The Public Housing Offices Federation (FOPH) asked XWiki SAS for a complete renewal of an existing website, created in the 90’s. The FOPH team needed a new website dedicated primarily to its members and to its institutional partners, featuring a new resource center. For this, based on IBM Lotus Notes, the interest was to integrate all existing documents in XWiki. Thanks to an effective rights management and a pleasant user interface, collaboration on these documents has become easier. Moreover, thanks to XWiki's powerful features and advanced search functionality, a user can easily find private or public documents in the website’s resource center. It goes even beyond, since FOPH offers on its website a joint search with the Social Union for Housing’s resource center.

1. CASE STUDY
A RESOURCE
CENTER

2. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
2
The National Federation of Public Housing Offices (FOPH) is a professional organization bringing
together all the 267 Public Housing Authorities, representing the 2.4 million homes of nearly 5
million people, 8% of households in France. These organizations are present throughout the
country providing a housing public service in cooperation with the local communities to which
they belong. The Federation of Public Housing Offices is part of the Confederation of the Social
Union for Housing.
The FOPH has three main tasks:
 to represent the offices together with the public authorities (Government, National Assembly,
Senate, etc.) on the policy directions for social housing in France
 to advise and assist the offices on administrative, legal, technical and financial issues
 to promote the public service features of the agencies’ operations and the social mission of
general interest
Background and issues
The FOPH website was created in March 1999, having the following objectives:
 to be the Federation’s window
 to improve and develop professional services between the Federation and the OPH
 to foster the relationships between the statutory entities and the member offices
 to encourage the dissemination, at that time, of the new information and communication
technologies (NTIC)
Sector: public
Need: website redesign -
structuring and organizing
digital content
Solution: a resource center
Product: XWiki Enterprise
“For this site, we got the chance to benefit from features created
specifically for our project: "front" site for the federation, respect
of our graphic design, news section, the setting up of a workflow
adapted to our organization... A "custom" product that will
continue to evolve in the coming months.
(Salima Nekaa-Bouret, Head of Communications and
Institutional Relations @FOPH)

3. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
3
In 2013, a rework of the FOPH website was decided. Even though the website already had a front
page and a space for business Q&A, the information was not easily accessible and the website design
was outdated.
Needs and constraints
The Federation wanted a complete rework of the website in order to:
 provide a more efficient tool for communication
 exchange and work in groups
 facilitate the everyday use for facilitating communication
 offer excellent visibility through the internet search engines
 develop a strong federal identity (with a renewed visual identity)
 create a resource center, which could be linked to the USH one (XWiki)
Another need was to open a website aimed primarily to its members and its partners (the main target
is not the general public) and have an interface organized around the concept of: "make our knowledge
known"
Constraints/Features:
 re-using the existing database from the old website for the opening of the new resource center
(about 300 documents)
 meet the expectations of a "common goal" with the USH for the resource center
 have a complete and simultaneous rework (front website and resource center creation)
 define graphical guidelines and create a Unified Classification Plan (PCU)
 launch the new website with a constrained delay
The XWiki solution
Project Management:
 phase 1: creation of graphical guidelines (site design), creation of a classification plan,
establishment of a resource center, opening the site
 phase 2: creation of collaborative workspaces, newsletters and online forms (in the future)

4. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
4
Features:
 support the features already offered by XWiki for the resource center
 request to create project-specific features: "window" site for the federation, respect of the
graphical design, news section, setting up workflows adapted to the organization, etc.
Search engine

5. XWiki SAS - 35/37, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 42 40 90
Fax: +33 (0)9 59 26 92 14
Email: contact@xwiki.com
Website: www.xwiki.com
5
FOPH Home page
The first results
 from writing the specifications until putting the website in production: 4 months
 strong involvement of the XWiki team and of the federation, with a main focus on the agenda
and an important testing phase for the Federation team
 a very good reception of the new site by the members of the federation
 resource center users are able to make their own livetable tools and perform optimal searches
 application of a more laborious Unified Classification Plan (PCU) for the contributors and a
revisable PCU internal culture.
Other projects:
 newsletters, development of a push feature
 collaborative spaces
 online Forms (registration or surveys)