Internet security, copyright and plagiarism are a few examples of the issues that have surfaced over the years as the Internet continues to evolve and drive the ever changing destination of the Information Superhighway.
Monitoring Content. Companies and organizations are discovering the hard way just how important that the implementation of security features such as firewalls and intellectual property management can be to their Web infrastructure. Just a short time ago, Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina had experienced the pitfalls inherent to a system that offered limited control resulting in the discovery of copyrighted material on their Web site. Due to the inability to oversee or manage unwanted or outdated content, site management was beginning to spiral out of control.
Vice President of Administration, Gary Hanson, had the foresight to know that there were other options available to the distinguished university and actively sought after a solution. Because Hanson is responsible for the overall computing environment on campus, including their Web presence, Hanson committed to assembling a team of about 20 members to comprise what was later known as the Web maintenance committee. This group had several meetings over the course of two years to discuss the specific issues that they would need to address within their site.
Extend Solution. A host of suitable vendors gave their sales presentations to the committee; among them was ACS Technologies. Hanson was already aware of the capabilities that ACS Technologies had to offer in addition to their impeccable track record because Hanson’s church used the reputable church management software. ACS Technologies was one of the three qualifying bids. “Gradually, it became clear that ACS had the solution we needed in their Extend Platform mainly because they were an externally hosted content vendor,” Hanson explained. In the end, ACS emerged as the winning bid.
To begin implementing this large scale process, initial training sessions were scheduled for the network administrators. Mike Jordan, professor of psychology and director of institutional research at the university teamed with Hanson to provide the training that would get the project started. Hanson and Jordan formed an instrumental partnership dedicated to overseeing the vision, development, direction and outcome of the site. “We lacked commonality down to the tier one level. It was difficult to update information and we knew that we wanted standardization across the board.” Jordan explained.
Creating Subgroups. The university had nine departments represented within the campus and an administrator for each of these sites or departments. These subgroups were then chartered with the responsibility of content development geared to represent their individual organizations. Jordan was responsible for the Academics pull down menu on the site which required the input from 14 departmental staff members. Jordan remarked, “We thought that it was important to allow each department to have their own identity, look and content. We are proud that we have kept the wrapper consistent but have the variation representative of the various aspects of the Academics department everywhere else. This is significant when one considers the quantity of information available on our site.”
On Site Support. During this initial process, ACS Technologies provided Francis Marion University an entire project management team complete with a graphic designer to create the look, feel and image reticent of the University. A trainer and program manager were also deployed to support this endeavor. Jordan noted, “It was great to have an ACS Technologies support person on site. He stayed with us for about the first month and a half of the three month long project and stayed there while we were articulating the site which was very useful.”
When asked what kind of feedback they have received, Hanson replied, “We are extremely happy with ACS Technologies. We get excellent comments about our site. Students and staff members often praise us on how easy it is to find what they are looking for. We spent a lot of time fine tuning the navigation issues and are extremely pleased with what the product can do for us.” Jordan added, “The students tend to use the ‘Current Students’ pages that enable them to access the necessary links to monitor grades, upcoming class schedules and so forth. Now that we have the Extend Platform, overall, we have a better presence than we have ever had.”
Communications Services. Nancy Wright is the administrative manager for the communications services department and oversaw the content development of her organization during this process. The department is chartered with the responsibility of creating and maintaining university communications including external media relations, internal communications, the production of official university publications for off campus audiences and the marketing and communication support for university initiatives.
To better determine the content elements that would be featured, Wright assessed what elements she wanted to retain from the previous site and those that would be entirely new. With the Extend Platform, there were no limitations on storage, unlike their old site. As a result, anything that they wanted to incorporate was a viable possibility. Wright began researching current trends from other university Web sites to better determine what should be represented.
Archives. One significant function of Wright’s department is to create, maintain and monitor all news and sports releases at the University. The communications services department produces approximately 250-350 releases per year that are then archived on the Web site.
“We wanted our department to be part of a site that was easily accessible. We didn’t want users to have to go through 20 layers just to get to the information that they needed,” Wright explained. Wright continued, “Extend offers us the ability to tailor our information to our specific needs and that has been a real plus. We are also able to put a great deal of information out on the Web and that has been good for us too.”
Jordan summed up his experience by stating, “I found that ACS Technologies was extremely supportive and solved issues as they surfaced. Now we are confident and know that we can change items in our site without a lot of effort. Site content can be opened for syndication and accessible to those with network privileges which has been really useful because I am able to change things right then and there.”
“This will be particularly useful to us when we launch another site to showcase our Accreditation process in the coming years. Having Extend, I already know that this process will go smoothly by utilizing the same process, format and links.”
About Francis Marion University
Francis Marion University is one of South Carolina's 13 state-supported universities, providing a strong liberal arts based undergraduate education with degrees in the arts, laboratory sciences, business, education and the social and behavioral sciences. The university also provides graduate programs in education, business and psychology. FMU is fully accredited and enrolls nearly 4,000 students in an intimate campus environment near Florence, S.C.
ACS Technologies Products and Services Used
Web Site Building Tool: Extend Platform
Services: Support, Training, Network
Web Site
www.fmarion.edu
