BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 6, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgeline Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq:BLIN), developer of the award-winning iAPPS Web Engagement Management platform and interactive technology solutions, today announced the recent launch of a new website for Winchester Hospital (winchesterhopsital.org), the leading provider of healthcare in northwest suburban Boston. Recently ranked in U.S. News and World Report's Regional Hospital Rankings as one of the best hospitals in Massachusetts, Winchester Hospital is a 229-bed facility that's been providing healthcare to the community for over a century. With a new website, hospital administration saw a chance to boost its overall image and increase patient and customer engagement. After a rigorous selection process, Winchester Hospital chose for their new website platform a solution developed on iAPPS Content Manager, including iAPPS Marketier and iAPPS Analyzer, as the launch pad for their online engagement and digital marketing strategies.
A New Direction Required an Updated Look
Winchester Hospital was in the process of a rebranding effort that leveraged a strong new positioning statement: "Advancing Health, Advancing Care." This new direction embraced their role as a community hospital – with all of the personalized care and comfort that entails – that was also dedicated to providing innovative, advanced treatments competitive with more recognizable metropolitan and national hospital brands. This overall effort coincided with the opening of a brand new Ambulatory Surgery Center and integrated Center for Cancer Care – two state-of-the-art and innovative facilities. Winchester Hospital required a website that expressed its unique combination of community hospital and leading edge treatment – their collaboration with Bridgeline on the design and development produced a truly unique site that is not only welcoming and engaging, but also technically sophisticated.
Bridgeline's iAPPS Product Suite is the industry's leading Web Engagement Management (WEM) solution and only WEM platform available in either a SaaS or perpetual license that unifies Content Management, e-Commerce, e-Marketing, and analytics capabilities - enabling users to swiftly enhance and optimize the value of their web properties. The capabilities built into the iAPPS Product Suite enable healthcare marketers from organizations like Children's Hospital Colorado, Moffitt Cancer Center, Maryland Hospital Association and Partners HealthCare to develop and manage more effective site and email marketing content. With iAPPS' single, unified platform, driving more effective, measurable campaigns gives marketers a distinct edge that can propel optimization of their online marketing channels.
iAPPS Eased Winchester Hospital's Pain Points
Prior to engaging Bridgeline to incorporate the iAPPS Product Suite into their digital marketing strategy, Winchester Hospital was hamstrung with a difficult-to-use content management system that made it challenging to keep website content fresh, updated and relevant, and limited their ability to produce really great results. The navigation schema and poor search capabilities of the prior site did not allow visitors to find information easily or complete simple tasks like registering for classes online. Additionally, the old site lacked integrated search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities such as natural language, friendly URLs, something that iAPPS addresses right out of the box and that can greatly improve search engine results.
Winchester Hospital tasked Bridgeline with developing an entirely new web experience from the ground up. Employing its user-centered design process consisting of user and stakeholder interviews, information architecture development, mood board sessions, multiple design rounds, user experience analysis, and extensive keyword research, Bridgeline conceived and developed a new website environment that stands out against the competition. The resulting design is a bright, exciting and engaging experience, layered upon the remarkably easy-to-use content management capabilities inherent to the iAPPS Product Suite. Major structural and architectural changes were incorporated to make key information easier to access while offering site visitors the ability to filter services by type and to highlight key hospital programs such as outpatient surgery, maternity and women's health. The new website was also developed to integrate with third-party medical databases.
Additionally, Bridgeline's iAPPS Support Group was leveraged for a digital strategy engagement and performed a highly detailed content audit along with extensive content marketing consultation, content enhancement, and SEO strategy development. Coupled with its innovative design – one that truly reflects the personality and commitment of Winchester Hospital – the site breathes new life into the hospital's online engagement just months after the organization's 100th birthday.
Bridgeline and Winchester Hospital are also currently developing an intranet on the iAPPS Platform, complete with functionality that allows Winchester Hospital's healthcare professionals to create and share forms and information efficiently online, and to automatically route vital information to appropriate parties. The new intranet will feature improved speed and efficiency, which will make updating its content easier, and will also provide special alerts for important staff-wide announcements. Additionally, hundreds of important policies, material handling and safety documents will be easily accessible in an organized and efficient manner.
"We are thrilled with our new public site. The time was right for Winchester Hospital to develop a site that provides an outstanding user experience and a look and feel consistent with our new brand promise, Advancing Health. Advancing Care. The content and functionality are smart and effective search engine optimization will mean more visitors to our site," said Mary Sweeney, Vice President of Strategic Planning, Business Development and Communications. "The skill, expertise and experience of the Bridgeline team made all the difference, they really came through for us," she added.
About Winchester Hospital
Winchester Hospital is the first community hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet® recognition, the American Nurses Credentialing Center's highest honor for nursing excellence. As the northwest suburban Boston area's leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, oncology, radiation oncology, gastroenterology, urology, gynecologic urology, rehabilitation, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Boston Children's Hospital, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org.
About Bridgeline Digital
Bridgeline Digital is the developer of the award-winning iAPPS® Web Engagement Platform and related interactive solutions.
The iAPPS platform deeply integrates Web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, and web Analytics capabilities within the heart of mission critical websites and eCommerce web stores, enabling customers to enhance and optimize the value of their web properties. Combined with award-winning interactive development capabilities, Bridgeline helps customers cost-effectively accommodate the changing needs of today's rapidly evolving web properties; enabling them to maximize revenue, improve customer loyalty, enhance employee knowledge, and reduce operational costs.
The iAPPS product suite is delivered through a Cloud-based SaaS business model, whose flexible architecture provides customers with state-of-the-art deployments that provide maintenance and daily technical operation and support; or via a traditional perpetual licensing business model, in which the iAPPS software resides on a dedicated server in either the customer's facility or Bridgeline's co-managed hosting facility.
Bridgeline Digital is headquartered near Boston with additional locations in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, and Bangalore, India. Bridgeline has hundreds of customers ranging from middle market organizations to divisions within Fortune 1,000 companies that include: L'Oreal, Sun Chemical, Parametric Technologies Corp, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Novartis, Shaw Flooring, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Guardian Life, Tosoh, Dover, ViaWest, PODS, AARP, Cadaret Grant & Co., CFO Magazine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. To learn more about Bridgeline Digital, please visit www.bridgelinedigital.com.
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