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CGI Design/NHS: Bespoke Content Management System for NHS websites
CGI Design is a London-based design agency that specialises in developing new media
and communications for many organisations, with a particular focus on the NHS.
The problem
CGI Design first approached FelineSoft when one of their external technical contractors
let them down and they were left with no technical resources to call on. As an agency
that were involved in projects with large organisations such as the NHS, they needed
a technical partner that would be able to offer them continuing levels of support
and technical resources whenever needed.
The goals
CGI Design needed a reliable technical partner that would guarantee them meeting
their project deadlines, a partner that could build websites with features such
as intranet facilities and content management systems without compromising their
designs, and handle anything technical that was out of their own range of expertise.
The Delivery
Working in close collaboration with CGI Design meant that we were able to get to
know CGI’s clients and customize our own Content Management System (CMS) to suit
their individual needs. As a result of working on numerous NHS projects, FelineSoft
has a CMS that is specifically customized for NHS websites, and can be built to
an individual Trust’s requirements. The robust and flexible architecture of our
CMS enables CGI’s clients to update any web pages easily so that their sites are
kept fresh and updated at all times, while our Styling Protector also ensures that
the original design and concept of the site is maintained. To view an example of
one of the NHS sites we have worked on with CGI, go to
www.st-marys.nhs.uk.
Conclusion
The close collaboration between CGI and FelineSoft has enabled CGI to pitch on
large projects that would have been out of reach before. We work closely with the
CGI team and share the risk of pitching for large projects by giving our time free
of charge; this partnership has resulted in both sides benefiting from each other’s
expertise and enabled us to work on larger projects together.
"FelineSoft have a great attitude and understand the importance of sticking to a
design so are endlessly patient with my detailed requests to get things looking
just right. Another bonus is being able to take them along to my client meetings
and knowing my clients will warm to their personalities and clear way of explaining
technical aspects of projects!"
Keren Lerner, CGI Design
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Environment Agency: Bespoke Development
The Problem
The Environment Agency has a large range of plant equipment situated in different
depots across the UK which the Operations Delivery team need to access on a regular
basis. The Operations Delivery staff also have to make sure that the plant equipment
meets all the specific needs of the site to ensure all health and safety requirements
are met. Without a centralised system to work out what equipment was suitable for
a particular site, staff had to spend a considerable amount of time finding out
this information from different sources when they were back in their offices.
The Goals
The aim was to provide the Environment Agency Operations Delivery team with a tool
that would enable them to see what plant equipment is suitable for a specified site
whether they are in the office or on location. This tool was to become known as
the Work Equipment Option Tool (WEOT).
Delivery
The first stage in development was to refine WEOT's requirements by getting input
from all the key stakeholders in the department. The best way for us to do this
was to build a prototype system in Microsoft Access and ask for feedback from the
key staff members. Once this stage was complete and the key requirements were fully
specified and signed off by the head of department we were ready to start building
the new system.
WEOT was developed as a browser-based application to make it accessible to all
staff whether they are on or off-site. WEOT was developed using .NET, C#, and SQL
Server. Ajax was also used to improve the user experience by making the system more
responsive. Plant data stored in another Environment Agency database is fed into
the system in .csv format, making it easy to keep WEOT up-to-date at all times.
Conclusion
The new browser-based WEOT application consists of an on-line site assessment form
which the Operations Delivery staff fill out with site data such as height and weight
restrictions. They then select which plant equipment they need and click on search.
WEOT will then return a list of equipment that fits the criteria and will also provide
attachments which specify additional suitable equipment. Staff can search both local
and national depots for plant equipment and see what is available for their site
in seconds, whenever they need to. As the largest department in the Environment
Agency, the WEOT is a valuable resource for staff who need to work in a fast but
safe manner for the communities they serve.
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Satmap Systems Ltd: Online Route Planner Service
Satmap Systems Ltd., an outdoor sports maps and GPS technology innovator, launched
their first product Active 10 in October 2007. The Satmap Active 10 is a simple
to use, affordable GPS receiver displaying high quality, digital maps on a large
colour screen.
The goals
Following its launch, Satmap Systems’ next goal was to offer its customers a free
and easy-to-use online route planning service, and it was at this point that they
turned to FelineSoft to develop the necessary functionality to enable this service
to happen. Given the complexity of projecting custom maps using Virtual Earth and
the necessary integration with Satmap’s website as well as the customization of
the Active 10’s internal software, the creation of the online route planning tool
was going to be a complex project.
The Delivery
The Route Planner needed to communicate with the Active 10 through SatSYNC, a custom
version of Active Sync, and also had to interface with the MySQL server used by
www.satmap.com. It was to feature Virtual Earth v5 and would allow the user to plot
and save routes on-line, then export them in GPX format to use with the Active 10.
To enable the projection of a custom map on the Virtual Earth system FelineSoft
used a Microsoft application called Map Cruncher. However, it would soon become
apparent that the way Map Cruncher operates would compromise both the accuracy needed
for the map projection and also the effectiveness of online tool due to the length
of time taken to produce the maps themselves. Therefore FelineSoft needed to develop
a tool which would create a file with the information of the location of all the
maps that Ordnance Survey provided us with relating to its location in the Virtual
Earth System. Then the Map Cruncher was used to read and render the maps from it.
This initially seemed to be the solution but Map Cruncher was not designed to cope
with rendering so many maps in one go, so it failed. The solution was to divide
up the data into sections to enable Map Cruncher to handle it, and to do this we
also had to change the way the Map Cruncher stores images on the server as it was
too slow in accessing them. Finally, 6 machines and 3 days later all the images
required were rendered, all the different pieces were merged back together and all
the high quality Ordinance Survey Maps could be projected on the route planner.
Summary
The Route Planner was written using ASP.NET, with C# for the user interface as
well as for the business logic, and Microsoft SQL Server as the Database Management
System. The mapping system used is Microsoft’s Virtual Earth where the Ordnance
Survey maps are projected. As well as Ordnance Survey mapping, Satmap customers
also have the option to plan routes using aerial photography of Great Britain available
on the route planner.