In-House Portal Website

The Kubota Group operates globally, with businesses in more than 110 countries. Since their establishment in 1890, they have worked to solve global issues related to food, water, and the environment.

Monstar Lab was tapped to develop an in-house portal website that would allow KUBOTA Corporation headquarters to communicate information to each global site, and that would also be more convenient for domestic use.

The Issue

Existing KUBOTA Corporation portal websites have been built and managed locally by each site, making it very difficult to communicate information and share knowledge amongst global sites.

There was also a need to update the features and design of the domestic in-house portal website, in accordance with changes in web design trends and technological advancements.

Our Solution

Monstar Lab developed and implemented the scalability required for KUBOTA Corporation’s vision and integrated the features necessary for the first phase release, all within a limited time frame and budget. To do this, we built the portal website using the customization option of the CMS platform Drupal, which is known for its multi-lingual support and scalability. We went through many instances of trial and error in order to fulfill their requirements and requests while utilizing Drupal’s standard features and were able to complete development within the short time frame required of us.

Our use of custom Drupal to develop the website instead of implementing groupware also meant being able to provide KUBOTA Corporation with an environment where they could conduct the maintenance, addition of features, etc. flexibly and on their own—something that had been a request of theirs.

The Result

In-house implementation is currently underway, with the in-house portal website now set as the home page for PCs provided by KUBOTA Corporation. The website is now being used by over 7,000 domestic employees. 

Currently, the website is used mainly by the Public Relations Office to communicate in-house information and notices. It has proven to be more efficient thanks to the functionality that allows the selection of specific groups of recipients and the system indicates if they have actually read the messages.  

The fact that the website is now able to display visual content also led to a more meaningful experience for users, as well as a gradual increase in the number of requests our client has received to make the portal website available for other divisions. There has also been news that the portal website has given them hints as to how they should advance their global coordination in the future.