1. Remaking the HUP (& 1 Other)
Press Website
Timothy Doyle
Harvard University Press
April 14, 2012
2. Agenda
How was it planned
What were the primary goals/reasons for doing it?
How was it managed & implemented
How would we do it differently
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3. How was it Planned
Coordinated closely between IT and Marketing
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4. What were the primary goals/reasons
Improve data accuracy
Enable interaction with data
Simplify maintenance
Enhance presentation
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5. How was it Managed & Implemented
In IT with assistance from an external develeper
for the shopping chart
Development time took about 17 months (against
a budget of 12 months)
Other IT initiatives took a backseat during
development
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6. What would we do differently?
Use a standard CMS such as Drupal (rather than Filemaker)
Future development lies within IT (rather than Marketing
Can’t use CMS plug ins
Challenges SEO effort
Manage scope creep more effectively
Leverage University or external web designers rather than
internal staff
Evaluate alternative hosting options (performance issues)
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7. Experiences of a Tier 1 Press
What Drove Decision to Change
Website was developed in 2000 by site that did hosting
Hosting services and responsiveness was poor
Process to Move and Upgrade Website
Outsourced to a 2-person firm who had expertise in
developing Amazon-like shopping carts
Migrated technology from AST to Java at a cost of $3,500
Positives – Overall service and functionality improved and
cart interacts with Oklahoma and CDC for physical &
electronic
Negatives – Design could be improved
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