Microsoft Contract<br> Management System { Ignia, LLC }

Microsoft Contract
Management System

Microsoft’s Windows Operating System includes hundreds of licensed components from third party software companies. Each of these included their own set of usage guidelines, cost structure, distribution rights, etc. The Windows legal team required a simple centralized repository for collecting and tracking these agreements as well as the obligations associated with them.

Project Relevance

The Microsoft CMS intranet site demonstrates Ignia’s experience in:

User Interface
Content Management
Intranets
Workflow/Routing
Archive/Retrieval
Search Engines

Project Details

The Microsoft CMS intranet site underwent a multi-phase development process, based on Ignia’s standard process but optimized specifically for the business requirements of the Windows team:

Initial Prototype/Proof of Concept ("Version 1")
Research/Requirements Gathering resulting in a functional specification
Version 2.0 prototype and functional design
User review resulting in requirements revision and scope evaluation
Version 2.0 design, development, testing, and deployment

The result was quite successful, and allowed Ignia to meet not only the high-level business objectives of the Windows legal team, but also the specific needs and interests of the system’s users, resulting in a highly-usable system that was very well received. This system included the following functions:

Document identification and tracking
Content and version management
Integration with related data stores, including:
- Exchange Server 2000
- Microsoft File System
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Windows Authentication
Private authentication system allowing for content personalization

The system has proven very successful at Microsoft resulting in a company-wide recognition and discussion regarding the expansion of the system to support additional groups within the company.

Technologies Used

Microsoft IIS/ASP
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Microsoft CDO/Exchange
COM/MTS Components
XML (for Exchange data transfer)