MTS (QP7 Framework)

MTS moves regional websites to the QP7.Framework platform implemented on technologies of Microsoft.

The corporate website is face of the company, its show-window on which business development in many respects depends. By 2006 MTS had about hundred regional web resources created on the basis of absolutely different technologies. For the company need of integration of these separate resources at a single platform became obvious to obtaining competitive advantage. The start was given to the project within which it was decided to perform transfer of regional resources on a new management system for the websites QP7.Framework. This system is implemented on technologies of Microsoft (ASP.NET, a. net Framework 3.5, SQL Server, etc.) and provides a broad set of convenient development tools. Use of this solution allows to create most easily and quickly dynamic websites and to manage them. In a project deliverable today, according to the rating of Alexa.com, the website of MTS became the most visited corporate web resource in the telecommunication industry of Russia and takes the 81st place in overall rating of the Russian websites, considerably being ahead of competitors.

Situation

MTS renders communication services in all regions of Russia. It agrees the internal classification admitted to the companies these regions are united in the macroregions (today them is eight) which are approximately matching federal districts of the Russian Federation. In each region is available for MTS company, other than others, the list of rates and services that actually caused creation of specific set of the web pages representing in essence the separate website. Besides, historically it developed so that development of MTS was performed by merger of regional operators of GSM. As a result the company inherited the separate websites which part was integrated on the general platform at the level of the macroregion, and a part – worked independently in this or that region.

Rapid growth of a branch network and the subsequent to it rapid increase in information volumes put in the forefront an issue of increase in efficiency of support of the regional websites. The complexity of updates, separation and inconsistency of publications, lack of a uniform core, duplication of the published information, considerable time expenditure and complexity of implementation of any additional functionality did not arrange the company. Need of the solution of these tasks forced company management to make in 2006 the decision on replacement of the different management systems for the websites used at that time by more powerful platform allowing to develop expansion to the Internet.

Solution

At the initial stage it was necessary to decide on the choice of a technology platform. Competition during which several options were considered was for this purpose announced, beginning from "heavy" solutions with support of document flow to open code systems. As a result preference was given to the management system for the websites QP7.Framework developed by Quantum Art company based on technologies of Microsoft.

"When choosing the platform of development we were guided not so much by specific technology how many on its scalability, reliability and ease of support. From all platforms considered during the choice of the supplier, software of Microsoft seemed to us an optimal solution", - the director of the department of development of basic services of MTS Titarenko Daniil told.

"We always wanted to use the best technologies presented at the market because they guarantee quality and high speed of development. It is obvious that the rate on the leader also protects investments of the company so we have a confidence in that, as in five years of technology of Microsoft in this area will conform to the most modern requirements", – the head of department of MTS Internet services Mikhaylov Yury told.

Unlike standard web solutions the management system for the websites QP7.Framework represents a single platform for creation of the corporate website which allows to accelerate several times development of new services and the publication of information on the website, provides creation of interactive web resources and integration into other software products. Thanks to these features of the QP7.Framework platform of the company have an opportunity to lower the total costs of support and development of the website and also to make process of placement of information the most effective and fast.

Project works began in 2006 when the design of the main website www.mts.ru was completely changed according to the new corporate style of MTS. Then a transfer of this website and some other web resources of the company on the QP7.Framework platform was made. In regions support of the old websites which, however, had now an identical appearance as were developed on the general templates continued. But at the same time specialists of the company had to deal with this "zoo" of the used platforms.

MTS was satisfied not only with the choice of the QP7.Framework platform, but also quality of the works which are carried out by the contractor. Therefore in 2007 it was decided to pass to implementation of the second stage within which transfer of eleven websites of the macroregion South on a new system was provided.

After the analysis of the received results of integration and support of the regional websites completion of technology and business processes of support was carried out, and then during 2009 the websites of the majority of the remained regions were transferred to a single platform of QP7.Framework.

Project implementation was enabled by forces of the contractor – specialists of Quantum Art company – together with employees of the commercial block of MTS. It should be noted that specialists of Quantum Art executed rather wide range of tasks, beginning from design of a hardware and software system, development of architecture and prototyping of a system. They were also engaged in direct development of all websites, services and modules, held testing and balancing and commissioning. In addition, the circle of their duties includes a further first line support of the websites, including creation of content, ensuring continuity of operation of servers, including necessary parameters of reservation and security and also providing a distributed architecture of the server platform.

Implementation of any project, even using long ago the checked technologies, often is followed by any unusual situations. So, in MTS, by words [[Anisimov Vyacheslav } Anisimov Vyacheslav|Anisimov Vyacheslav } Anisimov Vyacheslav]], the main difficulties were connected with data transfer from the used platforms on a new system. Due to the lack of full compatibility specialists of Quantum Art had to think out non-standard solutions to carry out an assigned task.

Besides, the specifics of a company performance of MTS consist that the great number of the contractors applying absolutely different technologies is used for different services. Taking into account it it was necessary to organize a set of interfaces for integration with other systems.

And at last, for the period time since 2006 the Microsoft corporation released several releases of the operating system and development tools that created certain difficulties at migration on the latests version. But thanks to active support of specialists of Microsoft and these problems were successfully resolved.

Advantages

The project covered practically all territory of the country, and today nearly 80 regional websites work at the QP7.Framework platform.

"Web resources of MTS company differ in difficult architecture. Nevertheless, thanks to a new management system for the websites on the Microsoft platform all of them interact among themselves, maintain a heavy load, provide the cascade publication of the same content", - the project manager from Quantum Art Evdokimova Tatyana says.

In return Yury Mikhaylov considers the main project deliverable that fact that "the powerful QP7.Framework platform allowed to optimize significantly processes of support and start of new functionality on the websites of MTS". Instead of tens of separate web resources on different, often outdated, technologies, the company had a uniform flexible management tool. And the website command which was completely absorbed by its current support earlier had an opportunity to be focused on issues of optimization, improvement of a usability, start of new functionality.

Thanks to it so far the website of MTS turned into the most visited, according to the rating of Alexa.com, corporate website in the telecommunication industry of Russia. At the same time, as the project director of MTS Smirnov Konstantin specifies, the bulk of websites TOP-100 in Runet is made only by Internet services – search, mail, vacancies and so forth. It is remarkable that among corporate web resources the website of Microsoft which MTS follows was called the most popular.

In overall rating of the Russian websites, according to data of Alexa.com, the website of MTS takes the 81st place, considerably advancing the websites of competitors. And from January, 2009 to November, 2009 the monthly number of visitors of the website of MTS grew up more than twice! For comparison: growth of audience of Runet for 2009 was equal to 34%.