Toshiba
““ClearPeople have always provided a consistently good service and understood our business and technical requirements. Therefore when they suggested the migration of our current site to Sitecore, we knew it would be the right solution. ClearPeople has, with the Sitecore CMS, provided us with an improved, flexible and powerful CMS and we are pleased with the way we can easily make changes to our website.””
-Andrew Levey, Marketing Manager, Toshiba BCD.
Summary
In 2003, Toshiba’s Business Communications Division (BCD) enlisted the help of ClearPeople Ltd to redevelop the division’s web presence, and create a partner extranet using a bespoke content management solution.
Three years later, and with even greater importance being placed on the partner extranet, Toshiba BCD required that their website have further advanced functionality. Given the complexity of the requirements, ClearPeople recommended Sitecore as the preferred enterprise-class Content Management System (CMS).
Challenge
The volume of content on the website had significantly increased since the site’s initial launch. Toshiba BCD required a solution that could save editorial time, was easy for non-technical people to use and would allow for future enhancements.
The major challenge was therefore not only to provide Toshiba BCD with an easy-to-use CMS, but it also had to be compatible with the strict rules that the corporate hosting environment requires for publishing and staging control. In addition, Toshiba’s global technology strategy relies on Oracle database solutions, which are not supported by many content management systems. Finally, the requirements for user interface flexibility and standards compliance made this a challenging project.
Solution
ClearPeople implemented Sitecore CMS for Toshiba BCD, which includes some of the following features:
- A highly efficient publishing tool
- Adherence to Toshiba global web and security guidelines, including:
- Fully protected staging and intranet environment
- Separate (web-farm server) public facing internet/extranet environment
- Preview and Publishing control
- Workflow control
- World class adherence to web standards
- Clean, elegant and flexible user interface
- Password protected areas (Extranet) for Toshiba partners
- Flexible form control
- Flexible brochure download form controls
Result
ClearPeople’s expertise in developing for Sitecore CMS meant that a working solution was quickly implemented. The new website was successfully launched after a ten week design and development process. The set-up of the CMS in a complex environment went smoothly. Sitecore’s administration interface exceeded the expectations of BCD’s editors in terms of usability. After a few hours of training, a handful of editors were able to create new content items. The web team has since been actively updating and maintaining the content of the site.
Technical Description
The Toshiba BCD website was developed using Sitecore CMS with Oracle Database Connector, a web-farm server and staging module. In addition, a number of other standard and custom modules were also employed - such as Lucene search. A roadmap of additional features is already planned, such as fully indexed document search and possibly online forums, proving the ability of extending the functionality of Sitecore CMS.
Toshiba BCD’s editors utilise a range of the Sitecore admin features on a day-to-day basis, including workflow and controlled publishing.
Furthermore, Toshiba’s own security standards have been followed, and exceeded, by implementing a strict approach to database access on the public facing servers. Updates cannot be done via the public servers. Instead, any required updates, such as a partner registration or a user profile update, are published via a web-service to the internal environment. Updates are tightly controlled and published either automatically or through a custom defined workflow, depending on the security scenario.
Links
Toshiba
ClearPeople
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