Liferay Portal Brings New Life to World Vision IPG

Award Winning Technology Revolutionizes Communication for a Global Community of Humanitarian Workers

Liferay, Inc., provider of Liferay Portal, the world’s leading enterprise open source portal, recently announced that World Vision is using its award winning technology to power Knowledge Space, a collaboration portal that has revolutionized the way its international teams of workers communicate. Built on top of Liferay Portal, Knowledge Space includes impressive tools for workflows, alerts, discussion around documents and dynamic GPS-based mapping.

Knowledge Space serves the specific collaboration needs of World Vision United States’ International Programs Group (IPG), which is responsible for the management of grants, projects and community development programs across the globe. As teams of IPG workers require regular interfacing with fundraising headquarters in the United States and with one another, the operations and success of each local project hinge upon access to dependable and fluid means of communication.

“Prior to adopting Liferay Portal, basic email drove 85-90% of all our communication,” said Wayne Nissly, Strategic Capabilities, IPG. Hence, when the lack of more dynamic collaboration tools became an issue World Vision set out to find a technology that would pull together sets of data and human resources in a way that would be easy to understand and manage. Continued, Nissly,”With Liferay Portal, we found this and more.” Notable features of Knowledge Space include:
• Content management and data retrieval – Liferay Portal’s built in content management system and document management capabilities allowed World Vision to organize its disparate sets of data in various forms from its many programs all over the world.

• Flexible and adaptable technology – Thanks to Liferay’s flexible framework, Liferay Portal was easy to integrate with the organization’s existing IT and also provides the flexibility of working with other applications as needed in the future. System integrator, S & K Ventures, was able to painlessly integrate custom Oracle UCM (formerly Stellent) portlets that allowed users to see and edit documents focused on their areas of interest while augmenting collaboration with real-time access to online information.

• Dynamic mapping capabilities – ESRI ArcIMS technology was also integrated, providing maps that change dynamically based on user input and also enables navigation by geography and searching based on geographically specific information.

• Intuitive UI – Liferay Portal is easy to use for all of World Vision’s staff, which represents a wide range of technical experience.

• Simple administrative maintenance – Liferay Portal is easy to maintain in the long run for the international non-profit.

“Not only does Knowledge Space far exceed the capabilities of email, it revolutionized our entire system of communication,” said Nissly. “It empowers our global community of humanitarian workers to better serve their communities.” In an emergency response situation, for example, each emergency site assessment team has the power to enter and edit data for which they are specifically responsible. This data is then automatically updated on a map, providing immediate feedback and real-time access to online data to colleagues across the world.

“We are very excited about World Vision’s use of our technology to reach their goals,” said Bryan Cheung, Liferay’s CEO. “As a company that seeks to give back to the world community, we feel honored to be helping an organization with such impressive reach and global impact.”

Added Nissly, “Liferay Portal has been and will continue to be an integral tool for streamlining and advancing our operations and mission statement!” In its 9th year of development, Liferay Portal is used by global organizations such as the United Nations, Lufthansa Flight Training, The French Ministry of Defense, and many major financial institutions and universities.

For more information about Liferay, Inc. or this project, please email pr {at} liferay(.)com.

About World Vision

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, World Vision serves alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

World Vision provides emergency and hunger relief, long-term community development programs, agricultural development assistance and leadership training. The organization also educates the public on poverty- and justice-related issues and advocates on behalf of the poor and children in crisis.

About Liferay Inc.

Liferay, Inc. is the provider of Liferay Portal, the world’s leading enterprise open source portal framework with Fortune 500 clients world-wide. Liferay Professional Services offers technical support, custom development and professional training to ensure successful deployment of its flagship product in the most demanding IT environments. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles. For more information, please visit www.liferay.com.

Liferay, Liferay Portal, and the Liferay logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Liferay, Inc., in the United States and other countries.

Contacts

Liferay, Inc.
Alice Cheng, 1-877-LIFERAY
pr {at} liferay(.)com