CuraScript Neighborhoods

• Challenge |
• Solution |
• Result

Challenge

CuraScript needed to build a series of social/community web sites, for a selected group of diseases, to facilitate education and support for patients and their loved ones.

The project was highly collaborative, with a number of parties involved.

• Miller Systems and the primary CuraScript project sponsor worked closely to define and design the pilot site’s information architecture and functional specifications for key interactive experiences.
• A CuraScript selected freelance designer was responsible for the aesthetics and graphic design of the site.
• CuraScript’s in-house development team brought pre-existing technical solutions to the table for some of the key feature requirements (message boards and chat).
• Miller Systems was responsible for the remainder, including front end development, content management implementation, the membership and email newsletter engine, on-site search facility, hosting, and ultimately, bringing all of the assets together for a successful launch.

Coordinating the various players, without expanding scope, budget, or compromising deadlines required thoughtful planning – and expert project management.

Solution

Build a re-usable, scalable “neighborhood engine” platform, using fertilityneighborhood.com as the pilot/prototype. The pilot site for this program was a resource for those dealing with infertility, but the intent from the outset was to develop a scalable, affordable, re-usable platform for any number of “neighborhoods”. Following are some highlights from the solution architecture that made this idea a successful reality:

Content Management

Selecting and implementing the right CMS was a linchpin for the success of the neighborhood site program. Miller Systems ultimately settled on OpenText’s WSM platform (formerly RedDot CMS), for several reasons that made sense for CuraScript’s situation. (want to learn more about why? Click here)

dataDriver ePush

Miller Systems was able to leverage its award-winning dataDriver ePush marketing communications engine to meet both the member/subscriber database requirement as well as the email newsletter needs. A custom .NET Web Services API to ePush was developed to integrate the social features on the neighborhoods to facilitate a seamless, single-sign on experience for site members.

Search

Miller Systems implemented a series of Microsoft “out of the box” and customized .NET components to integrate, aggregate and federate search across several disparate content stores, and elegantly present results in context to site members.

Hosting

Miller Systems designed, implemented, and manages a robust, redundant, load balanced hosting solution that is managed by our IT infrastructure team in our enterprise class, Tier 1 co-location facility .

Result

The CuraScript SD neighborhood site program was a smashing success. Highlights:

• We built it, and they came!  CuraScript signed up tens of thousands of members across a four neighborhood sites.
• Economy of scale.  After fertilityneighborhood.com was completed, each follow on neighborhood took less than 30% of the time and labor cost of the first site.
• Ease of update by non-technical users.  The CMS was well adopted, obviating the need for developers to get involved in routine content management tasks.
• Highly available, high performance experience. 
  The hosting solution in place has been rock solid for many years.

With a friendly, functional, reliable high performance, site, the team at CuraScript has been able to provide neighborhood members with easier access to better content and resources. This has ultimately led patients to information and treatments that have had a positive impact on their quality of life, and provided them with much needed support from healthcare professionals and other individuals who are in similar medical situations.