IOPC Funds
The back office to front page news
The content management system for the management of global oil spills.
Ensuring the easy retrieval of vital information within a single system across 3 languages.
We’re helping the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds update their entire digital strategy. A key objective for this client is to provide easy access to their wealth of documentation. Our first challenge was to install and implement a Google Search Appliance (GSA) – a rack-mounted box that provides a faceted search facility for their website. Pushing things to the limit as usual, we also developed a custom timeline search tool to help people browse the content.
Due to the extreme diversity of the searches carried out on the site, it was decided that the Google Search Appliance wasn’t quite up to the job. As such we designed and developed a more robust search using the Open Source Sphinx search solution. Using every tool at our disposal, we’ve brought these disparate sources into a single, coherent site used by IOPC, lawyers and officials from around the world. We have an elegant mix of TYPO3 and Sphinx.
The site runs three languages, with content migrated from historical websites, internal document management systems and all manner of other sources. IOPC’s long term roadmap didn’t end at the first migration, and we’ve been designing the best route from user experience to database along the way. We started with design workshops to give IOPC a feel for the whole process, from design through migration to development and deployment.
The customisation of Google maps within the site was a major part of the project and is worth viewing as a demonstration of our capabilities in this area.
Additionally we built a document server containing thousands of meeting records dating back to 1978. These records are all searchable and the results can then be filtered further within an intuitive interface.
Since 2001 we have been working with and developing tools for The International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds). A part of the International Maritime Organisation, as the name implies they are responsible managing insurance claims following oil spills.