UK record company launches world's first live Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 project

UK dance music record label Hed Kandi has launched the world's first ever live implementation of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by launching a revamped version of its website.

The label, which is owned by nightclub and club culture group Ministry of Sound created the site with the help of Microsoft UK and cScape Internet Services which is based in Clerkenwell, London.

cScape has handled the technical development, while front end designs have been provided by Hed Kandi's in-house team featuring the record company's distinctive album covers.

Hed Kandi is a major trend setter on the global clubbing scene and is best known for its stylish dance music compilation albums and plush events around the world. To ensure the label’s distinctive style is brought to the forefront, tools such as blogs and user-generated content, which are enabled automatically by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, feature prominently on the new site

"Ministry Of Sound is right on the cutting edge of technology adoption. Theirs is the first web content management system in production running on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 -- a product only scheduled for release at the end of this year with the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Even though Ministry of Sound accept risk in deploying software while it is still in beta, much of this risk is offset by having a highly skilled partner, cScape, support them throughout the planning, development and deployment of the Hed Kandi website," said Rob Gray, product marketing manager at Microsoft UK.

The Hed Kandi site serves as a portal for all upcoming events, all record releases and all other aspects of the brand. Users can create an online profile, sign up to newsletters and browse and contribute to discussions around releases and events. Fans can also read and comment on Hed Kandi's DJ blogs.

"The redesign of the Hed Kandi website presented us with an opportunity to move the site from the infrastructure which we inherited following our acquisition of the brand earlier this year onto what will be our future web platform. We faced aggressive timescales for this project and wanted the site to use a number of features. The decision to use MOSS was based on the key components of content management, search and community that were all integrated and available out-of-the-box. From the experience we've gained on this project we'll be in a position to migrate our Content Management Server 2002 sites to standardise our web presence on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007," commented the aptly named James Bacchus, head of operations at Ministry of Sound and Hed Kandi.