The Client – Rubbermaid
For nearly 80 years, Rubbermaid has been producing innovative, high-quality products that help simplify life. From its original line of simple, durable housewares, Rubbermaid has developed a major presence in a wide array of categories ranging from home and garden to seasonal and commercial products. In 1999, Newell Rubbermaid Inc. was created, a global marketer of consumer and commercial products with 2005 sales of $6.3 billion. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., and has approximately 30,000 employees worldwide.
Their Challenge
Rubbermaid needed our expertise to make customized updates and added functionality to their SharePoint database solution. They wanted improved social networking capabilities and efficiency through productivity enhancements. Documentum features including the ability to upload files in SharePoint, as well as update data into a database needed to be fulfilled.
Our Solution
We began by initializing multiple requirements gathering sessions with the end users to propose customized solutions for Rubbermaid’s specific business needs. Through our collaborative efforts, it was determined that they needed SharePoint’s out of the box functionalities, customization and implementation, including: Document Libraries, Content types, Site columns, Site templates, List templates, Web Parts, Workflows, Master Pages, Site Pages, Publishing Pages, and Page Layouts.
Our TechField SharePoint consultant created a web part project to implement web parts within the SharePoint portal. We also employed custom Content Types and Site Columns to standardize List and Document Form Libraries.
Customization proved to be a major focus for Rubbermaid to promote their identity and create a cohesive global organization. The master pages, site pages and publishing pages were all customized to be in line with the corporate look and feel of Rubbermaid’s branding. Additionally, custom workflows, timer job (to notify employees of overdue tasks via email notifications) and event handlers for application approval processes and tracking business were created.
We also created several scripts for PowerShell, which aids in administration needs including user management, global permissions, automating activities, and deployment of developed custom packages. Backup and Restore operations were performed and new Users and Groups were generated.
A proof of concept was also designed for a potential SharePoint 2013 environment for long term planning, laying the foundation of a future migration project.
SharePoint Results
Our TechField consultant remained a key team member in all the phases of the project life cycle – from gathering requirements, designing the functionality of the system, and implementing the SharePoint 2010 farm. The project was successfully completed and Rubbermaid was thrilled with our efforts.
Mark Robinson, Manager of the Newell Rubbermaid eBusiness development team, gave one of our TechField consultant’s glowing remarks: “(A TechField consultant) worked on my team as both a .NET Developer and a SharePoint Developer, handling project and enhancement requests for several Newell Rubbermaid brand websites. His work was thorough and of high quality, and he showed strong dedication to the team. He possesses strong technical skills along with understanding of all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle.”
Through our enhanced upgrade and integration with Microsoft SharePoint, Rubbermaid is now able to reduce operating costs to a single environment, and increase user satisfaction and productivity.