network services company: using portal and collaboration to bring value | portal excellence...
DESCRIPTION
Michael Porter, Principal, Portal and Collaboration Solutions at Perficient, along with Paul Roche, CIO Network Services Company, presented this at IBM Portal Excellence Conference on Wednesday, October 14, 2009. In a continuing effort to deliver value-added services and provide access to timely and relevant information, Network Services wanted to provide its employees, members and customers a central place with personalized access to Network Services' applications and information. They also wanted to provide self-service collaboration tools and automate the submission of key forms. Network Services teamed with Perficient, an IBM Premier Business Partner, to deploy IBM portal and collaboration software including WebSphere Portal Server, Lotus Web Content Management, Lotus Quickr and Lotus Forms. The first of two portals deployed focused on enabling business user management and publication of content for Network Services' public website (http://www.nsconline.com), including information about customer segments served, products and services provided, and member organizations. Among other benefits, the new portal improved the time-to-market for company information and placed realtime control and ownership of content in the hands of business users. Deployed in a matter of weeks, the second portal focused on providing members a secure, central point of access to applications, reports and content with single sign-on and member self-service management of their user accounts. The portal provided members more efficient access to the applications and information most relevant to them while reducing administrative costs through delegated user administration. This new portal and collaboration platform based on IBM software is key to realizing Network Services' goals for reducing cost, empowering self-service, improving time-to-market, and improving member and customer satisfaction.TRANSCRIPT
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IBM Portal Excellence Conference 2009 San Diego, California - October 12 – 15, 2009
© IBM Corporation
Session S17
Network Services Company: Using Portal and Collaboration to Bring ValueSpeaker(s): Leo Radovsky, Michael Porter
IBM Portal Excellence Conference 2009 – Americas
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Agenda Introduction
Business Requirements
Project Goals
Solution Deployed (http://www.nsconline.com/)
High Level Architecture
Project Results
Lessons Learned & Future Plans
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Background
Network Services is a member-owned organization of more than 75 best-in-class member-distributors with combined annual revenue over $15 billion. Our goals are to utilize national account solutions that: Reduce the total supply chain costs of our
multi-site customers
Network of distributors throughouth the United States.
Improve the service levels that these national customers provide to their customers
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Before the Portal
Dated web site
Multiple websites/profiles
Lack of collaboration
Hard to update/modify
Static “irrelevant” content
Lack of access rights
IT is the content owner
Functional Limitations
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Business Requirements: Process
Started with Roadmap
Wanted to align portal technology to the needs of the business
Created a vision with senior management
Dove into pain points and priorities with various organizations
Created a roadmap before kicking off the first project
Le
ssM
ore
More
Complexity
Less
Bus
ines
s V
alue
Rea
dine
ss
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
1 2 3 4 5 6
High Value/ High Complexity High Value/ Low Complexity
Low Value/ High Complexity Low Value/ Low Complexity
1. Re-branding Website2. Netlink Inquiries3. Netlink self-service4. Member list by alpha and
state5. Customer Information View6. Campaigns7. FMT lookup8. Member surveys and reports9. Netlink admin and
management pages10. Image portlet/banner portlet11. Subscription or notification
for key statements12. Employee access to order
guide, price lists13. Member access to order
guide, price lists14. Price books15. Links16. On-line Chat17. Supplier deals and tracking
against them18. GIP Calculator19. Statement lookup for
customer20. Customer/Supplier Matrix
by member
2
Portal Functionality List
3
Weighted Importance 1,.9
Weighted Importance .8,.7
Weighted Importance .6,.5
Weighted Importance 1,.9
Weighted Importance .8,.7
Weighted Importance .6,.5
4
5
17
10
8
18
76
1
911
12
13
14 15
16
19
20
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Business Requirements: Vision
Members
Network Services Employees
National Account Customers
Prospects National Account
Members
Suppliers
Branding Current web site
CommunicationFacilitate communication for all departments To all constituents
Decrease costs through “the grease” of communication
Implementation Process
Reports
Content
Grow National Account Sales business
Constituents Strategies
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NSC Portal RoadmapThree Months Six Months 9 Months 12 Months
Po
rtle
tsU
ser
Exp
erie
nce
Com
pos
iteV
iew
New
Sys
tem
sF
orm
s &
P
roce
ssC
olla
bora
tion
Rep
ortin
gD
ocum
ent
and
W
eb C
ont
ent
Install Portal
Install portlets and/or base integration
External documentation
Internal documentation
IT Knowledgebase
HR Web Content
Re-branding of Website
BI reports
Document based reportsDashboard Reports
IT Self Service
General Collaboration
Project Collaboration Area
Lo/Mid Fidelity Prototyping
Iterative Lo/Mid Fidelity Prototyping
Define Universal workflow
Forms and Process Research Create Forms and Process
Infrastructure
Help Desk Product Review and/or purchase
Research Portfolio Management Research on BI
Solutions
Portal Integration to BIPurchase BI
solution
Self Service Reports
Creating forms and forms based workflows
Card Sorts
Alerts
Surveys Quick Contacts
Personalized Content
Member viewCustomer View
Net Link inquiries
Member Self-Admin
Geo Map Mashup
Invoice Lookup
FMT lookup
Create Universal workflow
Purchase Portfolio
Management tool
Links
Calendar
RSS Feeds
Ph
ase
1 R
ollo
ut
Ph
ase
2 R
ollo
ut
Ph
ase
3 R
ollo
ut
Roadmap
Roadmap is starting point
Things will change
Combination of
Business objectives
Technical dependencies
Need to be realistic
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Challenges
Scope Don’t boil the ocean at once
Org Preparedness New technologies New way of doing business
Skill Set
Adopting Portal Concept
Content
Legacy Applications Commerce systems Databases
Other Projects Dependencies
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Project Goals:
Phase I
Company Website
Phase II
Member Access Portal
Phase III
Employee Portal
Phase IIII
Supplier Portal
Phase 1Phase 1
Phase 2Phase 2
Phase 3Phase 3
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Project Goals:
Phase I
Company Website
Redesign
Portlets
Content
Communication
Content Publishing Process
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Project Approach
Team formation
Software/Hardware Requirements
Environment Installation/Configuration
Business Requirements
Scope/Phases/Timelines
Technical Requirements
Development
Deployment
Support
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Project team
Executive Team
Steering Committee
Technology Team
Perficient
• Portal Architect
• Portal Specialist
• PM/BA
• Visual Designer
NSC
•Portal Program Mgt
•Portal Technical Architect
•Portal Information Architect
•Systems/Networks
•DBA
•Content/Design/Usability
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Deployed Solution Software
• Portal
• Quickr
• WCM
• LDAP
• Database (SQL, DB2)
• Development standards
J2EE v1.3 (JDK v1.4)
WebSphere Portlet Factory v6.0
WebSphere Dashboard Framework v6.0
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Deployed Solution Physical
• Virtual Machines
• Dev/QA/Production
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Implementation
Phase I www.nsconline.com
• Design
Theme and Skins
UI Specs
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Implementation
Phase I www.nsconline.com
• Content
Templates
Publishing Workflows
Syndication
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Implementation
Portlet - Contact Us
Use Cases
Layout
Functionality
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Implementation Portlet - Member
Locator
Use Cases
Layout
Functionality
3rd party software integration
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Implementation Phase I www.nsconline.com
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Project Goals: Phase II
Company Portal/Member Access
Redesign
SSO
Self-administration
Custom Roles/Content Access Rights
Role-driven content
Legacy Apps “portletized”
New Applications
20
Phase 1Phase 1
Phase 2Phase 2
Phase 3Phase 3
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Project Goals:
Phase II
Company Portal/Member Access
Redesign
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Project Goals:
Phase II
Company Portal/Member Access
SSO
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Project Goals:
Phase II
Company Portal/Member Access
Self-administration
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Project Goals:
Phase II
Company Portal/Member Access
Custom Roles/Content Access Rights
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Project Goals:
Phase II
Company Portal/Member Access
Role-driven content
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Project Goals:
Phase II
Company Portal/Member Access
Legacy Apps “portletized”
New Applications
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Results
Company Image/Branding
Fresh/Relevant Content
Easier to Modify/Administer
Dynamic/Scalable Framework
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Lessons Learned
Develop Vision
Develop Roadmap
Develop Team
Prioritize Change Requests
Timelines
Integration
Rollout lessons
Training
IBM Portal Excellence Conference 2009 – Americas
Questions
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Additional Information and Resources
WebSphere Portal – IBM Site
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/genservers/portal/
WebSphere Portal Business Solutions Catalog
http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/portal
Websphere Portal Developer’s Zone
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/portal/
Product Documentation and WebSphere Portal Wiki
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/genservers/portal/library/
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf
Education
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/training/portalofferings.html
WebSphere Portal Blog
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/WebSpherePortal/
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Session ID:
Session:
Presenter(s):
Please take a few minutes to fill out the session survey. Thank you
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