Press Release

Salmon implements new corporate portal for Dixons Group

22 June 2004

Salmon Ltd, the IT services and consulting firm, today announced that it has successfully delivered a new corporate portal for Dixons Group, Europe's leading electrical retailer. The new portal - www.dixons-group-plc.co.uk - enhances the Group's ability to communicate efficiently with stakeholders including employees, shareholders, the media and special interest groups. It is also fully compliant with disabled accessibility requirements ensuring that the general public has access regardless of disability.

As the portal is a key tool for conveying corporate information both internally and externally, Dixons Group wanted to use technology that would give them greater control of content. Salmon has configured the solution so that the content management aspects are accessible remotely which allows Dixons Group business users to control the content from any location at any time. The business users can also now author and preview the uploading of content - functions not possible on the five-year old bespoke website that the portal replaces.

The Dixons Group portal is a primary channel of communication for the company to the outside world. One of its most important tasks is to provide up-to-date information to shareholders. To do this it not only provides vital information such as financial reports but also an online share price feed. The solution also allows the Dixons Group to quickly and easily convey corporate information on demand. In addition, shareholders can view share price history, including analysis of share price movement following key announcements by the Dixons Group.

Salmon were instrumental in ensuring that WebSphere Portal, the Oracle database and the content management solution were tailored to meet Dixons Group's unique requirements.

Dawn O'Shaughnessy, communications manager for corporate affairs at Dixons Group, said: 'As an essential tool for corporate communications both externally and internally, it is vital to us that this portal contains up-to-date and managed content. Salmon has ensured that we have met all our requirements and we were impressed with the company's ability to deliver against a fixed price and on time. We feel they fully mitigated the risk of the project and we would readily consider using Salmon again.'

Chris Harvey, managing director of Salmon, said: 'It is easy to overlook the importance of a corporate website. However, for a large company such as Dixons Group, failure to provide a high level of service to stakeholders can be extremely damaging. By turning to Salmon, Dixons Group is taking advantage of the industry-leading experience and specialist skills that we have in developing, implementing and managing portals on IBM's WebSphere Portal.'

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