Tsogo Sun Gaming (www.tsogosun.co.za) has selected Intervate, a local Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and specialist provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions to design, develop and deploy a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 based Web Content Management solution to manage its various corporate and property Websites.

According to Jody Simpson, Online Analyst at Tsogo Sun, the gaming company’s existing content management system proved lacking in comprehensively managing the content in all ten of its public-facing Websites. Tsogo Sun management therefore called for a complete revamp of its Web management strategy as part of its ongoing eMarketing programme.

“After an extensive reviewing process and based on Intervate’s convincing demonstrations, we decided to deploy SharePoint as the underlying content management system to drive our sites,” says Jody “What we need is a solution that provides user-friendly content management features, both during the revamp and going forward.”
Intervate was responsible for building the Websites using SharePoint, including the creation of all templates, the structuring of all content elements and the creation of the main site that will provide the skeletal structure for the other Web properties.

“From that point, the staff at Tsogo Sun and its respective properties, namely Montecasino, Suncoast Casino, Hemingways, The Ridge, Emnotweni, Caledon and Newcastle, had to be able to easily handle the styling and content authoring of the individual sites without further assistance,” says Intervate’s lead consultant, Steven Magid. “This includes the creation of content pages that do not affect the main site structure, such as theatre page updates and the like. Ease of use was therefore key in the decision making process.”

“Building the Internet facing content management system on SharePoint ensured the company would be able to expand and add to the site as needed without performance concerns, which will ultimately pay long-term dividends as more information is added over time. What SharePoint allows us to do is create websites that can select and assemble their own content as needed, based on pages that only need to be authored once, and in one place. The extensive taxonomy ensures that SharePoint understands the content, meaning it knows in which places it should be displayed. This increases the availability of pertinent content, while reducing the manual labour required from administrators.”

Going forward, search functionality is the most important navigational element on the site for Tsogo Sun to ensure that all visitors are able to find exactly what they need quickly and easily. It was therefore crucial that the native search experience be optimised for users who need a quick and contextual explanation of results. Out-of-the-box functionality has also been leveraged and expanded upon through the customisation capabilities within SharePoint to provide the key search functionality Tsogo Sun required.

The Tsogo Sun sites will be launched in phases and rolled out over the coming months. The live sites have received positive responses from both users and customers, boding well for the success of the other sites the group is working on.

The sites that have been launched to date include:
Montecasino: www.montecasino.co.za
Emnotweni: www.emnotweni.co.za
Duke of Edinburgh: www.dukeofedinburgh.co.za
Club Festival: www.clubfestival.co.za
The Caledon: www.thecaledon.co.za
The Ridge: www.theridge.co.za
Newcastle Casino: www.newcastlecasino.co.za