Minnesota’s Web portal – dubbed North Star – was built using BroadVision Portal software. North Star provides a single, citizen-facing interface to Web content created by 400 state agencies. Just 18 months after going live, North Star attracts 8 million hits per month, representing about 650,000 user sessions.
The state of Minnesota recently launched a new feature on its Web site that helps citizens shop for lower-priced prescription drugs in Canada. Called RX Connect, this feature was created in just six weeks by non-techies, thanks to a Web portal strategy that makes it easier for state IT workers to update online content.
Minnesota’s Web portal – dubbed North Star – was built using BroadVision Portal software. North Star provides a single, citizen-facing interface to Web content created by 400 state agencies. Just 18 months after going live, North Star attracts 8 million hits per month, representing about 650,000 user sessions.
“The portal is a connector to all the agency content,” says James Kauth, director of emerging technologies at Minnesota’s Office of Technology. “One of my efforts is to try to bring as many agencies to the portal as we can. We’ve been trying to show that moving to a centralized content management solution has its benefits.”
Deloitte Consulting won a contract in 2001 to build North Star using BroadVision’s Portal software. North Star also provides integration with Netegrity Web authentication, iPlanet Lightweight Directory Access Protocol directory services, WebSphere application server software and MQ Series transport. The portal also features Verity’s Ultraseek search engine.
Altogether, Minnesota has spent $1.6 million to create North Star. State officials say they now are yielding ROI because they can quickly and inexpensively respond to new policies with features such as RX Connect.
“RX Connect was created by three people [people] from the state’s Department of Human Services in just six weeks,” Kauth says.
“The Governor’s Office established the requirements. The Web portal was tied into a database listing all of the prescription drugs available from licensed pharmacies in Canada. We did user testing, and it was all accomplished in six weeks,” Kauth adds.
Kauth says that before North Star was launched, the Department of Human Services would have had to hire several people including a technical developer and several graphic artists to create the RX Connect content, conduct the necessary user testing and add metadata for search engines.
“RX Connect is indicative of the change in culture in terms of how we build Web sites in Minnesota,” Kauth says. “Typically, an agency would have to hire a Webmaster to make the Web site look professional. What we’re able to do is eliminate that step from the process.”
North Star is now at the center of a statewide IT strategy that involves increasing the delivery of government services online. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau announced in April a plan to better align the state’s technology investments with its business objectives. The Pawlenty-Molnau Plan says that by the end of 2006, the amount of state business conducted online will include 90% of the citizen-to-government transactions, 70% of business-to-government transactions and 50% of government-to-government transactions.
“Our Web portal is likely to be the distribution point for information about the Pawlenty-Molnau Plan as well as being a core integration component,” Kauth says. “For example, we’ll be looking at an enterprisewide, online, license renewal system for real estate, insurance and cosmetology licenses. That will be hosted on North Star.”
Minnesota’s Office of Technology supports North Star with a staff of seven, who coordinate with another 60 or so content contributors from the various state agencies. In addition to the North Star portal, this group also is responsible for hosting 12 agency Web sites.
Kauth credits BroadVision Portal with helping make his North Star team efficient. “BroadVision’s tool set is sort of the heartbeat of North Star,” Kauth says. Because of the investment in North Star, “we’ve been able to do all the things we were doing before, but now we can do them faster and connect citizens more quickly with the information they’re looking for while sustaining staff reductions.”
Now that its citizen-facing Web portal is so successful, the Office of Technology is creating a similar portal for state employees. Two weeks ago, Minnesota added a feature to its internal Web site to help state employees buy reduced-cost prescription drugs from Canada.
“The biggest challenge for us is the culture. State government has typically been a silo-filled environment, where individual agencies control their own IT budgets,” Kauth says. “[What we’re doing with North Star] is requiring that agencies work together and collaboratively.”
