Modernizing the In-Common Laboratories Digital Experience with WordPress
In-Common Laboratories (ICL) partnered with Inorbital to redesign and rebuild its primary website, creating a modern, secure and accessible digital platform for healthcare professionals and laboratory clients.
Built on WordPress and launched in early 2026, the new ICL website modernizes the organization’s digital experience while preserving and improving the specialized functionality required by its clients, including account management, supply ordering, invoices and integrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
As part of the same digital transformation initiative, Inorbital also created a separate sister website for Integrative Laboratory Services (ILS). While sharing selected technology and reusable components with ICL, the ILS website has its own brand, domain, navigation, content structure and user experience, along with e-commerce capabilities designed for its distinct practitioner audience. The original project scope specifically called for ILS to operate as its own branded website while leveraging components from the primary ICL platform.
Client Overview
In-Common Laboratories is a Canadian laboratory services organization supporting healthcare providers with access to laboratory testing, information and related services. Its website serves as more than a corporate communications platform. Clients use the digital environment to interact with ICL services, manage account information, order supplies and access financial information. The project therefore required a platform capable of supporting both public-facing content and authenticated client services. The broader initiative also included Integrative Laboratory Services, a separate sister organization serving a different practitioner audience. Rather than forcing both audiences into a single website experience, ICL and Inorbital established separate digital properties supported by a shared technology foundation.
The Challenge
ICL’s existing WordPress environment contained valuable functionality that needed to be retained, but the overall digital experience required significant modernization. The new website needed to improve usability and mobile accessibility while giving ICL staff more flexibility over content management. At the same time, critical client functionality could not simply be discarded during the redesign. The project preserved and modernized secure client account functionality, giving existing users continued access to important online services.
The second challenge was architectural. ILS required its own website experience for a different user group, including commerce and product-oriented functionality. It needed to feel like an independent digital property without requiring an entirely separate technical ecosystem.
Project Goals & Objectives
The project focused on creating a digital foundation that could support both ICL and ILS while respecting the differences between the two organizations.
Key objectives included:
- Redesign and rebuild the primary ICL website.
- Improve information architecture, usability and mobile performance.
- Preserve and modernize essential authenticated client functionality.
- Integrate ICL's website with Microsoft Dynamics.
- Provide editors with a flexible WordPress page-building environment.
- Establish structured content for laboratory information, resources, products and news.
- Create a separate ILS sister website for a distinct user group.
- Support e-commerce and online transactions for the ILS experience.
- Meet accessibility requirements.
- Establish a secure and scalable Canadian cloud hosting environment
Scope of Work
Our Approach
Inorbital approached the initiative as a unified digital platform project rather than two unrelated website builds. Discovery began with stakeholder workshops, analysis of existing user profiles, communications materials, site structure, analytics and brand standards. The team then reviewed personas, audiences and content requirements before developing the information architecture, wireframes and visual design system. The project included approximately ten primary ICL page templates across desktop and mobile, along with dedicated page designs for the ILS sister website. This allowed the two digital properties to share appropriate design and development standards while still serving distinctly different audiences.
A New Digital Experience for ICL
The primary focus of the initiative was the complete redesign and rebuild of the In-Common Laboratories website. The new experience was designed to be clean, responsive and straightforward for healthcare professionals who frequently visit the site with a specific task or information need. Navigation and content architecture were redesigned to make information easier to find, while reusable WordPress components provide greater consistency across the site. The new platform supports structured content including products, articles, news and resources, together with reusable interface elements such as accordions, announcement bars, embedded video, anchor navigation and carousels.
Client Portal & Business Central Integration
An important part of the ICL project involved preserving and modernizing functionality used by existing clients. Inorbital migrated client login functionality into the new website rather than treating the redesign as a purely public-facing project. The platform supports services such as supply ordering, invoice access, profile management and password reset. The new platform integrates with ICL’s internal business systems to support secure client services and operational workflows. This makes the ICL website an operational service platform as well as an information resource.
A Separate Sister Website for ILS
Integrative Laboratory Services required a different digital experience. Although ILS is connected to ICL, it serves a distinct practitioner audience and has different content, transactional and marketing requirements. Inorbital therefore created ILS as a separate sister website with its own:
- domain
- branding
- sitemap
- navigation
- content
- audience experience
At the same time, the site leverages selected components and technology from the broader ICL WordPress platform. This approach avoids unnecessary duplication while allowing ILS to operate as a distinct digital brand.
E-Commerce for ILS
A major difference between the ICL and ILS experiences is commerce. ILS required functionality that allows practitioners to interact with laboratory products and services through a more transactional digital experience. WooCommerce was implemented to support standard e-commerce transactions, with Moneris integrated for credit card processing. This gives ILS an e-commerce foundation that can support its different user journey while remaining connected to the overall WordPress ecosystem. The platform was also designed to accommodate structured product information, search, tagging and filtering, helping users find the appropriate laboratory tests and related services.
Search & Test Catalogue
Search is particularly important across laboratory websites because users often arrive looking for a specific test, product or piece of technical information. The new WordPress platform includes site search as well as specialized test catalogue search, tagging and filtering functionality. This structured approach improves findability while also making it easier for content administrators to maintain and expand the catalogue over time.
Flexible WordPress Content Management
Both websites were designed to give internal teams more control over routine content updates. Inorbital implemented a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder along with reusable page components and structured layouts. Editors can create and manage pages using components such as banners, sliders, accordions, forms, image and text blocks, buttons and custom content areas without relying on developers for every change. Advanced Custom Fields PRO structures from the previous environment were also migrated where appropriate, helping preserve important backend data and administrative workflows.
Accessibility & Responsive Design
Accessibility was incorporated throughout the project. The sites were designed and developed toward AA compliance, with accessibility included as part of formal quality assurance before launch.
Testing also covered:
- desktop and mobile responsiveness
- browser compatibility
- functional workflows
- search
- e-commerce
- platform functionality
- performance
User acceptance testing was conducted on staging, with issues tracked through Jira before production deployment.
Canadian Cloud Hosting & Performance
The platform is hosted on WordPress optimized infrastructure located in Canada and uses Cloudflare to support content delivery and performance. The technical architecture was designed around responsive layouts, caching, lazy loading and limited reliance on unnecessary third-party services. This provides ICL and ILS with a scalable hosting foundation while supporting performance, reliability and security requirements.
Results
The project gives In-Common Laboratories a significantly stronger digital foundation while recognizing that not every audience should be forced into the same website experience. The new ICL website provides a modern digital front door for the organization while continuing to support important client services including account management, supply ordering and invoice access. The separate ILS website addresses a different audience and business model, providing its own brand experience, laboratory catalogue and e-commerce functionality. By building both properties on a common WordPress foundation, ICL benefits from reusable technology and centralized development standards without compromising the distinct requirements of either website. For internal teams, reusable components and structured content make both sites easier to maintain and expand.
For users, the result is a clearer separation of experiences: ICL for its core laboratory clients and services, and ILS for a distinct practitioner audience with its own transactional and e-commerce journey.
Project Details
Client: In-Common Laboratories
Primary Website: iclabs.ca
Sister Website: Integrative Laboratory Services / integrativelabs.ca
Launch: Early 2026
Platform: WordPress
