Business Network Platform Development for Copybook
We created a custom web platform consisting of a public web portal, a customer portal and a back-office system. The platform features a business directory of suppliers, news and information about a wide range of industries.
A world leader in online business-to-business media with clients from over 40 countries, the network also provides news and information on a wide range of industries, from military and construction to pharmaceuticals. When the team behind Copybook first got in touch with us, their network consisted of nine distinct web portals focusing on different industries, all with unique layouts, separate domains and their own content management systems. This made changing or adding content to the various websites extremely complicated and time-consuming.
Objective
Seeking a more scalable setup to accommodate the growth of their business, Copybook asked us to deliver a solution that would unify their existing portals and consolidate them under the main Copybook brand. The goal was to be able to manage the entire network from one interface. In addition, the existing system’s outdated technology needed replacing so that modern website features could be incorporated.
Challenge
The difficulty stemmed from the large volume of data generated by all portals over the course of their existence, which spanned more than ten years and resulted in millions of records, data, photos and multimedia. All of this had to be consolidated into a single portal with no compromise on performance. The system had to be quick, with quick search and perfect navigation capabilities. In terms of SEO, domain authority from the existing portals needed to be preserved in the new corporate one.
Solution
Using the agile development approach and working closely with Copybook’s team, we delivered the initial MVP version in several sprints, meeting the corresponding project milestones. It took several additional sprints, extensive testing and finalising data and SEO authority migration to release the feature-rich version that completely replaced the legacy portals. As with all our projects, we used test-driven development along with regular sprint and code reviews to guarantee the consistency and quality of the software.
We used Yii 2.0 PHP framework to develop a custom web platform, consisting of a public web portal, a customer portal and a back-office system. In place of nine independent websites, the public web portal provides one-point access to all the content Copybook offers. This is organised into industry-specific sections that visitors can move between seamlessly. For the UI, we decided to use Foundation and Bootstrap frameworks and an SEO-friendly design for improved usability and accessibility. Our solution also introduced several new features, including an expanded customer portal, networking and social tools, online payment functionality, an automated subscription process and multi-industry search. Most importantly, a centralised back-office system was created so that the entire platform can be managed from one place.
Results
The entire platform is supported by a single back-office system, through which Copybook administrators can manage user accounts, supplier profiles, subscriptions, events, user uploads and all other content within the network. The process of making changes or updates to any one of the different industry-specific sections is standardised and can be carried out from the same interface.