HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 09-15-2009 - 3dORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: September 15, 2009,
Action Agenda
Item No. ~_
SUBJECT: New
Website
DEPARTMENT: Information Technologies
ATTACHMENT(S):
PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
INFORMATION CONTACT:
Todd Jones, (919) 245-2285
PURPOSE: To receive a presentation on the new Orange County website.
BACKGROUND: The Orange County website (http://www.co.orange.nc.us) has steadily grown
since its inception in 1996. Its growth was initially driven by individual departments creating
webpages to address their customers' needs. While this process ensured each department was
able to tailor their websites to their constituent communities, there was no overarching website
strategy or formal web authoring standards to manage the growth of information or the evolving
public needs over time.
Over the past three years, the Information Technologies department has worked with
departmental web administrators in a collaborative effort to address issues resulting from the
informal evolution of the County's website. These efforts were described in a report presented to
the Board on April 24, 2007.
An interim web template designed by Information Technologies in 2007 to standardize the
display and consistency of website information was adopted by a significant majority of the
County departments. This template was intended to be a temporary design until a professional
template redesign could be performed. To that end, the County Manager identified a team
representing the breadth of departments within the County to select a vendor for designing a set
of templates. The team consists of: Gwen Harvey, Assistant County Manager; Willie Best,
Assistant County Manager, David Hunt, Deputy Clerk /Information Specialist; and Todd Jones,
Chief Information Officer. A vendor, Kelly Marcom of Sanford, NC, was chosen and contract
signing was approved by the Board on June 24, 2008. The resulting template design produced
the following benefits:
• A look and feel to reflect the County government's character and priorities
• A "public-centric" focus on structuring the County website and search mechanisms
• Consistency across departments
• ADA compliance
• Multiple search mechanisms. to support a wide range of public access preferences
• A template which supports quick and easy updates for departmental data
• Streamlined design for quick loading, even for those using dial-up Internet access
• Background image support for rotating and/or seasonal images
• A foundation on which ongoing website evolution can efficiently be advanced
The templates developed by Kelly Marcom, under the County's direction, control the look and
feel of the County's web pages. The Information Technologies group developed conversion
filters to convert all the County's web pages which use the current template into the look and
feel of the new templates, resulting in a website with an increasingly modern, professional, and
cohesive appearance and ultimately, heightened appeal and utility to the public.
In conjunction with this new website project, the County's Information Technologies Department
has implemented an alternative website address (http://www.orangecountync.gov) so that the
public can use an easy to remember address to access the County's website. The old address,
(http://www.co.orange.nc.us) will still be fully supported. Any webpage in the County website
can be accessed with either address.
As of today, September 15, 2009, the files for the new County website have been copied over
and the new website is now live. Any bookmarks or web addresses saved by the public will still
direct them to the information in question. County webmasters and Information Technologies
will use the new County website as a foundation for continuing evolution of digital public
outreach, as the County adds new interactive services, fine tune web content and implement
new ways of serving the public.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: With the significant cross-departmental collaborative effort, the total
budgetary cost of the County website redesign effort has been $12,000.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Interim Manager recommends the Board accept this
presentation and provide feedback to staff.