| The client is the
world's largest vehicle manufacturer. The
client designs, builds, and markets cars
and trucks worldwide. The client sells vehicles
in about 200 countries, with manufacturing
operations in over 30 countries. The client
also operates one of the largest and most
successful financial services companies,
which offers automotive, mortgage, and business
financing, and insurance services to customers
worldwide. |
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The client wanted
to develop a portal for the purchasing and
supplier-facing department. The purpose
of the portal was to streamline and digitize
the business processes between the client
and its supplier base and to streamline
the internal processes of the client’s
World Wide Purchasing. The estimated user
base for the portal was around 100,000 registered
users, making it one of the largest B2B
Information Exchange Portals in the world.
The existing portal had certain limitations
that impeded effective utilization:
- Dispersal of process and procedure
information, manuals, and standards
documents across various areas, such
as the Group Work Area, Libraries, Private
Messages, and Bulletins, leading to
problems in manageability and information
access
- Lack of an effective content management
system to manage news items and updates
- Inability to provide asynchronous
collaboration between suppliers and
the client due to the lack of effective
communication forums
- Lack of an advanced search facility
- Lack of effective user profiling and
personalization
- Lack of a robust security structure
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Cognizant proposed
a B2B portal based on Commercial Off-The-Shelf
(COTS) products to replace the existing
portal. Many of the user requirements, such
as a personalized Web site, document management,
and content management, were functionalities
provided by mature, Web-based products designed
to meet client requirements. Cognizant provided
the following solutions:
- Document Management, Asynchronous
Collaboration, and Talkback functionalities
were implemented using IBM Lotus QuickPlace.
- Various channels were used to provide
an integrated view of different types
of content. "Document Center"
on Iplanet portal server provided links
to documents in QuickPlace; Interwoven
TeamSite promoted News content and Interwoven
OpenDeploy published content to the
Portal.
- Autonomy Search Engine was implemented
for content and user search.
- Oblix Netpoint Identity Server was
used to provide the User Profiling and
Directory Search functionality.
- The portal applications were implemented
using a diverse set of products with
their own security models. Cognizant
developed a security model that integrated
the product security model within the
larger infrastructure, ensuring a smooth
gradient as the portal was traversed.
Benefits of the solutions included:
- Rebuilding of the security infrastructure
to implement robust security standards
and enable single sign-on to meet client
security requirements across the globe
- Reduced time-to-market for the portal
development using Cognizant's offshore
team expertise in COTS products
- o Implementation of the portal using
Third Generation COTS-based products,
resulting in increased maintainability
and reduced maintenance costs
- Enhanced user experience through powerful
personalization and content management
features
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“Cognizant rated to have best delivery capability among offshore players"
Morgan Stanley,
CIO survey |
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