Web platform redevelopment
The making of a smarter website
Background
The BDA wanted their website to work more effectively for its 23,000 members, and the existing platform simply didn't offer the technical capacity to meet new demands.
New services needed to be developed and integrated, more sophisticated communications were required, information had to be more accessible to users.
And for the first time, the BDA wanted to fully integrate their
CARE Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with the
website, to enable online membership signup and renewals.
The overall goal was to achieve major operational efficiencies,
including provide improved user experience and access to content
for members.
Solution
The SDL Tridion R5.3 content management system was selected as the replacement platform, as this made possible integration of several key functions and the provision advanced features:
- .NET Tridion modular templates, dynamic content delivery, personalisation, security model, auditing and reporting
- Tridion blueprint model to allow content such as news and press releases to be shared in all BDA websites
- Membership registration and renewals made more efficient, including integration of WorldPay function for online payment
- Dynamic content delivery, content targeting and personalisation in a "My BDA" section - storing individual preferences to allow delivery of personally relevant content to members
- Outbound email - integrated module enables tailored communication with online members and registered users
- All published content is stored and available as an archive, to provide retrospective proof of advice given
- Polyspot natural language search engine and British Dental Journal integrated, indexing the British Dental Journal repository and Single Sign On for easy member access to relevant advice and content
- Development of full ecommerce and order fulfilment on the complete range of BDA goods offered to members and non-members.. Integration to payment gateways and internal stock control systems
- Community-based elements, such as blogs, forums and wikis. Single Sign On to area for member collaboration and debate on the latest issues in dentistry based on a Telligent Community platform
- Single Sign On with related websites, for example the British Dental Journal
- Adobe connect integration for Continual Professional Development delivery
Utilising a best practice Tridion blueprint model allowed the separation of content, functionality and design
Template development has been streamlined, and the BDA can now make simple CMS template updates using the familiar DreamWeaver toolset.
Content such as advice and guidance notes can now be filtered according to topics, keywords, acronyms or roles. Related content items are served dynamically based on keywords set in the metadata.
Each BDA member also sets their own profile data based on their specialities and key interests. In turn, this means the member can receive content that's of specific interest to them. The same profiling informs BDA emails to members, so individuals only receive emails of relevance to them.
The project was closely controlled by a 'web board' - comprising the CEO (sponsor), heads of department, the web manager and Building Blocks' account and project managers.
Following a content audit, a joint board ensured the successful migration and review of material from the existing system to the new. This was actioned after basic content editor training for the content team, whilst site development continued simultaneously.
In fact, as a result of Building Blocks' training and User Acceptance Testing, by the time the system went live the content editors had already created, tagged and published over four thousand pages of content.
The solution was delivered within the agreed project tolerances and Phase 2 developments are currently underway.