Hippo

Nicis Institute

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The Nicis institute was founded in 2001 by 25 large cities in the Netherlands and nine departments of government. The main goal of Nicis is stimulating the exchange of information and experience between the cities.

Project description:
Create a new website and replace the existing CMS by Hippo CMS. The knowledge center has 40 editors, who are collecting knowledge, organize it and make it accessible on the internet.
The center controls several specialized websites, where information is distributed over different locations automatically.

Taxonomy based navigation
Hippo's system is based on a taxonomy. Based on metadata the websites automatically adopt specific content from one main source.

A toolbox is developed by Hippo to create new subsites. Based on single source publishing, the subsites are filled with existing content. This toolbox offers Nicis the opportunity to create indexes for subsites by a simple search on the main database through a graphic user interface.

Templates can be modified for the main and the subsites. Every element can be changed. A good metadata model is very important to make good usage of template blocks.

By working with references in stead of copying the documents, the content only needs to be maintained in one location, one source. A subsite looks like an independent website to the visitor, but in real it shows central maintained content.

Deliverables:

  • Graphic design;
  • Content management system Hippo CMS;
  • Classification system for documents;
  • Import content;
  • Implementation of templates and components;
  • Toolbox for creating subsites;
  • Training end users;
  • Training functional administrators;
  • Service Level Agreement for maintenance and help desk.

Departments involved:
An internal IT Projectmanager was responsible as project lead. An external communication agency advised and created the functional design. Kruit design created the graphic design based on the functional design.

Usage and functional use:

  • Public website;
  • A growing amount of subsites;
  • Visitors are mainly professionals;
  • About 40 editors use the Hippo CMS on a daily basis.

Period of implementation and delivery:
September 2004 - February 2005.

URL: www.nicis.nl