WordPress in the Corporate World.

Bobby WhitmanCofounder, dynamIt

Who I am. Cofounder of dynamIt, a web agency in Columbus.

We plan, implement, and support usable web sites and web applications.

We specialize in helping clients develop a web strategy.

1. The Situation

Online presence.McGraw-Hill’s printed text-books are often supple-mented with online tools and information

The old site.At the end of 2008, Glencoe made the decision to retire the old Current Events micro site.

Technical sta� was required to make any updates to the old Current Events site.

Time and budget constraints limited them to two updates per year.

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2. What They Needed

A new site.McGraw-Hill/Glencoe sought a vendor to provide them with a new site to display Current Events.

Project parameters.A way for the editorial sta� to easily update content.The ability to include audio, video, images along with current events articles.A way to attach a wide variety of metadata to each article.The site to work like an online magazine displaying newest stories �rst and archiving old ones.The site to include di�erent skins for di�erent grade levels.The site to be housed on McGraw-Hill servers.

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3. What We Did

Our recommendation.Based on the project parameters, we recommended WordPress.

WordPress.We installed WordPress and implemented a custom theme for the site.

Launch and training.After launch, we o�ered training on using Word-Press along with the custom theme we built.

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4. The Result

Success criteria met.

Earned recognition.In a March 21, 2009 article, The New York Times talked about the site and its regular updates.

4Higher frequency of updates.Updates handled by editorial sta�.Lower cost of updates.Increased tra�c to micrositeIncreased social sharing

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