Top-Ranked Agency White Horse Deploys Ektron Version 8

Based in Portland, OR and with over 30 years of experience in the interactive industry, Ektron partner White Horse specializes in Web development, digital marketing, emerging media and audio/video production.

White Horse firmly believes in having hands-on knowledge of the software and tools that they recommend to customers, including the Ektron Web Content Management (WCM) platform. “Using Ektron for our own site provides several major benefits for White Horse, our customers and Ektron itself,” says Jen Modarelli, Principal and CEO at White Horse. “Deep familiarity with the platform allows us to effectively match client needs to platform strengths. Working with Ektron as new versions of the software are in development allows White Horse to become proficient with the tools before competitors. That translates to faster and stronger site development.”

Putting that philosophy to work, White Horse upgraded their Web site to Version 8 when it was released in 2009. Version 8 of the Ektron platform includes enhancements to the user interface, integrated Web analytics and new social media capabilities such as personalized and community pages, calendars to manage events and announcements, blogs and forums, polls and surveys, even micro-messaging “activity streams” similar to Twitter.

“We’re very pleased with the new features of Version 8, especially from a marketing perspective,” Modarelli continues. “At White Horse, our core focus is creating exceptional user experiences. I think that’s one of the reasons why we were recognized by Forrester Research as one of the top user-centered design agencies in the nation. The Ektron platform is very user-centric, from the content development and management perspective to the user perspective. Ektron includes several ready-to-use widgets that allow people to personalize information that is displayed to reflect their own interests. White Horse recognizes the power of personalization to create more relevant and effective experiences.”

“Evolving a site over time to keep pace with business requires a balance between ease to create new content and controls to ensure design consistency. Version 8 offers a better experience in the Workarea and several new tools to assist with page template design,” offered White Horse Chief Technology Officer, Jeff Hulbert. “The blend of PageBuilder and Smart Forms provides clients maximum flexibility and control of their sites.” PageBuilder allows content contributors to build Web pages without involving technical resources, while Smart Forms are templates for Web content ensuring a consistent look-and-feel.

If you visit the White Horse home page, you’ll find a Flash showcase highlighting the agency’s latest projects, a subscription news feed, links to interesting outside resources such as Advertising Age, a Twitter feed showcasing White Horse’s latest tweets and the White Horse blog, also fully powered by Ektron.

“As clients invest more in social media to create dialogue with their customers, we think the community features Version 8 offers will fill an important need in centralized content management and distribution,” said Liz Simson, White Horse Software Engineer, and one of the key figures in the site’s deployment.

“The blogging component may be one of the most popular features of Version 8,” agrees Modarelli. “It’s all about showing our customers how they can use social tools to drive brand engagement. The White Horse blog gives a real-world example of how you can easily super-charge your site with social media at no additional strain upon your IT infrastructure.”

Finally, Modarelli points out the platform’s advanced features including the site analytics and multivariate testing tools. “The Ektron WCM solution offers a great value to clients who might otherwise need to license separate tools to fill these enterprise functions,” she says. “The ability to test and measure Web behaviors is crucial to site performance. White Horse uses multivariate testing to determine which content or variation on content delivers the best results.”

Learn more about White Horse.

Challenge

• Familiarize White Horse with Ektron Version 8.

Solution

• Version 8 of the Ektron platform includes enhancements to the user interface, integrated Web analytics and new social media capabilities.

Result

• Ektron ready-to-use widgets, user interface enhancements and social media tools a hit with both White Horse marketers and IT.

"The White Horse blog gives a real-world example of how you can easily super-charge your site with social media at no additional strain upon your IT infrastructure."