Mediasurface powers Dutch Turin Olympics 2006 site

Mediasurface powers Dutch Turin Olympics 2006 site

Mediasurface, the leading AIM-listed content management vendor, today announced that its software is the driving force behind the Dutch Olympic Committee’s brand new website, www.sport.nl. The committee, known as NOC*NSF, launched the site to coincide with the twentieth Winter Olympiad which will run from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy.

The site provides a wealth of information including the complete competition programme, information about the Dutch participants and the latest Olympic sports news. Publication of this site also means that NOC*NSF has taken the first step towards a new web environment that has been built using the Mediasurface 5 content management system and the Morello editorial environment.

The current NOC*NSF website was custom-built for them several years ago. Over the years, a lot of 'extensions' have been added to the site. The quantity of information and the numerous additions meant that it was not always simple for visitors to find the correct information. On top of that, it had become cumbersome for the system administrators to use.

"It was time for a new approach," explains Arno van Gemert, the marketing manager at NOC*NSF. "As well as having a robust system that can handle millions of visitors during the Olympic Games, we also want to be able to use new technology on our site. The ease of use and the speed with which information can be placed were important selection criteria for a content management system. Using Mediasurface 5 and the user-friendly editorial environment Morello, we expect to be able to publish more and better information more quickly."

The new approach is being implemented in two phases. The Torino site for the 2006 Winter Olympics was published in January. Van Gemert anticipates that the entire sport.nl site will be running using Mediasurface 5 by the spring of 2006. At the moment it is only the Olympic section. "Jointly with our implementation partner ilionX, we have made major improvements to the accessibility of the site for the visitors. Mediasurface gives us a system that we will be able to use for some years to come. We can now start making plans for further extensions to the site."

About NOC*NSF
The NOC*NSF (Nederlands Olympisch Comité*Nederlandse Sport Federatie - the Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports Federation) collectively represents organised sport in the Netherlands. Together, the 88 affiliated national sports organisations represent around 28,750 associations with a total of over 4.9 million members involved in organised sport. The goal of the approximately 150 members of staff is to improve the quality of sports in the Netherlands, paying attention both to the top and the broader base.