Summary:
The development of the website for GE Lighting in Argentina was undoubtedly a historic milestone for Rednodo. The project gained international recognition within GE, which opened doors for us to provide services across the Americas and expand our company. This collaboration led to a strong business relationship that has endured for over 17 years.
Introduction:
In 2005, we encountered the opportunity to develop the website for GE Lighting Argentina due to the company’s need to comply with a global rebranding initiative. At Rednodo, we had a design and programming team that enabled us to offer the solution the client needed to update their website according to the brand’s new global guidelines. In the United States, the company had developed a website with a budget that was impossible to manage locally, and a global solution was not available. The main requirements were to align with the new corporate image, incorporate functionalities from the reference site in the United States, use the ASP.NET programming language following corporate security guidelines, and adhere to a tight development timeline. While our expertise was primarily in PHP programming, we were equipped to take on this challenge.
Analysis:
The project presented several challenges that needed to be addressed within a short period of a few months of work. Failure to meet the 90-day deadline would result in financial penalties. The ASP.NET programming language was relatively new to the market, with the first version released in 2002, just three years prior. While version 2.0 was already powerful, development processes were more sophisticated, and complex compared to those required for PHP development. Moreover, the project demanded advanced functionalities available on reference sites in the United States. It required showcasing an extensive product catalog with technical information, generating data sheets, implementing advanced search filters, showcasing success stories, articles, news, press releases, document libraries, and managing banners and descriptive texts for all sections. Many of these functionalities are now common in e-commerce applications, but in 2005, they were not as developed or popularized, especially in a corporate programming language like Microsoft’s ASP.NET.
Solution:
The development successfully met all requirements and even surpassed the reference site with functionalities that did not previously exist. The content management system was highly versatile, allowing attributes to be added to products. These attributes were organized into categories with reference help descriptions, creating a technical glossary with various data structure types. The marketing team could add products or expand their information even when technical attributes had not been created. Most importantly, these updates could be done without any need for programming or system updates. The project was completed within the planned timeline, and we even received a bonus for delivering it ahead of schedule.
Conclusion:
The project was a resounding success on all levels. Praise from marketing and IT departments reached the highest hierarchical positions globally. The final product’s quality, development time, implementation, and costs were highly commendable. Consequently, the decision was made to extend the project to other business units and later to other regions facing the same global need for website updates. For over 7 years, the sites developed and maintained by Rednodo were used throughout the LATAM region, delivering excellent performance and yielding outstanding results for the marketing department. In 2013, the sites were replaced by a global platform, which Rednodo was responsible for implementing and maintaining for many years until being replaced by another platform. The current platform continues to be maintained by the agency, along with other marketing services that have transformed into even more significant actions for our clients.
