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 maintain and support the end client’s 17 European business to business marketing websites in 8 languages.

Key functional elements included:

• Working with the agency and end client to plan major site updates
• Carrying out bi-monthly content updates across all the market sites
• Providing ad-hoc support of all country sites working jointly with both the agency as well as the end client’s local sales and marketing offices
• Providing feedback and technical suggestions to improve and grow the site’s content management system

Technical Solution

We supplied a dedicated team of developers and content editors to maintain the sites as the existing content management system requires a significant amount of HTML knowledge to be able to use it apart from making simple copy and image updates.

Our internal team was trained directly by the end client’s site development team at the outset of the project and continues to be supported by them.

Project Mechanics

This is an ongoing project. Some key stages of the project include:

• Detailed bi-monthly planning sessions with the agency ahead of each major content update
• In-depth review sessions with the agency and with input from the end client post each update to review processes and procedures and to constantly look to improve them
• Direct contact with the end client’s local markets when they require content updates and changes to the site outside the planned site updates
• Ongoing work with the agency and end-client to work on improving both the site and content management system

Conclusion

We work closely with agency and end client in a very open manner which helps ensure the project runs smoothly despite its scale.

By introducing us to the end client as a trusted technical partner the agency were able to undertake the maintenance of the sites for one of their key clients without compromising their standard developer rates.

The agency and end client also benefit greatly from having a full trained team available as needed without the need to retain dedicated in-house resource.

The project has been extremely successful and the scale of our involvement continues to grow.

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 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.

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.