Domtar's Intranet System~The Opus Project

Domtar envisioned their intranet, known as OpuS, as an organization-wide access point for their growing corporate knowledge. They wanted a system that was not only easy to learn from, but that was also very easy for anyone in the company to add to. They wanted to document job-specific expertise and worker skills in a Web-based network that would be well suited both for future growth, and for use with future technologies such as handhelds.


Their needs were very specific so we built a custom version of FLUiD CMS that could generate several types of Web pages.

The Opus Home page

Domtar's intranet system home page was customized to accommodate the unusually large amount of information that the system had to handle. The logos and colour palette were controlled centrally so that regardless of who added new content it would appear fully branded.


An OpuS Menu Page

This customized version of FLUiD CMS was designed to organize large amounts of growing information. For this reason a tab system was used since it would be the best for scalability, and users could see graphically where they were in the directory.


An OpuS Document Page

Users throughout the organization could create and edit this type of page. New pages would automatically be added to the tabbed menu. FLUiD CMS lets non-technical users add new images and text so that new work processes can be recorded, and shared, by anyone.


The Challenge

  • Design the Web-based system so that it can make the captured knowledge available online to employees in various departments

  • Ensure that the system is easy to use for non-technical authors, so that various employees can update it

  • Convert over 4,000 MS Word documents, containing text and embedded images, out of their current format and into a raw, future-proofed format

  • Ensure that the system has a branded, corporate look and feel

  • Enable multiple user access so that various departments can use the system simultaneously

  • Design a review and approval process so that content quality and accuracy can be verified

  • Protect the corporate design, including user tracking, with full security controls

  • Implement the system within two months

  • Implement the system on a limited budget

 

Our Solution

  • An XML-based, fully customized version of FLUiD CMS was implemented

  • An easy-to-use internal Web-based training system was developed

  • The existing content was migrated into a flexible, future-ready format by converting the Word documents into raw XML form using a batch conversion process, separating the images from the text

  • A standard template design was created for the Domtar intranet by modifying the basic FLUiD CMS template

 

The Results

  • Complete user adoption, full usability

  • Reduced authoring time, which lead to reduced content contribution expense

  • Content has a consistent 'look and feel'

  • System is scalable for future development as the size of the knowledge base increases

  • Dead links and orphaned documents were eliminated, creating an excellent user experience

  • All the content is easily searchable, editable, usable

  • Sharp reduction in training time

  • Clearer, more logical presentation of the content enabled identification of some gaps in the existing knowledge base

  • Project completed on time and within budget constraints