MET Group Umbraco CMS Development
The need
MET Group’s operational division—MET Services—approached ALLWIN with a brief to improve the user experience for staff and affiliates across 24 European websites. Any new CMS infrastructure also had to include language translation and improve the user-experience across multiple platforms.
Business goals
MET wanted to further their mission to become a leading market player by implementing innovation in the European energy markets. To achieve this, they needed to unify web design across all MET and affiliate websites and improve user experience for all.
Their design brief included the need for a centralized, modern, innovative and easy-to-use CMS system. The new CMS had to function across many platforms and be available in languages relevant to each region. Plus, MET wanted a technology partner who could ensure responsive functionality and clear display for all users. They also wanted to create more unified UX across a variety of devices.
Solution
To improve the user-experience for over 700 staff using 24 websites, ALLWIN developed a cloud-based CMS infrastructure using Umbraco Cloud.
The final Umbraco SaaS solution offers a cloud-based framework that’s easy for staff and affiliates to use. It also doesn’t ask them to have any website editing experience. Web pages are easily created, edited and published. There’s also potential for staff to manage an unlimited number of sites while staying true to MET branding and design principles.
Umbraco Cloud CMS
Implementing and developing an Umbraco cloud-based framework empowered MET staff to engage with 24 in-house and affiliate websites without developer support. The end result is an Umbraco Cloud and Azure environment where users can create new sites or pages in line with approved images and designs. And they won’t need oversight or expertise from developers.
ALLWIN achieved this by:
Creating a Dedicated
Umbraco Team
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Forming a team around the project enabled ALLWIN to take an immersive approach to the brief. It also deepened the team’s understanding of MET Group’s needs while furthering expertise in Umbraco solutions. Using this approach allowed team members to forge deep bonds with MET team members, while newer members had the chance to develop experience in Umbraco.
Using a Waterfall Approach and Agile Development Methodology
ALLWIN improved project planning by breaking down project activities into sequential phases. This method allowed for better review of each phase and of the dependencies between them. ALLWIN also held a series of project sprints as part of the development, with the first two weeks of sprints dedicated to planning, internal demonstrations, consulting end users and retrospectives.
Running an Environment in Azure
Creating a framework using Umbraco Cloud also activated an Azure environment. This enabled developers to work with a live environment and UAT separate from each other. But it also meant DevOps processes could benefit from 24-hour assistance from Umbraco’s Support line.
An Umbraco Cloud subscription also provided many advantages and enabled developers to customize a section for workflow management. With this section as part of the overall solution, content editors could pack web pages in any layout and use any module or content elements as part of their designs.
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Result
The end result is a responsive display page for all users that adapts well to different screen sizes on a variety of devices. It also provides language translation appropriate to each region.
And with a distinct improvement to workflow management, users with ‘Editor’ privileges can see, in one place, pages that those with ‘Writer’ privileges may have modified. Taking this approach improved usability but also the speed of workflow processes.
The Umbraco Cloud CMS solution, developed for MET Group, contains a variety of modules to help with storing and sorting through information. For example, there is now a function for filtering news via tags and a country selector. These processes make it easier for visitors to browse MET Group affiliates and subsidiaries and get the information they need.
Ultimately, MET users are now able to update and operate 24 websites without developer support. Also, they can create new sites, pages and uphold consistency by preventing deviations from MET Group branding and images.
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