HintTech | Showcase: Lower House of the Netherlands

Parliament

Client

Lower House of the Netherlands Parliament

Project

Development, implementation and configuration of Intranet and Internet environments.

Project description

One of the Lower House's main aims in setting up a modernised Intranet environment was to create a communication platform that would provide managers and editors with an easy way to record, manage and publish information. The Intranet would also serve as the basis for communication with the Internet; all internally and externally-oriented information was prepared within the workflows on the Intranet. The Lower House was looking for a suitable Content Management system to meet this need, which it could also use in the future for the Internet environment it planned to set up. And it was seeking a suitable party to oversee the implementation as competently as possible.

Choice

Since December 2001 Fabrique and HintTech have been jointly involved in the design, construction and implementation of the Lower House's Intranet. The call for tender issued by the Lower House was a perfect match for the experience that both parties had with previous projects for various government bodies. These projects were always developed with the aid of the Content Management system from Tridion, a leading European supplier of advanced, XML-based Enterprise Web Content Management software. With Tridion's software, content is easy to manage and is also suitable for multiple use; a requirement specified by the customer.

HintTech has been involved in building and implementing Tridion CMS projects since 1997. The HintTech Tridion specialists have carried out various projects successfully in the Netherlands and abroad. HintTech has carried out Tridion projects for clients including: the Dutch Tax Department, the Water Board ICT Centre, the Defence Department Telematics Organisation (DTO), Delta Lloyd, ABN-AMRO, Canon, Toyota, the National Insurance Institute, etc. HintTech is a certified partner of Tridion, and with over 20 Senior Tridion Engineers it possesses one of the biggest centres of expertise in Benelux.

Tridion’s newest product, Tridion R5, helps organisations such as the Lower House to make effective, efficient and maximal use of all their content. Tridion R5 offered the Lower House the ability to take an integrated approach to its content, using different sources and channels. The Tridion Content Management System has a number of advantages:

• All employees get direct access to relevant information and expert advice
• Operational consistency is guaranteed across all departments
• Flexible structure, easy to use
• Optimal manageability
• Improves relationships with citizens and partners
• Maintains current content across all specific websites that serve the different communities
• Reduces operating costs
• Controls the institutional brand across all channels.

 

A fixed-price structure was chosen for the tender, to achieve clarity and project control for the different parties involved.

The combination of experience and expertise in the area of development and design (Fabrique), (technical) implementation of the Tridion Content Management System (HintTech), the project's manageability and the possibilities offered by the system itself (Tridion) were the overriding reasons why the client opted for Fabrique and HintTech in combination with Tridion. Other factors that also came into play were the partners' additional experience of working for government bodies and the systematic approach to project implementation according to the Tridion Methodology.

Implementation

A project organisation in which all the parties involved had clearly designated roles was set up for the duration of the project. This was done to prevent misunderstandings and communication errors. The project was led by a project manager from the customer's organisation, who reported to the project sponsor and the steering group. The whole of this project organisation was based on the Tridion Methodology, a structured approach used to carry out Tridion projects.

A typical project organisation for a Tridion R5 implementation consists of 4 teams: a content team, an interaction design team, a publication development team and an infrastructure team. Each team within the project had a clear role:

• The Infrastructure Team was responsible for installing the HW/SW environments required for Tridion R5 and for the websites. This involved fitting these environments into the existing environment of KLANT X, load balancing and security.
• The Interaction Design Team decided on the look and feel of the website, including the site map, the navigation and a (functional) definition of all front-end functionality.
• The Content Team defined all content items that had to be included in the site, and after being trained in Tridion R5 publication, they were also responsible for entering and publishing the content. To make the project easy to manage, we recommended that this group should be limited to the most important content owners. Once the project had been completed, people throughout the organisation could contribute to the website in the roles of author, publisher, editor and/or editor-in-chief.

 

The publication development team was responsible for building the requirements as defined by the Interaction Design Team and the Content Team in Tridion R5. The team leader was jointly responsible with the application consultant for producing a technical design for the construction.

Postscript

As a result of the positive experiences and the structured approach used to implement the Intranet and choose a suitable Content Management System, the current implementation of the Internet for the Lower House of the Netherlands Parliament is again being carried out by HintTech and Fabrique, based on the Tridion R5 Content Management System. Preparations for the implementation are now in full swing, and the implementation will start in mid-November 2005.