Virk dk
“”We wanted a CMS, which we could adapt to Virk.dk. More precisely, one of the ideas for the site is that it should permanently reflect the needs of the companies. Those needs are in constant flux, so Virk.dk should also be. With Sitecore we have a solution which does not create technical limits to our visions,””
-Kerny Ustrup, IT manager Krak
Summary
Virk.dk is a public service launched in 2003. The intention was to gather all information relevant to a company for collaboration with the authorities. In addition, Virk.dk also has a number of functions, which makes communication between companies and the public sector more resource-efficient.
In order keep the functionality and usability of Virk.dk up-to-date it was decided, during the summer of 2004, to upgrade the portal with a new Content Management System. Sitecore CMS was chosen on the grounds of its flexibility and adaptability with respect to the future development of the portal.
During the summer Virk.dk was completely redesigned and rebuilt on the Sitecore platform – a process which only took one quarter of the time it took to build Virk.dk originally. The Sitecore version passed all tests from the start – and the results surpassed all expectations.
Challenge
Virk.dk is a portal with the purpose of gathering all information which private companies need for their contact with the authorities. The idea is that a collective portal may save the companies much of their daily administration, for example, filling out forms, reports and general contact. This administration is time consuming, and therefore also expensive – and it occupies resources that the companies could have used to focus on growth.
A large number of public organisations, private concerns and companies are involved in the Virk.dk project. Together they defined the services the portal offers to the Danish business arena. Such an extensive and visionary collaboration between private and public authorities has, not surprisingly received a great deal of attention from the media – and therefore it was important that the project quickly achieved success.
The task was ambitious and extremely future-orientated: Such an extensive endeavour to digitalise the public service across so many ministries and government authorities while at the same time presenting data in a form which was directly usable by a range of visitors with different abilities and from a number of different sectors, has not previously been seen in Denmark.
When Virk.dk was originally tendered during the summer of 2001, there were more than thirty different offers. In September 2002, Krak signed the contract with the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency. Virk.dk was first launched in September 2003.
Using Virk.dk companies should be offered a portal which saves administration for both them and the authorities. Furthermore, the vision was that the portal should be used to assemble for the visitor pertinent data and news thus providing a central location for information, thus avoiding the search over the scattered individual authorities.
When Virk.dk was originally launched in 2003, the portal came under frequent criticism. A lower traffic than expected and critique regarding the usability resulted in a series of disparaging articles in the Danish media. This is why Virk.dk, during the spring of 2004, started looking for a new platform, which would increase the usability, the flexibility and the service development options which would provide the originally-conceived services and attract the intended users the portal.
Solution
To meet the wishes of the users for more functionality and user-friendliness, Virk.dk upgraded to Sitecore CMS during the summer of 2004, and started a total rebuild of the portal.
The development work with the Sitecore CMS was quicker than expected, and the development team behind Virk.dk were pleased to note that the development was done in one quarter of the time it took to develop the first edition of Virk.dk.
The Sitecore based version of Virk.dk immediately passed all the rigorous tests that the portal was exposed to. The newly developed portal even delivered results which by far exceeded demands and expectations. Even under serious stress testing, the Sitecore solution delivered an up-time of 100 percent and a total of 99.99 percent of the pages were delivered in less than one second.
Sitecore is based on the Microsoft .NET platform which gives speed with stability. Along with the modular build of the system, where new functions can be developed and adapted specifically to the individual needs of every customer, the .NET platform assists in the swift implementation of new specifications.
“Virk.dk is a project we are proud to provide technology for. Such a visionary project has large demands to the technical solution, which needs to be functional, stable and quick at the same time. Together with Sitecore, we have a very strong product, which can not just meet the present requirements – the solution will also be durable for many years to come,” says Sales director Dan Bælum from Microsoft Denmark. Dan Bælum is proud of that Microsoft and Sitecore together have delivered technology to such a high profile project, whose success directly contributes to making the daily administrative tasks easier for a large number of Danish companies
Result
The new Sitecore version of Virk.dk was, from the start, a resounding success. The response times were extremely satisfactory and the user-friendliness for developers and visitors was confirmed by both groups to be greatly enhanced.
Virk.dk has, very soon after implementation of the Sitecore CMS, fulfilled the goals originally set for the portal functionality.
In 2004 Denmark was nominated world leading internet nation by the esteemed British magazine ‘The Economist’. This accolade was accredited, in part, to the Virk.dk portal due to the success in minimising administration cost and delivering a broad service level to Danish companies.
“In addition to the site being faster, we have obtained much better possibilities of updating and developing the content, because Sitecore has a system, which makes it possible to develop and publish new functions very quickly,” says Thomas Klint, from the Krak development team.
Technical Description
The Sitecore solution today manages all tasks executed on Virk.dk – and the system exchanges information automatically effortlessly between five ministries and twenty-four other organisations affiliated with Virk.dk.
The solution withdraws information from several underlying systems and databases via, for example, Microsoft BizTalk and data handled by Sitecore in XML.
Resultmaker have delivered the ‘Virkviser’ modules, an online consultant which handles the business logic on the site.
The result of queries, searches and data enquiries are presented to the user by the Sitecore CMS, which may also be used by the development team to update and add news and other information on the site
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