Requirement

To implement a new design to the end client’s existing global employee intranet site reflecting revised corporate branding and including an entirely new look and feel, fonts and other styling elements.

Technical Solution

The intranet is built on the Microsoft SharePoint 2003 platform. Working within this, Kieon modified the relevant page templates and style sheets to implement the rebranded designs.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for two months from initial planning to delivery, and involved working very closely with the agency’s creative and project management teams. Key stages of the project included:

• Detailed requirements gathering with the agency to identify the changes needed and how they should be implemented
• Creating a copy of the Intranet in a local development environment on which to implement the styling changes and then packaging and deploying the changes back to the client’s environment
• Modifying the intranet page templates and style sheets to achieve the desired changes

Conclusion

By working very closely with the agency, Kieon were able to ensure the project was delivered on time and exactly to the specifications of the end client. In transferring a copy of the intranet website to a local hosting environment in which to modify the page templates, Kieon were able to guarantee a smooth transition from the existing design to the updated one, without disruption to day to day users.

The end client was extremely pleased with the end result and continues to be a major client of both the agency and Kieon.

Requirement

To develop an English language public facing website combined with a secure employee intranet.

Key functional elements included:

• Creating bespoke modules that allowed site administrators to upload the end client’s financial performance data with differing views for the public site and intranet
• Providing a full searchable document library with an upload module for all intranet users
• Giving intranet users different levels of access to internal data based upon their login profile
• Displaying financial data on the public facing website graphically using rich media components and dynamically based on data uploaded into the intranet
• Developing a custom module to allow rich media content on the site to be completely editable by site administrators

Technical Solution

The foundation for the application was a commercially available .net CMS integrated with a MS SQL 2005 database and JavaScript and Flash elements on the front end.

The CMS was used as a foundation for the application with a significant amount of customised .net modules created to both control the intranet and also provide the site administrators with the ability to edit all content including content within the Flash used on the site.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for three months from initial planning to launch and involved working closely with both the agency and end client throughout the project. Some key stages of the project included:

• Detailed planning of the database structure to ensure that it was suitable for both the intranet and public facing website
• Developing prototypes of the look and feel and key functionality of the site for user approval and review before build started
• Working with the end client to migrate historical and current data to the site to ensure that the intranet provided maximum value at launch
• Planning the subsequent build phases for the site post initial launch

Conclusion

Our expertise in developing and delivering intranet and public facing web solutions ensured that we were able to deliver the best possible solution to the end client for both sites.

The advice we were able to give, particularly with regard to the intranet, meant that the final solution was exceedingly well received by the end client’s offices around the globe and it was immediately adopted and used.

The intranet site won the agency a major award in 2009.

Requirement

To develop a secure global Microsoft SharePoint intranet solution to allow company staff to have easy access to confidential information about highly sensitive clients and deals combined with a user friendly interface to encourage use and build a sense of community within the organisation.

Key functional elements included:

• Full integration with the clients existing authentication and employee data based around Microsoft Active Directory
• Secure document library with the ability for users to post documents and comments for users of the site to access with differing permissions levels controlled by the site administrators
• Ability for site users to post news, files, images and content into a workflow, approval and editing system before administrators make it live on the site
• Page creating tools to allow local offices to create their own sections on the site
• A moderated system of commenting on news and general information content
• The integration of interactive Rich Media elements to enrich user experience

Technical Solution

The foundation for the application was SharePoint 2007 64bit edition integrated with a MS SQL 2008 database.

Given the functional requirements of the project it was decided to only use SharePoint core components for approximately 60% of the build and develop custom web parts and other .net based functionality for the remaining 40%.

Additional elements were created by integrating JavaScript and Flash with both the frontend and the underlying application and database.

Project Mechanics

The first phase of the project ran for approximately six months from initial scoping to launch and involved very close cooperation with the client at all stages of the project. Some key stages of the project included:

• Developing a full functional and technical specification in conjunction with the client’s IS department and an internal development environment that exactly replicated the client’s proposed live platform to ensure compatibility of the final site
• Key delivery milestones where we delivered and installed releases directly to the clients live environment
• Final configuration of the client’s live environment and delivery of the final release for the first phase
• Providing global ongoing support of the live site from a technical and administrative perspective

Conclusion

By working closely in partnership with the agency and by collectively choosing the best areas of the site that would effectively use SharePoint’s in-built features and other areas where the best option was to develop new functionality from scratch we were able to build upon the strong foundation provided by SharePoint whilst creating functionality and look and feel that provided a very rich and interactive user experience.

The site has been extremely well received and has been successful both technically and through meeting its organisational goals and we are now working with the client on phases 2 and 3 to expand its functionality and reach even further.