Wits Graduate School of Public & Development Management (P&DM) and Wits Business School (WBS), the two entities within the Wits Faculty of Management, have recently significantly redesigned and re-vamped their respective Web-sites utilising Insite, the Web Content management tool developed locally by Zen Computing.
"The previous Web-sites were in desperate need of updating with much of the data on them being "old and unnecessary"; the front-ends were horrid and anything but "friendly; navigation was extremely difficult and not intuitive; and there was no capability within the campus to facilitate and undertake an appropriate updating process," commented Murray Cairns, funding manager for P&DM and the eventual project director for the new Web-site development projects, which were undertaken during 2000.
"The key requirements for the new projects included the need to provide a versatile system that would take cognisance of the transient nature of much of the content, as well as providing a capability for anyone appropriate to update the sites within a consistent framework, with minimal learning and/or effort. The Insite tool from Zen Computing provided such a capability," continued Cairns.
Additionally, the academics within the campus needed a means of maintaining and updating their respective CVs, a repository for their course material, a wider research distribution capability, which could also serve as means of extra information/data gathering and input. The administrative staff, however, needed a consistent base of information that external individuals could reference and be able to use for information and application purposes. There was also a need to be able to put various "publications" online and provide a map of the campus and its facilities. A search engine was also embedded within the sites. The WBS also required an Alumni system that would be able to advertise new courses and functions, provide a bulletin board and a database of the appropriate individuals.
Although the two Web-sites seem to be separate, and are accessed separately, the data for both schools is held in a single database. Since the system is designed for staff to interface with it directly, it is extremely structured and therefore does not allow for "designer" pages. All information is published through a set of templates, which structures the information into headings, text, bullet points, web links or images; and is thus in keeping with an academic environment, and ensures that all entries remain consistent in terms of style.
"We are pleased with the end result, which we believe satisfies the requirements cited above, particularly in respect of the empowerment of the individuals for updating purposes. This enables them to maintain and correct these 400 page web-sites simply and timeously," concluded Cairns. "The P&DM also needs an Alumni system, and we will be adding this additional capability in the near future.
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