BigPond Games Integration

“Mammoth Media delivered this major initiative for BigPond in challenging circumstances, and under a tight timeline. We were very impressed with their flexibility and responsiveness..” – Brent Artindale, BigPond Game Manager

• BigPond needed to consolidate three distinct websites into a single site.
• This was a signifigant project for a major nationwide client
• It required numerous performance enhancements across the project
• It delivered major cost savings for our client

the situation
In October 2006, Mammoth was asked to provide a feasibility overview for a project that would consolidate three distinct web sites – BigPond GameArena, GameNow and Games Shop – into a single site, encompassing all existing functionality.
Each of the three original sites was built using core Mammoth technologies, and was tightly integrated with other vendor software and services, such as Exent Technologies’ Games on Demand software.

the solution
The consolidation project was technically complex, requiring a high degree of cooperation between Mammoth, our client and their design company. The timeline was tight and designs were typically received late in the project.

The project also included a complete redesign of the GameArena site – a major undertaking in itself. Some significant core changes were required to the front end, and had to be carried out in conjunction with all the back end changes.

The project saw the introduction of several new features to the GameArena site, including:
• The introduction of a fully load balanced and redundant structure.
• Integrating multiple user databases into a single database.
• Consolidating a large volume of code into a single codebase.

results
Mammoth was able to deliver the completed site on time, within agreed budgets, and with all major business objectives supported.

As a result, BigPond Games was able to provide an improved, consolidated experience for their customers, and to manage their infrastructure more effectively. Specific features enabled by Mammoth included:
• Strong focus on reducing page load times.
• Extensive use of AJAX technologies for an improved user experience.
• Dedicated image serving system facilitating multiple connections to the web servers.
• Improved caching structure, providing faster page loads.
• Better integration with third party vendor systems and reduced overheads.
• Introduction of Flash video streaming, bringing the site in line with emerging video trends.
• Reduction in hardware infrastructure, and a significant reduction in site maintenance costs.