Trekk learned last week that a new website produced for Kerry Ingredients & Flavours has won a 2009 W3 Award. The awards are sponsored by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, and the Kerry site took silver in the manufacturing category. We’re very happy because we think the site is beautiful and intuitive, but it also makes interesting use of technology to help solve Kerry’s marketing challenges.

Kerry was reorganizing its business model to unite each of its units under one global umbrella. To project that unification to both internal and external audiences, the company needed to create OneKerry website. Trekk’s challenge was to find a way to present local language and product information that could be managed by local people to audiences around the world, as well as meet the individual needs Kerry customers.

Instead of multiple websites presenting different identities and messaging, Trekk used technology to create one global site that could also present localized content within each region – Americas, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia Pacific. Each geographic market has the ability to control the content, and have the choice of using global content and locale-specific content in one or more languages.

A Blending of Technology

Trekk combined the features of industry standard eXtensible Markup Language (XML), eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), Content Management System (CMS) via Ektron CMS400.Net, Rich Internet Application (RIA) development with Adobe Flash and Flex, and object oriented programming tools including Microsoft Visual Studio .Net. By combining these with excellent creative design and strategic thought, we have produced a family of sites that meet our client’s global requirements.

The CMS’ automated localization support allows Kerry to easily manage multilingual content. Each geographic market has the ability to control multiple versions of content, giving them and site visitors the choice of using global content or locale-specific information offered up in multiple languages. The CMS stores multiple versions of XML content which are tagged, for language as well a region. The system also organizes content into a folder structure that reflects each regions unique need. And finally it provides access control for those with accountability to each locale.

Alphabet Soup of XML and RIA Integration

Three Rich Internet Applications were developed with Flash and Flex to assist in the ease of use of navigating potentially complex content. The applications are provided data dynamically from the XML content via custom REpresentational State Transfer (REST) implementation.   

When site visitors enter the landing page, they can use the interactive Quick Discovery tool to quickly navigate to information organized by market sectors and technologies or learn about value-added services. The tool is dynamically loaded with specific content for each region and language selected. It allows visitors to quickly browse through the layers of content to find topics that may be of interest to them and then navigate to more detailed information.

In each Market Expertise section of the site, a visually intuitive “carousel” integrates XML content and Flash to provide visual cues that help users quickly navigate to the product information they seek. When they select a carousel item, a panel of the RIA is updated while an AJAX call dynamically updates a lower HTML DIV area with details about the selection. This allows for very quick browsing without the need for a page reload.

There’s also a Solution Zone app that allows visitors to view a quick slide show of product solutions developed in the Kerry labs. Each slide is composed of a visual and text that gives them a summary of what can be found. A link takes them to a multimedia solution story presented in PDF or Flash video format.

Think Globally – Act Locally

As the global site evolves, the CMS provides the constructs for unique and locale-specific content in multiple languages. Currenlty, additional content is being generated for multiple languages and is added to a staged web site. Once the content and sections are approved, the web application will be updated. The modular architecture of the .Net controls and the Flex RIA can be snapped together and reused for each new sub-site.

We at Trekk are very proud of the unique design and technology of the Kerry site. We think we have developed a website that is not only beautiful and intuitive, but also one that engages site visitors and encourages them to delve deeper into the content. What do you think? Do we have a winner?

Posted by JA Stewart at 10/22/2009 10:01:00 AM |