C A S E S T U D Y

Team Beachbody: A Large-ScaleSocial Community Platform Builton the Open Source Liferay PortalPublished: May 2010

A robust member community results in a complete fitness experienceRivet Logic helped launch a Liferay-based social community portal for TeamBeachbody®, the diet and fitness site founded by exercise and nutrition market leaderProduct Partners, LLC. Today, more than 1.5 million members visit Team Beachbodyand its featured WOWY SuperGym® application to interact and share experiencesabout workout routines, new fitness programs and diet regimens.

Case Study

Product Partners, LLC, a direct response mediacompany with a focus on fitness, nutrition, and weightloss management programs, launched the TeamBeachbody program as a membership-based onlinesupport community that offers a wide array of fitnessprograms and access to motivational trainers. TeamBeachbody was established to help people achieve theirfitness goals and enjoy healthy and fulfilling lives.

Today, the Team Beachbody brand is dynamic andrapidly growing, anchored by the Teambeachbody.comWeb site, which incorporates a set of tools that enableProduct Partners to make changes quickly and easily.When the Product Partners IT department decided itneeded to re-engineer the existing site, it initiated acomplete information architecture workshop, as well ascomprehensive user studies, in order to find a developmentplatform that best aligns with its long-term goals.

A Flexible Portal Solution Aligned with ProductPartners’ Business GoalsThe primary objective of the Teambeachbody.comredesign was to find a software application that couldscale with business growth and align with TeamBeachbody’s viral marketing nature. To accomplish

these goals, the company sought a robust and stableframework that could also provide much-neededflexibility and nimbleness to respond to an ever-changing set of business needs. After exploring thepossibility of developing homegrown solutions versusproprietary solutions versus open source alternatives,Product Partners ultimately selected the open sourceLiferay Portal platform, which provided TeamBeachbody with a mature framework for scalability,flexibility, ease of use, and enriching user experiences.

After the Product Partners IT department, led bySiddharth Jain, Senior Director of Engineering,considered all of the requirements for redesigning theexisting Team Beachbody site, the company quicklyrealized that an open source portal solution would bemost suitable. “We concluded that a portal would giveus the benefits we needed to rapidly develop the site,and make it more manageable in the future,” said Jain.

Liferay Delivers Low Cost and FlexibilityAfter carefully considering several out-of-the-box portaloptions, Product Partners arrived at a short list ofplatforms. The company selected Liferay Portal for twomain reasons. First, Liferay, as an open source solution,

• Organization – The Product Partners Team Beachbody siteis a total health and fitness online solution that providesmembers with the community, information, products andsupport they need to lose weight, gain muscle and stayhealthy.

• Challenge – Create a flexible, scalable and secure onlineenvironment that aligns with Product Partners’ viralmarketing structure and enables the company to respondto an ever-changing set of business needs.

• Solution – Product Partners chose Liferay for thedevelopment of its Team Beachbody site, primarily becauseof its low total cost of ownership and the availability of awide array of collaboration portlets. Rivet Logic—a GoldPartner for Liferay—led the development andimplementation of the WOWY SuperGym® application, afeatured element of the overall Team Beachbody experience.

• Results – The WOWY SuperGym application, developedand deployed by Rivet Logic, has resulted in strongercustomer loyalty and recurring revenue opportunitiesthrough a set of social collaboration features thatencourage use and membership retention.

1 TEAM BEACHBODY: A LARGE-SCALE SOCIAL COMMUNITY PLATFORM BUILT ON THE OPEN SOURCE LIFERAY PORTAL

C A S E H I G H L I G H T SRivet Logic deploys a Liferay community solution that delivers numerous end-user and business benefits.

Case Study

offered the lowest total cost of ownership. Second, as arobust application development platform withnumerous collaboration portlets and back-end services,Liferay provided Product Partners with the flexibility itneeded moving forward. “Liferay gave us the ability tolaunch multiple sites and applications from the sameplatform,” said Jain. In the meantime, Product Partnersselected Rivet Logic, a Liferay Gold Partner, to lead thedevelopment of its newWOWY SuperGym application.“Rivet Logic proved to be a valuable member of thedevelopment team, seamlessly integrating a complexapplication into the Team Beachbody experience.”

While the availability of collaboration tools, anintegrated content management system, and a JSR-compliant application were all important to Jain andhis team, what really played a critical role inredesigning the Team Beachbody site—and inovercoming some critical hurdles that would have

delayed the launch by months—was flexibility. Thisenabled Liferay to extend the application to include avariety of features, including discussion forums,scheduling and sharing workout calendars, contests,friend feeds and email integration, among others.“Liferay was a perfect fit for us since we were able toget some core enhancements done and some newfeatures developed. Liferay’s concept of ‘sponsoreddevelopment’ was a big factor,” said Jain.

Developing a Nimble Liferay-Based Social Communityto Enhance the Team Beachbody ExperienceRivet Logic’s deep technical knowledge and experiencedesigning and implementing innovative open sourceapplications proved to be a winning combination forProduct Partners. “We were building a social applicationwith some unique demands, so we needed a trustedLiferay development partner with proven experiencebuilding innovative solutions,” said Jain. Critical to the

2 TEAM BEACHBODY: A LARGE-SCALE SOCIAL COMMUNITY PLATFORM BUILT ON THE OPEN SOURCE LIFERAY PORTAL

Figure 1. The feature-rich WOWY SuperGym site enhances the Team Beachbody end-user experience and drives revenueopportunities.

Case Study

success of the WOWY SuperGym program and services isthe ability to scale and integrate additional features asneeds dictate. Liferay enables site editors to create andupload content quickly and easily, while allowing end-users to participate in community activities, and communicatewith other users through social networking functionality.Rivet Logic worked collaboratively with the ProductPartners team and delivered a solution based on provenbest practices and a comprehensive understanding of thelarger business objectives for the Team Beachbody brand.

Rivet Logic’s design and development work on theWOWYSuperGym application leveraged Liferay’s core capabilities andenabled Team Beachbody to showcase a variety of sociallyenabled end-user experiences. In particular, Rivet Logic:

• Leveraged Liferay’s calendar service to develop a

customized calendar portlet for workout scheduling

• Customized Liferay’s standard portlets to provide acustomized message board capability

• Extended Liferay’s scheduling services for allbackground tasks and collection of workout statistics

• Utilized Liferay’s email service for all emailcommunications among community members

• Used Liferay’s group services to implement workoutgroups, which allow users to connect with peoplewho share goals and experiences

• Developed the entire custom user interface, which inaddition to all the social features also included avariety of fitness tools

3 TEAM BEACHBODY: A LARGE-SCALE SOCIAL COMMUNITY PLATFORM BUILT ON THE OPEN SOURCE LIFERAY PORTAL

• Feature-rich end-user experiences that facilitate engaginginteraction and improve membership retention

• Community functionality that builds customer loyalty andgenerates recurring revenue opportunities

• Efficient IT operations through a flexible and scalable opensource community solution

• Optimal ROI due to low cost of ownership, which enablesProduct Partners to invest in innovation rather thansoftware costs

• Comprehensive out-of-the-box tools that provideadministrators with the flexibility needed to respond tochanging needs

B E N E F I T S

Figure 2. Among the many features of WOWY SuperGym is an area where members can join workout groups that suit theirfitness objectives and share experiences with other members.

Case Study

Rivet Logic is an award-winning consulting and systemsintegration firm that helps organizations better engage withcustomers, improve collaboration and streamline businessoperations. Through a full suite of solutions for contentmanagement, collaboration and community, Rivet Logicenables organizations to fully leverage the power of industry-leading open source software. With deep expertise in

technologies such as Alfresco, Liferay, Spring, JBoss andApache, Rivet Logic crafts content-rich solutions that powernext-generation Web properties, Enterprise 2.0 applicationsand collaborative communities. With offices throughout theUSA, Rivet Logic serves clients across a wide range ofindustries. Rivet Logic—Artisans of Open Source.

4 TEAM BEACHBODY: A LARGE-SCALE SOCIAL COMMUNITY PLATFORM BUILT ON THE OPEN SOURCE LIFERAY PORTAL

• Created control panel portlets for the Product Partnersstaff to administer the entireWOWYSuperGym application

• Enabled users to gain knowledge from TeamBeachbody’s team of expert trainers and communicatewith people who have heeded their advice

• Ensured that the WOWY SuperGym applicationwould perform and scale to handle millions ofconcurrent users

Overall, the new WOWY SuperGym application addssignificant benefits for all stakeholders. The site extendsthe existing Team Beachbody community to includeadditional participants, such as expert trainers who cancustomize workout programs for members. WOWYSuperGym enhances the end-user experience by

allowing members to participate in live chats withtrainers, interact with other members who are followingsimilar training regimens via message boards, and createpersonalized workout groups to connect with peoplewho share similar goals and interests.

For Product Partners, the WOWY SuperGym applicationdelivers bottom-line benefits. Enhancing the communityfunctionality of the Team Beachbody site enables ProductPartners to build customer loyalty, expand membership,and generate recurring revenue through the socialcommunity. A cost-effective, zero-license-fee approachbased on open standards enables Product Partners to scalethe Team Beachbody platform to meet user demand. As aresult, the Liferay-based solution enabled ProductPartners to minimize upfront investment and focusefforts on customization and innovation. The opensource model established a foundation from which toreduce operating costs and accommodate future extensions.

To learn more, call Rivet Logic.For more information about Liferay and how it can helpbenefit your business, call Rivet Logic at 703.955.3480 orvisit rivetlogic.com.

"Rivet Logic proved to be a valuable member ofthe development team, seamlessly integrating acomplex module into the rest of the TeamBeachbody experience.”

-Siddharth JainSenior Director of Engineering, Product Partners

A B O U T P R O D U C T P A R T N E R S , L L C / B E A C H B O D Y . C O M

Founded in 1998 by Carl Daikeler and Jon Congdon, ProductPartners, LLC operates Beachbody.com, Teambeachbody.comand BreakthroughInBeauty.com The company is based in SantaMonica, California and is the creator of the nation's mostpopular in-home fitness and weight loss solutions, includingP90X®, Insanity®, Brazil Butt Lift®, Slim in 6®, Turbo Jam®,Hip Hop Abs® and Power 90®, among many others.Beachbody programs combine challenging DVD-basedworkouts with easy-to-follow diet guidelines, nutritionalsupplements (including its breakthrough health shake calledShakeology®, AKA “The Healthiest Meal of the Day”), and anunparalleled customer service and peer-support system. In fact,Beachbody has expanded this support system through

Teambeachbody.com, which includes a network of thousands ofindependent "Coach" distributors, as well as a dynamic onlinesupport and fitness community. The company's beauty businessincludes brands Timeless Secret™and DermExclusive™. Thecorporate mission is to help people achieve their goals andenjoy healthy, fulfilling lives.

Beachbody®, Team Beachbody®, WOWY SuperGym®, and allrelated designs, images, trade dress, websites, and otherintellectual property are owned by Product Partners, LLC andmay not be used without Product Partners, LLC’s priorexpress written consent.

A B O U T R I V E T L O G I C