Sitecore-Based Web Application For Online Reports
A detailed study on how Net Solutions built a business application for IEMR by customizing Sitcore's CMS and ecommerce capabilities
Background
IEMR or Independent Entrepreneurial Market Research Corporation is a market research and business strategy consulting firm with a global clientele. The range of services of IEMR are quite extensive beginning with market research, communications services, telecom consulting and extending to strategy consulting, third party subscription and more.
This enterprise has almost every leading name in its portfolio from the three sectors of telecommunications, Information Technology and Government.
The Problem
IEMR was in need of re-developing his website built on the asp platform. The data being traded on the website was highly valuable, consisting of substantial paid reports. Hence, a highly secured platform was another major requirement.
There were considerable concerns related to speed and User Experience (UX) in the existing website, which required immediate alteration. IEMR wanted to shift it to Sitecore CMS, because of the extensive features and flexibility of this platform.
They also wanted the integration of noteworthy ecommerce features in Sitecore, which would enable easy access of desired survey reports to the buyers.
The Challenges
-
Compiling and Migrating Huge Data
Compiling, customizing and then integrating the reporting system in Sitecore was not an easy task. The large amount of data needed to be sorted and categorized before being incorporated. Another enormous task to be carried out was migration of old data into new Sitecore database.
First Project on Sitecore
Although we have worked on other enterprise CMS like Kentico and have hands-on experience in .Net, the platform on which Sitecore is built; yet this was our first project on Sitecore services, hence we could not put anything to chance.
-
Combining Personalized Ecommerce Feature in Sitecore CMS
IEMR's requirement stated merging customized ecommerce competency in the Sitecore CMS, which wasn't going to be an easy task. An important fact to be pointed in this regard is that the default ecommerce capability of Sitecore is not so powerful, which allows easy integration unlike the site's old platform.
The Solution
-
Personalization & Assimilation of Data
We analysed the user behaviour and accordingly created recommendations for them. We also created a custom admin area for the client because he also needed reports to analyse his sales related information, and it was not a manageable option on the Sitecore admin area.
Integrating Customized Modules
We made use of multi-tier architecture to make the website scalable for future expansion requirements of the client. We applied Lucene for improving the search speed along with faceted search benefit, for filtering at the blink of an eye.
-
Special Sitecore Training for Better Performance
Net Solutions being a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner has a skilled team of .Net developers who are experienced at handling complex projects. However, we did not want to take any chances in this situation. A team of developers was trained in Sitecore, so that the blending of ecommerce features in the CMS was carried out smoothly.
Good work on the website and we would like to say that we really appreciate all your hard work so far on it. The website is really head and shoulders above most of our competitors.
IE Market Research
The Result
IE Market Research Corporation launched its CMS website equipped with ecommerce features in the month of October in 2013; ever since then it has:
-
Improved Speed and Enhanced User Experience
We created a responsive website for the client which made it user and device friendly. The search and browsing speed improved significantly on the website resulting in improved sales.
-
Organized Data with Ecommerce Advantage
The site responds to the user's search queries quickly and they can easily avail the required data or services with a hassle-free payment facility.