Algoworks provided Alfresco and Liferay Based LMMS (Learning Material Management Solution) To C[...]
About Client
The client is a very large firm with interests in power and renewable energy sector in European market. They are a major solution provider to energy firms and specializing in providing services related to energy management. The client wanted to re-engineer its intranet portal which was being used for its internal employee management, communication, document repository, event management and office resource management. In addition they also wanted to integrate their employees' Microsoft Office 365 accounts with this portal. So they needed an integrated intranet solution that synced their employee’s Intranet portal with Office 365 calendars, and mail threads. The client approached Algoworks with their requirement of a secure intranet platform with office 365 integration, we suggested a SOA based architecture using Microsoft WCF technology and for front end ASP.NET MVC based web application was suggested.
How We Did It
- Secure Intranet Portal
- Company Document Repository
- Integration with Microsoft 365
- Authentication and Single Sign-on
Secure Intranet Portal
Challenge: A secure portal for mail and HRM management
The main requirement of the client was a secure intranet portal that their employees can use as a document repository, project management tool, calendar management, and email communication. The platform needed to be secure, scalable, and user friendly.
Solution: Microsoft .Net Framework based intranet portal
We designed, developed, and implemented a highly secure Microsoft .Net Framework based intranet portal for the client, and then deployed it securely on their private server environment. The portal can be used by the employees for email communication, maintaining their calendars, booking team or client meetings, booking office infrastructure for these meetings, managing their leaves, storing and managing their documents, and most importantly managing their undergoing projects. The portal was extremely user-friendly with modern design and JavaScript jQuery based features. Microsoft environment is known for their security which was further enhanced to implement strict role based authentication features. The most amazing feature was employee calendar. It was auto-synced with employee’s Office 365 calendar as well as it notified the employees about company wide events or their project related events, events that were entered by human resource team or project managers respectively.
Company Document Repository
Challenge: A common platform to share information
The intranet portal would also be used as company document repository and a platform to maintain a company wide bulletin board. The document repository needed to be secure with role specific access and restrictions on viewing, editing, and creating of documents.
Solution: A custom .Net based document library
We designed and implemented a custom document repository for the client that can be used by employees for storing and managing their project related documents. The document repository was secured with strict role-based authentication. The most challenging feature was a two way syncing of document library with company SharePoint account. All projects were being managed and deposited on company server based document library. Therefore to relieve pressure on the server, we implemented batch syncing scripts that automatically synchronized Sharepoint and company server data at the end of the day. However for critical updates, we provided the team leaders and managers the feature to sync their respective database instance by a click of a button.
Integration with Microsoft 365
Challenge: Syncing Microsoft 365 Outlook emails and calendar
Every company employee was using a Microsoft 365 account. The client needed to integrate their company wide Microsoft accounts with their intranet portal. They were mainly interested in integrating their intranet mails with 365 outlook mails and syncing employee Microsoft event calendar with employee’s intranet calendar.
Solution: A custom .Net solution for Microsoft 365 integration
We integrated the portal with Microsoft 365 using a custom .Net based adapter. The integration solution was written 100% from scratch and in addition to .Net framework used RESTful API to access Microsoft 365 data. Because of this integration, the users can now stay upto date with meetings that were being added via intranet portal and MIcrosoft 365 calendar. The adapter was smart enough to fetch data from both platforms and notify users setting a meeting about unavailability of any member. The adapter was also used in the process of syncing document repository with Microsoft SharePoint data. The integration adapter was flexible enough to allow two different syncing ways. The integration of mails and calendar was in real time whereas document repository was synced through batch scheduled processes.
Authentication and Single Sign-on
Challenge: A single sign-on feature to intranet portal
Since every employee was already using Microsoft 365 account, the client wanted a single sign-on feature to the intranet portal using the same Microsoft 365 credentials. This same authentication would be used to enforce role-specific access to document repositories and office infrastructure.
Solution: A single Sign-on using Microsoft 365
We designed our intranet portal in such a way that it allowed single sign-on features using third-party platform’s credentials. We integrated the portal with Microsoft 365 and thus enabling the employees to access their intranet portal with their 365 account credential itself. In addition creating new employees in Microsoft 365 account automatically create a new employee in intranet portal with automated database entry creations, personal document management folders in the repository, new intranet email account, and fully updated personal event calendar.
Results
Real Time Mail Synchronization
Employees can now send and receive Office 365 mails on their intranet portal
Real Time Calendar Management
Intranet based calendars and Microsoft Office 365 calendars are now synchronized in real time
A Secure Platform For 2TB+ Documents
2 TB+ company documents are now stored in a secure environment with strict role based database permissions.
Single Sign-on Using Microsoft 365
Employees no more have to use multiple credentials and can now sign-on using thier Office 365 credentials itself
Testimonials
We've been working with Algoworks for over a year on ongoing Salesforce development projects, and I couldn't be more satisfied. Our business would not have gotten to where it is today without their help.
Brian Oconnell Salesforce Analyst
I must say Algoworks have an OUTSTANDING technical team. We have been able to achieve a major milestone in this initiative so quickly because of the undying dedication that your team maintained throughout the project cycle.
Rene Ingemann Andersen Partner at Appinux.com
It TRULY is an amazing achievement!!! Turning this entire Alfresco/Liferay Portal around in such a short duration was quite an uphill task, but you guys made it possible!
Mike Abell Vice President
These guys are great and handled everything perfectly. What I was most impressed with was their communication. They were constantly updating me on their progress daily. Which really helps when you're a business owner. I highly recommend Algoworks.
Eric Pierce Founder, Clearview Elite | Lead Response Expert
I like very much about the app development, I am happy with the services.
David Mortlock Principal/Lead Consultant at ComputaCenter
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