The Client 

Voices for Innovation is a global grassroots network of technology professionals and others who care about the vitality of the technology industry supported by Microsoft. Members include software developers, consumers, vendors, suppliers, shareholders, user group members, and academics - all dedicated to supporting choice, innovation, and economic development.

The Challenges 

Microsoft envisioned a robust online community to allow VFI members to draw attention to public policies impacting the technology sector and encourage others to take action to influence such policies. In addition, the members needed a means to collaborate and network with each other and stay abreast of the latest news, upcoming events and new multimedia surrounding these issues.

The Solutions

Roundedcube developed a community-oriented website using Telligent Community to provide blog, forum, groups, profiles and related features. Also, Sitecore CMS was implemented to manage the content and interface for custom-built report tools. The project entailed tight integration between Sitecore and Telligent followed by the design and development of specific report generation tools to allow Microsoft to track activities by geographic and other attributes. The report tools were built in XAML and integrated directly into the Sitecore UI.

The Results

Microsoft now has a strong platform, voicesforinnovation.org, that will enable the VFI community to grow and change rapidly without need for significant development. By creating a solid and extensible architecture, new features, content and functionality are added with relative ease.