| Service and solution: | Application Services |
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| Partners: | Heterogeneous |
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| Sector: | Government/Education/Non-Profit |
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| Download: | CCTB Search Case Study.pdf (89KB) |
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Logicalis implements a meta-search engine to make
search results more relevant by integrating multiple data
sources.
The Client
The Chicago Convention and
Tourism Bureau (CCTB) is the sales and marketing organization
charged with bringing both business and leisure visitors to
Chicago,; actively booking group meetings at McCormick Place, Navy
Pier and other venues, as well as promoting Chicago as a
destination to the visitor industry. The CCTB has three web sites:
ChooseChicago (targeted at the convention attendee), 877Chicago
(targeted at the tourist), and MeetInChicago (a subset of
both).
The Challenge
The CCTB was looking for a unified web search capability where web
site visitors could find everything in one spot and the results
would make sense. The CCTB uses a hosted software solution for
managing and directing web visitors to its many members. While the
hosted solution was an easy and cost effective way for CCTB to
manage its members, it did not provide intuitive search results nor
was it easy to customize. Additionally, the CCTB needed to
integrate their separate databases for city events and convention
activities into the search.
The Solution
Logicalis developed a meta-search engine that integrates multiple
search results from CCTB's hosted solution into a single,
comprehensive results page. The event and convention databases are
integrated into the single search box. Customized redirection based
on keywords and high level category listings are also supported by
the new search engine.
Key system technologies include EJBs and JSPs for search code, HTML
for display purposes, and JavaScript for interactivity. An open
source application server was used to host the solution and a DMZ
was configured to serve the solution from the CCTB office.
The Bottom Line
With Logicalis' help, the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau now
has a meta-search engine that provides more relevant results by
integrating multiple data sources. Visitors to their web site are
now able to find everything in one place with results that make
sense.