How we do it: EWE Polska – a complex corporation-product website based on Drupal

Clients’ expectations and the aim of the project

EWE Polska asked us to develop a new version of the company’s website 2 years ago. The main assumptions included:

• The implementation of modern and advanced content management system, which gives administrators and redactors vast opportunities for the creation and presentation of the content (about the offer or information about the company);
• The adaptation of the website to mobile devices, this way browsing the website on smartphones or tablets will be intuitive and the content will be easily accessible;
• Improved architecture of information – the idea was to present the offer, the information about the company or a number of additional content (as a help for current and new clients) in a logical and clear way;
• Providing electronic versions of applications regarding the purchase of services or products of the company;
• The adjustment of selected information to the declared location of a user.

Mockups are the key

The project was developed in the waterfall model. The first stage covered providing additional details in the requirements and the creation of the mockups and the specification. Preparing Axure-based mockups and the specification took a bit of time, but the additional effort paid off – frameworks were thoughtful and verified to the smallest detail. Thanks to that we can be sure that the website will have all the necessary functionalities and the presented content is correct. We have to give huge credit to the Client who gave us full support and was highly involved in the process.

Design

The next step was the graphic design. At this stage of work we were challenged by the fact that EWE is an international company, which has guidelines regarding company's communication. Due to that we had to put a part of our ideas on the shelf and focus on making a polish version of the website fully correspondent to the CI requirements.

Front-end

Front-end development didn’t cause much trouble. The website had to be responsive and we made use of HTML5 and CSS3 capabilities. Due to a high number of repeated elements of the interface existing on more than one page (and I’m not talking about the header with the menu or the footer), we created a library consisting of such elements for later use in templates.

Back-end – why Drupal?

Back-end development works lasted the longest. We recommended using Drupal CMS. There was a number of factors for this decision, the most important were:

• Stability. EWE made it clear that they want their website to work with no troubles whatsoever. The company had some bad experience with the previous CMS they used and they wanted to avoid such type of problems. Drupal is a renowned system, which, if properly configured and used, just never fails.
• Simple content, menu and so-called dictionaries management. Drupal allows to group all the content in one place – they’re easy to look through and edit. It’s the similar case with menus or dictionaries. In order to make it even easier, we prepared dedicated roles (redactor and admin) and implemented a menu skin (in the left column), which stores links to all basic functionalities of Drupal.
• High number of ready modules. For EWE the publication of a new website is the first step in the fight for loyalty and goodwill of users. The client planned on expanding the website with additional functionalities. Thanks to choosing Drupal we were certain that at least a part of them can be based on already coded modules, which will speed up the process and reduce the cost of the implementation.
• Support and safety. Drupal has huge and active community. Thanks to that it receives updates on a regular basis and every security gaps are quickly removed.
• Renowned brand. It’s one of the world's most popular CMS, used by many big organizations or companies. The fact EWE belongs to that group highlights the position of the company on the market.

EWE.pl: what’s new?

The new look of EWE.pl stands out from the competition with a number of interesting functionalities and solutions:

• Installers search engine – based on postal codes. A user who looks for an installer working around his place of living has to insert his postal code. The search engine will return business cards of installers with contact data included.
• Products’ price lists – also based on postal codes. In order to view a correct offer a user has to insert his postal code. What’s important, this code inserted in one of search engines will be stored and used as the default one in other similarly working search engines.
• Apache Solr’s integration – aforementioned functionalities as well as the basic search engine (for content search) are integrated with an external mechanism for indexing and content searching – Apache Solr. Due to that more data is indexed and search results are more accurate.
• Gas units calculator – it’s a special calculator, which allows EWE Polska users to recount different gas units in a quick and easy way.
• Complex FAQ section – sale and distribution of gas or electricity are complicated issues. In order to make it easier for current and potential customers to find out about these issues, we developed complex Q&A section. They’re grouped in specific subjects, users can also rate its usefulness (administrator can access these statistics and make necessary changes based on the results).
• Electronic applications – these are actually complex forms accessible online (assigned to products). Users can report the need for a particular service. This way the EWE’s customer service department has its job simplified.

Maintenance and Support

It is worth to highlighting that since the publication day we’re working on technical support and the further development of the website. During that time, the website underwent many minor and major modifications. Probably the most visible change implemented was a redesign of the presentation of the website. We should also mention that the Client is really happy with the CMS we created – it’s very transparent and intuitive in use. All that happened after a single, few-hour-long introductory workshop ? Our cooperation have already been lasting for 2 years.

Summary

To sum up: the development of EWE.pl is a proof why Drupal CMS is that successful among big companies and organizations. For a business clients it’s a reliable, stable and user-friendly tool for the management of corporate or product websites.

Our cooperation with EWE Polska also presents how important is to make plans towards further development of the website instead of stopping at the implementation of the new version of the site. Thanks to such investments it’s also possible to react to changes, both these happening in the environment and in the organization. We’ve been cooperating with EWE for over two years and we see that it makes sense!