MiX Telematics takes control of global web properties with Realm Digital

MiX Telematics is a global provider of fleet management and vehicle tracking technology and services. The company's products and solutions are sold in more than 100 countries, and it boasts an install base of over 700 000 units and a truly global footprint.

To complement this global standing and reach, MiX Telematics identified the need for an online presence in 2008 that would set it apart from competitors.

They decided on a group site with various regional sites, each displaying uniquely local content but with consistent branding and corporate messaging. From the start they wanted their site optimised for search engines, to improve search rankings and support future online marketing initiatives. The site also had to be scalable to accommodate growth through new subsidiaries, and it had to allow MiX Telematics to manage their own content.

Finding partners

Quotes were solicited from numerous service providers in Cape Town for the three different work streams on the project, namely design, development and paid search campaign management. By October 2008, the company had made its decision.

Top South African Digital.co.za/ e-business strategist and solution provider Realm Digital was selected to develop the back-end. MiX Telematics was already aware of Realm Digital's development capabilities and Digital.co.za/page/platform/ Platform system, which proved the best option for managing the content for the entire website, including five regional sites, and is customisable.

Realm Digital collaborated with Stonewall+, implementing and integrating its front-end designs and HTML coding into the content engine. Once the sites were live, Clickthinking was charged with the site's ongoing search engine optimisation (SEO) and paid search campaigns.

Site features

Wesley Lynch, CEO of Digital.co.za/ Realm Digital says each regional site is run independently, but content can be copied between sites, making content management highly efficient.

"Platform's Digital.co.za/page/Realm Digital-services/ e-commerce module has been of great use to them, even though the site doesn't offer online sales. Products are easy to edit and categorise, which helps because they're constantly developing and adding to our range," he says.

Lynch adds that the site allows MiXTelematics' in-house administrator to manage multiple sites from a single login. It has the following core features:

• Full content management, keeping the site current;
  
• Easy monitoring to remove redundancies and errors;
  
• Content-managed flash banners, allowing user-driven banner creation;
  
• A full product catalogue, effortlessly updated, with simple addition of specials and promotions;
  
• Regional sites with unique content, layout and custom functionality, while staying true to corporate branding and messaging (achieved with Platform's widget framework, which allows customisation even of fixed template portions);
  
• Integrated SEO features such as SEO URLs, custom URL rewriting and auto alt tags, which improve the volume and quality of traffic directed to the site through search results;
  
• Integrated web analytics, tracking and targeting specific customers and browsers;
  
• SIFR integration, allowing rich typography on web pages without the need for client-side support and without sacrificing accessibility, search engine friendliness or mark-up semantics; and
  
• Newsletter functionality with full subscriber management.

The project
After initial scoping of the site by Clickthinking, Realm Digital held a number of workshops with MiX Telematics on best practices throughout the development process.

No formal training was necessary, given MiX Telematics' familiarity with Digital.co.za/page/platform/ Platform, but a quick session to demonstrate how the site would be structured proved to be very beneficial.

Effect

What has the effect of the new website been on the company? As a JSE-listed company, MiX Telematics is required to publish various categories of information online and the website allows them to easily post financial results and presentations in a way that is highly accessible to users.

MiX Telematics is also able to closely monitor their web-generated leads, both organic and from paid search campaigns, for actioning by the various regions. This has improved their sale process. The same applies to the customer care web queries.

Specialist with broad value

The websites were built in a very short time and Realm Digital met their initial development deadlines.

In addition to Realm Digital's core contribution, they have displayed a wide range of technical expertise, assisting with various server and hosting-related queries after the sites went live.