Press Release
Salmon deliver new enterprise website framework for ICI Paints
3 January 2008
Salmon, specialists in delivering IT solutions today announced they
have completed a major project to migrate www.dulux.co.uk and ICI
Paints' additional 27 European websites to a new website framework. The
new framework will allow the leading international paint business to
leverage the potential of Web 2.0; namely enhanced collaboration and
interactivity with its customers.
Jo Upton, E-Business Manager for UK & Ireland business of ICI Paints said. 'We wanted to cut costs, improve performance and facilitate a deeper brand engagement with our customers. Our new website framework, architected by our in-house web team in conjunction with Salmon's experienced developers, will deliver business benefits such as more control over the websites and will allow us to make changes quickly and simply. Our ability to differentiate our business and respond to our customers' demands will dramatically increase. We will continue to work with Salmon to enhance the site, in order to drive online browsers into offline buyers.'
The framework is written in Java and provides the common functional components required for ICI Paints' portfolio of brands including browse, navigation, login and registration, shopping basket, and mail handler. Additionally, the framework caters for the development and deployment of Rich Internet Applications 'RIAs'.
The latest branded website to benefit from this approach is Dulux 'www.dulux.co.uk' where a new look and feel, as well as enhanced Web 2.0 functionality has been implemented. The new Dulux site embraces the concepts of Web 2.0 by providing enhanced collaboration and interactivity via asynchronous JavaScript and XML 'AJAX'. The transition to the new site has increased web page interactivity, speed, functionality and usability. New features such as 'drag and drop' of colour swatches and inspirational images into a 'scrapbook', a moodboard and the ability to upload and decorate your own room will provide a richer online experience for Dulux customers.
Salmon have also enhanced the 'Colour Search' functionality of the website using open source product Apache Lucene. Searches now return the relevant 'How To' guides at the same time as paint colour options and inspirational roomsets, providing customers with a more intuitive user experience. Customers can also create their own 'Shopping List' of brochures and swatches, which they can print and take to their local retailer.
ICI Paints are also seeing a significant improvement in performance and reliability as a result of Salmon migrating all the websites to a central hosting facility.
The new sites are running on IBM's WebSphere Application Server, and a SUSE Linux Operating System with IBM DB2.
Jeff Leaver, Chief Operations Officer at Salmon said 'Salmon has been ICI Paints European Regional Systems Integrator since 2003, and have been responsible for the day-to-day operation of the websites, managing changes, bug fixes, incidents and minor development work. This project reflects our commitment to continue helping ICI Paints sustain their leading brand position, grow their business and provide their customers with the best possible online service.'
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