What is a web portal?

“Web Portal” is a term, often used interchangeably with gateway, for a World Wide Web site whose purpose is to be a major starting point for users. There are general portals and specialized or niche portals. Some major general portals include Yahoo, CNET, AOL, and MSN. Examples of niche portals that are accessible to the public include Garden.com (for gardeners), Fool.com (for investors), and DPReview.com (for photographers).

Typical services offered by portal sites include a directory of Web sites, a facility to search for other sites, news, weather information, e-mail, stock quotes, phone and map information, and sometimes a community forum.

What is the Vermont.gov portal?

For Web users the Vermont.gov portal is the single point of entry to information or services from or about the Government of the State of Vermont.

What is the Enterprise Content Management System (CMS)?

The enterprise CMS is a tool for State of Vermont Web developers. The CMS infrastructure will be designed in such a way that it can become a tool available across the enterprise for managing Web resources. This will allow any state or quasi-state organization to use the CMS to manage its Web based content.

For individuals or programs that own online content the CMS will allow non-technical staff of individual agencies and departments to manage their own Web content on a remote server using only their current Web browser.

Finally the CMS is an entirely new way to think about Web sites. With this system Web site creation, hosting and maintenance will no longer be issues that state staff members need to consider. Web hosting will be a service rather than project based. Just as email addresses are now requested for new staff members, Web sites can be requested for new programs. Usually within a week or two of receiving the requirements for a new site the site will be created and ready for content to be added. Where today a new Web site can take months to get launched, with the web portal this time could be cut to a few weeks for a small site.

I've heard the portal is self-funded. What does that mean?

Small convenience fees added to certain transactions that occur online will fund the development of the site. The contractor selected to build the portal will collect these fees as payment for development of the portal and ongoing maintenance costs. The transactions will be primarily Business to Government transactions and are accepted by all parties. The vendor will be providing value added transactions that more than justify the extra fee for businesses.

Does "self-funded" mean people will be paying twice for transactions conducted online?

If we look at the options for obtaining state services all have some kind of cost. A trip to a state office to do business with the state in person will cost you whatever travel time is required to reach the office plus the cost of transportation to reach the office. Not all online transactions will require a fee. Those that do will carry a fee that will probably be comparable to a gallon or two of gas. Again, most fees of this sort will be generated by businesses that will receive value added service that is not currently available online or off.

What is the Web Portal Board?

The legislature this year passed Act 891. This act authorized the formation of the Web Portal Board whose responsibility is to approve convenience fees on the new portal and provide oversight in general for the Web Portal Project.

What is the benefit of a Web Portal Project?

The State of Vermont has been ranked among the lowest nationally in providing state government content and services online over the last half decade. There are several aspects to this low ranking but some of the more important are:

• There has been no consistency in the naming of official Web sites of the state, making it difficult for the user to determine if they have actually reached a state site.

• There has been no consistency to the navigation on the various state Web sites. On each Vermont site the user must learn a new navigational system.

• State information and services tend to be grouped by internal bureaucratic structure rather than in ways useful to visitors

• There has been no search feature that is capable of searching all state web sites.

• Common information produced by organizations across state government, such as press releases and notifications, are produced in a wide variety of mutually incompatible formats.

All consideration in the design of the portal and CMS will be secondary to whether the design provides a useful interface between our various audiences and the state.

The Web Portal Project also represents a large cost savings for agencies and departments. There will be no hosting cost, no development cost, no creation of RFPs to alter old or create new Web sites, no waiting for the RFP process to conclude, and no involvement in management of Web-based content for technical staff.

Will all state websites be part of the CMS?

Initially only the Vemont.gov pages and a few selected sites will be included in the CMS. Now that the CMS is ready for use it will be the default platform for all state web development. Any site that is newly built or significantly redesigned will need to move into this environment.

That said there are a great many positive aspects to hosting a site on the new system.

• Non-technical staff can substantially maintain the site.

• The site structure can be built and activated in a matter of days.

• There will be no need for creating an RFP or contracting with a vendor.

• The site will not require the purchase or maintenance of any hardware.

• The site has no maintenance costs.

• The site automatically complies with ADA Web requirements.

• The site automatically complies with all state Web standards.

• The site is hosted in a guaranteed 24/7 facility with independent power.

• There will be support from experienced Web developers on ways to improve a site's performance.

When will it start?

The project to redevelop the Web Portal Project began in October of 2006 and is now fully underway. The Vermont.gov Web Portal launched in the fall of 2007 and the CMS launched a few weeks later. There are currently several site in development within the CMS.

What should I do if we are considering changes to our site?

All web development taking place after the launch of the CMS will take place in the new environment. There may be occasional very large or complex Web projects for which this model will not be suitable. These projects will be addressed on an individual basis as they arise.

Can we process transactions online?

One of the primary goals of the Web Portal Project is to provide an enterprise solution for online transactions. This service will be available for both fee-generating and non-fee-generating transactions.

Who will do the integration development?

Integration between the portal environment and systems developed outside that environment will need to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Third parties will need to work with the vendor to determine the role of state staff, the portal vendor and any third party vendors involved in the project.

How much control will we have over the look and feel of the site?

All state Web sites being developed must comply with the Look and Feel and Accessibility Policies and Standards as of April 2006. The state Web portal Content Management System (CMS) will automatically incorporate all the requirements of the standards associated with these policies into all Web sites and Web pages developed in this environment.

Therefore individual organizations within the state will have the same control over look and feel whether they are housed on the new system or not. With the new system there will be no need to invest time and resources in complying with these standards, however, as this work will be done by the system.

Colors, graphics, buttons, etc. will be in the control of the individual site administrators where they do not conflict with the standards. Note also that the Chief Marketing Officer has created marketing standards for the Web and are available for use.

How will the portal impact control of agency and departmental websites?

Once a Web site is moved to the Web portal system, control of the site will improve markedly for most users. Currently, only a few staff members have access to update any given Web site. Under the proposed Web portal solution any staff member could be given access rights to update or add content. Access through the site will be through a Content Management System (CMS) accessible through a standard Web browser.

What will the vendor do?

The vendor will be the developer of the infrastructure needed to house the portal system. This will include creating the hosting environment, providing the content management system, developing the fee generating applications, processing online payments, and developing other Web based services.

The vendor will not maintain the content of individual web pages. End users will have access to the system to edit, delete, add, or reorganize their online content.

Where will the pages be hosted?

The actual server hosting the sites will be in a secure location with advanced site and electronic security. The facility will be able to provide 24/7 availability due to redundant power sources and telecommunication connections. The facility itself will be located in Virginia. No comparable facility exists in the State of Vermont.

What other states' have a self-funded model?

The vendor chosen for this project has created similar eGovernment systems for the following governmental organizations: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia. Many other state and local government organizations are using transaction fees to finance their Web presence.