University of Leicester chooses Contensis for its digital transformation

We're pleased to share that the University of Leicester has selected Contensis as its new content management platform, following a competitive tender process.

Leicester is moving from its existing platform to Contensis as part of a broader programme to modernise its digital infrastructure – covering its primary web estate at le.ac.uk and associated digital platforms.

The project is driven by a clear set of operational and strategic goals that Leicester has set out for its digital estate.

With over 200 content editors currently working across the institution, a key priority is making content creation and management more straightforward – reducing the day-to-day reliance on technical support and giving editorial staff the tools to manage content more independently, while maintaining proper governance and quality control.

Alongside that, Leicester wants to consolidate its digital infrastructure into a single, reliable source of truth for content and data. The aim is to reduce complexity, lower maintenance overheads, and move away from the fragmented systems that tend to accumulate over time in large institutions.

The new platform also needs to support multi-channel content delivery – publishing across different devices and platforms through a modern, API-first architecture – and integrate cleanly with the University's existing systems.

Contensis is a headless CMS built for large, complex organisations with distributed content teams – which maps closely to what Leicester described in their requirements.

Its API-first architecture supports multi-channel content delivery natively, while the editorial experience is designed to be accessible to non-technical users without removing the controls that governance-conscious organisations need. For a university with 200-plus editors spread across departments, that balance matters.

Contensis is already used by 20 UK universities and over 50 other public sector organisations, so the challenges Leicester faces – consolidating a large web estate, managing a transition away from a legacy enterprise CMS, empowering editorial teams – are ones we have experience navigating.

The work will be delivered in phases: technical discovery, implementation, content review and migration, staff training, and the decommissioning of the current platform. There will be a period of dual running to ensure continuity throughout the transition.

The project is due to be completed by the end of 2027. The contract runs for an initial term of three years, with the option to extend up to a maximum of ten years.

Richard Chivers, CEO of Zengenti, said: “The University of Leicester is exactly the kind of ambitious, forward-thinking institution that Contensis was built for. They have a complex digital estate, a large and distributed content team, and a clear strategic vision for where they want to go. We're proud to have been selected as their partner for this journey, and we're looking forward to working closely with their teams to deliver a digital foundation that will serve the University for years to come."

Stuart Hainsworth, Deputy Director of Marketing at the University of Leicester, added:

“Following a competitive procurement process, the University selected Contensis as the platform that best meets our technical, operational and governance requirements. Contensis will provide a flexible and maintainable foundation for our digital estate, supporting modern web architecture, clearer content governance and improved editorial workflows. This investment is an important part of our wider digital engagement programme, ensuring our platforms remain resilient, scalable and fit for the future.”

We're looking forward to working with the team at Leicester and welcoming them to our wider community of higher education institutions using Contensis.