Back
Results
Technology
  • Increased Profit
  • Increased Customer Loyalty
  • Increated Customer Satisfaction
  • Security

Results

This highly successful implementation of advanced technology and a rich interface drove significant business impact for Nikon.
Consumers using the product compare tool were 2X as likely to look for Nikon retailers.
Users of the product compare tool spent 20X more time on site.
Consumers using the product compare tool visited the site 5X more often than non-users.
The system leverages a security framework to monitor brand consistency through the tight control of global image distribution. It protects product assets from hacking in advance of product launches.
go to the case study

We got selective with our solution for Nikon’s new compare tool

  • Autonomy
  • Hibernate
  • Spring
  • XML
  • jQuery

Technology

In order to create an intuitive tool that would allow for cross-category comparisons of products, we used a host of technologies, including Autonomy (HP), Hibernate, Spring, and XML.
Autonomy (HP) TeamSite and LiveSite serve as the content management and presentation foundation for Nikon’s interactive customer experience. Nikon can manage all data on a per product basis that is used in the compare tool.
The technical data for each product used in the compare tool is stored in a relational database. Hibernate is used to map the relational model to Java objects which later get serialized to XML.
The Spring Framework provides a range of services for extension and customization for web applications and RESTful web services. The data supplied to the web client is in an XML format created using Spring MVC and dom4j. The XML data is cached using JCS to achieve high performance and scalability.
XML is a standard, simple, self-describing way of encoding both text and data so that content can be processed with little human intervention and exchanged across diverse hardware, operating systems, and applications.
jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. With jQuery we were able to rapidly prototype and develop a complex interactive tool that is a joy to use.
go to the case study
  • Increased Profit
  • Reduced support time
  • Increated Customer Satisfaction
  • Improved Site Performance

Results

This CMS enabled self-service application followed eCommerce best practices and improved on several KPIs.
Reduced the number of abandoned applications, and reduced costs associated with maintenance and support.
Time to market was reduced from days to minutes as NYU’s marketing department and other non-technical staff can now support the site without IT intervention.
Dramatically shortened the number of steps required for students to register for courses, thereby improving applicant satisfaction.
The application was tested to support 10,000 registrations per second to support peak registration periods.
go to the case study

We schooled NYU on improving usability, security, and performance of course registration

  • Hibernate
  • Spring
  • Hessian
  • OpenCms

Technology

To meet security and performance requirements, Kanban implemented a new, CMS-enabled, ecommerce application that integrated with existing legacy systems.
We used Hibernate Criteria, an object-relational mapping library, to dynamically build custom queries based on fields on the Advanced Search form. We leveraged Hibernate’s ability to paginate result sets, which was beneficial for performance given the large number of available courses and course sections. We also leveraged JBoss TreeCache for the Hibernate second-level cache. JBoss TreeCache is a distributed and transactional second-level cache.
The Spring Framework provides a range of services for extension and customization of web applications. Other than using the Spring Framework for Dependency Injection (DI) and Inversion of Control (IoC), we used Spring MVC to build a REST-based web service to handle all website operations. This allowed for other NYU applications to leverage the same services without further customizations.
We used Hessian, a binary web service protocol, to create fast communication with an AS/400 mainframe. Before the creation of this web service, all mainframe access was implemented directly via COBOL code and the response was string buffers and byte arrays. Now there is a standard set of APIs used to access data, and that API set is available in Java and C#.
OpenCms is an open source content management system written in Java. OpenCms was used as a newly implemented foundation for the course registration application. Kanban donated many of the customizations made for NYU back to OpenCms to be incorporated into future releases.
go to the case study
  • Increased Profit
  • Increased Customer Loyalty
  • Reduced support time

Results

With this implementation, Kanban paved the road to improved customer satisfaction and increased product sales.
Consumers exhibited a 3x increase in intent to purchase after interacting with the filter tool.
Over 70% of visitors spent more than 5 minutes interacting with the site (versus 18% when not using the product filter tool).
Maintenance & support of the tool was optimized through an effective content management interface.
go to the case study

We narrowed the path to success with this filter tool

  • Lucene Solr
  • Autonomy
  • jQuery
  • JSON AJAX

Technology

In order to create a tool that would allow for both inter- and intra-category comparisons, we used a host of technologies, including Autonomy, Hibernate, Spring, and XML.
Solr is the popular, blazing fast open source enterprise search platform from the Apache Lucene project. Its major features include powerful full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, dynamic clustering, database integration, rich document handling (e.g., Word, PDF), and geospatial search. Solr is used to build out the filters and facets found on all of Nikon’s product listing pages. Kanban built a custom Autonomy TeamSite workflow that deploys DCR data targeted at both a relational database and a Solr Document Repository.
Autonomy (HP) TeamSite is used as the content management system. Nikon uses this system to manage all products and content. This content is stored in XML files and deployed to a relational database using DataDeploy. All data used in the filter tool is entered by content authors into TeamSite. From there, the data is published to a relational database and to a Solr Document Repository.
jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. JSON is a text format that is completely language-independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others.
go to the case study

Kanban engineers inspiring, content-centric interactions for real-time marketers on web, mobile, and emerging technology platforms.

Content Marketing for Consumers

Today’s brands must publish and deliver valuable, engaging content & functionality to their audiences, or risk losing market share and revenue. As a content-centric engineering firm, Kanban compliments marketing strategy & web design efforts by being focused on the content management systems, controls, and processes that enable contextually relevant presentation of content & rich user experiences. As brands seek universal consistency in marketing and branding, Kanban can help drive the analysis, strategy, readiness, and implementation of global content supply chains and their respective CMS platforms.

Software Engineering for Marketers

HTML5 & JQuery? Check. Java & .Net? Got it. Apple IOS & Android? You bet. More than just highly capable front-end and back-end software engineers, we intuitively understand how technology can enable today’s most innovative rich interfaces and digital experiences. Our engineers add significant value in the strategy & design process to push the limits of digital marketing safely and predictably. We’ll not only define a path to success, we’ll provide trade-offs, considerations, and enhancements that inspire while promoting efficient, scalable, & reusable web applications. It’s not just what we do, it’s who we are.

Just-in-Time for Real-Time

The pace of communications between brands and their audiences is more dynamic than ever before. To succeed, organizations must be agile enough to react to market forces and consumer expectations in real time, 24x7. To facilitate rapid content, feature, and functionality development & delivery, Kanban applies a distinct and proven agile development process. These “Just-in-Time” application development and project management techniques, known as Kanban+, result in our clients being more agile, aware, and active in driving marketing innovation and business results.

"Kanban plays an essential role in the architecture and development of NYU SCPS software, including our new website. They have and in-depth understanding of our processes and goals and have translated that into solutions that propel our business."

George Tabback — Chief Information and Technology Officer, SCPS, NYU

“Authentic, flexible, and collaborative are unique attributes of Kanban that we at Nikon find particularly valuable. They expertly balance user experience and technology considerations to guide us through our projects. Kanban consistently provides the highest levels of service while implementing very complex tools and technologies.”

David Dentry — General Manager of Customer Service, Nikon Inc.

“Developers of the world, forgive me: I've spent most of my web-design-life avoiding you, staring blankly at you, feigning interest in whatever strange solution you're proposing. No more. Kanban has shown me that developers can be user experience designers, that developers can turn complex problems into simple solutions (and not vice versa), and that developers can be true partners in the design process. When I nod in agreement at your next suggestion, it will be genuine. Please thank Kanban for that.”

Keegan Linder — Creative Manager & Partner, Sposto Interactive