contentXXL for Swiss sport associations und clubs

We were looking for a Content Management solution which would allow us to meet the individual requirements of the 82 sports associations and more than 27000 clubs in Switzerland in a fast and cost-efficient way - and we are enthusiastic about contentXXL.
 
Benoît Balet, Project Manager "Swiss Olympic Standard-Website"

The clients and their business

Swiss Olympic Association is the umbrella organisation of all Swiss sports associations. Founded in 1997, this association represents the interests of Swiss sport and sees to its wider acceptance in public. It supports the Olympic movement, the international oriented top sport as well as the popular sport. The umbrella organisation co-ordinates the  higher matters and therefore works closely with the sports organisations incorporated under public law. The 82 member associations of Swiss Olympic consist of 27000 clubs with 3.2 million members in all – this means that every third Swiss is a member of a sports club. About 350 000 volunteers work actively for their club and they work about 50 million hours every year – which estimates to more than 1.5 billion Swiss Franks.

The task

During the last projects and while in contact with the associations it turned out that the Swiss sports associations have similar needs and requests regarding their web presence:

• Usage of a Content Management solution for standard web sites
• Out-of-the-box functionalities tailor-made for the special needs of the target group
• Easy to use without extensive training or software installation
• Strong on the information side: e.g. events, results, addresses, fast search results
• Modular compilation of the functions
• Individual solutions possible and up-gradable
• General support of multilingualism in all modules
• Making Extranet functionalities available via the administration of users, roles, and rights 
• Implementation has to be cost-efficient and ready in a short period of time (less than 5 days)
• No home page editor solution: the implementation can be done by a specialist. Editors, however, should be able to upgrade the system.

The solution with contentXXL

With its modular and functional components, contentXXL meets these requirements from the technical side as well as from the licensing:

• Client ability and possibility to offer it as ASP solution
• Covers everything needed due to its standard components for news, contact, links, calendar function, documents, newsletter etc. 
• Components interconnect (Content Relationship Management)
• The logically separated portals can exchange data or use the same data (time-controlled and multiple publishing, cross-portal publishing, and content sharing)
• Additional components for special functionalities (results from competitions, registration etc.) can be developed by clients themselves and be easily integrated into the Content Management framework
• Use of standard software (SQL Server, Windows 2000, .NET Framework)
• Low running and support costs
• Licensing via CPU – number of web sites, languages or editors does not matter

The benefits

During a 3-day workshop, it was possible to create a prototype web site with contentXXL and observing the guidelines of an individual design. Afterwards, additional web sites with completely different designs but similar functions were created by members of Swiss Olympic themselves. Both the project costs and the licensing (due to licensing via CPU) could be reduced. The web sites offer an abundance of functionalities which surpasses what individually and to the same price created web sites can offer. Thus they offer the associations and clubs a definite surplus value.

After the completion of a demo web site for the associations and clubs as well as after the relaunch of the web site of the Swiss sports authorities ASSA, Swiss Olympic plans to implement more web sites this year. Portamundi will now share the experience they gained during the course of this project regarding requirements of associations with other clients.