HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-10-14 PACKET 04.B.01.
To: Economic Development Authority Members
From: Alicia McMonigal, Economic Development Assistant
Date: October 14, 2014
Subject: Growth Partners Website
As the EDA is aware, staff has been working on increasing our marketing of the City by
updating the Growth Partners website and increasing its functionality. At the October EDA
meeting, staff will walk the EDA through the website and demonstrate many of the
improvements that have been incorporated on the site. In addition, staff thought you might find
it helpful to understand some of the elements that made the website outdated and brought
about the need for improvements. The areas of improvement are listed below:
1. Limited functionality.
2. Outdated software.
3. Limitation of photo size and quantity.
4. Character limitation in description area.
5. Unable to hyperlink broker’s e-mail addresses.
6. Limited editing and formatting capabilities.
7. Coding corruption issues.
8. Limitations on ability to make changes in a timely fashion because the changes were not
able to be made by staff, but instead needed to be done by a consultant.
9. Staff had very limited access to modify the website. Only able to edit one area – the
body of the text in the property descriptions.
10. Inability to track and fix broken links.
Designwrite Studios (the same firm that created the City’s current website) was hired to transfer
over portions of the former website and to build new features for the transformed Growth
Partners website. The result is a new website that is professional in appearance and has
increased functionality. Below are the benefits of the newly created Growth Partners website:
1. An integrated site that mirrors elements of the City website, thus reinforcing continuity
with other elements of the City, such as the BEC, etc.
2. City staff is able to almost exclusively control and maintain the website, thus enhancing
timing and decreasing expense.
3. A broken link report is generated biweekly and automatically emailed to the
administrator.
4. Able to add hyperlinked email addresses of brokers and staff.
5. Able to hyperlink PDFs/Marketing Sheets.
6. Able to post multiple pictures per property.
7. Multiple staff have administrative rights.
8. Updated software that is more versatile.
9. Able to manipulate and maintain the mapping functions for each property listing
assigning pins to each property address.
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Additional work is taking place to continue to update and enhance the content of the new site.
In the immediate future, it’s anticipated that additional PID numbers, site specific information,
and the enhancement of links to the BEC webpage will be added.
Action Required
No action is required on the part of the EDA. However, staff would appreciate any feedback the
EDA may have in relation to additional improvements or recommendations related to the
website.
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