Mercer University Law School Powered by CommonSpot

Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law, also known as Mercer Law, is one of 12 schools of Mercer University, one of America’s oldest and most distinctive institutions of higher learning. Mercer Law has been preparing law students for lives of service and graduating practice-ready lawyers who uphold the highest ideals of the legal profession since 1873.

CommonSpot transformed the way content is managed for all twelve Mercer schools and colleges. Prior to selecting CommonSpot, Mercer used a web content management system (CMS) that was too difficult for content authors to use. When searching for a new CMS, Mercer used its own usability lab within the School of Engineering to test the vendor finalists for user-friendliness. CommonSpot came out on top and thus began a successful partnership between Mercer University and PaperThin.

"We knew CommonSpot met all of our feature and technical requirements, but ultimately, it needed to be something that was easy enough for our web authors to use. It became very clear through usability testing that, unlike some of its competitors, CommonSpot is a CMS built to be a CMS, and it excels at it." Rob Saxon, Director of Web Management

A team of professionals from Mercer and PaperThin implemented CommonSpot together.  Mercer’s development team went through CommonSpot developer training prior to the implementation. That preparation enabled them to be very involved in the construction of the site. The project emphasized two goals: communicating a uniform Mercer brand and creating a single web platform for all twelve colleges and schools.  By accomplishing both goals, Mercer achieved a consistent look and feel across its entire web presence, a first for the University. 

In addition to these goals, usability shared equal importance. Mercer’s team focused on giving content authors, regardless of their skill sets, the flexibility to create pages that reflect their content needs. By utilizing elements and security within CommonSpot, contributors easily control aspects of page templates without eroding the overall look and feel for the University.

With basic training, Mercer’s community of content authors found they could easily maintain assigned sections of the site on their own. Previous bottlenecks were eliminated. As a unified platform, CommonSpot affords Mercer’s Web Management team the opportunities and tools to innovate and evolve website features in ways that previously were not possible. Through CommonSpot, functionality can be tailored to a specific need or configured to benefit the entire Mercer web community.

"We love using CommonSpot. The system’s flexibility and customizability inspires our team to think about how we can use it to create new website features that will help the University meet its business goals. New development can be built quickly and with relative ease. With CommonSpot, the possibilities are endless," added Rob Saxon

Today, Mercer University’s website is polished, current, and feature-rich making it easier to attract new students. The website uses videos, photo galleries, events, faculty profiles and other features to clearly convey the University’s intimate, student-focused culture more characteristic of smaller liberal arts colleges.

"CommonSpot allows the University to effectively communicate its disctinctives, accomplishments and mission to a broad scope audience. The scalability and ease of use of the CMS allows me to collaborate with multiple deans, department heads and content managers while ensuring that this message is consistent throughout. And as web trends and technologies evolve and advance over time, I can remain confident that CommonSpot will continue to be a major asset to us in the future." Matt Smith, Director of Online Marketing 

 


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