N.C. revamps Commerce site
- By Daniel Keegan
- Jun 05, 2000
The North Carolina Department of Commerce has revamped its World Wide Web
site, creating a new Web portal to better organize information.
The ultimate goal, stated in the Commerce Online 2000 initiative, is to
have all "significant activities Web-enabled," said Lisa Aycock, the department's
assistant secretary for administration. Ayock said about one-third of the
site is finished.
The department brought in Keane Inc., Boston, to redesign the home page
to make it easier for users to find the information they need. Instead of
having links to various departments, the portal separates links into categories
based on users' interests.
"For example," Aycock said, "users don't care how the department processes
their requests, they want to find the tourism site and tourism information."
The five portals are business, vacation, entertainment industries, communities
and employment.
The site is similar to the state's new Web portal, "NC @ Your Service,"
which offers portals to businesses, citizens and employees.
Aycock said the size of the Commerce project, which entails pulling
together information from 18 sites and presenting it in a consistent design,
is why it will take a year to complete.
The site also boasts new features, including county profiles, a commerce
calendar, electronic conference registration, online stores and small-business
information. It was also designed so nontechnical workers can update the
site.
Keane developed a business search function for the department last year.
North Carolina SiteSearch allows users to search more than 2,000 industrial
buildings in the state for certain attributes, such as square footage and
location.