St. Petersburg International Business Association
(SPIBA) is the original voice of the foreign
business community in the Russian North-West.
It also serves as information hub spreading
useful business-related information among
its members. The association includes 101
commercial organizations, 22 diplomatic
and trade missions, and 10 non-profit organizations
operating in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad
Oblast, and the Novgorod Oblast. This makes
SPIBA the largest representative voice for
the international business community and
the only truly international business association
in St. Petersburg and the Northwestern region
of Russia.
Key Problems
To take advantage of one of the most powerful
means of spreading information and opinions
and exchanging experiences, SPIBA needed
to enhance both the functionality and the
look and feel of its then current web site.
It had to be modified into a web portal
to enable Internet communications and to
simplify access to specific information
for the members. SPIBA decided to place
the order for the portal design and maintenance
with the well-known in Saint Petersburg
offshore software development company Arcadia,
Inc..
Arcadia, Inc.
Solution
The Arcadia, Inc.
team designed the Web portal that allows
to easily post and frequently update the
business information and the events announcements.
Different levels of access for the SPIBA
members and for the wide audience were implemented.
The site requirements were analyzed and
the site structure was designed in collaboration
with the SPIBA staff. On the basis of the
site structure, the site backbone was developed,
the templates were designed and HTML-coded.
The site update system for managing the
site contents was developed; it allows the
portal administrators to add/edit/delete
the site contents and load the supportive
files when necessary. A dynamic navigation
script and the site menu were designed and
implemented. The Apache web server was set
up to handle requests to the password-protected
areas of the site. Dynamically created graphical
calendar of events was added to every page
of the site. The calendar is updated from
the site update system; dates of the events
are marked with specific color images, which
are linked to dynamically generated pages
with the event descriptions. Static content
was filled in. Constant site support services
are provided to the customer.
Employed technologies: OS: FreeBSD;
WebServer: Apache; Languages/technologies
used: Perl, JavaScript; DHTML; SSI. Duration: 2 months or 6
person/months. Location of work: St. Petersburg,
Russia.
