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Smorgon Steel Groups web presence redesigned and redeveloped by leading Internet Agency, Red Square

Announcement posted by Red Square 27 Aug 2003

Redesign brings improved operational efficiency to Smorgon Steels Groups 13 operating business & corporate websites
One of Australias leading Internet Agencies, Red Square ( www.redsquare.com), hassuccessfuly redesigned the entire webpresence of theSmorgon Steel Group, one of Australia's largest producers of steel.As Smorgon Steel Group's Internet development partner, Red Square's redesigndelivers for the first time the companys new corporate branding and unified face to the industry and financial markets.
Smorgon Steel is Australia's largest vertically integrated producer of steel, with over 30,000 customers and5,000 employees, producing over 900,000 tonnes annually.
As an adjunct to a major brand consolidation program, Smorgon Steel decided to add substantial enhancementsto its website presence and after a competitive selection process Red Square was appointed for the project.
"We're delighted with the professional service that Red Square has delivered Smorgon Steel in the re-development of our websites and in their web hosting services," says Ed Steinberg, IT Project Manager. "A large number of prospective service providers underwent a capabilities assessment and Red Square came out the clear winner for their professionalism and successful track record."
Prior to the redesign and redevelopment, the differing information structures of Smorgon Steels 13 business units web presence was not coordinated and impeded website users as they moved from site to site. Web hosting was also diversified with some sites outsourced while others were hosted internally.
"It was a huge project with a very large scope, and the Red Square team has done a great job in that they not only successfully re-aligned a large number of business units online presence, but also participated in the online aspects of the re-branding project," says Tony Redhead, Principal of Red Square, of the Smorgon Steel project.
"The The Smorgon Steel Group sites now deliver built in content management workflow enforcing corporate guidelines and allowing for a consistent range of information and services to users from product and service information to contact and office location details, news and promotions. Additionally, the new corporate site Red Square has also delivered for the group expands on this with the delivery of financial and investor-centric information."
Smorgon Steels websites now achieve a public face that reflects the vertically integrated nature of the business along with improved operational and administrative efficiency. It has allowed for opening up of communications channels with consistent branding, all built within a platform for further growth unhampered by disparate technologies or user experiences.
Bruce Loveday, Executive General Manager, Corporate & Investor Relations from Smorgon Steel Group agrees.
"Red Square's re-design and re-development of Smorgon Steel Group's websites has made a positive impact on our business, as we now have a consistent and effective branding message across the whole group, giving all our business units a unified presence over the web," says Bruce Loveday, Smorgon Steel.
With Phase 1 of the project rolled out and more projects with Red Square to come, the company is already experiencing a noticeable return on investment as a result of their websites revamp.
"Because of the functionality that Red Square has developed for Smorgon Steel, we now have the capacity to manage content within the organisation itself, which is of inestimable value when you consider that Smorgon Steel websites need to be constantly updated," continues Bruce Loveday from Smorgon Steel. "We can now get straight into the various Smorgon Steel websites and make changes to content here internally within a few minutes, saving us time and money on engaging outside professional firms to manage the regular changes in content we make."
As a result of the project, Smorgon Steel now has; consistent information architecture and corporate branding; centralised web hosting and administration; a true public face which reflects the vertically integrated nature of their business; and a built in content management tool that enforces the companys guidelines for the creation and publication of content to the web.
"For such a large project we ensured we used innovative and proven technology including Macromedia ColdFusion MX which allows for effortless connectivity to enterprise data, built-in support for XML and web services and is an excellent resource for helping create powerful applications," explains Tony Redhead from Red Square. "Wealso used True Spectras state of the art Image Server Technology, where Red Square is the first Internet Agency in Australia to deploy such specialised imaging technology."
Phase 2 of the development project is soon to be under way, and this will see Red Square implementing various e-Business and B2B solutions within the group.
"The whole experience with Red Square has just been fantastic and were looking forward to the next stages in the project," concludes Bruce Loveday, Smorgon Steel. "They have already successfully delivered website functionality and potential for further future growth within the various Smorgon Steel websites and were looking forward to the many benefits the next stage of the project is set to deliver."
About Red Square
Founded in 1995, RedSquare http://www.redsquare.comis one of Australias leading Internet agencies with a reputation for developing innovative and successful websites. This privately owned business delivers flexible, stable and scalable solutions for its clients, designed specifically to ensure a positive website user experience. Offering a wide range of Internet related services including; e-business strategy development; web based application development; Rich Internet Application development; web hosting and enhancing web user-experiences; Red Square is able to offer clients a total Internet solution. With some of the nations best web development staff on board, Red Square consistently provides clients with quality Internet and Intranet solutions. Key Red Square clients include: oneworld Alliance, Telstra, Panasonic Australia, P&O Nedlloyd, Harvey World Travel and YHA Australia.
About Smorgon Steel Group
Smorgon Steel was founded in 1981 and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1999. The Company is Australias largest recycling company, collecting and processing over 1 million tonnes of scrap metal each year. Smorgon Steel also manufactures almost 1 million tons of steel each year from recycled scrap at its mills at Laverton, Victoria and Newcastle, NSW. Smorgon Steel is also a major distributor of steel and steel products to the Australian market. Some of the major projects to which Smorgon Steel has supplied steel in recent years include Citilink, Docklands Stadium and the MCG redevelopment in Melbourne, along with Homebush Olympic Stadium and the cross-Sydney tunnel in Sydney.