Custom CMS Development for Philips Pronto

Java-based OpenCms solution customized to the Customer’s business processes
Scalable and secure CMS supporting the entire publishing workflow
Feature-rich web portal with collaboration capabilities

Expertise

Collaboration Solutions

Content & Document Management

Verticals

Manufacturing

When the Customer realized that their content management system got outdated, slow and inconvenient to use, they turned to Rishi Software Services(RSS) to replace it with a brand-new custom solution.

Months

Person-months

Context
Solution
Development Process
Results
Customer Voice

Context

Philips Pronto, a division of Philips that produces and sells touch-screen remote controls, had an outdated custom content management system. The existing CMS required serious technical skills to handle it and complicated the overall website management. The Customer wanted to facilitate content management process for non-technical staff, as well as make the CMS easily scalable.

As the company’s unique business processes couldn’t be covered with any available ready-made solution, Rishi Software Services(RSS) suggested going for a custom content management system. This turned out to be a more cost-effective solution, as it didn’t imply any license costs associated with a ready-to-go CMS implementation.

Rishi Software Services(RSS) provided a detailed project estimate, video demonstrations of a suggested open source CMS, and its demo installations to let Philips Pronto see and evaluate the future solution and its functionality.

Solution

The project included custom CMS development and implementation of an internal portal on this CMS.

The portal presents up-to-date information about Philips Pronto departments (news, events, and product descriptions), as well as allows users to download and upload firmware.

Rishi Software Services(RSS) created a content management system based on Java-based OpenCms, open source software that enables easy content publishing and editing. The portal ensures role-based access for different user groups and provides employees with a collaboration-driven forum and rating features. As the number of active users grows, the Customer can expand the system to align it with users’ needs.

Frontend Features

The CMS’s front-end includes the following features:

Core features (publishing workflow, content access levels, templates integration, sitemap, navigation management).
User profiles.
Content areas (distributor finder, service, testimonials, use-cases, maintenance, installers, events, news, products).
Examination module (users pass tests depending on their access level).
Content sharing features.
Integration with a 3-rd party forum and the WebTrain system.

Backend Features

Available for website administrators, the CMS’s backend enables:

Static and dynamic content management.
User account and access management.
Publishing process management.

Development Process

Rishi Software Services(RSS) split the project into several phases encompassing a variety of activities:

Clarifying the Customer’s initial requirements and shaping the project vision.
Developing core features, including user management, and meta-information management.
Delivering additional features, including forum integration, examination module, file sharing, and custom information modules.
Implementing graphic design, including HTML slicing and implementation of provided sketches.

Iflexion’s team consisted of a project manager and a business analyst who worked part-time, and a full-time team of a technical leader, developers, and a QA specialist. The team demonstrated to the Customer the implemented functionality at each project stage, collected the Customer’s feedback, and tuned the solution accordingly.

Results

The first version of the solution with the core functionality became available one month after the project start. As soon as the first version was ready, the development team deployed it to a Customer’s remote staging server, so employees were able to use the system immediately.

Once the project was completed, the adjacent Philips B2B division, Home Control, that produces branded remote controls on behalf of world-known brands, requested a similar content management system to manage their web portal. Rishi Software Services(RSS) implemented a custom CMS in the shortest timeframe as the team could reuse the modules developed during the previous Philips Pronto project.