Kew Gardens Oracle UCM and SiteStudio Case Study.

1. Case Study
Extended Content Solutions
Kew Case Study
“Well done all, a great deal of thanks for
getting the micro site up and running to
such tough timescales. It looks fantastic
and I think it will have a great impact, and
has been a really useful process on the
road to the full website launch.”
Mike Saunders, Director of Digital Media,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
1 Challenge
To celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2009, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew planned to
re-launch its website to promote its work in plant science research and its leadership
as a plant conservation organisation. ECS became the development and
implementation partner for Kew and was selected to implement Oracle UCM platform
and develop the new website.
2 Solution
A priority of the project was to deliver a microsite in less than 3 months. ECS worked
closely with the client and third parties involved in the project to meet the tight
deadline and introduce the web publishing mechanisms which would later be the
foundation of the main website. After the success of the microsite in May 2009, the
project team continued developing the website ready for launch in October 2009. The
finished website (www.kew.org) resulted as a modern, engaging and web-2.0
solution. Highlights include interactive Garden Map and the Science & Conservation
Global Map. Kew uses the ECS Calendar solution and has further plans to develop its
content management strategy across the organisation.
In addition to the website achievements, ECS also created a back-end management
system for schools visiting Kew Gardens. Previously the process was for schools to
phone in bookings and for Kew staff to manually process payments, scheduling and
confirmations. The newly built Schools Booking system provided online booking and
scheduling for teachers to easily view availability for school visits. It also provided a
system for Kew staff to manage the bookings.
3 Outcome
The website is updated daily by Kew staff and the site has attracted public
participation with new features such as commenting on the site, adding photos,
“liking” content and easily sharing on social networking websites. The Schools
Booking system immediately proved its value in gained efficiencies by ensuring
payments, school bookings and teacher scheduling were managed correctly and
easily. The system saves hours of Kew staff time each week and it provides instant
reporting on booking statuses.