Hemsons Official Website

Project Overview

The Hemsons International website was designed and developed by Isura Wickramarachchi in 2007 as the company's official online product catalogue and corporate website. The project was developed as a fully dynamic PHP/MySQL web application, enabling Hemsons to manage hundreds of laboratory and telecommunication products through a custom-built administration system.

Founded in 1948, Hemsons International is one of Sri Lanka's leading suppliers of laboratory, medical, scientific, and telecommunication products, representing internationally recognised manufacturers and serving universities, hospitals, research institutions, industries, and government organisations.

Unlike a traditional company website, this project was designed as a complete online product management platform, allowing staff to maintain product categories, subcategories, product details, and customer enquiries without requiring programming knowledge.

Design & Structure

The website adopted a clean corporate interface designed to represent two major divisions of the company:

• Laboratory Products
• Telecommunication Products

The homepage immediately introduces both divisions using large visual panels supported by high-quality photography representing laboratory science and modern communication technology.

The layout is divided into three main sections:

• Laboratory Product Navigation
• Corporate Information & Vision
• Telecommunication Product Navigation

This structure allowed visitors to quickly navigate to their area of interest while maintaining a balanced and professional appearance.

The design uses a combination of blue, silver, green, and yellow, creating a modern scientific and technology-oriented identity while maintaining excellent readability and usability.

Rounded content panels, soft gradients, and large product navigation areas reflected contemporary international corporate web design trends during 2007.

Unique Design Concept

The Hemsons website was designed to function as an online product management and enquiry system, rather than simply displaying company information.

One of the most innovative features was the custom-built administration panel, allowing staff to manage the complete product database through an easy-to-use interface.

Administrators could maintain:

• Product Categories
• Product Sub Categories
• Individual Product Information
• Product Descriptions
• Product Images
• Company Information

A particularly advanced feature for 2007 was the Product Request System.

Visitors could browse products and submit an enquiry directly from the website. The system automatically collected:

• Customer information
• Selected product(s)
• Product details
• Contact information
• Enquiry message

and generated an email containing both the customer details and the requested products, allowing the sales team to respond quickly without manually identifying the requested items.

This significantly streamlined the quotation process and reduced administrative work for the company.

Unique Design Features

• 100% custom-designed interface.
• Dynamic PHP/MySQL product management system.
• Custom-built administration panel.
• Laboratory product management.
• Telecommunication product management.
• Category management.
• Subcategory management.
• Product management.
• Product image management.
• Online Product Request System.
• Automatic email generation containing customer and product information.
• Corporate profile management.
• Cross-browser compatibility.
• Search-engine-friendly structure.
• Optimised for fast loading.

Unlike many supplier websites of the period that only displayed PDF catalogues, the Hemsons website functioned as a live online catalogue that staff could continuously update while providing customers with an efficient enquiry system.

Technical Highlights

• PHP/MySQL web application.
• Custom administration system.
• Product catalogue management.
• Category & subcategory management.
• Product enquiry module.
• Automated email notification system.
• Product image management.
• Corporate content management.
• Dynamic navigation.
• Optimised database structure.
• Cross-browser compatibility.

Significance

The Hemsons International project became one of Isura Wickramarachchi's most comprehensive business-to-business (B2B) product management websites of 2007. Rather than developing a simple corporate website, the project delivered a complete online catalogue management platform that enabled the company to organise and present a large portfolio of laboratory and telecommunication products while simplifying customer enquiries through automation.

The integrated administration panel gave Hemsons full control over its online product database, allowing staff to update categories, products, and content without technical assistance. The automated product enquiry system further enhanced business efficiency by sending detailed customer requests—including selected products—directly to the sales team for faster response times.

The long-term success of the company highlights the importance of this digital transformation. Today, Hemsons continues to be recognised as one of Sri Lanka's leading suppliers of laboratory and medical solutions, representing dozens of international brands and serving customers for more than 75 years.

This project remains an excellent example of how custom-built PHP/MySQL solutions in the mid-2000s could combine elegant corporate presentation with powerful business functionality, delivering measurable operational benefits well beyond a traditional company website.