Requirement

To develop an ecommerce website enabling users to earn money recycling devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players and digital cameras.

Key functional elements included:

• Developing bespoke code to integrate with industry standard electronic device databases (CNET feeds)
• Developing a user-friendly and secure administration system to allow both the end client and their processing partners to process and manage the entire lifecycle of recycling electronic devices
• Integrating the system directly with the end client’s multiple payment gateways and systems

Technical Solution

The project was developed using entirely custom PHP code integrated with a MySQL database and using HTML and JavaScript for the user interface.

Additionally the project required a significant amount of integration both with external APIs and web services, raw data feeds and third party systems with no defined integration path.

Project Mechanics

Working very closely with the agency, end client and the end client’s technical fulfilment partners, the project took place over a one year period. Key stages of the project included:

• Working with the end client to develop a detailed functional and technical specification
• Developing prototypes of the look and feel and key functionality of the site to ensure that the various different external data and pieces of functionality worked seamlessly together before the main build started
• Working with the end client to create the most efficient and admin-user-friendly method of tracking price and recycling trends and enable administrators to make price changes ranging from a single device to a site wide price update at the touch of a button
• Planning the subsequent build phases and evolution of the site post launch

Conclusion

The project was exceedingly well received and Kieon worked with the client in development support and on-going maintenance for several years. The end client ultimately sold the branding concept to a private equity company in 2011.

Requirement

To build an educational website for a publisher specialising in educational material. Working with the end client from the outset to provide a full strategic technical development and support solution.

Key functional elements included:

• Creating a subscription-based e-commerce engine
• Integration with a third party live tuition supplier from booking tutoring sessions and checking availability of tutors to attending a tutoring session on the website
• Developing functionality to allow individuals at schools to register as users and allow tutors to assign specific tasks to specific pupils

Technical Solution

The website was built in PHP and MySQL with HTML and JavaScript elements. Content is managed through an open source CMS. Bespoke modules were also created to administer site users and ecommerce tutoring sessions.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for 9 months from initial planning to launch and involved working closely with the client and their creative agencies. Some key stages of the project included:

• Detailed requirement gathering with end client to understand their processes and requirements
• Building a bespoke ecommerce functionality to allow subscription registration and allow parents to sign up 1 or more children to individual accounts
• Integration with third party systems. This needed to be done via iframes, for which bespoke code was developed enabling the transmission of user data through this medium

Conclusion

The project was extremely well received by the end client and Kieon continues to work with them and provide on-going day to day support as well as greatly extending and enhancing the functionality of the site from its original build.

Requirement

To develop a subscription-based interactive online community and educational website for children to impart information on geography and world culture.

Key functional elements included:

• Developing a secure online community to allow schools and school children to communicate with each other in a highly controlled and moderated environment
• Developing an interactive resource for geography information, to be used by both schools and students
• Integration of Google Maps functionality with content uploaded by the end client to produce an interactive map that teaches users about specific geographical areas
• Developing a site that displays a full spectrum of rich content, from interactive games to maps and video content

Technical Solution

The general website content was developed using PHP and MySQL and content managed through WordPress. Additionally a significant amount of bespoke PHP code was created to integrate Google Maps functionality and to develop the community aspects of the site.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for 8 months from initial planning to launch, and involved working closely with designers and the end client. Some key stages of the project included:

• Detailed requirements definition both prior to and post the commencement of development
• Working in a semi-agile project-approach to adapt to changing functionality requirements
• Developing templates for the end client’s team to populate with rich content
• Developing functionality to allow users of the free trial to view specific content, and allow full access on a subscription only basis
• On-going application development and expansion upon original requirements

Conclusion

Kieon was able to work collaboratively with the client, defining functionality as development progressed and remaining within the pre-agreed timeline and budget. As a result, the client was more than satisfied with the end product.

The website has been a huge success, with subscriptions far exceeding the expectations of the end client, and was recently nominated for a leading education technology award. Kieon continue to work with the end client in expanding and supporting the site’s functionality.

Requirement

To develop a marketing and e-commerce website to promote the record label’s music and merchandise.

Key functional elements included:

• Implementing bespoke functionality for the artists signed to the label to add and update their biographies and discographies
• Implementing bespoke backend modules allowing the admin to manage the store, shopping cart, artist accounts and content
• Front end integration with PayPal

Technical Solution

The website was built using and open source CMS with PHP, MySQL and HTML, CSS and JavaScript used for the front-end.

Additionally artist pages were integrated with SoundCloud functionality, to allow visitors to the website to listen to audio clips.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for 3 months from initial planning to delivery, and involved working directly with the end client. Some key stages of the project included:

• Detailed requirements gathering with the end-client prior to commencement of the development work
• Full integration of the application with PayPal
• On-going application development and support

Conclusion

The website has been very successful in promoting the record label and its artists, and the end client is extremely happy with it. Kieon continue to work with the end client to develop the website and expand its functionality.

Requirement

To build a global ecommerce solution to integrate directly into the end client’s global fulfilment partners systems. The solution was a first for Kieon, the fulfilment partner and end client alike. Site editors needed to be able to take product data from the fulfilment company’s systems and add rich content (user reviews, images, etc), for display on the website to create a richer user experience than the fulfilment partner’s data provided alone.

Additionally, there was a requirement to provide a brochureware solution for markets where the end client didn’t sell directly (a website toolkit/template) that could be used by distributors to create a coherent version of the end client’s global brand.

Key functional elements included:

• Direct real time integration with a third party global fulfilment solution
• Dynamically displaying product data according to language and territory
• Integration with other third party systems including user ratings and a separate product support database and forum

Technical Solution

The foundation for the application was a Sitefinity CMS integrated with a MS SQL 2008 database and JavaScript 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 integrate with the fulfilment partner and also provide the site administrators with the ability to edit all content including a wealth of detailed product data used on the site in multiple languages.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for 9 months from initial planning to launch and involved working closely with agency and technical teams from both the end client and their fulfilment partners. Some key stages of the project included:

• In-depth assessment of requirements with the end-client to fully understand the mechanics of their processes and systems
• Detailed planning of the database structure to ensure that it worked seamlessly with the data structure of the global fulfilment partner
• Prototyping to ensure that the proposed integration of the fulfilment company’s systems could take place
• Standard site development and localisation across multiple languages
• On-going application development and support

Conclusion

The site was well received and proved to be exceedingly successful, with the end client seeing up to a 30% increase in sales in territories where the new site was launched.

Kieon are currently in the process of rolling the new site and improved functionality out in 22 additional territories.

Requirement

To develop a corporate brand website in SharePoint 2010 as this is the mandated technology platform of the end client.

Key functional elements included:

• Providing a rich and interactive user experience
• Developing dynamic user editable widgets incorporated into the website to allow them to individually control sections of content displayed
• Bespoke admin editable modules to dynamically manage brand and product location information
• Customised SharePoint modules including document and picture libraries and validation

Technical Solution

The foundation for the application was SharePoint 2010 integrated with a MS SQL 2008 database.

Standard SharePoint functionality was then customised to meet the end client’s requirement including; creating custom lists, customising the workflow and customising themes for the administration pages so that they reflected the overall site design.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for approximately eight months from initial scoping to launch and involved very close cooperation with the client and end 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 end client’s project managers and marketing team
• Developing all bespoke modules so that they could be re-used within other development for the end client if required
• Creating detailed installation and user manuals
• Co-ordinating with the end-client’s IT company to deploy the solution on their internal environment.

Conclusion

The project was delivered not only on time but also under budget and our involvement as developers was noted as a critical success factor during the end client’s project post-mortem.

As a result of the project Kieon is now working on a number of additional SharePoint 2007 and 2010 implementations with the client and end client and the project itself is being considered as a SharePoint 2010 implementation case study by Microsoft.

Requirement

To develop an e-commerce website to promote and distribute the end-clients materials to the UK motor trade.

Key functional elements included:

• Creating an e-commerce platform that mixed payment by credit card and an offline payment processing process within the same platform
• Building an administration area that allowed multiple third party partners direct access to site with a full audit trail for the end-client
• Integrating QAS address verification software and a SagePay payment gateway within the system

Technical Solution

The application was based around a bespoke .NET e-commerce engine built on the .NET 3.5 framework.

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

Project Mechanics

The project ran for three months from initial planning to launch and involved working closely with agency, the end client and the end client’s fulfillment partners. Some key stages of the project included:

• Detailed requirements gathering with the end-client to properly understand the mechanics of their processes and systems
• Developing a solution that allowed different fulfillment partners to place orders through the system and track these separately
• Integrating the application with the payment gateway and fulfillment partner’s systems
• Creating modules to track orders placed through the system and encrypt and securely send email reports to the end-client on a daily basis
• Ongoing application development and support

Conclusion

The site has been extremely well received and has been successful both technically and through meeting its operational goals and Kieon is now working with the client on the next phase to expand its functionality and reach even further.

Requirement

To develop a multilingual consumer facing website to update their existing online presence and enhance and improve on the interactivity for users and data capture for the end client.

Key functional elements included:

• Developing a multi-lingual Flash based product gallery and custom functionality within the site’s CMS to administer this
• Creating modules for site administrators to track product popularity and custom reporting modules to display this in a graphical format
• Developing a custom module to allow site content to be customised and delivered via iFrames to third party sites
• Building the site to deliver content and functionality in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese and Korean

Technical Solution

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

The CMS was used as a foundation for the application with a significant amount of customised .net modules created to meet the end client’s specific requirements.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for nine 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:

• Developing prototypes of the look and feel and key functionality of the site for user testing
• Revising the functional requirements of the site to reflect user testing feedback
• Working with the end-clients local markets and the agency to localise designs as required
• Planning and delivering against a phased launch plan by developing a master version of the site in a single language followed by language variants
• Providing global ongoing support of the site

Conclusion

We worked closely with the agency as their technical partner from the pre-pitch phase of the project. Our expertise in developing and delivering multilingual solutions combined with their experience as a global agency ensured that we were able to deliver the best possible solution to the end client

The final solution was exceedingly well received by the end client’s offices around the globe and showed an immediate improvement in visitor numbers and site stickiness.

Careful planning from the outset of the project and project management which closely involved both the end client and the agency ensured that the 9 month build was delivered on time and according to budget.

Requirement

To develop a short lived transaction site announcing the terms of the deal in compliance with FTSE disclosure requirements.
Key functional elements included:

• A dynamic terms and conditions page requiring users visiting the site to acknowledge that they understood and agreed to the conditions of receiving the information within the site
• A microsite containing terms of the deal
• Meeting a very specific launch deadline for both date and time

Technical Solution

The majority of the report was developed in HTML to ensure a high level of accessibility and ease of access for all users.
The terms and conditions acknowledgement was created using JavaScript to ensure ease of use and maximum browser compatibility.

Project Mechanics

The project was planned and executed in a very short period of time in light of the nature of such transactions:

• The site structure and landing page were created with partially approved content and using placeholders for details of the parties involved
• A secure beta version of the site was placed onto a staging server to allow it to be reviewed by the end client’s deal team for compliance and accuracy
• Amends to copy to create the final version were supplied by the agency and the site moved to the final server but not made live
• At go live the details of the end client were uploaded to the live server and the site was made publicly available
• After the transaction was completed the site was taken down and removed from the live server

Conclusion

Transaction sites have an urgency associated with them unlike any other website development. For this project the entire project ran for less than 96 hours from initial brief to the site going live.
Our experience with projects of this nature ensured that we were able to meet the end client’s quick deadline without problem whilst ensuring that the transactional data was both secure pre-announcement and accurately delivered when the site went live.

Requirement

To develop a public facing website in Arabic and English to deliver content to the telecommunications sector in the end client’s role as industry regulator and to showcase best practice in the use of the web for both the public and government within the country.

Key functional elements included:

• A fully localised Arabic/English site with the entire site, copy and assets reversed to work right to left as well as left to right
• Creating modules for site administrators to be able to add content simultaneously in Arabic and English and for it to be displayed dynamically accordingly
• Developing a bespoke, dual language document management tool for public consultation and all legal documents produced by them as a ministry
• Building custom modules to enable site administrators manage video, images and sound files and display them dynamically upon the site

Technical Solution

The foundation for the application was the agency’s proprietary .net CMS integrated with a MS SQL 2005 database. The frontend was built using HTML, JavaScript and Flash.

As the CMS used as the core of the application was originally developed to work in European languages only it required a significant amount of customisation to allow it to work with Arabic content.

Project Mechanics

The initial phase of the project ran for three months from initial planning to launch. Some key stages of the project included:

• Developing custom functionality for the site’s CMS to enable it to deliver both static and dynamic content to the site
• Building HTML templates for end client approval in Arabic and English
• Planning and delivering against a tight launch plan requiring the Arabic and English sites to be launched simultaneously
• Providing ongoing support of the site

Conclusion

Our expertise in developing web solutions in Arabic ensured that we were not only able to develop a completely dual language website both more importantly to be able to work with the client’s existing CMS to enable it to work with Arabic content.

Detailed planning combined with a flexible approach to how the project as phased ensured that we delivered on time and within budget despite the challenges such projects typically present.