New Design Garners 67-Year Old Gill Studios Awards

A commercial printing firm was limited by their ability to provide on-line ordering and tracking for their distributors.

Gill Studios, a successful commercial printing firm, depends on nearly 15,000 distributors located throughout the country to sell their products.  These customers were demanding the ability to do business over the Internet.  Additionally, many of Gill’s competitors, especially new entrants to the industry, had strong Internet presences.  Satisfying their customers and remaining competitive is critical to their success. As such they had to move quickly to build a web site that was competitive and responsive to the needs of distributors, while providing an easier method of doing business.

Solution
Integro worked with Gill to provide an Internet strategy to meet the demands of their distributors and position them competitively.

Integro recommended a phased approach to redesigning the website to meet their immediate needs.  Phase I included a new look and feel to the site, base functionality, and a new architecture upon which Gill’s future Internet initiatives could grow.  The new architecture provided the foundation for increased functionality, scalability and improved content management while making it easier for customers to do business with them.

A WebSphere and Domino solution was a perfect fit for Gill’s existing infrastructure.  Domino integrates well with their existing AS/400 system and as they were already 80% deployed for Lotus Notes Clients and using Notes for internal workflow automation, they were well prepared to handle the approval process for content, as well as the backend processing of requests submitted from the web.  WebSphere’s tight integration with Lotus Domino and with databases on the AS/400 made it a good fit for Gill's existing infrastructure.  In addition, this solution provided a strategic position for future implementation of WebSphere Commerce Suite.

Results
Integro successfully provided Gill with a strategic eBusiness roadmap, designed and developed their website, and enabled their distribution channel to communicate with thousands of distributors securely through the web.  Specific results include:

• Demand for distributor access increased.  Within the first month of the site launch, the number of passwords requested by distributors increased by 15% over those requested in the last four years.
• Also, distributors now view their order status and shipping information online.
• The new architecture gives Gill’s web site scalability and flexibility.  This architecture enables them to implement their e-commerce initiatives when they are ready and to handle the resulting increase in traffic.
• Content changes are now implemented by non-technical employees rather than a web designer.
• By using the new single sign-on feature of Domino 5.0.5 and WebSphere 3.5, their website provides a consistent web experience, enabling Gill to share with their customers the widest possible range of their existing systems.
• Gill wins the Gold Award in 2002 and the Silver Award in 2003 from the Promotion Product Association International (PPAI) for their website design.

"Integro's name should be in the dictionary under the word partner! Integro knows what it takes to do a job well and deliver results.  Their key to success starts with the customer.  Integro is incredibly adept at understanding a company and their needs and applying that knowledge to design technology solutions that make an impact.    The solution they designed for us is precisely what we were looking for and seamlessly tied our systems together - we couldn't be more pleased." -- Carl Gerlach - Director of Marketing, Gill Studios