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Bringing NBR's vision of an efficient and practical platform to life

Client

NBR

Services

UX & UI design
iOS & Android Applications
Modular CMS
eCommerce
API Integration

Year

2022
overview The National Business Review is New Zealand's authority in breaking business news and analysis.

The NBR site does a lot of heavy lifting, managing thousands of articles, users, comments and other data, and being updated and changed every single day. Their previous website, built on Drupal, was showing signs of significant strain, with major performance issues and significant limitations. NBR needed a lighter, faster and more flexible platform - and fast.

The work
A completely bespoke system for an extensive and evolving content library
We recognized that NBR needed a completely bespoke solution. We engineered a rebuild of the entire site on top of the SilverStripe framework, with a minor aesthetic update. At the same time, we merged two other standalone NBR platforms - NBR Marketplace and the new NBR Rich List - into the new site, building a custom CMS to handle all content in a single unified system. We also built an entirely new iOS and Android App.
Engineered
for the future

Underlying the technical architecture is a high performance, high availability LEMP stack (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP) hosted in AWS cloud infrastructure. It makes use of a number of AWS services including Cloudfront CDN, WAF firewall, S3 and SQS in order to provide the speed, scalability, and resiliency necessary for a platform of NBR’s size and complexity.

We developed a middleware solution to keep the new system synchronized with content added into the existing system
NBR has thousands of articles amassed over years of editorial work, as well as an incredible amount of additional data - users, comments, metadata. To ensure a seamless transition with no downtime and minimal risk, we developed a middleware solution to keep the new system synchronized with content added into the existing system.

The new, high-performance website launched in May 2022, with a modern design, new elements and a new platform that allows the team to better highlight breaking stories and in-depth features. The new platform set the foundation for a better mobile experience through the release of a Compact View layout option to view the website on any device.
A streamlined
and automated
eDM composer

As a news publication, NBR is in constant communication with their subscribers. As part of their new platform, we built a fully integrated system that allows their team to compose and send a stunning newsletter (eDM) with no design or technical expertise. They can define a headline, preview information, select any piece of pre-existing content (article, list or feature) which the system uses to automatically populate relevant fields in the email, select any additional content and even define when the email should be sent out - all without leaving the CMS. In doing so, they can turn what was once a laborious, manual process prone to errors into a streamlined flow that can be done with just a few clicks.

Behind the scenes, the email composer is integrated with their customer experience automation platform Active Campaign, which executes delivery and monitoring of the emails.

Mobile native experience
In tandem with the website relaunch, we released the completely new NBR app for iOS and Android. With this cross-platform mobile application, developed using React Native, readers can now get real-time news alerts, easily share stories, curate their reading list, and even download entire articles for viewing offline - all in an entirely reimagined user experience.

Expectations. The Collins dictionary defines them as “your strong hopes or beliefs that something will happen or that you will get something that you want.”
In creating a fresh, uncompromised web platform and app for NBR, Ale, Dwayne and the team at Nero Motion exceeded all hopes and expectations that Jackie, myself and fellow board members had, delivering intuitive design and functionality that now sets the bar for news websites on the international stage.
The result of Nero Motion’s passion, drive and thorough understanding of both our paid members and also our newsroom’s needs, saw the team deliver a website and app for members, like SpaceX is to astronauts.”
In fourteen years at the NBR, I have worked with many consultants and contractors, none as passionate or as innovative as Nero Motion. They are at one with us, and we with them.

  • Todd & Jackie Scott
  • Owners of the National Business Review
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