alfresco.

com
fullsail.edu
rivetlogic.com

Case Study
Full Sail University
Creates Innovative Education Site with the Help of Alfresco and RivetLogic

Customer
Full Sail University
Industry
Education

Results
Increased productivity
Better return on investment for IT resources
Flexibility to build wide variety of content types
Timelier, fresher and richer content

Solution
Content Management
Web Content Management
Products
Alfresco
Crafter Rivet
Crafter Studio
Partner
Rivet Logic

Increased site traffic

Improved collaboration and expedited publishing
cycles with In-Context Preview
Maximized uptime due to system reliability
Content control shift from IT to editorial team
with Web authoring interface
Improved organic search rankings as a result
of SEO-optimized URLs

Challenge
Full Sail University offers over 28 undergraduate and graduate degree
programs in the fields of music, sound, film, design (Web and graphic),
production, games and animation. Using both online and immersive
teaching methods in its real-world production studios and classrooms,
Full Sail has over 8,800 students.
Full Sail was looking for an enterprise content management system to
address the need for better document management. At the same time,
Full Sail was formulating plans for a redesigned website that would include
richer content and complex media and visual elements.


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We wanted to make use of rich Web media,

including Flash and video on our new Website,
and Alfresco did not limit us in any way. No matter
what we came up with during the site redesign
process, Alfresco was able to accommodate
it easily. Combining Crafter Rivet with Alfresco
allowed us increased flexibility to create and modify
document types, and scale with relative ease.

Mark Gilbert, Vice President,

Information and Media
Technologies, Full Sail University

Case Study Full Sail University

Conclusion

Full Sail realized that its homegrown content management

system (CMS) would not be able to support either initiative.
Instead, it needed an ECM platform that could serve as
the foundation for its new website and enterprise-wide
document management system.

F
 ull Sail has a significantly streamlined process
for content authoring, editing, and publishing.
9
 5 percent the Full Sail website content
including page templates/layouts, images, videos,
widget functionality, editorial content, navigation
structures, CSS, etc. live in Alfresco.

Solution
Full Sail quickly found Alfresco to be a leading
contender, preferring its open source licensing model
and agile architecture over closed, proprietary alternatives.
Plus, Alfresco offers more than document management
capabilities; it also provides a platform to build contentrich Web applications. With Alfresco, Full Sail has
complete flexibility with regard to content modeling and
presentation-tier delivery, along with a robust set of
content repository services for its next-generation website.
Another crucial aspect was the range of options
available to Full Sail for the website content delivery
architecture. Alfresco supports a de-coupled architecture,
in which content management is separate from content
delivery. The advantages of this include strong support for
multi-user content production, rich and flexible content
modeling, multisite and multichannel publishing, and
better scalability and performance.
Full Sail leveraged the help of Rivet Logic, a premier
provider of professional services and consulting for
open source content management systems, to implement
and customize Alfresco. Full Sail had a significant
investment in Cold Fusion presentation-tier technology
and RivetLogics Crafter Rivet, an open source WCM
application for Alfresco, was a perfect match. It allows
Full Sail to utilize its own choice of Web application
framework while providing seamless integration with
Alfresco. Furthermore, the combined solutions delivers
performance and integration flexibility required to quickly
and effectively deploy sites with dynamic Web functionality.

E
 dits to the new website can be done quickly
and easily with no IT involvement.

Crafter Rivets ability to virtualize any type of Web

application provides Full Sail with a complete In-Context
Preview capability, which allows Web team members to
view all content changes before submitting them for review
and approval. Approved changes are reflected in every
users preview of the site, so everyone is always working
with the latest approved content regardless of whether
or not content is published to the live site.
Alfresco and Crafter Rivet enable a clean separation
of code and content, giving the Full Sail Web team
complete editorial control over any and all types of
content on the site. For example, new navigation
structures are automatically created when content
is created freeing up developers time. Full Sails
implementation also takes advantage of Crafter Rivets
native support for search engine optimization, which
includes user-friendly URLs and editorially controlled
URL redirects helping to improve organic search results.

W
 ith Alfresco and Crafter Rivet, Full Sail has
improved employee productivity and allows editors
to spend more time on visionary creative content
development.
F
 ull Sails fresh and relevant content has resulted
in more site visitors, more unique page views, and
more engaged visitors.

Whats Next
Full Sail recently upgraded to Rivet Logics Crafter
Studio for a richer content authoring experience.
Full Sail is now contemplating how it can leverage
the combined Alfresco and Rivet Logic solution in
its sister schoolsThe Los Angeles Film School
and the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design
in Denver.

By leveraging Alfresco with Crafter Rivet, Full Sail is able to create an engaging consumer-facing website that reflects the
high quality of education students receive before entering the entertainment industry. The combined solution is ideal for
building Web sites with dynamic content and visuals. It is simple enough for content edits to control when new content
is published with little involvement from IT.

Mike Vertal, President and CEO, Rivet Logic