Custom secure portal creates value for members

Spark360 had an innovative online training program that left users with knowledge but no further engagement or outreach. They partnered with Sanger & Eby to bring to life a secure, members-only online portal with resources for ongoing education, events and added value.

Challenge

While an online portal in and of itself might sound like a straightforward development request, the Spark360 project was layered with complexity. First and foremost, access to the portal was only given to someone once they completed the Spark360 training program, so the portal had to be secure and password-protected. Additionally, this portal had to be integrated with Spark360’s own custom Learning Management System (LMS) since that is how program completion was tracked. Next, it had to be programmed on an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) so that the internal Spark360 team could manage the documents, events, announcements and FAQs without the help of programmers once the site was handed over. This CMS had to seamlessly handle and display files ranging from images and Microsoft documents to PDFs so customer resources could be distributed, and it naturally had to be responsive to all devices.

Services:

Research & strategy Content audit & inventory User experience planning Information architecture development Responsive website design & development CMS implementation & customization Secure portal development Custom application development Systems integration

Spark360 had an innovative online training program that left users with knowledge but no further engagement or outreach. They partnered with Sanger & Eby to bring to life a secure, members-only online portal with resources for ongoing education, events and added value.

Services:

Research & strategy Content audit & inventory User experience planning Information architecture development Responsive website design & development CMS implementation & customization Secure portal development Custom application development Systems integration

Challenge

While an online portal in and of itself might sound like a straightforward development request, the Spark360 project was layered with complexity. First and foremost, access to the portal was only given to someone once they completed the Spark360 training program, so the portal had to be secure and password-protected. Additionally, this portal had to be integrated with Spark360’s own custom Learning Management System (LMS) since that is how program completion was tracked. Next, it had to be programmed on an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) so that the internal Spark360 team could manage the documents, events, announcements and FAQs without the help of programmers once the site was handed over. This CMS had to seamlessly handle and display files ranging from images and Microsoft documents to PDFs so customer resources could be distributed, and it naturally had to be responsive to all devices.

Responsive screens showing the new SparkDPP portal

Strategy

From our first meeting with Spark360, we understood that the custom portal project would need strong project management and a profound understanding of information security, technology and custom portal development. Luckily, the Sanger & Eby team excels in all of these areas.

We reviewed the functional and security requirements with the client and developed a detailed plan that broke the project out into seven phases. The plan included a strict timeline and written deliverables from both Sanger & Eby and Spark360. Weekly touch-base meetings conducted by our project manager kept the team on task.

Tech stack

The following languages and platforms were used to bring this project to life:

Languages

C#
HTML5
CSS

Frameworks/tools

ASP.NET
.NET MVC
Bootstrap
jQuery
MS SQL Server

CMS

Umbraco CMS
Umbraco Membership Module

APIs/integrations

LMS integration
.NET Web Services

We built the secure portal utilizing an open-source CMS to give our developers freedom to develop the custom functionality desired and to create the custom integration needed between Spark360’s LMS. We also developed custom content types for resources, job postings and FAQs to make it easier for the Spark360 team to manage all of the content after hand-off.

Results

The Diabetes Prevention Portal, a fully secure, responsive website that checked the boxes for each and every client requirement, was launched on budget and on time (in under 2 months). As requested, the portal was built to be handed off and then “hands-off,” so it is now able to be completely maintained by the Spark360 team.

Do you have business requirements that call for your own custom solution? Let’s talk!

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