SERVICE 3: One-DHS Web

Improve the customer experience through consolidation and centralized hosting of DHS public-facing websites.

Other Information:

ONE-DHS WEB INITIATIVE MODERNIZING OUR ENTERPRISE PUBLIC WEB CAPABILITY TO BETTER SERVE CITIZENS Overview: Secretary Janet Napolitano’s December 2010 action directive on Web Systems Optimization set DHS on a course for website consolidation to improve the customer experience without decreasing functionality. The web governance operation is informed by the Secretary's Action Directive on Web Systems Optimization. In that directive, her intent is to streamline customer access to DHS services, improve DHS web content management and reduce costs by establishing a strategy for web-content management and web-hosting services through consolidation and centralized hosting of DHS public-facing websites. DHS has established the One DHS web initiative to improve customer experience and achieve efficiency gains for the enterprise public web. We will address three high-volume services for improvement: 1. DHS public web consolidation, leveraging technology and innovation 2. Search functionality 3. Customer service standards for web and email/form channels Challenges: Our federal domain inventory shows we have 301 websites, including 63 top level domains, 150 subdomains and microsites and 80 so-called “dot com” sites that are not on an approved domain, i.e. dot com or dot mil; additionally we also have 8 dot mil sites for the USCG. We have three types of websites: content, applications and login sites. The large number of individual sites makes it difficult for visitors to locate the authoritative content or find the most up-to-date information. Our approach to consolidation is taking shape in coordination with our Public Web Executive Steering Committee and our DHS Web Council as sites are reviewed. We have a dot gov roadmap for the top-level domains and our planning for the dot com sites and the subdomains and microsites is under development. We must continue to mature our policy and procedures to achieve results, including developing and implementing management directives and procedures for domain registration and record-keeping. In addition, we need to institute and implement a waiver process for our sites not on approved domains. A content cleanse to eliminate content that is redundant or out of date is necessary. The scope is large: we inventoried content by document type and found we have approximately 700,000 assets collectively. Pending a delegation of authority, we will implement Google Analytics to better understand our content prior to major migration efforts so we do our work with an understanding of what content is most popular and visited and what content is suitable to be retired. Key Milestones and Timeline: Phase One: Governance and Discovery (complete in 2011) * Web Council and Executive Steering Committee set up in 2011 * Secretary’s data-call completed in early 2011 * Google Analytics approved for use by Social Media Steering Committee * Web Council Metrics Committee delivers customer standards for web and web forms/email Phase Two: Technology Selection * Pilot activity o Pilots with FEMA and USCIS to test two CMS platforms (begun in 2011) o Deployed Studyinthestates.dhs.gov and restorethegulf.gov in the public cloud * Web Council Platform Committee to report o Draft project plan o Draft timeline * Requirements on enterprise search o Identify search pilots o USCIS.gov to pilot GSA Search service offering Phase Three: Dot Gov Management Reforms * Management Directive and procedures review and amendments * Domain registration business process improvements * Metrics enhancements and improvements o Web standards guide adopted, to include key performance indicators o Monthly metrics dashboard established for Web Council and ESC o Roadmap for metrics tool adopted Phase Four: Eliminate and duplication - content cleanse and consolidation * Content cleanse to eliminate redundant and out of date information (Dependency: Google Analytics delegation of authority) o Timeline and project plan recommendations o Requirements on content cleanse and level of effort analysis * Taxonomy and Information Architecture o Use Google Analytics to establish priorities of users (Dependency: Google Analytics delegation of authority) o Use federal domain surveys to determine priorities of business owners * Consolidation Roadmap o Deliver roadmap for top-level domains (2012 and 2013) o Implement waiver procedures for dot com sites and adjudicate those sites that are not provided a waiver with a path to a dot gov URL or a consolidation plan into an existing site o Develop and execute plan of action for subdomains and microsite review Phase Five: Web content management and hosting services strategy approved by ESC (Dependency: our web improvement plan is subject to review by the Federal CIO and Dot Gov Task Force per OMB) * Implementation and timeline managed by the Web ESC o Target completion for draft platform committee plan is the end of Quarter 2 FY12 * URLs for top level and dot com sites will be scheduled to move to the new web-content and hosting-services platform o Subdomain and microsite schedule to be a follow-on activity o Plan for URLs not on schedule to move - Component may seek a continuation waiver from DHS OPA - If there is no waiver, sites will be decommissioned

Stakeholder(s):

• DHS Headquarters Office of CIO


• DHS Office of Public Affairs


• New Visitors: Key Customer Groups: Because our agency is very diverse, we have found it helpful to look at our audience from the perspective of how frequently they visit our public websites. For the headquarters site, our satisfaction survey asks the question: “Which best describes you? “ There were three possible responses that captured a measure of visit frequency. For the period examined between April 1 and June 30, 2011 1,427 respondents replied. We found that: * 43 percent of the visitors were new or infrequent (satisfaction score: 67) * 25 percent were occasional visitors (satisfaction score: 72) and * 33 percent were frequent or “power” visitors (satisfaction score: 77) The number of clicks and site layout were their biggest concern. This research informs our choices to make certain that we structure and deliver information that is optimized for everyday visitors, not just power-users.


• Infrequent Visitors


• Occasional Visitors


• Power Visitors

Objective(s):

S 3.1: Feedback

S 3.1.1: Common Analytics Platform

S 3.1.2: Web Service Standards Guide

S 3.1.3: Web Scorecard

S 3.2: Best Practices

S 3.2.1: Enterprise Search

S 3.2.2: CMS Tools & Cloud Hosting

S 3.2.3: Website Consolidation

S 3.3: Customer Service Standards

S 3.4: Streamlining

S 3.4.1: Online Identities

S 3.4.2: Domain Registration

S 3.4.3: Visual Consistency

S 3.4.4: Web Forms

Content