An interview with Ethan Reedy, Administrative Director, Ethics & Public Policy Center
On July 17, 2001, Ethan met with eResources senior manager Dennis J. McKeon to discuss how eResources worked with the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) in two areas. First, eResources designed, developed, and implemented a Web solution that enabled EPPC to effectively communicate its message to visitors via the Internet. Second, eResources deployed its customized eResources Content Management Solution (eRCMS) to improve internal communication and operational efficiency for EPPC.
We present this case study because we believe our clients are our best endorsement. Ethan’s willingness to meet and discuss how we worked with EPPC to help them reach their goals demonstrates his satisfaction with the quality of our service, our commitment to EPPC’s success, and his willingness to enthusiastically recommend us to others.
eResources: Ethan, What did you think you needed to do with the EPPC Website at the beginning?Ethan: In the beginning we were simply looking for someone to help us maintain our site. We were reasonably happy with the general design of our old static HTML site, but it took far too much time to maintain. We couldn’t afford to hire a full time Webmaster so we talked to eResources about contracting with them to maintain our site for us.eResources: That doesn’t sound much like the work we ended up doing for you. What made your plans change?Ethan: I suppose [eResources president] Dusty Gulleson got to me. He very wisely calculated the amount of money that we would spend over an entire year if we contracted with them for one day’s worth of work per week and realized that if we invested that up front into a content management system we would have a solution that would allow us to significantly improve our Website and allow even the least computer literate people in the office to help maintain it.When we first talked about this with eResources I was pretty hesitant. I had a hard time imagining spending so much more than we did in putting up our first Website. When we did that one in 1997, we spent less than $7,000. So when I spoke with Dusty about the cost and found out that what we wanted to do would run over $20,000 I was a little nervous actually. It’s not what I thought we would spend. But as I began to check out the cost and looked around I found that your price for developing a comprehensive Web system was actually about half of your nearest competitor for all the functionality we wanted. I definitely started feeling better about the cost when I was talking with some friends at a party, including the president of a small dot.com, and he thought I was seriously underestimating the cost of building top quality database driven site when I suggested that it could easily cost over $100,000.eResources: What specific services did you expect from eResources?Ethan: Once I was convinced that we needed to completely revise the site so we could have a database driven site, that freed us up to start from scratch. Our primary expectation was that you would customize a content management system that would allow us to post a variety of publications and information about our conferences onto our site.Also we decided to completely redesign the layout of the site. Previously our site had two distinctly different layouts. I wanted to redesign the site so that the look of the site was consistent throughout. I was pretty demanding about the look and feel of the site. I wanted something that didn’t feel like your standard high-tech Website. Our organization has a very traditional look to all of its other publications, so we needed someone who could do something that stood out.I felt like eResources was willing to work with me on the site. You didn’t make me feel like I would simply be fit into your pre-designed box, but instead that you would take the time to work with me to make sure that the systems you designed would fit my needs, even if it meant that you had to go back to the drawing board.eResources: Could you expand on the eResources content management system that eResources developed for you?Ethan: Sure. As I mentioned, we have unique needs because we are a content heavy organization. We needed a content management system to help us easily post articles to our Website and disseminate articles and other information about upcoming conferences, etc. to our constituents. eResources convinced me that they would be able to do that. So for example, eResources developed a system that enables us to easily upload new content on to the Website and then generates an automatic e-mail to people who immediately want to know when one of our scholars has written a new article. It is a great service for our visitors. It also helps us since it gives us an easy way to keep in contact with folks who might possibly be contributors on down the road.In fact once I began to see the advantages of having our site content pulled from a database, I actually doubled the size of the original contract I had with eResources. You developed a number of things that hadn’t been in the original plan. We put all of our staff in the database. You designed a section where we could advertise our books and even post them, chapter by chapter, in PDF form. You also created a similar section where we could upload audio files of our conferences.One particularly helpful item was a tie-in to our traffic analysis software that lets us track visitors based on specific information in the database. It helps us answer questions like: What do visitors use? What do they want to see? How can we change our Website to more effectively communicate to visitors? Your ability to custom build an application was key for us. We looked around at other pre-built database systems, and while they would have enabled us to meet our overall goals, we would have been stuck working within the constraints of their software, and the cost for them was far out of our reach. You were able to take a reasonably priced development platform [Microsoft’s SQL Database] and using some creativity were able to go beyond the way it is typically used to make it do exactly what I needed.eResources: How has the customized eResources Content Management System helped EPPC staff members and you in terms of time you spent performing maintenance for EPPC’s Website? Ethan: The Content Management System has significantly reduced the time I spend doing routine Website maintenance. Before we had that I was responsible for adding all of the information to our database. This was especially difficult because we have a number of people in our organization that publish articles weekly, on top of the work I have do posting our official publications and information about our conferences. Being Webmaster is only supposed to be a small portion of my job! Now the whole staff has access to the Content Management System and can easily input their articles into the window, or module. Everyone is happier with the quick turn-around this allows. The staff gets their content, and I get less criticism.
As you know we are in the process of adding even a few more features to our site. Your development team continues to improve your products, and several of the improvements I’ve found enticing enough to add to our site. One that I’m really looking forward to is your two stage entry feature. This will give me final say about what gets uploaded to the Website. It’s good that I have final say because I can catch the sort of basic mistakes that still happen, like people posting something to the wrong project or forgetting to add the last half of their article. This will all be done based on the security rights of the users. So, staff has the ability to easily put content into the module but they can’t post it directly onto the Website.
One last thing that I have found very helpful that has come up unexpectedly is the ability that the Content Management System has given me to be able to create additional sites very inexpensively. We have had a number of new projects at the Center where the funder wanted the project to have its own Website. This can be done when all of the data is already being entered into the database. We simply contract with you to design a set of templates for the new site, and then the same information can show up in two locations.eResources: Are you pleased with what eResources delivered and could you recommend us to others? Ethan: More pleased than I expected to be, to be quite honest. It was definitely worth the investment. We have a Website that I’m very proud of. It looks great and is technologically more advanced than almost any other site I’ve seen among organizations like ours. eResources is very responsive when I need help or updates. And, you work with us to develop original applications for specific functions as needs arise. You do it quickly and at a lower cost than your competitors. So, I’m pleased with what you’ve done and I have already recommended you to a number of people.
eResources: Ethan, thank you for your time and endorsement. Ethan: I’m happy to help.
