The Whelen Engineering challenge
Whelen Engineering has been manufacturing emergency warning equipment for over 70 years, serving public safety professionals across industries including law enforcement, EMS, aviation and transportation. However, despite its leadership in product innovation, Whelen’s digital presence was falling behind.
The company’s website was built on an aging WordPress platform that lacked flexibility and required frequent manual workarounds. Content editors had to use custom CSS just to adjust basic formatting. Creating new marketing or industry-specific landing pages was difficult and product managers had to manage hundreds of product images and spec sheets manually between WordPress and a disconnected digital-asset management solution hosted on a third-party DAM platform.
On top of that, Whelen’s team was manually managing content updates for more than 650 global distributors and 2,700 individual product models — resulting in a publishing process that was time-consuming and error-prone.
To future-proof its digital operations, Whelen needed a CMS partner that offered more than just software. The company was looking for a strategic collaborator — one with in-house expertise, design capabilities and a willingness to ride alongside them to understand their business needs.
The Brightspot solution for Whelen Engineering
Whelen selected Brightspot to help reimagine its digital experience, starting with a complete rebuild of Whelen.com. Working in close partnership starting with designs and extending to migration and launch, the Brightspot team delivered a modern, modular website built on a flexible CMS tailored to Whelen’s complex product ecosystem.
Highlights of the implementation:
- IPaaS-powered integrations: Brightspot implemented automated workflows via an Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) solution that allowed Whelen’s team to manage both distributor data and product models via Google Sheets. Changes made in the spreadsheet are passed to the CMS then reflected instantly on the website, eliminating the need to touch the CMS or upload multiple files.
- Integration with third-party DAM: A custom integration connects Brightspot with Whelen’s existing DAM, so that product images and PDF guides can be synced and displayed automatically — saving significant time and effort.
- Custom product pages and specs: Brightspot built fully custom product templates with support for image galleries, tabbed modules, spec tables, model downloads and calls to action. All models are managed via spreadsheet and assets are automatically associated with the right product.
- Distributor locator tool: The site includes a location-based search experience for Whelen’s 600-plus distributors worldwide, with filtering by state or country and clear labeling by distributor type.
- Industry-specific storytelling: For the first time, Whelen’s marketing team can create rich, vertical-specific pages for key industries like EMS, law enforcement and transportation. These pages highlight relevant products and tell a compelling story tailored to each audience.
- Design flexibility and consistency: Brightspot’s base theme was customized to reflect Whelen’s brand, with a mobile-optimized navigation, modular design options and dynamic search functionality for both product and content discovery.
The outcome for Whelen Engineering
Whelen.com officially relaunched in March 2025, marking a major milestone in the company’s digital transformation.
Thanks to Brightspot’s flexible CMS and smart integrations, Whelen has significantly reduced the manual effort involved in managing product content and distributor information. Whelen’s marketing team now works exclusively in Google Sheets to manage updates across the entire product catalog, plus has full control over site updates, industry pages, press releases and featured product storytelling — without relying on developers.
The refreshed design and improved navigation make it easier for customers to discover products, find distributors and engage with the brand. And with Brightspot’s support, Whelen is already planning for its next phase of growth including international sites and expanded localization.
Just as Whelen products help power and protect first responders, its new digital platform — built on Brightspot — is helping the company respond faster to market needs, customer interests and business opportunities.
