Solution
As we always do in our digital experience projects, we began with a thorough assessment of existing internal communications tools and services. Then the team built the initial proof of concept, designing some key pages to allow the design to be evaluated and tweaked.
The engagement of Daikin since this early stage of the process proved to be fundamental for its success. The close collaboration between AmeXio’s team and Daikin was a key element trough the functional analysis, while identifying all the needs of the different users. Daikin continued to be very engaged during the whole project, supporting the users’ guidelines and organizing internal test sessions. That positive attitude no doubt helped us complete the project to everyone’s satisfaction.
The Google-like experience
Early on we heard from Daikin that they desired a Google-like experience from the portal. In essence, the portal needed to be one big search engine in which users search for different types of things. One customer might be looking for photo assets to enliven a catalogue, while another could be looking for technical support information to help out a client. All of them should be able to access the information they are looking for easily and quickly.
During the functional analysis, several types of usage scenarios were identified, which led us to develop different types of search engines:
- software finder
- asset finder
- site search
- news finder
- campaign finder
A personalized interface for each user
The main challenge would turn out to be building a search functionality that could handle the diversity of information and products and return results rapidly. It was complicated by the fact that Daikin wanted one portal for all its customers. That meant building a user system to filter out irrelevant information for that specific customer. For example, when a Dutch user searches for a specific type of product, he could get different results compared to a search executed by a German user. That happens not only due to the language specificities but also due to product’s lifecycle differences across Europe: products may be discontinued in one region but still available in another. Likewise, information is customized to the users’ profile or role. An onsite installer will probably look for self-tutorials or technical product manuals, while resellers will most probably search for product portfolios or product news. To make sure information was complete and always up-to-date, AmeXio built an interface with Daikin’s SAP database that allows all the product related data to be automatically synchronized in the Adobe Experience Manager back office. This information is then combined with the related supporting assets (e.g. visuals, pictures or even related documents) and presented through the portal as a single unified content. This ensures efficiency and faster time-to-market with minimum manual intervention.
Another important part of this project, also closely linked to the personalization part, is the user management and user’s insights. Each user of the portal has his own profile, which he can link to certain market expertise or functional area. Users can also engage with certain content and give personal feedback (such as liking, commenting, etc.). All this information is then used to increase the criteria for personalization and ensure the visibility of the right content, adjusted to that specific user.
