clients / case studies / businesses

Allured Publishing

Goal

Publishing complex business to business directories, online --- where previous vendors had failed

Solution

Successfully published all directories, opening up effective new information distribution avenues for the company

Results

Introduction

Allured brings buyers and suppliers together, in the realms of chemical composition and products used in spas and healthy aging; flavors and fragrances; and cosmetics and personal care. They are world-renowned experts in this information, which they sell in the forms of directories, catalogs and magazines supplied to over 100 countries.

Allured wants to make their data relational, and make it available in a web-based setting for a global interactive audience. They want to reach out to a global market in a scalable, supportable way. Their intent is to increase their global presence, increase sales, allow for web-enabled ecommerce, and support real-time up sells.

Allured had tried this endeavor several times previously with other vendors. However, due to the complexity of the current data, each previous attempt had failed and there were certainly members of the Allured team who felt it couldn’t be done.

What did we do?

  • Analyzed the needs of the various users of the resulting system (e.g., buyers, suppliers, Allured personnel, administrators, etc.)
  • Designed and migrated all data to a single centralized, relational database suitable to be the underpinnings of the online capability. In so doing, we improved the data consistency and validity; improved responsiveness; positioned the solution for scalability; and implemented redundancy and backups.
  • Developed extract, transformation and load (ETL) procedures to migrate data from four independent Access databases into a single consolidated database. This included implementation of referential integrity, where previously there was none.
    • Improved data integrity
    • Removed unnecessary data overlap and redundancy
  • Retained desirable, legacy look-and-feel separate across the four catalogs, although the data was integrated into a single source
  • Implemented User Management and System Security
  • Supported single sign-on for buyers, suppliers and administrative personnel who have accounts permitting access to multiple directories
  • Implemented shopping cart/e-commerce, with upsell functionality
  • Outfitted the site with powerful and flexible reporting tools

What was the result?

  • Transitioned each of their major catalogs to the web, each with its own web presence
  • Implemented a content management system that spanned the multiple catalog web sites
  • Allured now has a workable web-based offering for their catalog/directory products