Improving Business Value at Ripley Entertainment by Solving IT SharePoint Challenges
Monday, November 16th, 2009 
TAMPA, Fla., November 10, 2009. Ripley Entertainment contracted with Dobler Consulting in July, 2009 to use his IT Solutions Architect expertise for their new company-wide Intranet portal. They needed an Intranet facelift to match the look, feel, and versatility of their external website, while using existing Microsoft SharePoint® technology.
The major challenge for Peter Dobler was to find a better way to create global collaboration for Ripley’s employees. The company has 74 locations in 13 countries. For the collaboration challenge, Dobler says “Microsoft SharePoint® is an excellent technology, but not attractive or simple for end users to use. It is not a technology that can easily turn a website into a friendly working space.” Dobler worked with Ripley’s Marketing Department, who created the look and feel of the Intranet design.
The original SharePoint® portal workflows were used infrequently. Dobler added these workflows to the new website design, making certain they were quick to find and utilize. He included menus, reporting, an integrated discussion forum, and attractive screens for employees to collect/share information, and work together on global projects from all locations. The upgraded system enabled employees to raise their work performance exponentially. Team efficiency and productivity improved rapidly.
The new system architecture provided additional benefits for data protection and security. Data security challenges were solved through careful planning to ensure no breaches would occur. Dobler used the built-in security capabilities of SharePoint®, and added custom data security measures to protect valuable business data that met Ripley’s standards.
Dobler had eight weeks to update Ripley’s internal site, and implement solutions for their business goals using SharePoint® technology. By the second week of September, Dobler finished the project on-time and within budget. Today, Ripley’s new system uses SharePoint® to its maximum advantage, supports employees collaborating with a wide distribution of data at their fingertips, and maintains data security, aligned with company requirements.
Dobler’s approach to integrating technology with business goals requires “always listening to your clients, and meeting their business expectations. Our goal is to plan, design, build, and implement projects with fast turnaround and no delays.” Dobler Consulting offers proven experience across many platforms, along with the skills to analyze a customer’s business, offer comprehensive solutions, and bring projects to a successful completion.
More information about how Peter Dobler solves clients’ Intranet challenges by focusing on adding business value, is available at http://www.doblerconsulting.com. He can be reached at 813-322-3240.
About Ripley Entertainment
Ripley Entertainment (http://www.ripleys.com) is the largest international chain of museum-type tourist attractions in the world. Ripley Entertainment owns, operates, and franchises a variety of attractions, including Great Wolfe Lodge Indoor Water Park Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, world-class aquariums, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums, Guinness World Records Museums, and Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks.
Ripley Entertainment of Orlando, Florida, owns 74 exciting attractions in 13 countries, best-selling books, a live-action network television series in daily syndication in over 70 countries, and the ninety-year-old, longest continuously published newspaper comic in the world, the classic Believe It or Not! cartoon.
Ripley Entertainment is owned by the Jim Pattison Group. The Jim Pattison Group is headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and is comprised of over 410 locations worldwide focusing on the automotive, media, packaging, food sales and distribution, magazine distribution, entertainment, export and financial industries.
About Dobler Consulting
Dobler Consulting is a leading information technology and database services company that offers cutting edge technology and integration for their clients. Founded in 2000, the Tampa consulting firm delivers implementation expertise for Oracle, Sybase, and MS SQL Server. Dobler Consulting has over 20 years of proven experience, working with their clients to improve database efficiencies and reduce costs. Dobler Consulting serves local and southeast regional clients with their world class services and products.
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