Introduction
The World Wide Web has revolutionized the way businesses interact with their customers. Government services can also be provided to its customers in an efficient, effective manner using the same tool. The state of Michigan has become a leader in providing online government services to its citizens. This is the story of the management of this program and the continuing management of its projects.
Vision and Mission into Scope
Governor John Engler established the e-Michigan Office in May 2000 via Executive Order 2000–6. The vision was that Michigan will be the leading state in providing trusted electronic government to all customers. This mission evolved from the Governor's 2001 State of the State Address:
“e-Michigan will rapidly increase access to the State's services and information for citizens, businesses, and State employees through leadership and coordination of relevant and innovative technologies. We will partner with State agencies to transform and improve government operations in pursuit of an integrated e-government portal, organized according to the interest and needs of its customer.”
Not only were State agencies involved in this partnership, but Michigan.gov also had numerous sponsors during the initiation and planning phase. Without the proactive involvement of the Governor, his entire Cabinet of department directors in the Executive Branch, an Advisory Council consisting of prominent private sector leaders who make best practices recommendations for implementing e-commerce in all areas of Michigan government.
Typical government websites required the customer to know what department handled what type of transaction. The e-Michigan vision and mission helped to define that this was not the way to conduct business. During the planning phase, the e-Michigan Office assessed 200 existing state websites in 2000 and rated them on information content, ease of use and navigation, layout and design, features and services usage. Fifteen focus groups and more than 250 customers helped identify the theme areas and look-and-feel.
The focus groups were a good resource in designing the State of Michigan portal. To ensure that customers know that they are on the State of Michigan website, consistency was developed for these pages. The following characteristics as bulleted below and shown in Exhibit 1 show the consistency:
• Statewide search capability
• Privacy, security, link, and accessibility policy statements
• Ability to click on a specific agency site
• Organization of content by six theme areas
• Personalization
• Official State of Michigan website banner with logo.
The characteristics of the Michigan.gov website epitomizes the idea of “One customer—one government.” The customers were known: citizens, businesses and State employees. So, Michigan.gov grouped its online information and services around themes or life experiences of the customer. These themes, easily found on the left navigation bar of the website include: Education and Career Development, Business Services, Michigan Government, Travel and Recreation, Licensing, Certification and Permits, and Family, Health and Safety.
90 Days to Launch
The work to launch the new portal could not have been accomplished within the required time frame without assistance from numerous contractors. The state of Michigan selected Deloitte Consulting to provide advice on current best practices from the private sector in the development of the enterprise portal and to assist in the program management office. Over the next few months, the approach for development and implementation of the state of Michigan portal was developed. A request for proposal for portal technologies and services was created and sent out in December 2000 following State government procurement guidelines. Sixteen responses were received in January 2001 that represented the most commonly used portal technologies in the public and private sectors. The chosen tools were assured to adhere to open standards, highly flexible, previously implemented in large, complex organizations, and very extensible. IBM was awarded the technology contract, including IBM hosting, Websphere Commerce Suite and Application Server platform, Inktomi search engine, Vignette content management tool and personalization, and Tivoli directory services for single sign-on.
Exhibit 1. Michigan Home Page
Exhibit 2. e-Michigan Organization Structure
April 2, 2001 began with countdown for this 90-day launch of the Michigan.gov website. This 90-day project was divided into four main deliverables to be included in the Michigan.gov portal launch:
• Customer designed Michigan.gov homepage and new customerfriendly domain name.
• Using information generated during the focus groups and discussions with content experts, the homepage was redesigned and included in this launch. Also, instead of being http://www.state.mi.us, users can log onto the State of Michigan portal through http://www.michigan.gov. In parallel, all state employees email addresses were changed to the same extension.
• Theme focused content via customer need rather than state agency.
• Each theme area was directed by a Senior Project Manager with assistance from his or her steering committee. The steering committee consisted of representatives from numerous agencies throughout the state government that had input into this particular theme. For example, the Travel and Recreation steering committee consisted of Chief Information Officers and Directors from History, Arts, and Library, Transportation, Secretary of State, Agriculture, Travel Michigan, and Natural Resources. This Senior Project Manager worked with his or her theme steering committee to develop the categories, subcategories, and content for each of the themes. Exhibit 2 shows the organization structure of the e-Michigan Office.
• Revised Governor website.
One of the advantages of using the Vignette tool is that an author of content does not have to be a Webmaster, have technical expertise in web design, or need Internet development experience. The Governor's Communications Office showed this by using Vignette to migrate all of their content that was on the old application to the new Vignette platform. This was completed within the 90-day timeframe.
Exhibit 3. Department of Community Health Agency Webpage
• Natural language search engine.
• The Inktomi search engine was implemented to allow users to search the Michigan.gov website.
The new site was migrated on July 10, 2001—90 days after the project started.
Economics
e-Michigan was funded with $23.2 million as a three-year project by the Michigan Legislature in the 2000 fiscal year. $7.2 million of these funds have been allocated to the portal technologies and hosting services.
e-Michigan's initiative to increase the number of e-government applications has the potential to save millions of dollars of taxpayer funds. Some examples of these savings are:
• Mailing costs: Statewide, over $50 million was spent in FY98 on mailing. Every 10% of mailing costs avoided by using online communication results in $5 million in postage savings. Industry experts show Internet adoption rates for Government-to-Citizen to be 10% in the first year, 15% in the second year, and 20% in the third year.
• E-Forms: Statewide, 30,000 forms are in use, 10,000 of which go out to the public. Research indicates that for every $1 spent on pre-printed forms, $30 to $60 is spent on processing. Cost savings from web-enabled forms will lead to reduced printing and storage costs as well as reduced staff data entry costs and reduced error tracking and correction.
• I-billing: Prior to the Michigan daycare provider I-billing application, providers submitted billing information manually. Incorrect or incomplete information had to be resubmitted causing payment delays. Now, the application is completed online, minimizes errors and decreases payment time.
Measures of Success
So was this 90-day project a success? How do you measure success? For Michigan.gov, success is measured by its internal and external customers. The internal customers are those who used the old state of Michigan website and use the existing website. The number of users on the Michigan.gov homepage is a good indication of this measure. Traffic is nearly four time greater than traffic on the previous State website. In April 2002, Michigan.gov averaged over 500,000 page views per day. The e-Michigan Office anticipates a daily average of 750,000 page views by summer with peaks up to 1,000,000 page views per day.
The external customers also seem to agree that Michigan.gov has transformed the way the State delivers information and services to its customers. Brown University ranked Michigan.gov #2 out of all State portals in the United States. Center of Digital Government and Government Technology magazine voted Michigan.gov in the top 10 during their Best of the Web 2001 content for providing citizens and businesses with online government services and information. Michigan.gov also placed in the top 10 for the 2001 Digital State Survey awarding state government websites that implement technologies to improve service delivery to citizens. Most recently, Michigan.gov has been nominated for the prestigious Computerworld Honors 21st Century Achievement Award.
Are We Done Yet?
As any project manager knows, you cannot just hand the project over to operations and be done with it. The launch of the new Michigan.gov website has lead to more projects and improvements with what is already working. These improvements include: migrating all Executive Branch agencies to the Vignette platform, launching additional online services, and assuring that projects are applied enterprisewide instead of agency specific.
Agency Migration
Agency migration began as soon as the new Michigan.gov portal launched. Agency migration consists of moving the content of each agency from its existing application to the Vignette platform. By integrating all State agencies into this single environment, Michigan has enabled a level of information sharing and cross-government coordination that was previously unachievable. For example, if the Department of Natural Resources has a piece of content that will be interesting to the traveler, one click will make this happen by placing it on the Travel and Recreation subportal. This saves time and resources. This application also allows the cross promotion of content from one agency to another. This can be seen in another example. The History, Arts, and Library department is highlighting an event at one of their museums and has included this content on their own website and the Travel and Recreation subportal. Within this content, they can easily access the Department of Natural Resources campground reservation system to allow the traveler to reserve a campsite at a nearby campground.
Another requirement for each agency being migrated was the consistent look and feel. Each agency banner consists of the State of Michigan seal, “An Official State of Michigan website,” and lighthouse on the right with the agency name and logo on the left as shown in Exhibit 3. This matched what was identified during the customer focus groups whereby users need to know that they are on the State of Michigan website and want to see consistency from one site to another. This consistent look and feel follows beyond the banner. The left navigation and right navigation also shows consistency from one site to the next.
Each agency migration was considered a project with very specific activities. Initiation consisted of a kick-off meeting with appropriate personnel that were doing the work along with management buy-in. Project planning for agency migration was the most complex activity and took the most time. The major activity associated with project planning was identifying the taxonomy of the website. The taxonomy is the categories on the left navigation—how the site is broken down. The development of the taxonomy required new thought processes by the different agencies. Instead of approaching development from an internal agency standpoint, the planners needed to approach it from a customer standpoint (i.e., increased convenience, improved customer service, and increased access to more and better information).
With the new taxonomy, customers can now quickly find and navigate to desired information and services within just three “clicks” of the mouse rather than 5 to 15 clicks. The last task of project planning was the signed Internet Migration Agreement and requirements document sign-off. Execution consisted of architecture development and migrating existing content onto the new platform. Project control assured that important milestones were met, training was being conducted, and consistency with Michigan.gov guidelines were followed. Finally, project closure included the launch of the site to production and going “live” on the Michigan.gov website.
The duration of the agency migrations varied from one agency to the next. The simple sites were completed within four months with the more complicated sites requiring seven to nine months. Twenty executive branch websites and 15 executive branch agencies, offices, and commissions migrated to the Vignette platform between July 2001 and May 2002.
Additional Online Services
Customers can quickly access hundreds of interactive online services that range from online electronic funds transfer registration and account management for vendors and service providers, to license lookup applications for professional and occupational licenses, to applications for hunting and fishing licenses. New online applications are being developed and implemented under the leadership of the e-Michigan Office.
These projects have been separated into two categories: Level 1 and Level 2 projects. Level 2 projects affect one primary agency with the agency performing the project management with oversight by the e-Michigan Office. Level 1 projects affect more than one agency and the project management is completed by e-Michigan. The tasks performed by the e-Michigan project manager vary from one project type to the next.
The majority of the projects overseen by the e-Michigan Office are Level 2 projects. Specific activities are associated with each phase:
• Pre-Initiation: Each agency prepares and submits the e-Government Project Profile. Using this information, e-Michigan evaluates and scores each project based on business need and ability to execute. Additional information may be required before the project proceeds to the next step.
• Initiation: The agency submits a signed project charter and the Value Estimator. The Value Estimator defines the business purpose, goals, risks, costs and benefit opportunity for the project. This information is used to approve the project. An e-Michigan project manager is assigned to work with the agency project manager for the duration of the project.
• Planning: e-Michigan reviews the request for proposal to assure consistency with e-Michigan standards language and/or conditions consistent and in compliance with the Michigan.gov portal technology tools and standards.
• Execution: Various project management documents and e-Michigan guidelines are used during the execution phase of each project. A security risk assessment is completed to assess the overall risk exposure of the application. Status reports are submitted on a regular basis and the Value Estimator tool is updated with new information.
• Control: The major deliverable during the control phase of the project is to assure that the agency follows the Michigan.gov look and feel and portal technology tools and standards. The Michigan.gov Web Site Design Guidelines provide agencies with detailed look and feel requirements for banners, application area, footers, policies, and architecture. A “walkthrough” of the website may also be completed with the agency and the e-Michigan project manager.
• Closure: Prior to launch, various items need to be completed. This includes the completion of a security checklist and a prelaunch project checklist. A communications strategy is shared with the Governor's Office for press releases and other internal and external communications. Finally, a final “walkthrough” of the application is completed.
The use of accepted project management tools and e-Michigan standards and guidelines increases the probability that the launch of additional online applications will be successful.
Enterprisewide Applications
With decentralized government, agencies would initiate, develop, and deploy new online applications causing the same application to be developed numerous times by different agencies. With e-Michigan being the guardhouse for all e-government initiatives, the office is able to identify where synergies between projects can occur. These projects become multi-agency projects (Level 1 projects) that are managed by e-Michigan in a manner similar to Level 2 projects. One major difference between these Level 1 projects and Level 2 projects is that the enterprisewide applications are designed to be completed within 90 days. This condensed time frame requires efficient project management and technically skilled and motivated project teams.
Some of these projects include:
• MI Mall—A one-stop shopping experience to purchase various articles from the State of Michigan.
• Centralized Electronic Payment Authorization System—This enterprise-wide electronic payment module allows all agencies to process and support all major credit cards, debit card, electronic check and ACH transactions. Payments can be both single entry or recurring from both corporate and consumer customers.
• Kids' Page—One application that focuses on kids.
• MI Bid—An online auction tool that allows customers to bid on properties and products offered for purchase by the State of Michigan.
Summary
Michigan.gov sets new standards for state governments in the enterprisewide scope of its portal implementation. Michigan is the first state to actually provide integrated subportals for themes that transcend agency boundaries to provide the customer with the aggregated services and information needed without delineating them by agency. It is also the first state to implement a common look-and-feel in the form of a banner and navigational controls that are implemented on all State agency websites. Finally, Michigan is the first state to implement a statewide content management system that enables sharing of web content between and across agencies, and allows business users rather than technology experts to make rapid updates to web content such as new reports, press releases, and data revisions.
Michigan.gov benefits its over 9.8 million residents and 400,000 businesses of Michigan. It also benefits tourists, who spend more than $10 billion with the State each year. With this many customers, Michigan.gov must remain a dynamic website. Using effective and efficient project management tools and techniques, Michigan.gov will be continually enhanced and expanded to provide an online means for customers to access government services and information 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.