NewsGator Customer, Edelman, Featured in Microsoft Case Study

One of NewsGator's customers, PR agency Edelman, was just featured in a Microsoft case study that explains how they have recently transitioned over from their outdated ASP-based intranet to a much more robust intranet that they call Infusion, which is run off of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and NewsGator Social Sites. 

The Microsoft case study shows that Edelman's "old intranet" was becoming seriously outdated: the start page was the same for every employee (i.e., there was no customization); there was no content aggregation; limited search capabilities; cumbersome sharing of documents and search for people within the community; no real collaboration tools; and IT intervention was needed every step of the way from creation of the intranet through administration of it.

However, by implementing SharePoint, Edelman gained a range of new features and functionality.  This new platform includes: detailed people search and advanced search functionality; document versioning and management; heavy RSS integration, including external feeds; email alert integration; virtual project groups (with no need for IT management); social groups; personalized home pages specific to the person who logs in; and detailed profile pages.

Edelman also wanted to add even further social networking functionality, so they used NewsGator's expertise to implement the following Social Sites webparts: RSS content aggregation integrated directly into SharePoint; bringing SharePoint feeds out via subscription; site reading lists; and many social features including, among others:

• individual status updates
• talent management
• groups
• mini social profiles
• activity streams (both internal & external)

Incidentally, NewsGator recently hosted a joint webinar with Edelman and Microsoft -- "Delivering Web 2.0 Business Value with SharePoint -- and you can access that webinar here to learn more about how Edelman leveraged both Microsoft SharePoint and NewsGator Social Sites to create their new intranet.

In addition, you can access the full Microsoft case study here.