Project Scope

Customized implementation of Interwoven TeamSite content management system for Mercury Interactive global network consisting of 10,000 pages spanning 11 global sites and 8 landing pages rolled out in three phases: Content Migration, Template Development, and Localization for Worldwide Sites.

Why AtreNet

Mercury Interactive has worked closely with AtreNet since 1996 on the evolution of its corporate web site. They had full confidence in AtreNet's technical competence and their ability to deliver within the tight timelines required by the Corporate Web Marketing Group.

Highlights

• Customized Templates: Creation of 9 customized templates that incorporate the look and feel of key content areas as well as facilitate the content creation process. Standard templates allow for Mercury Interactive to enforce consistency throughout the site while allowing for flexibility where appropriate. In addition the templates allow the content to be separated from the design to give Mercury Interactive the power to implement site redesigns in a fraction of the original time.
• Integrated Meta Data Process: Insertion of Meta data as an additional stage in the content publishing workflow resulted in more effective search results, dynamic content population, as well as consistency across sites and content contributors worldwide.
• Automated Content Migration: Intelligent parsing and migration of 3,000 pages of corporate content and HTML tags to the Interwoven TeamSite system.
• Streamlined Content Generation and Approval: AtreNet separated web site content from the presentation layer to streamline site changes as well as the translation process. AtreNet implemented multiple approval levels that enable corporate to control the graphic look and feel while country stakeholders contribute local content.
• Standardized File Format: All content is contained in XML-based files. This streamlines the process of updating existing site content with web site design enhancements.
• Streamlined Changes to Sub-Navigation: AtreNet developed a custom tool and process to automate the deployment of frequent changes to sub-navigation.
• Automated Localization Process: AtreNet created workflows between Interwoven TeamSite and GlobalSight's globalization management tool to automate the translation of web site content from 10 sites each having as many as 400 pages of content. These workflows provide the flexibility, autonomy, collaboration and control that both corporate and local stakeholders needed.

Mercury Interactive content management and translation workflow

Company Brief

"AtreNet consistently exceeds our expectations on web initiatives, including the recent implementation and customization of Interwoven TeamSite." Sue Bowman Manager, Web Marketing Group Mercury Interactive Corporation

Mercury Interactive (www.mercuryinteractive.com) is the leading provider of enterprise testing and performance management solutions. The company's automated software and managed services help companies deliver and maintain high-performance applications. Customers worldwide use Mercury Interactive solutions across their application and technology infrastructures to minimize hardware and operational expenses, protect revenue streams and enhance their competitive positions. Mercury Interactive is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with offices in more than 20 countries.

Business Challenges

Mercury Interactive has grown significantly over the past 5 years in terms of revenues, products, employees and worldwide locations. The Corporate Web Marketing Group faced significant challenges as a result of this growth including:

• Sites: Mercury Interactive had grown from one corporate site in 1996 to more than 11 sites in 2001.
• Pages: In 1996, the corporate web site had 300 pages. At the onset of this project, Mercury Interactive had more than 8,000 pages of content with new web site initiatives expected to generate significant new content.
• Content Creation: Mercury Interactive had content contributors supporting product marketing, corporate staff functions, and international locations. There was increasing pressure from global locations for more local and translated content and faster turnaround.
• Revision Control: There was no centralized version control system accessible by all sites and content creators.
• Process: Mercury Interactive did not have any automated procedures and methodology for web site updates including content, Meta data tags and approvals.
• Localization: The existing localization process was manual. Mercury Interactive personnel modified existing localized templates as required, sent Word documents to the translation agency, cut and pasted the translated text into the HTML document, and then checked the visual and technical integrity of the final HTML document.

Global site management and maintenance had become increasingly complex. Mercury was ready for an enterprise-class, content management system. They evaluated a number of systems and chose Interwoven's TeamSite product for its ease of use, its reputation in the market, as well as its application infrastructure including support for Meta data, templates and workflows.

Business Solutions

"Working closely with our group, AtreNet met our demanding timelines, programmatically migrated existing content and delivered custom tools, templates and custom workflows that automate the generation and translation of web content." Sue Bowman

Mercury Interactive engaged AtreNet, its partner on web initiatives since 1996, to implement and customize Interwoven TeamSite. The Corporate Web Marketing Group was confident that AtreNet had both the technical expertise and the ability to deliver a project of this scale within the tight timelines.

Phased Approach

Working closely with the Web Marketing Group, AtreNet recommended a phased approach to the Interwoven TeamSite implementation.

• Phase I: Content Migration - Migration of all existing content to the TeamSite environment so that it could all be centrally managed via a web-based version control system. Identify sections with frequently updated content for a full-scale implementation including customized deployment templates and distributed content management. These sections included press releases, job opportunities and partner profiles.
• Phase II: Template Development - IDevelopment of custom tools and custom templates as well as the refinement of workflows.
• Phase III: Localization for Worldwide Sites - Localization of corporate templates for 11 sites and refinement of translation workflows.

Efficient Content Migration

AtreNet engineers migrated more than 3,000 pages from the Mercury Interactive corporate web site to Interwoven TeamSite. To automate this process, AtreNet created an intelligent parsing program to separate the HTML tags from the content.

Customized Templates

Initially, Mercury Interactive identified 15 - 18 content areas that would need custom templates. Working closely with AtreNet, Mercury Interactive was able to reduce the number of custom templates from 18 to 9 by analyzing core content common to 80% of the site and optional content that applied to other sections. The reduction from 18 templates to 9 minimizes user confusion and ensures that Mercury Interactive has a highly maintainable, consistent, usable and extensible content management environment.

The basic components used by TeamSite to generate pages are:

• An XML-based content document.
• A data capture form used for page updates.
• A presentation template that defines graphics and content placement for each page.

AtreNet separated content from presentation data to facilitate changes to graphics and content layout without touching the text (e.g., change fonts, apply new bullets, change table format). All content and graphics were then broken into core elements and transferred from HTML into XML. Customized forms were also developed so that content could be added or modified via a graphical user interface.

Using TeamSite's core technologies (XML, HTML and Perl), AtreNet created custom templates for frequently updated content including press releases, jobs and partners. Templates for other sections including the home page, company, products and resources were implemented in Phase II.

Custom Workflows

Interwoven TeamSite out-of-the-box workflows were too simple to meet Mercury Interactive's needs.

AtreNet worked with Mercury Interactive to architect and develop custom workflows to efficiently manage its complex and growing web site. The customized workflows, based on Mercury Interactive business practices and organization, automate and enforce procedures for the addition, deletion, update and translation of web content.

Automated Meta Data Capture

AtreNet created an automated Meta data input process to ensure that content is classified and tagged consistently throughout the site for optimum search engine results and dynamic page population. This structured methodology also lays the groundwork for any future implementation of a personalization engine should Mercury choose to build in that direction. Integrated into the customized workflows, this system prompts users to select the appropriate Meta data from a pre-defined list of options when a page is edited or added to the site.

Streamlined Sub-Navigation Changes

AtreNet developed a custom tool and process to automate the deployment of sub-navigation changes. Changes are made to a single, central location and the updated navigation is automatically populated on related pages when the page is re-generated.

Automated Translation Process

Mercury Interactive chose GlobalSight's translation management tool to develop and manage their multilingual content across multiple worldwide sites.

AtreNet facilitated the installation and tested the integration between GlobalSight System 3 and Interwoven TeamSite. AtreNet also created custom workflows to transfer files back and forth between the two systems as well as an automated approval process for files placed in the translation queue.

Since the content was already stored separately from the presentation in XML-based content records, content was more easily sent through the globalization processes. Significant time was saved on the translation and deployment of the global sites by leveraging existing templates, data capture forms, and Meta data capture processes.

Working with the Mercury Interactive team, AtreNet localized existing templates as applicable on their worldwide sites. Once the translated content was combined with the templates, a fully localized site was created with a minimal amount of new development. In total, 11 existing sites were localized and 7 new sites were deployed, each having up to 400+ pages.

Results

"AtreNet created a highly extensible, maintainable solution that provides us with the flexibility, usability, speed and control that both corporate and local stakeholders demanded." Sue Bowman

AtreNet and Mercury Interactive successfully implemented Interwoven TeamSite to centrally manage global content generation and integrate with the chosen translation system. AtreNet significantly enhanced core TeamSite functionality, including version control and workflows, to meet Mercury Interactive's demanding site management and translation activities.