The client
Exclusive Networks is a global cybersecurity specialist for digital infrastructure. With offices in 43 countries and the ability to service customers in over 170 countries across five continents, Exclusive combines the focus and value of local independents with the scale and service delivery of a single worldwide distributor.
The challenge
To support their strategic focus on their training courses for end users, Exclusive Networks required a global training platform consisting of a front-end web portal. The aim of the portal was to provide users with localised, straightforward search of Exclusive’s training catalogue. Also required was a back-end training management platform allowing course administrators to manage their portfolio of courses.
TrueNorth IT was asked to create a new system that delivered the following business objectives:
- Increase revenue from online traffic by increasing online visibility and website efficiency
- Increase revenue from cross-sell by increasing visibility on other entities’ training portfolios
- Reduce training admin complexity (and costs) by facilitating training management locally and globally
- Extend contracts and sign new vendors by offering them additional value through global reporting and a single point of contact
- Increase revenue through global marketing campaigns leveraging global data.
The solution
TrueNorth IT created a bespoke solution based on a Microsoft Dataverse back-end, Microsoft Azure middleware and a custom Angular course portal.
Course portal
The course portal offers end-users a localised, highly efficient and focused search experience to facilitate the easy discovery of relevant courses. Delivered as a standalone web application, and styled to Exclusive’s guidelines, the portal is optimised for easy discovery via SEO.
Built as a modern single-page application using the Angular and Google Material frameworks, the course portal is hosted on Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure and communicates with the back-end via Azure Integration Services.
Middleware
Microsoft Azure Search indexes the Exclusive training course catalogue and facilitates extremely efficient and flexible ‘Google style’ searches. API Manager and Azure Functions provide the integration to the back-end training management system, provisioning caching for performance, and protection of the back-end from malicious users.
Training management solution
The back-end training management system provides course administrators (local and global) with the ability to efficiently manage the course catalogue and courses.
Delivered as a Microsoft Dataverse model-driven application, the solution offers the same user experience and baked-in security model as a Microsoft Dynamics 365 application, while requiring only a cost-effective Power Apps license rather than a full-blown Dynamics 365 license.
Click here to discover more about our portal services.
