A global leader in human therapeutics and Fortune 500 company, Amgen has pioneered the development of novel products based on advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology. Over the past 25 years, it has launched some of the biotechnology industry’s blockbuster medicines and improved the lives of millions of patients.
Prior to working with RealDecoy, Amgen directed Canadian Internet traffic to its U.S. site. The company contacted RealDecoy in early 2008 to build a fully bilingual Canadian version of its corporate website using the RedDot content management system (CMS).
THE CHALLENGE
Building a fully bilingual site
The content of Amgen’s U.S. site was, not surprisingly, provided in English only. Other assets were available from the company’s international websites—but still required translation. For example, RealDecoy was provided source code and files from the company’s Netherlands site, but files were provided in English and Dutch. The proposed Amgen.ca needed to be available in both English and French.
Issues with the RedDot CMS
Amgen was using an older version of the RedDot CMS and was being supported with older versions of Microsoft SQL server and Microsoft Windows. This software was incompatible with the newer RedDot software used by RealDecoy.
THE SOLUTION
Restructuring the website content
Knowing what the full structure of the English site’s hierarchy should be, our team was able to add all known content in English and restructure the Dutch site files to match the French content requirements established by Amgen. Our team then updated the French-language site under development with the proper page names and proper content before swapping out the Dutch content and replacing it with French content.
Using an older version of RedDot
Addressing the incompatibility between the versions of the RedDot CMS used respectively by Amgen and RealDecoy, our team leveraged its partnership with RedDot to access an older version of the CMS. We diagnosed and resolved issues quickly and effectively—on a case-by-case basis—throughout the installation process.
As Amgen wanted to handle its own deployment, RealDecoy modified its existing methods of work to accommodate Amgen’s needs. Doing so ensured that when the final product was handed over, all aspects of the project were easy to pick up, work with and understand.
Technologies: RedDot
Satisfied with the work completed for Amgen.ca, the company came back to RealDecoy in October 2008 with another RedDot project. This time, the company wanted to translate its Vectibix website (about a cancer drug trial) into a bilingual Canadian site.
THE CHALLENGE
Establishing secured content areas
In Canada, it is illegal for a pharmaceutical company to provide information about drug trials to the general public—such information is available only to physicians or to cancer patients using the drug in question. This differs from the United States: the American version of the Vectibix site was openly available. RealDecoy was tasked with splitting the website content into two distinct areas: one for health-care professionals to learn about the trial, and one for cancer patients taking part in the trial.
OUR SOLUTION
Creating a protected login page
To ensure that the site met all legal criteria, RealDecoy created a login page for physicians: they would input their Physician License Number and, if it was valid, be allowed into the site to view the content. A similar login panel was created specifically for patients taking the drug; they had to enter their Drug Identification Number to access their section of the site.
Our team had to first write a login protection script for the site in Java to be compatible with the Amgen infrastructure, and then place protection on all of the physician and patient pages to ensure that a visitor would be browsing the proper section. Doing so meant that the navigation for the site also needed to be re-architected.
Amgen was quite pleased with our work on this site and has awarded us continuous maintenance contracts on other websites since this project was deployed.
Technologies: RedDot
