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Preferred Commerce Case Study

Questions? Ask us. BoxPreferred Commerce Reaps Rewards with a Sitecore Web Publishing Solution from mindSHIFT 

About Preferred Commerce
Since 1999, Preferred Commerce has been providing the horticultural industry with best- of-breed Internet solutions. During this time, the company has grown from a single product, PlantFind.com®, to a family of solutions that respond directly to a customer's needs. The Learn2Grow® Web site has blossomed into a leading Internet site for home gardeners. For more information on Preferred Commerce, visit www.preferredcommerce.com. To experience the Learn2Grow Web site, visit www.learn2grow.com. 

The Challenge 
In 2006, Preferred Commerce had an exciting new idea: develop an online information resource and interactive community for gardeners and home owners called Learn2Grow.com. The concept was unique and engaging, and there was strong sponsorship interest from major consumer resellers of plants and gardening supplies.

Preferred Commerce had some major hurdles to jump before they could launch the site. For starters, to build a large-scale consumer site, they needed an enterprise-class content management solution that could support their integration plans and personalization features. The new Web site would require a single sign-on function for thousands of registered users simultaneously accessing different areas of the site. This would require extensive back-end integration with existing software and specialized support applications. Additionally, they needed to complete this project quickly.

The Solution


Learn more about Sitecore
Preferred Commerce went in search of an enterprise-class content management system. After reviewing many alternatives, Steve Griffin, CIO of Preferred Commerce, had this to say about their final choice: “Sitecore had an extensible and well thought-out framework that we could build upon, without complicating future upgrades of the core CMS product. Overall, it was a good value and met our scalability and customization requirements.”


The next step was to find an experienced application development partner capable of delivering on the complex requirements of the project. mindSHIFT Technologies, which maintains one of the most experienced Sitecore deployment teams in the United States, was tapped, and the Learn2Grow.com team was assembled.

To achieve the goals of Preferred Commerce for this project, mindSHIFT implemented Preferred Commerce’s user interface designs and personalization features. “The site needed to target content for users based on where they lived, their gardening interests, the time of year, and their gardening proficiency,” said Frank Tansey, Preferred Commerce’s Chief Innovation Officer.

mindSHIFT also developed a scalable application platform and hosting infrastructure. This application platform integrated a number of specialized applications across the Learn2Grow site, including Sitecore, CRM, eLearning, corporate mail, database, and e-commerce systems. Preferred Commerce developed the content, provided the user interface design, and created adapters that tied-in with the single sign-on architecture that mindSHIFT developed.

In addition to the integration and user interface implementation work, mindSHIFT also hosts the Sitecore software, specialized support applications, and the many Learn2Grow servers at its SAS 70 Type II data centers. And because mindSHIFT is a certified Microsoft Gold Partner, product licensing was handled for Preferred Commerce as well.

The new and exciting interactive Learn2Grow.com site clearly demonstrated Preferred Commerces’s capabilities and ultimately enabled Preferred Commerce to secure a major sponsorship with Lowe’s.

Business Value & Benefits
With this Sitecore-based solution from mindSHIFT, Preferred Commerce was able to achieve multiple goals:

  • Quickly build a new site with the Sitecore content management system
  • Leverage and integrate existing infrastructure and processes
  • Provide registered users of Learn2Grow.com with convenient single sign-on functionality across the site
  • Implement a consistent design across all areas of the Web site
  • Enable smooth approvals and workflow for content publishing

For Preferred Commerce, a major benefit of working with mindSHIFT was the ability to rely on a single point of contact for a key technical portion of the project. With mindSHIFT as a technology partner, Preferred Commerce was able to focus on their core area of expertise – delivering quality gardening and horticultural information services to businesses and consumers.

“With mindSHIFT providing application development, integration, application licensing and configuration, and hosting, we significantly reduced our development and launch risks,” said Steve Griffin. “And, by delivering on the vision, we secured a strategically important sponsorship with Lowe’s.”

To view a demo of one of Learn2Grow.com's many fun and interactive online gardening courses, click here.

Additional Resources
To learn more about how the Boy Scouts of America used Sitecore to improve functionality and their Web publishing process, click here.