Knowledge Dock - Case study.

Knowledge Dock gains business benefit from PresideCMS

Innovation and Enterprise organisation selects PresideCMS to deliver personalised web content to business users

As the organisation responsible for innovation and enterprise within the University of East London, Knowledge Dock is at the forefront of business development in the Thames Gateway region. Grounded in the realities of business and drawing on the experience that comes from working with over 2,000 businesses, Knowledge Dock provides seamless solutions for all types of enterprise, whatever their stage of development.

To attract businesses to use its services, Knowledge Dock must be innovative in its marketing, not least of all through its website www.knowledgedock.com. Martin Chan, Communications Manager, Knowledge Dock explained: “Around 18 months ago we reviewed our website. It hadn’t been touched for three years and it was not particularly user-friendly or navigable, some of the features were pointless, and the site just didn’t represent the diversity of the organisation.”

Two way communications

Chan invited web design and development agencies to advise on how the website could move forward, the latest technologies that could be used and provide some “fresh ideas”. He said: “Fundamentally we wanted to move from a one-way communications channel to a two-way dialogue between us and our stakeholders.”

Of the tenders that were put forward, Pixl8 Interactive’s “impressed us most.” Chan added: “Their people are very knowledgeable and unbiased, and came up with a lot of really good ideas and suggestions. They always kept our needs at the forefront of their minds – it wasn’t a case ‘have this feature or that functionality’. They put themselves in our shoes, and considered what our stakeholders would want from the new website.”

Rapid deployment

With just two months to get the new website up and running, rapid deployment of both infrastructure and design were important. “Pixl8 obviously knew how to get things done quickly and we were extremely confident in their creative, technical and project management skills. Their people are also very knowledgeable in terms of accessibility standards and usability, which are both important to us.”

Content management with PresideCMS

Absolutely fundamental to the new website was a new content management system (CMS) that would enable Knowledge Dock personnel to create and manage their own web content. For that purpose, Pixl8 recommended PresideCMS.

PresideCMS is an affordable, scalable and easy to use content management solution. Designed for websites, intranets and extranets, it enables marketers and other line-of-business users to take control of creating, managing and maintaining their own content.

“PresideCMS is very easy to use, and you don’t need advanced IT or web design skills. Around six of us are using PresideCMS full time to create and manage content, but anyone in the organisation can use it  if they need to put content up onto the site.”

Personalised content

PresideCMS enables personalised content to be presented to different visitors to the site. “For example, if you are starting a new business, by selecting the business start up tab on the homepage, relevant resources will be served up to you. It just means you get the information you need, faster,” said Chan.

Phase 1 of the new website was launched in September 2005 and Chan is now working with Pixl8 and PresideCMS to launch Phase 2. He concluded: “Pixl8 worked with us to discuss the website with key stakeholders, took notes and gave us some proposals on how we can make it better. They have come up with some great ideas on how to make the site more navigable and have suggested new technologies that we can deploy.”