Nilfisk Advance
“”We are very satisfied with our new web solution. Sitecore Content Management has given us a considerable optimisation of our website and thus savings on internal resources.” ”
-Webmaster at Nilfisk-Advance, Michael Ravnsbæk
Summary
The Danish producer of professional cleaning devices Nilfisk-Advance has approximately 2000 employees on five continents and informational websites covering the company’s products in ten different languages. The new solution based on the Sitecore Content Management System allows a full update one or all of the many websites from any of the Nilfisk-Advance establishments around the world.
Challenge
While the company Nilfisk-Advance has grown strong worldwide, the competition on the market has become increasingly keen. Increased demands on products, economy and customer service, means Nilfisk-Advance must constantly strives to be on the cutting edge of development to maintain their lead over the competition.
One of the main areas for differentiation is customer contact and service. Here Nilfisk-Advance wanted to further develop their existing websites, so the customer service was better and faster, while simultaneously extending the service options available.
One of the requirements was to establish an effective presentation and payment system, such that the customers could acquire information regarding Nilfisk-Advances products online and then order them in a secure and efficient manner.
The Nilfisk-Advances website contains more than 1200 pages in ten different languages. These pages need to be frequently updated, which is a very considerable task that the company needed to streamline and systemise. Previously this task belonged to a few persons who were under pressure to maintain the multitude of updates. A logical strategy was therefore to find a method, where Nilfisk-Advance could spread out this workload to more people without affecting continuity and consistency.
Solution
In 2002 Nilfisk-Advance changed to a solution based on the Sitecore system. The user friendly interface ensured that everyone with knowledge of Microsoft Word could easily learn how to use the system thus minimising training requirements and shortening learning curves. Thus it became easy for Nilfisk-Advance to distribute tasks to a range of users.
Nilfisk-Advance was already using an Oracle product database which was integrated with the Sitecore solution. Prior to the integration all relevant websites had to be manually updated every time Nilfisk-Advance made changes in the product database. Using the Sitecore solution the information on the website now is sourced directly from the database and therefore only needs to be changed in one place – thus saving hugely on resources.
Additionally the database is now used for the Nilfisk-Advance’s e-commerce, catalogues and intranet.
The flexibility of the Sitecore system also gave Nilfisk-Advance a good starting point for the ongoing development of their website. New options and new services can be added quickly to the site as customer requirements dictate. For example, advanced search functions and product comparison tools have been easily integrated in the newest version of the company website.
Result
As the Sitecore Content Manager has an interface that is extremely compatible with that of Microsoft Word, it is therefore very easy to use. The various websites at Nilfisk-Advance are created by editors in their respective countries. This means that the content is optimised in relation to the local market segment, and the task of maintaining the website is more evenly distributed.
Nilfisk-Advance may now also maintain the content on the website via the product database of the company. This is a very important function, as more than half of the content of the website is product information. Using this system, the product developers can concentrate on the specifications in the database, while the marketing department takes care of the visual presentation. The integration allows new product information to be made very quickly accessible to the customers. The procedure of updating information has been made much more efficient.
Both Nilfisk-Advance and their sales channels have also begun using the extensive possibilities of the website directly as a marketing tool. A useful side effect by having such a functional website is that the interest from customers may be measured and tested. Nilfisk-Advance use their website as a part of their marketing, it is possible to evaluate more efficiently how profitable their marketing efforts are…
Technical Description
Nilfisk-Advance has chosen a solution integrating Sitecore CMS and the existing Oracle product database. Data on the Nilfisk-Advance website is directly available from the Oracle product database. This data is used for the Product Finder and Product Comparison tools. The integration also means that the data available to the customers is always the most up to date
The Content Manager has an automatic time control and retrieves relevant upgrade information in the company databases. This additional ‘security’ measure ensures the relevance of information is on the website.
The system also re-formats Microsoft Word documents so that they match the style of the company website – a function which makes the workflow even smoother.
The Sitecore’s user friendliness and easy access also means that Nilfisk-Advance has been able to quickly train a number of internal users in the various departments all over the world.
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