Sony has numerous websites destined not only for Belgium but also for the rest of Europe. The websites range from large product sites to small marketing sites. To control the flow of information, Sony chose to create a portal website specific for each country. The result was a more coherent marketing message directed at the clients and better communication with the partners.

eXpanded Media, in cooperation with Sony e-Solutions, created a content management solution for the portal. It offered more than a uniform communication platform. It provided personalized customer services seamlessly incorporated into the e-commerce solution.

Sony is known for its various products, from VAIO portable computers, through Clié PDAs, high resolution screens, to mobile phones build in cooperation with Ericsson. Additionally there is Sony Music and Sony’s multimedia systems with TV's, videos, DVD players and HIFI systems, just to name a few from Sony’s offering.

Each European country has its dedicated Sony organization with its own field of expertise. Additionally there is the European division in Brussels. Because the country-based Sony divisions have their own products and their own marketing initiatives, Sony has numerous products and marketing websites. Each of those websites has its unique URL. To further add to the complexity, some of the marketing initiatives are coordinated at the European level. You can imagine how challenging it is for the marketing and communication department to lead customers through this maze of websites. That’s why the company asked eXpanded Media, the main service provider for Sony ITE Europe for over three years, to create and support products and marketing sites. To achieve Sony’s objectives, eXpanded Media worked with Sony’s data centre in Cologne, Germany.

Sony Europe took the initiative to develop a central system to support the overall marketing and the country-specific marketing. The system offered the framework on which the country divisions could depend and build upon.

The central system will be extended to support the product catalogue system and will be connected to the SAP system. As a catalogue system Trigo will be used and will manage all of the product information. The SAP will be used to implement the e-commerce part with an on-line shop. A content management system based on Divine is being created to allow personal services for customers. The user profile is created from the surfing habits of the visitor and from the data stored in the SAP.

A multidisciplinary team is created from people in Sony e-Solutions and eXpanded Media for executing the project. eXpanded Media was responsible for analysis, construction of the content management system and the integration with the catalogue system. The integration with the SAP and the personalized services will be realized in the next phase.

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