The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is a not-for-profit organization representing Canada’s 200 Olympians as well as the countless Olympic hopefuls.  Communication, support, training opportunities and Olympic logistics are coordinated for hundreds of athletes and coaches across the nation. The goal of this project was to develop an avenue for athletes, coaches, sponsors, youth, media, and the public to share information including funding information, policy changes, and to track athlete accomplishments. Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) and Microsoft Content Management Server (CMS), Navantis created extranet capabilities for contact management and CRM to provide secure communications between athletes, coaches and COC board members. It also provides public information via a CMS-enabled web site. The site was built to handle tens of thousands of concurrent visitors and constant real-time updates during busy periods (i.e., the Olympics). The site reduces managing costs, provides self-service and timelier dissemination of information, and increases visibility, reach and service capability for COC to attract new sponsors. The return on investment for the COC is estimated to be 77%.

Microsoft Canada is the Canadian Microsoft subsidiary. It has offices from coast to coast and is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario.

In order to effectively reach its approximately 700 employees, Microsoft Canada contracted Navantis to implement a comprehensive intranet solution based on the Microsoft Solution for Intranets (MSI) prescriptive architecture. The application was designed, architected, developed, tested and deployed within 12 weeks using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 and a series of custom interface and functional extensions. The site is in daily use by all Microsoft Canada employees for document management, HR self-service and a variety of other activities.

The Client:
In 2001, the towns of Ancaster, Dundas and Flamborough, the Township of Glanbrook, and the cities of Hamilton and Stoney Creek, amalgamated to become the City of Greater Hamilton. The city now has over 500,000 residents, with nine per cent of the population concentrated in rural communities.

The Challenge:
While Hamilton has as a large downtown population, the amalgamation brought in many small farming communities, which were isolated from the city core. The city wanted to use its website to help bridge this disconnect.  The city of Greater Hamilton joined more than 16 community partners ranging from university representatives to local business owners, to steer the initiative. Their mission was to ensure the site adequately addressed the needs of all citizens through access to a one-stop online information and services resource.

The Solution:
Navantis implemented an interactive community web portal (www.myhamilton.ca) providing local residents, community groups and tourists with an innovative and convenient way to collaborate, share information and access resources. 
Based on Navantis’ Community Municipal Portal (CMP) technology, the site offers people a single, convenient entry-point for 24/7 access to Hamilton information and services. A powerful search engine brings together news, events and government resources – as well as access to the public library. Residents can turn to the portal to find out about the latest exhibit at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, review educational and recreational course offerings, or see what special events are taking place by searching the extensive community events calendar. 

The framework for the site is based on Microsoft technology, and provides innovative features while presenting the content in a simple, intuitive web format.  Designed to enable collaboration and information-sharing amongst communities, the Navantis CMP aims to help municipalities provide self-service to citizens and encourage investment in their cities.

The Benefits:
myhamilton.ca is a great example of how a large and wide-spread community was able to collectively work together to build an innovative solution to improve communication and services to citizens.  Through Navantis’ CMP solution, the City of Hamilton is now able to make the vision of connecting people and information a reality.

The site is the result of local representatives from the public, private and non-profit sectors collaborating to answer the needs of their community. The scope and breadth of the solution is a testament to the ability of many groups to work together to demonstrate how a large amalgamated city can come together through technology.  By working with Navantis, the city was able to develop a core technology infrastructure that can grow as the city continues to expand in the years to come.

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) markets and sells atomic energy to governments and crown corporations worldwide. In an effort to streamline its 30 disparate locations, 4,000 employees and sales cycles averaging 10 years or more, AECL commissioned Navantis to construct an intranet-based CRM application enabling AECL to share customer information, documents and sales opportunities. The solution also comprises detailed information captured about key decision makers involved in AECL’s sales cycles. The solution was built in eight weeks using Microsoft VisualBasic.NET. It integrates with an existing Oracle 8i data structure as well as PeopleSoft, both of which previously existed in the customer environment. The solution implements industry-standard permission-based security using Microsoft Active Directory. It is in daily use today.

The Client:
The Niagara Health System (NHS) is Ontario's largest multi-site hospital amalgamation comprised of eight hospitals which accounts for 1000 beds and 4500 employees.

The Challenge:
Niagara Health installed MS Exchange, resulting in a dramatic increase in the use of email throughout the organization. Without a collaboration application framework in place employees were relying on email to
Collaborate, putting pressure on inbox storage limits. The client upgraded to Server 2003 which assisted in e-mail redundancy due to collaboration pointers, but the client needed a solution that facilitated collaboration between hospitals, partners and staff. The client’s existing Intranet was
nearing the end of its life and most users did not have login accounts and could not save files as a result.  Niagara Health wanted a collaboration tool with an easy to use interface and navigation that would be familiar to employees. The system also needed to allow external stakeholders, such as physicians, to collaborate securely:

• People wanted to publish their own material and collaborate with teams
• The NHS is very busy place with many projects and the system needed to be installed and adopted quickly
• Very high demand for collaboration due to CIO mandate
• High ‘grassroots’ demand to eliminate publication bottleneck

The Solution:
Navantis worked with the Niagara Health to implement SharePoint, SQL Server and ISA to ensure a fully functional collaboration portal was delivered in a 2 week time frame. Navantis developed the following
8-stage Quickstart methodology which was used to deploy the project:

1. Install SharePoint
2. Train administrators and conduct technical knowledge transfer
3. Create a skin for SharePoint
4. Conduct a vision workshop with senior managers
5. Conduct training sessions for end users
6. Set up the portal
7. Conduct department/team workshops & migrate content
8. Launch!

The Benefits:

• Immediate payoff with solutions meeting 90% clients needs out of the box
• Methodology met clients needs due to hands-on approach and workshops with teams and management
• Navantis helped departments capture their needs and vision, limiting the Internet Technology and Communication (ITC) Department's risk
• Huge help for ITC, who now have an electronic service manual in development
• Overall project had enormous visibility and success & has eliminated publication bottlenecks & increased workflow
• System was available for use immediately; while it was promoted to the community, it was not mandated – ROI was immediate with acceptance and adoption by key user communities gaining improved efficiency leading to grassroots growth
• System has been implemented on 3 servers with 6 processors, it is set-up to scale as volume increases so there is no impact to user community – volume is increasing daily with peak usage between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and no
• difference in performance

The Niagara Health SharePoint Portal Includes:

• Ad-hoc collaboration support with over 50 collaboration sites each with sub-sites and multiple users
• Customized web part for self-registration and individualized training paths allowing Niagara Health to see all training that goes on within the organization on a daily basis for a staff of 4500 people

Here is the first ecommerce application that Bell Mobility launched that I worked on in 1998.

This is the interface I built based on the designs of a designer I was working with at the time. this is for McCarthy Tetrault which was at the time (1998) the largest law firm in Canada.

This was a website that I worked on with Empower System (which later became Navantis) for Ontario Power Generation in 1999.

This was a website I worked on for Teknion International in 1999. I worked with the design team and built the interface for the website.

The Challenge:
The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) is the governing body responsible for the administration of laws relating to education and skills training. Its responsibilities include developing curriculum policies and providing financial-assistance programs for postsecondary school students. By law, all government bodies are mandated to comply with the Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA) by providing websites that are accessible to disabled users.

The Solution:
Navantis was contracted to review and remediate the static component of the OSAP web site to make it more accessible for all users – including those with disabilities. As a vendor of record for the Government of Ontario, Navantis was recommended to the Ministry because of our experience with accessibility on the Ontario Early Years (OEYC) website.

Navantis examined the English and French information sections of the OSAP website and optimized them based on the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative.

The Benefits:
Navantis converted over five years of financial data that was in PDF format - thousands of pages of tables - to HTML documents. At that time, the PDF format was not readable by screen readers. The conversion to HTML allowed the data to be read by screen readers enabling visually impaired users to access the data. When the conversion to HTML was complete, Navantis trained MTCU staff on how to ensure that all future web content would be accessible. Navantis also created a tool that identified coding issues in the data that may inhibit screen readers.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is Canada's public broadcaster. Its Merchandising department is responsible for productizing, marketing, and selling merchandise derived from CBC media properties, such as television or radio programming. In an effort to overhaul its online merchandising offering, the CBC commissioned Navantis to construct a more scalable and manageable e-commerce solution. Navantis built a user-centered online storefront using Microsoft Commerce Server 2002; a catalogue management backend tool based on Commerce Server's Business Desk management application; and a flexible browser-based order management tool which fully integrates with Microsoft's RMS POS system, which the CBC uses to manage its inventory and sales in its physical merchandising store. Advanced features of the online store include coupons; electronic gift certificates; online product reviews and ratings; synonym-based searches; and a wish list.

Technologies Used: Microsoft Commerce Server 2002 Enterprise Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition, Microsoft Retail Management System (RMS), Microsoft .NET, C#

In 2004 we launched the CNIB Digital Library for the Blind. On that project I delivered an accessible user interfaced based on ethnographic studies with the CNIB’s clients and iterative usability testing of prototypes.

This project has resulted in a completely accessible web based library service which from its inception has won accolades from library users. It currently contains a collection of 60,000 titles and will increase to 120,000 titles, including 35,000 new electronic titles, over 40 newspapers and hundreds of magazines. CNIB expects it will generate a savings of ~$1 million.

“In developing the eDelivery system for the CNIB Library for the Blind, Navantis faced a major challenge - to design a web based library service that was completely accessible to blind and visually impaired people; one in which they could search for books and information easily and effectively using a variety of access technologies. Navantis approached this challenge by applying user centred design. Blind and visually impaired consumers were interviewed and videotaped searching the Internet. Their methods and preferences were documented and analyzed and every aspect of the system’s design was grounded in the best practice identified through this process. This innovative and hitherto unique approach resulted in a completely accessible web based library service which from its inception has won accolades from our library users. Many proclaim eDelivery to be the most blind accessible website on the Internet today,”   Barbara Freeze, Director, Systems and Operations, CNIB.

This project was selected as a winner in the sixth annual Microsoft Certified Partner Awards in the Collaborative Solution of the Year Category. The winner was selected from five worldwide finalists in the category by a panel of judges consisting of international and field partner representatives, Microsoft executives, Product Group managers, and Partner program managers.

Technologies Used: NET framework, C#, ASP.NET, Microsoft Commerce Server 2002, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Windows Server 2000 and 2003

As a part of the Portal Team, Navantis helped build a new intranet platform for CIBC to consolidate and optimize corporate and divisional communications across the enterprise.  'CIBC Today' is the homepage of the organization's intranet for over 40,000 employees.  Navantis implemented an enterprise content management system that allows administrators to better control and manage publishing.  Navantis created a customizable workflow solution that allows users to customize content for their environment, while maintaining the broader messaging goals of the corporate communications department.  Usability testing was conducted so that lines of business would have input into the design of the corporate intranet.  Navantis also developed a process for inventorying the over 90,000 unique URLs in existence on the CIBC intranet.  Finally, Navantis has been heavily involved in improving the intranet's search engine by creating taxonomies based on an employee's role and department.  An extensive thesaurus has been compiled to enhance the search engine's ability to return meaningful results to a wide range of users.

Technologies Used: Microsoft CMS 2002, SharePoint Portal Server,