White Paper: Multinational Website Development

Client's Industry

Tooling and Manufacturing

Business Challenges

• To provide a cohesive International online presence both scalable and adaptable to company's evolving needs.
• Enhance customer relationship management.

Benefits & Results

• Immediate savings of over $100,000 in development costs.
• Access to International Markets.
• International connectivity.
• Strengthened and enhanced company's overall brand name.
• Improved communication channels.
• Centralized data storage.
• Dismissal of costly product catalogs.

Technology

• ASP
• JavaScript
• Macromedia Flash
• Microsoft Information Server
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Windows Server
• SSI
• Visual Basic

Solution

Azavar Technologies Corporation created a cohesive international online presence based on Microsoft SQL Server for continuous product updates.

Sometimes the creation of an online presence coincides with internal changes of organizations. The company outlined in this case study recently merged two existing companies into one cohesive, global tooling and manufacturing entity. The strength of its original and individual brands were thus streamlined, making it necessary to form one solid identity. Azavar partnered with the newly merged firm to combine its previously existing websites into one advanced multinational online resource.

Azavar pooled its international abilities to combine the client's separate regional identities into one international online presence. The website is broken up into the three sections of the international business unit: United States, Canada and Mexico. Each country has a distinct, yet consistent style that features geographically based language and content along with important corporate information.

The multinational e-Commerce solution was designed to provide customers with a web-based interface that highlights the company's products, services and corporate information. This enhanced the current sales process by providing essential product information in a timely and efficient manner to all three of the company's North American segments. Furthermore, the design facilitates the ability to expand the international online presence's functionality in the future, while minimizing the cost of additional software, design, and training.

The website's content was aggregated from each of the client's preexisting regional websites to generate a single comprehensive online resource. The result is an advanced online presence that allows customers to find detailed product information, research the latest trends and interact with the company's international sales force more efficiently.

Because the client's product line varies from region to region, we engineered a solution that dynamically generates detailed product information from a Microsoft SQL Server. By modifying the database, the content on the website can be immediately updated. This allows the client to easily maintain current information about their continually evolving product line from each of the international regions.

To improve customer service, we made it easier for customers to interact with the client's sales force by creating an efficient, real-time communication channel. On the website, customers can contact the company, submit questions and even request a quote. In addition, the interactive location maps allow users to quickly access information about each of the company's locations.

The technology selected for this solution was consistent with the highest quality industry standards, such as Microsoft's Servers and Application Development products, as well as the Azavar innovated Three-Tier Architecture (server-side, middleware and interface).

Microsoft Windows Server and IIS were used to host the website. Website functionality was achieved through a three-tier solution comprised of ASP-powered user interfaces, Business Logic middleware and a Database and Server layer. These tiers were developed in Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft SQL Server as necessary, ASP, which allowed the execution of server side scripts and object implementation, SSI, HTML, JavaScript and VBScript.

To maintain data security, Azavar developed and implemented a custom authentication component using Windows and ASP-based security as necessary. In order to achieve the highest level of data security, we implemented additional levels, such as industry standard SSL encryption, that were customized for sensitive data areas. This SSL encryption was used to "tunnel" ODBC connections between the network and the web server. Cisco™ PIX™ technology was also used to control data access.

The ability to navigate at any time, from any computer and from any location is the foundation of any web-based application. The client's users were using local Internet service providers such as AOL to connect to the Internet and would have had significant problems viewing the site if the site was not based on lowest-common denominator industry standards. The primary rationale behind this recommendation was to keep the client-side website architecture simple and elegant.

The website was developed so that the majority of users would easily access the website and have a positive experience. Thus, this website was designed for people using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 4.0 or greater, viewing with a 15" monitor at a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels or better and connected at speeds of 28.8 Kbps or greater. From the client's perspective, ASP were more scalable and provided easy maintenance by their staff.

With Azavar's unique Web Development Solution™, we gave our client a dynamic, scalable and creative online presence that was up and running in less than 30 days.

The functionality of the website development application includes:

• Clear, concise and professional layout with intuitive navigation system.
• Animated introductory page that emphasizes the company's international image.
• Regionally segmented content that outlines the products and services of the particular region.
• All information can be read in French, Spanish or English.
• Customers have access to regional North American news determined by the region they have selected.
• Customers can access a single interactive "Location Map" to view contact information.

Administrators are able to view the company online activity through a statistics server.

Contact us to find out how to achieve Webability™ like this for your website.