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 a unique Facebook competition that promotes Britain as a destination to visitors from Australia, Canada and the USA.

Key functional elements included:

• Developing a competition mechanism that allowed users to register for the competition, be matched to a second registrant and then have to find their respective profile on Facebook.
• Building the entire application so that from registration to matching and emailing users it was automated and required no intervention from the client or end client.
• Ensuring that all entrants’ Facebook identifying data was masked so that it was impossible for users to cheat.

Technical Solution

The application was built in .NET 3.5, MS SQL 2005 and JavaScript and Flash elements for the front end and with integration to Facebook and Campaign Monitor (an email distribution firm) via their respective API’s.

The application was integrated with Facebook to pull user data, including the user’s profile image and Friend IDs, into a database upon registration. On a daily basis users were matched with one another and then emailed their matches via Campaign Monitor.

Additional functionality included allowing users to upload an image to replace their Facebook profile image and a moderation module to allow users to report issues and for administrators to react accordingly.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for four months from initial planning to the competition closing and involved working closely with the agency in order to create an application that hadn’t previously been developed for Facebook. Some key stages of the project included:

• Detailed requirements gathering and prototyping to ascertain if the application could actually be developed in the form proposed
• Developing a process to match users that ensured that both their Facebook identifying data would not be visible to other users and also to ensure that users could not be matched to anyone from their existing Friends list within Facebook
• Complete integration with Campaign Monitor to automate the creation and distribution of emails to users on a daily basis once they had been matched by the application
• Building an administration module that allowed the client and end client to view and moderate user comments and requests
• On-going application maintenance and support and implementing and supporting a load balanced cloud hosting solution

Conclusion

By working closely in partnership with the client from the outset of the project by first creating proof of concept prototypes we were able to develop an application that not only completely met the original brief but evolved during the project to create a richer, more user friendly experience.

The competition was extremely successful and user registrations greatly exceeded its original target. In addition the client received enquiries from other brands to develop similar applications for other market segments.

Requirement

To develop a Facebook application to allow users to vote for their favourite bars initially in Greece and Russia.

Key functional elements included:

• Developing a Facebook application that integrated with Google maps to allow users to add a bar in their market
• Allowing users to upload photographs against a bar and vote for it to be the best bar in their market
• Developing the solution so that it would work in non-Roman fonts and could easily be localised for future market roll-outs

Technical Solution

The application was built in PHP, MS SQL 2005 (to replicate the client’s hosting environment) and JavaScript and Flash elements for the front end and with integration with Google Maps via its API.

The application was integrated with Facebook allow users to register via their profile and have all other data including voting stored in the application’s database.

Additional functionality included developing all application content to delivered via XML to make further market roll-outs quick to deploy.

Project Mechanics

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

• Working in a semi-Agile project approach to meet the end client’s launch timetable for the first version of the application
• Developing the application architecture to allow it to function as a standalone application for individual markets but with a centralised administration backend accessible from the web.
• On-going application maintenance and support

Conclusion

Despite having a relatively short project timeline we were able to work in a collaborative fashion with the client defining functionality as the development progressed and still being able to deliver on time and within budget.

The application was extremely successful in its launch markets and the end client is now actively planning to roll it out to other global territories that they are present in.

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 build a series of HTML emailers to promote the launch of a new route from Continental Europe to the North West of England to both general consumers and a targeted list of potential customers and travel agents. The emailers to potential customers and travel agents were to invite them to a launch event and required functionality to track RSVPs.

Key functional elements included:

• Standard HTML emailers built to work with the usual email client combinations of Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL mail and Outlook 2003 & 2007
• A dedicated microsite to capture responses to invitations to the launch event
• A reporting module to allow the agency to easily download response data for use in their systems

Technical Solution

The emailers were developed in HTML following the strict coding guidelines of the agency.

The response tracking microsite was developed using HTML with a PHP, MySQL backend to capture replies and then generate a downloadable .CSV data file upon request.

The agency opted to use Kieon’s third party email delivery partner which we managed on their behalf.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for two months from initial scoping to the end of the campaign. The exact number of emailers required was not fully defined at the start as the amount required was dependent on the response rate to invitations to the launch event. Some key stages of the project included:

• Working with the agency to plan resource flexibility to ensure that the variable number of emailers required could be delivered as required
• Working with a third party partner to provide management, delivery and tracking of the entire campaign
• Developing and hosting the response tracking microsite

Conclusion

The campaign required a very flexible approach to both resource planning to allow for the variable number of emailers that had to be developed and to our management of the actual delivery of the campaign. For this project the agency opted for an end to end solution allowing them focus their resource on the strategic, creative and offline elements of the campaign without needing to worry about the technical elements of the online portion. Ultimately the campaign was very successful with a high positive response rate to the launch event.

Requirement

To develop a full online annual report that mirrored the branding and look and feel of their print annual report combined with the interactivity that the web allows and to give shareholders a viable alternative to receiving a print version of the report. Key functional elements included:

• A separate annual report site accessed from their investor relations site
• Rich media elements to allow site users to quickly access key messages and information in visually appealing and engaging way
• All content, accounts and notes presented in HTML that was fully accessible and met W3C guidelines
• The ability for users to select specific PDF versions of the report’s contents and download them to their desktop

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.Additional elements were created using JavaScript and Flash to create interactive features and provide a more visually interesting presence for the site.

Project Mechanics

The project ran for approximately 4 weeks from initial scoping to launch and involved very close cooperation with the agency at all stages of the project.

Some key stages of the project included:

• Detailed planning with the agency to ensure that the online report would be ready at the same date the printed version was released
• Developing HTML templates and the structure of the site ahead of the content being released from the agency
• Populating content in two phases to ensure that general content was populated as early as possible and then working in parallel with the agency’s team to populate financials, notes and last minute changes
• The project delivery team working in overlapping shifts to ensure that they were available around the clock in the period immediately prior to and post launch to accommodate last minute amends and content updates

Conclusion

Delivering online annual reports requires 100% accuracy whilst delivering in very short timeframe in an environment where frequent amends and updates are a given. Our extensive experience in delivering online annual reports ensured that we were able to work seamlessly with the agency as an extension of their team to deliver the report on time and without error.

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 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.