WebNow Online Solutions Simplified

Read our press release below and find out how WebNow helped Toyota with their new website, www.toyota.co.za

Introduction

Cape Town-based web developers WebNow have joined forces with communication agency Draftfcb South Africa and usability consultants JH-01 to develop a powerful new ecommerce-based website for Toyota South Africa. Visitors to the site can research, select, finance, insure, order and maintain a new or used car with the help of powerful search and transaction technology.

The successful collaboration project started in October 2008. The site has been live since August 2009. Since then the site has attracted 200,000 unique visitors and driven over 300 finance applications via the finance section.

Project summary

The site is based on a complex content management system, designed to meet Toyota's unique requirements. With content provided by multiple sources, Toyota brand office, Sales, Toyota dealers, Toyota Financial Services and Draftfcb, visitors use the site to inform their decision to buy any car from the entire Toyota range as well as accessing relevant corporate information.

The site catalogues the specifications, add-ons and optional extras for every model, with a comparison function to help buyers decide what suits them best. From the pre-purchase zone, buyers can identify the car they want, book a test drive, select their favourite accessories, add an insurance policy and configure their finance options all in a trolley format which can be printed or saved for access at a later stage.

Once buyers have made their selection, they are moved into the purchase zone. Using an electronic signature function, their selection is confirmed and then they have the option to transfer their trolley to their local dealer for processing or save it to their MyToyota profile to be accessed or modified at a later stage. In this zone in a future release, the buyer will be able to monitor their order progress, apply for finance and insurance and monitor the details of their delivery. Provision has also been made to possibly buying the car using a credit card or EFT payment methods online. In the purchase zone, buyers can add service and maintenance schedules to their trolleys and leave feedback for Toyota Customer Services.

In the future it will be possible for the buyer to keep up to date with their car's service programme from within the post-purchase zone.  And when their finance has come to an end or they need a change, then a buyer can arrange for a trade-in or trade up.

WebNow scope of work

Draftfcb developed the strategy behind the site along with the creative vision, while JH-01 consulted on the user experience design. Working closely with the client and their project partners, WebNow designed and developed the back-end technology through a clearly defined process. Their extensive involvement included:

• Developing the functional requirement specifications
• Creating the system architecture and design
• Developing the content management system tailored specifically to Toyota's unique requirements
• Implementing the signed-off creative, which involved converting initial concept documents to html and css files, including developing the master page and theme
• Developing the website using ASP.NET and C# programming protocols, and the business logic and data access layers using C#. WebNow used Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 for all development
• Developing the integration bus
• Designing and developing the database using SQL Server 2005

Toyota South Africa Manager:  Web Communications Systems, James Smith, explained the impact on the motor sales industry that the website will have: "The Toyota South Africa website has completely changed the face of buying a car in South Africa. The new website creates a seamless process through which our customers can make a decision about which vehicle to buy and customise the vehicle according to their needs. Many people feel a lot of pressure when standing in a dealer's showroom but the website allows them to make a decision in the comfort of their homes. It assists by guiding them through the purchase journey allowing them to gather all the information they need, enhancing their decision to buy the best vehicle suited to their needs."

WebNow Managing Director, Jean-Pierre Dumont, said: "This was one of the most challenging projects WebNow has ever undertaken. The success of the site is a testament to Toyota's clear vision and the highly effective collaborative approach shared by Draftfcb and JH-01, our project partners. We have broken new ground with both the concept and the technology and we are pleased to have played such a critical and successful part."

For more information, contact:

Jaco Liebenberg, Marketing Manager, WebNow - jaco.liebenberg@webnow.co.za; 021 939 6700

Editor's Notes:

• WebNow was established in 1999, and provides web development, hosting, design and e-marketing services to commercial clients in Cape Town and throughout South Africa. Their services include domain name registrations, web site design and development, ecommerce solutions, bulk email and sms solutions, internet connectivity, database-driven websites, ebusiness consulting and dedicated servers. Their website is www.webnow.co.za
• Since 1961, Toyota has been as much part of South African culture as braaivleis and sunny skies. They are part of a bigger, very special, global picture; one based on a holistic management style that is as much about contributing to the world we live in as it is about making and selling cars. The website is www.toyota.co.za.
• Draftfcb is a network of specialist partners based in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. The partner network includes full-service advertising agencies, social marketing, digital, design, experiential marketing, retail, Healthcare and PR capabilities. This 84-year old agency pioneered integrated communication in this country and has demonstrated an enduring ability to create iconic communication that reflects the nation's spirit and soul. This has resulted in extensive peer recognition - locally, it has won numerous Loerie, Pendoring and Apex awards. Internationally, it brought home South Africa's first ever Cannes Grand Prix in 2006.  Recently, it swept the boards at a special awards ceremony marking 25 years of Millward Brown's Adtrack™ survey in South Africa by taking the Best Consumer Liked Advert for the Past 25 Years (Sasol Super 100 "Glug Glug": 1991) and the Best Consumer Liked Advert of the Past Decade (Klipdrift "Met Eish": 2005). Draftfcb has also been recognised for producing the country's funniest ad at the South African Comedy Awards (Vodacom ‘We've been having it' - 2008). Their website is www.draftfcb.co.za.
• JH-01 is a firm of user experience designers and information architects. Their website is www.jh-01.com.

A few years ago I was thrown into the deep end and was put in charge of some really large systems. Up until then I had primarily been working in development teams on very large systems that required teams of up to 50 people across all boards. Realising how large and technically complicated those systems were and how incredibly stressed most of the stakeholder and team leaders were I began to think was this really the job for me. Being the incredibly chilled person that I am I started to realise that this enterprise software world was not as chilled as I am and for a while wondered if it ever would be.

Until somebody gave me a book to read  “Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture” by Martin Fowler this book save my life and it instilled a belief in me that large enterprise applications development need not to be a difficult and stressful process and by following some basic values , methodologies, principles and with the help some very clever tools we could tame this beast called enterprise applications and together the beast and I could sit back and CHILL and develop something special and at the same time keep the stakeholders happy.

Martin Fowlers laid back style of writing and his constant re-iteration of a “KEEP IT SIMPLE” approach and together with a “BEST OF BREED” methodology made me realise that application architecture need not be the stressful part of application development.

In this book his recommended architectural design pattern for an ASP.NET Web application development was the Table Module Architectural design pattern.
This statement causes quite a stir in the development community between the DDD (Domain Driven Development) /nhibernate followers and the MDD followers.
Personally I feel that MDD is the only architecture to go with when developing web applications.

Being predominantly a web application developer and a Microsoft junkie I began using the Table Module Architectural design pattern and started adopting a MDD (Model driven development) approach to architecture. Then a natural progressions lead me to an AMDD style of development. And by adding a little fun to it I developed the AGILE DISCO BALL methodology. I will go into more detail about the AGILE DISCO BALL in future blogs.
After adopting these methodologies I notice an immediate result, I began enjoying the world of software again and notice a huge success rate when delivering large scale applications.
My world was CHILLED once again.

But at the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. I believe if you are going to be using agile methodologies in your development environment apply some of the same values when choosing your architecture.

1. Simplicity. “KEEP IT SIMPLE.80% of web applications outlive the developers working on the project .A simple architecture allows for easier handover, future scalability and ease of use. I will go into a lot more detail about simplifying architectures and tools that can be used in the development process in future blogs.
2. Courage. Choosing an architecture for a large enterprise is a huge responsibility. And by sticking to what you know and by playing on your strengths you will have the confidence to choose the best architecture to suite your style, personality and skill.
3. Humility. “DON’T BE A SMART ALEC” The best developers today are not afraid to say that they are wrong nor are they afraid to ask for help. However smart you think you are there are people out there that are smarter and no matter what problem you have there are people out there that have solved it. Another thing that Architects must realise that the people that are going to be doing the development on your project are not as experienced as they are and the people that might be taking over from you might also not be as experienced. So when developing an architecture, develop it in a way that you are NOT going to be the only person in the world that is going to understand it.

By following some of these basic values when designing and choosing a web application architecture, I believe that you will have a better success rate when developing systems and will more have time to argue with stakeholders whether the font should be pink or blue.

Please join me for my future blogs where I will be discussing why I think projects fail, Agile modelling, MDD and some of the fundamentals of building a successful web application. I will also be going into more detail about my AGILE DISCO BALL THEORY.

Hi there my name is Stanton Roux. I have 12 years experience in developing web applications. I have my MCSE and MCSD.NET and I am currently working as senior software engineer for WebNow.