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Case Study - The Spirit Of...
The brief provided by "The Spirit Of" required the redevelopment of an existing site of approximately 250 pages, 25 product categories and 15 manufacturers into a database-driven structure, to be implemented in conjunction with a new visual design. The client was having difficulty maintaining the consistency of the site due to the enormous amount of cross-referencing required to change categories, brands, navigation and other content.
Opalise was asked to provide a technical lead to work closely with the visual design team at Spirit to achieve the above objectives.
Opalise immediately set about designing a technical architecture that would provide the client with all the benefits of a database-driven site, while retaining the familiarity and accessibility of the existing static site.
In order to retain the familiar look and feel, Opalise developed sophisticated conversion technologies to automate the conversion of categories, manufacturers and textual content from old site to new.
The resulting solution, created using Microsoft ASP, SQL Server and ISAPI technologies, appears to visitors as an attractively styled evolution of the existing site with some useful new features such as a full text search. The story behind the scenes, however, is somewhat different.
Benefitting greatly from the database-driven architecture, the site provides management information to help the client assess the most popular brands and categories, active visitors, downloads and so on. This management information can in turn be used in conjunction with the extensive editorial administration features provided by Opalise, to keep the site relevant and up to date with current trends. New categories and manufacturers, along with the associated content, can be added in days rather than weeks, and is considerably less error-prone. For example, navigation bars and menus, previously implemented manually by the client, are now generated automatically.
Opalise met Spirit on-site on a regular basis to discuss progress, set short-term objectives and solve any problems that had arisen. This method of development, in conjunction with the well-designed technical architecture, allowed the site to rapidly change and evolve according to the client's requirements, without falling behind schedule or into technical difficulty. The end result was a solution that went beyond meeting the client's expectations, both in terms of timescales and innovative features.
Client benefits
The solution created by Opalise reduced the client's web marketing team by 80%, significantly slashing web maintenance costs as a result.