Eau Claire Area School District

Business Needs

The content management system previously used to manage the sites was restrictive and difficult to use. ECASD needed new websites and a content management system (CMS) that:

• Support ECASD communication efforts
• Improve site functionality and usefulness
• Increase efficiency and ease of making updates to the site

ECASD started to request competitive bids on the project. They needed to choose the right content management system and web solutions partner to meet their needs and their budget. Through research, ECASD had discovered the Kentico CMS. They requested a bid and Kentico recommended their Gold Partner, HBS. Using this technology, recommendations for usability studies and several other criteria, HBS submitted a bid. When the process was complete, HBS was awarded the project.

Challenges

HBS faced several challenges in creating the new site:

• Each school needed its own site, but the district staff wanted to be able to share content, templates and assets between sites when needed.
• Not every school had a logo that could be used on the internet.
• Active Directory is used to manage several parts of the site, but we faced several challenges to successfully connect Active Directory to Kentico including VPN limitations and LDAP connection difficulties when the site was originally launched. Connection issues were resolved by changing how the site server was set up. Active Directory is used for the following:
  • Teacher pages are automatically created for each teacher based on Active Directory roles. 

Solution

HBS designed the site using theme templates and developed the site in Kentico including:

• Usability testing with students, parents, teachers and staff
• Active Directory integration for the Staff Directory, to automate Teacher page creation, to manage roles/permissions, and for authentication.
• District and school combined calendars.
• Facebook integration to automate posting to social media. 

Impact

The website project has been a success on many levels:

• Improved efficiency:
  • Editors are able to more efficiently update content within the site and the automated posting toFacebook saves them time.
  • Feedback from teachers and other editors is positive — they find the new site easier to update.

• Improved site functionality and usefulness:
  • Users are easily able to find needed content. ECASD noted: "We're not getting complaints anyrnore!!"
• Improved communication:
  • Accurate event and staff directory information is provided on all school sites. The previous site frequently had outdated information.
  • The site is responsive, so it displays nicely on a desktop, tablet or smartphone.
  • Feedback from the community has been positive — Facebook posts after the site launched complimented the district on the updated design.

• Winner: Kentico Site of The Month for October 2014

Solution Components

• Active Directory
• Combined Calendars
• Facebook Integration
• User testing

Technologies

• Active Directory
• Kentico CMS