10/7/2009 3:10:00 PM
We wanted a more interactive website, and one that we could publish content on frequently. Our basic requirements were:
- Clean professional design elements
- A blog
- Case studies by business unit
- Solution profiles for the solutions we offer
- How to communicate with us
- Lead generation capabilities
- Content management features
- Search
This website is the result of a rapid development effort to meet those requirements.
Technology
The platform we selected for this new website includes:
- Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
- ASP.Net and C#
- Windows Server 2008
- SQL Server 2008
- Microsoft Bing Maps
- javascript
Design
The entire website is a SharePoint site. It is implemented with custom ASP.Net master pages, which are not based on stock SharePoint master pages at all. Stylesheets are all custom as well. The designers involved practiced industry best practice for web page layout and styling.
There is a variety of content managed in SharePoint lists, including the blog posts, case studies, solutions, and portfolio items.
Showcase
'Showcase' is a SharePoint list that drives the content for a variety of areas of the website.
On the home page, there is a rotating Showcase display. This is driven from showcase items of all types. If you visit the case studies page on the site, you'll see Showcase items that are categorized as 'Case Study.' If you visit the page for our Geospatial Solutions, you'll see showcase items that are associated with our Geospatial business unit, including case studies and solutions.
It's a simple mechanism to manage a lot of varied content on our website, and each page just filters the list according to what is appropriate for it to show.