Times Union: City of Jacksonville hopes new website moves services online

[Patricia M. McBride]

Redesign of the city's web presence saves money, makes navigating easier.

Posted: December 28, 2010 - 12:00am

 

By Timothy J. Gibbons

It's not like e-commerce is new to the Jacksonville's Special Events department. Patrons could always buy stuff from the department's website - as long as they were willing to print out a form and mail it in with a check in order to pay.

Now, Special Events has moved into the modern world, where it will be joined in coming weeks by the rest of city government.

"It's definitely better for our office," said Tiffany Valla Hutto, who handles the department's site. "It's also great for the user. It gives them a much better experience."

The new functionality is one the first signs of a wholesale redesign of the city's web presence.

Over the past several months, the city's information technology department has rebuilt the entire site: As well as Special Events, the new version of the mayor's section of the site has been rolled out, with other departments debuting in coming weeks.

Two full-time and four part-time people worked on the site, said George Chakhtoura, the city's Geographic Information Systems manager who oversaw the project, done in-house.

The city has had a website since the early 1990s, with the current version dating back about a decade.

With the site's 5,000 pages getting about 19 million hits a week, Chakhtoura said, it was clear that an update was needed. At the same time, he said, the city saw the chance to add functionality to the site - more ties to social media, more usage of video, more interactivity.

"The capability is there. That's the important thing," said Kevin Holzendorf, director of Information Technology.

Eventually, for example, the city's procurement department would like to stream bid openings online, said Michael Clapsaddle, who oversees that department.

The division will also get more storage space, enabling it to post award packages for longer and put things such as general contract requirements on the site.

"Our goal long-term is to reference those sections that never change on the website," Clapsaddle said.

As well as providing more bells and whistles, the switch has also saved money. Going with an up-to-date version of Microsoft software would cost about $450,000. Switching to a platform called Kentico cost about $35,000.

The initial launch of the site won't utilize all the new tools developers have at their fingertips, Chakhtoura said. Once the old content has been fully migrated, though, each department will be able to play around with the system to see how it can be utilized.

The point, said Holzendorf, is to make the website a true gateway to city services.

"Our intent is to alleviate the need for people to have to come down here for services," he said. "For businesses, time is very important."

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