Project Web Site Design and Database Development (www.nuwa.com)
Client Description As the oldest existing manufacturer of fifth wheel recreational vehicles, Nu-Wa Industries has a tradition of fifth wheel innovation that dates back to 1969. They bring with them a 30-year reputation for reliability and livability that is unprecedented in the RV industry. Nu-Wa required a superb web site to feature its outstanding product offering to current and existing customers.
Business Challenge Nu-Wa desired their web site to be extremely easy to access, both for their customers to view product information and for their internal staff to administer the site. The site had to load very fast on slower connection speeds (such as those dialing in from an RV campground) yet take advantage of new web technologies to present the customer with an interactive site experience. The number one priority for the site was for it to be incredibly dynamic. Nu-Wa needed the ability to submit real-time product updates to the site, support multiple product lines and manufacturing years, automatic archiving of previous year product information for the benefit of existing owners, and the automatic rendering of a dealer “extranet” for its dealers. Nu-Wa choose Cephas Innovation because of our innovative and low cost approach to web site creation and marketing, backed up with over a decade of web development experience.
Technical Solution Cephas Innovation licensed a web-based database management front-end application to Nu-Wa for both end-user data presentation and internal data management. This powerful application is built using the open-source language of Perl and works with Windows and Unix operating systems on a wide range of database servers including MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, and many more relational database servers. Utilizing a modular design with a robust plugin system, new features can be easily added to the system without modifying the core of the program, making upgrades extremely easy. A completely template driven presentation layer allows for easy user interface changes, including a template editor right within the program administration.
Business Impact Considered by Nu-Wa as an immediate success, the new web site saw user traffic reach in excess of 1 Million visits in the month following deployment, a 60% increase over the previous web site. NuWa staff, utilizing the new database manager, could immediately push new product information to the site as new model lines came out of production. A Macromedia Flash animation featured a product integration exclusive to NuWa RVs, offering the user a video demonstration of this new, exclusive product using a new Windows Media Server. NuWa dealers could link to a special “extranet” site that displays within the dealer’s web site, allowing dealers to display up-to-date product information within their own presentation layer without duplication. The end-user experience was improved by offering more up-to-date product information through an interactive experience including Flash animations and streaming videos. Site administration was improved through the use of a database-driven content management system that allowed for real-time updates without HTML knowledge or redesign.
Macromedia Flash Animation An embedded Macromedia Flash animation showcases the exclusive NuWa fifth-wheel hitch integration. This eye-catching page area directs users to an online streaming Windows Media video.
Database Driven Display All information about the product, including floor plan graphic, specification values, and product photographs are queried from the backend database and returned through a template display.
Web-Based Database Management Database editing is done through an easy-to-use, standard web-based form. User rights management determines which tables a user can access, and read-only versus read/write access, enabling NuWa to assign different staff to various administration duties.
