Case Study

The new intranet portal for Conad del Tirreno

Technology Reply, an Oracle OPN Specialised Platinum Partner, has developed an innovative solution that enables quick, direct and secure access to the services provided by the Conad del Tirreno cooperative.

The project

The project, focused on revamping Conad del Tirreno’s intranet portal, named CWW, was driven by the need to modernise the technologies used in the previous solution. In this scenario, the following main requirements emerged:

A new graphical layout facilitating the reorganisation and optimisation of content
Introduction of the compatibility of the graphical layout with tablets and mobile devices
Offering a clean and simple look and feel, but at the same time authoritative and engaging, designed to simplify the browsing experience for portal users
The ability to define different reserved areas with different configurations in terms of users and/or privileges
Simplifying the search for user-enabled content and related access
Providing the ability to bulk-load documents using the DAV protocol
Integrating the CWW portal within the iSocio mobile app

In order to update an outdated technology, Conad del Tirreno opted for the consolidated synergy between a leading software vendor and a competitive and reliable technological partner: Oracle and Reply.

Solution

Technology Reply handled all aspects of the project, from the installation of new environments to the redesign of the intranet portal, from the development of the graphic solution to the integration with the native iSocio mobile apps for Android and iOS. Given the requirements matrix identified by the customer, the technologies to be used and the required architecture, a task force of certified Technology Reply professionals was created, the first Italian partner to have reached the Oracle OPN Specialised Platinum Partner certification level. The highly qualified team contributed their skills and expertise to develop the full range of features of the new portal on the Oracle WebCenter Portal 12c platform. The content management component was, on the other hand, entrusted to another WebCenter suite product, namely Oracle WebCenter Content 12c, a solution that supports an ad hoc document organisation model.

Among the many features of the product, it is possible to classify documents into categories, enter additional information for documents using metadata, use content versioning and configure specific security policies based on metadata or a folder-based organisation. The WebCenter Content product is natively integrated with the WebCenter Portal, making otherwise complex configurations clear to the system administrator, such as the assignment of roles and permissions on folders dedicated to the portals, whenever the membership is modified. Natively integrated with the company's Active Directory, the solution provides a role-based user experience, which can be associated at different levels:

Access to the portal
Access to the administrative area
Page visibility
Visibility of specific functionalities (taskflow)
Performance in terms of enabling the various functionalities

Benefits

A new portal

The new intranet portal was created as a container for more than 40 sub-portals, each with its own specific configuration in terms of users, defined roles and features enabled. Starting from the base product functionalities, Technology Reply has implemented a solution that offers a collection of standard and custom features to meet the customer’s specific requirements in full. Diversification of page templates, public and private portals, management of portal events, documental content with security logic based on metadata and user groups, notifications of new content available profiled and diversified by portals are just some of the building blocks that make up the final solution.

Security first

For the final solution, it was crucial to have fully configurable areas in terms of access, in order to completely isolate the specific functionalities and content according to areas of expertise. Thanks to a distinct organisation of user groups in Active Directory and to a suitable analysis of profiling with the relative WebCenter Portal configuration, it was possible to define more than 40 portals in the platform, each associated with relevant and specific security policies.

Documents

The customer’s objective was to avoid a perilous redundancy of documentation: the proposed solution, in fact, becomes the single point of access to the documentation that the the various users are able to access. Thanks to Oracle WebCenter Content, it is possible to interface, in a simple manner and with almost instant response times, from the portal pages defined in the WebCenter Portal product or through the mapping of the documentation system, as a network drive for communication using the DAV protocol. The various document areas can be viewed from the portal through ad hoc pages, for a user experience that is simple, effective and totally secure. Given the cardinality of the portals involved, it was necessary to carry out an in-depth analysis of the organisation of documents and content, taking advantage of the many functions offered by the product.

New documents for you? Notifications!

The end solution addresses a feature of interest when working with content: being notified when there is a file that the user can access. To provide this feature, a notification engine was implemented which makes it possible to keep track, for each user, of all documents uploaded to the system that the latter has not yet viewed: notifications are created only if the user has the required permission to access the specific document. Updates to documents are sent through push notifications or displayed in the portal.

Full-responsive graphics

The customer completely renewed their intranet portal, focusing on a clean and simple look and feel that makes it possible to emphasise specific content and actions, filtered according to the privileges of individual users. The new portal is able to fully meet a requirement considered essential, namely to enable the use of the solution from a variety of types of devices. A UX design study focused on the specific needs of the customer and subsequently integrated into the WebCenter Portal product made it possible to create a full-responsive portal which adapts to all types of screens, mobile devices, tablets and desktops.

Conad del Tirreno

Conad del Tirreno is a large Cooperative of independent contractors which employs over 9,500 resources and operates through various brands: Conad Superstore, Conad, Conad City, Sapori&Dintorni and Margherita. Today, thanks to the international alliances created by Conad, Conad del Tirreno is one of the major Italian companies operating in the associated independent distribution sector. These results were possible thanks to the processes of modernisation and reorganisation carried out in recent years, which have led to the gradual development of Conad del Tirreno towards the operational and managerial model typical of Mass Retailers, while preserving and exploiting the key characteristics of the Group, its mission, the expression of cooperativism among associated entrepreneurs. Convenience, efficiency, consistency and support for the community in which it operates are just a few of the keywords that articulate Conad del Tirreno’s positioning and its commercial policy focused on attention to consumer satisfaction.

Technology Reply

Technology Reply is the Reply Group company specialised in consulting services and the design and implementation of solutions based on the Oracle technology (Core Technologies, Middleware Technologies). For over 20 years, technology Reply has been pursuing a process of innovation through ongoing certifications, participation in Beta Programmes and in co-development initiatives with the Oracle Corporation, thanks to which it is able to guarantee its customers expert support. Thanks to the skills it has acquired and the market’s trust in its proven expertise, Technology Reply offers innovative solutions, supporting its customers during all stages of the information systems transformation process, from design to implementation. Technology Reply is the first Global level partner to have acquired the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) specialisation and is the first partner in Italy to have achieved the Platinum Cloud Select Level.