Northdoor Website and CMS
The challenge
When eBusiness consultancy Northdoor decided to update their corporate brand, they needed their new website to reflect the energy and expertise they offer their clients.
With an updated graphical design (by Creativity), a streamlined information architecture and a regular turnover of compelling content, the new website needed to be easily updated by non-technical staff, support microsites based around specific territories or campaigns and integrate with Northdoor's existing CRM system.
The solution
The clean design of the website is reflected by its underlying code, which uses the latest XHTML and CSS standards-based techniques to ensure fast page load times, improved accessibility and search-engine friendliness. Responsible use of Javascript gives the site some interesting dynamic transition effects, but means users with older browsers can still see all the content.
Salesforce.com integration allows Northdoor to manage all user interactions with the website using their existing customer relationship management software.
The Content Management System (CMS) built to administer the site provides Northdoor staff with a clean and intuitive interface that requires no technical knowledge or training but retains enough power and flexibility to keep the website fresh and pertinent. Key features include:
- A Microsoft Word-style rich text editor to write page body text.
- Automatic optimisation and resizing of images, saving time and expense on specialist image editing software and training
- The ability to set up microsites for specific territories or campaign via a simple web form
- Granular administration privileges means author access can be restricted to certain site sections or microsites
- Publisher approval workflows with email alerts
- Full versioning and rollback
- Sophisticated "see also" link functionality, allowing full flexibility when choosing related links
- Embedded link integrity checking
- Integration with Google Analytics for sophisticated site usage statistics
- Server memory cache ensures a responsive website
The outcome
Jon Milward, General Manager at Northdoor, explains: "The CMS now makes it incredibly easy for all our sales and marketing people to upload new content and run new marketing campaigns. The integration of the web site with our CRM solution means that we can use the site to take registrations for events and news updates and also to be alerted to interest from new prospects when they download case studies for example."
"The different authority levels and workflow function within the CMS mean that we can effectively balance the freedom for a large number of staff to manage content with sufficient control to ensure its quality."
Technologies used
Coldfusion MX 7, Verity, SQL Server, XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS, RSS, jQuery, Scriptaculous, URL Rewriting.
