A Swiss-hosted, multi-tenant Moodle for the institutes of HSG

At a glance

The Universität St. Gallen (HSG) is one of the most reputable business schools in Europe. The platform supports several institutes within the university, each with its own programmes, conventions, and workflow.

We set up and run their Moodle on a Swiss server, integrated with Fullfabric, with a custom theme and course format and a multi-tenant configuration that lets each institute behave like its own school inside one platform.

The challenge

HSG’s institutes don’t want a one-size-fits-all LMS. Each runs its own programmes and needs its own functions, its own course shape, and its own visual treatment. At the same time the university doesn’t want to operate three separate platforms, three separate hosting contracts, three separate upgrade cycles.

Data residency matters. So does support: the people running the platform on the HSG side want to speak to a named person in German — not a ticket queue, not a chatbot.

What we did

• Moodle setup on a Swiss server, so the platform and its data stay in Switzerland.
• Fullfabric integration so student records flow into the LMS cleanly from the system of record.
• Custom theme in the HSG visual system, designed for adult-learner ergonomics.
• Custom course format and per-institute functions built on top of a single Moodle, so each institute gets the workflow it actually needs without a fork.
• Multi-tenant configuration so institutes share infrastructure but not branding, navigation, or feature surface.
• Support in German by phone and email, handled by the actual person working on the project. No chat bots, no “your ticket has been assigned”, no time wasting.

Outcomes

A single Moodle that behaves like several, hosted in Switzerland, fed by Fullfabric, supported in German by the person who knows the codebase. The setup is in active use across the participating institutes; specific institute-level metrics are available to HSG on request.