CASE STUDY 3: Iteminfo at Your Fingertips
OBJECTIVE
GA Communications and PureRed Creative have a client that distributes a wide spectrum of business products to office products dealers throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company operates 44 distribution centers, including 36 full-line distribution centers, two furniture only distribution centers, a computer supplies subsidiary and a Canadian-based business products wholesaler, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. This client wanted to find a practical method for posting online—and updating quarterly—the printed General Line catalog containing over 23,000 products. The Web site had to be informational, with secured access so only dealers would have product data at their fingertips.

SOLUTION
Working with the client, PureRed’s designers and GA’s programmers were asked to develop a dynamically structured Web site that allowed content to flow into iteminfo.com in an industry-standard format. The first project was to take their existing content databases and merge all relevant data into a more robust SQL Server platform. Once the tables were optimized and redundant data was purged, the conceptual design for the site was created, based on the new navigational structure. Since the client is a dealer-based network that spans North America, their objective was to provide a way for all of their dealers to access the information contained in their central database.

RESULTS
This new site allows the entire network of the client’s members and organizations to access critical information through a single site. The site now allows dealers and organizations to access the constantly updated information all through a single Web interface. Currently, iteminfo.com receives anywhere from 3.5 to 4 million hits per month, averaging roughly 1 million hits per week.