients through every stage of drug development—from early-stage formulation and clinical trial logistics to commercial manufacturing and packaging. The Patheon™ website (patheon.com) serves as a mission-critical resource for pharmaceutical professionals seeking detailed information, technical documentation, and service guidance across complex product lifecycles.

In 2022, Patheon™ partnered with On Beat Digital to completely overhaul its online presence—transforming the legacy site into a streamlined, content-rich experience aligned with enterprise marketing and sales goals.

The Challenge

Before the relaunch, the Patheon™ website faced several challenges that limited its business impact and user engagement:

Content Overload with No Strategic Structure

The site contained vast amounts of content—much of it valuable—but lacked a clear information architecture. Visitors found it difficult to navigate, understand offerings, or find relevant content aligned to their needs or stage in the buyer's journey.

Low Conversion and Engagement Rates

Key KPIs such as organic traffic, time on site, lead form completions, and return visits were below benchmarks. The disorganized content and confusing UX created friction at every stage.

Lead Generation Bottlenecks

Attempting to contact the sales team often led to slow response times due to non-optimized routing workflows. In turn, this discouraged high-intent prospects and led to a loss of conversion opportunities.

Difficult Authoring Experience

The legacy CMS setup was rigid and non-intuitive, limiting the marketing team's ability to update content or run campaigns without developer support.

Our Solution

To address these challenges, On Beat Digital executed a comprehensive relaunch of the Patheon™ website, with a focus on improving performance, usability, and marketing agility.

Discovery & Requirements Gathering

Our business analysts collaborated closely with Thermo Fisher's marketing and digital teams to:

  • Define and map customer journeys across pharma buyer personas
  • Audit all legacy content for relevance, structure, and SEO value
  • Identify content gaps and opportunities for engagement
  • Translate stakeholder needs into clear functional requirements

Custom Development in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

On Beat's development team engineered a scalable, modular component library within AEM that empowered content authors to:

  • Build rich, flexible pages using drag-and-drop blocks
  • Maintain global brand consistency while supporting local content needs
  • Create guided customer journeys aligned with specific services and sectors
  • Incorporate multimedia, white papers, and gated content with analytics tracking

UX + Content Strategy Improvements

We collaborated with the internal team to refine navigation, develop new page templates, and rewrite key messaging to emphasize:

  • Clear value propositions across drug development stages
  • Content tailored to specific industries and service lines
  • Simplified forms and calls-to-action to drive higher engagement

Phase 2: Adobe Target & Personalization

In Phase 2 of the engagement, On Beat helped Patheon™ launch Adobe Target to power A/B testing, personalization, and behavioral targeting. The goal was to:

  • Serve relevant content based on user behavior and industry
  • Test different CTAs, page layouts, and gated asset formats
  • Improve conversion rates by aligning the experience to visitor intent

The Results

Although metrics are proprietary, early performance indicators after the relaunch included:

Significant increase in organic traffic to core service pages
Improved time on site and lower bounce rates
Drastic reduction in sales response delays with CRM-integrated lead forms
Empowered content authors able to launch updates without developer bottlenecks
Ongoing conversion lift and user satisfaction from Adobe Target experiments

Technologies & Platforms Used

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Adobe Target Adobe Analytics Salesforce Custom Component Library A/B Testing Personalization Content Management

Conclusion

By reimagining the Patheon™ digital experience from the ground up, On Beat Digital delivered a modern, scalable web platform that empowers both marketing teams and customers. The new site now supports Patheon's mission to enable pharmaceutical innovation with operational excellence—backed by a digital foundation that performs at the enterprise level.