How we do it: intranet system for Fornebuporten - design and development

This huge investment is owned by Norwegian corporation Aker ASA and the value of the project (over 3 billion NOK) makes it the second largest onshore development in Norway - it is expected that nearly 3,000 people will live and work at Fornebuporten.

Our responsibilities

Working on intranet system was the second project on which we worked with Fornebuporten - our cooperation started by winning with nine companies in the tender that concerned corporate website. In February of this year we launched a new version of the site where we were responsible for developing the overall graphic concept and implementation of CMS.

While working on intranet application we were responsible for overall development of architecture of information, implementation of responsive web design and integration of external reservation system of the resources located in the complex (e.g. meeting rooms or tables at the restaurant).

Responsive Web Design

One of the main goals of the system is to achieve high availability on a variety of devices - users are able to log into their account with mobile, tablet or desktop. Usage and reservation of the campus resources is supposed to be always available for the authorized users regardless their location - we achieved that through the implementation of highly developed and visually responsive solutions that were based on Metronic template system and tailored to corporate identity of Fornebuporten.

We rarely use ready-made templates in our projects, but when we do, we only use proven solutions (and basically only in web applications). Metronic, as the set of responsive HTML / CSS / JS templates, is specifically designed for intranet or content management systems. It includes a number of features and components that are created with the support for mobile devices - from these components we chose the ones that helped us optimizing the timing of the project.
Pre-built templates allowed us to focus on the development and designing the key functionalities and usefulness of the system. It also helped us to save a lot of time on coding and testing of the visual layer of the system.

User roles and content management

Backend logic is created based on Django framework written in Python programming language. Based on client’s expectations, we implemented different user roles that are giving access to various parts of the system:

• Regular users have access to the reservation systems with which they can book conference rooms, tables at the local restaurant or sign up for sports activities. They also can visit information panel that is dedicated to news and knowledge base. This section includes, among others, useful downloadable files, links to helpful sites and a set of QA for people working at Fornebuporten.
• Administrators have additional access to the module that is allowing content management and administration of the various functions of the system. They are responsible for the creation and configuration of regular accounts as well as placing content in the information section. With the usage of single sign-on module they can also take care of managing the acces to the reservation system.

External services integration

One of the most interesting and challenging tasks was to integrate intranet system with 3 different external services that are offering reservation functionalities of Fornebuporten’s resources. Each integrated service works autonomously and provides API which we used to connect with intranet. We integrated:

• Conference rooms reservation system (with catering management option)
  Our task was to integrate the authentication modules of intranet with Pronestor reservation system in such a way that it was possible to automatically gain access when you log into an application.

• Signing up for sport activities organized on Fornebuporten’s sporting facility – Lifestyle by Fornebuporten
  Basing on the solution of the Swedish company BRP Systems we used the provided API to connect calendar reservations app with key elements of the system, such as synchronization of the list of available sports activities or sending informations about the exhaustion of vacancies, booking or cancellation.

• Table reservation system that allows to reserve tables at the restaurant – the Local
  The possibility of booking tables in restaurant placed within the campus was created with the usage of the solution provided by Booktable.

Additionally, we implemented single Sign-on module that allows users to access all 3 reservation systems without necessity to log in separately to each of them. Every account configured in the intranet application has built-in access to those systems. Thanks to that users don’t have to remember separate credentials to each of them separately.

User management

Due to fact that there are a lot of people who are supposed to work and live within the campus, we prepared additional module for administrators that allows to perform mass-import of users account. Basing on a specially crafted file delivered to administrators, the solution that we prepared automatically creates a new account and sends a welcome message with access informations. While downloading the file, system very carefully checks its structure and reports all errors that are preventing the correct creation of the account. Thanks to that it can be very quickly fixed and done properly. There is no need for manual management of the process, which at the planned 3,000 users of the complex will significantly save administrators time.

Summary

Cooperation with Fornebuporten creates a very interesting challenge for us and thanks to that we can fully show wide range of our skills. In a period of three months of work on the intranet we managed to achieve the goal of the project, which is to create a functional, responsive system that is facilitating the usage of the complex for people working in Fornebuporten. We are currently working on introducing the next modifications as well as on extension of reservation module dedicated to sports facilities and ordering lessons with a personal trainer.

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