Recently, Springbox was tasked by Dell to create several websites that focus on community and social networking. Due to tight timelines and a specific set of criteria, Springbox began to search for a
third-party solution. We needed something that had all of the usual suspects when it comes to social networking and community: blogs, commenting, profiles, media galleries, RSS feeds, user-generated content and the ability to scale for a large number of users among other things. It also needed to allow for a great amount of customization. After evaluating several solutions, we decided to go with Telligent Community Server 2008.5. Community Server had everything we were looking for and more.
The first site that we implemented was a total rebuild of the Dell Lounge. Out of the gate, we needed to heavily modify the default layout and much of the functionality. Community Server's Chameleon templating system made this a snap. While Chameleon’s user controls handled recurring tasks and details, our developers were free to concentrate on higher-level site functionality.
The Dell Lounge was such a success, and Community Server proved to decrease both development and maintenance time to such a degree, that we also chose the platform for Dell's Take Your Own Path series of regional websites. Take Your Own Path needed to support a large volume of daily traffic; Community Server has already proven itself more than capable.
As we update the sites, we'll build upon the current functionality and add more of the social media aspects that Community Server provides. I'm sure it will be a breeze.