Integrated Web Project (IWP) status update

Over the last several months, the IWP project team has faced unanticipated challenges with vendors, contractors and resource constraints. These challenges have impacted the timeframe for building the core infrastructure of the new platform. 

The IT team is now working in partnership with another vendor to complete the development of the new site's core technical structure. They are currently developing a revised timeline and will share it as soon as it is finalized and approved. The team will solicit additional feedback from UC ANR content owners on specific content and needs once the core structure is completed.

We are also recruiting a trainer to help UC ANR content owners learn about the new platform and to provide support for content management. In the meantime, the project team is planning a series of IWP orientation meetings that will launch soon.  

You can stay up to date on the IWP project by attending the forthcoming IWP Orientation sessions or visiting the web page for updates.

As a reminder, here is a brief outline of the goals of the IWP project:

Why does UC ANR's Site Builder need to be replaced?

• Aging technology with security challenges, maintenance issues, poor user experience that lags behind industry standards
• Lack of a content model with no consistent standards for content organization, management and branding, and many redundant and outdated pages and sites

What will IWP bring to UC ANR? 

• Resolves technical issues and provides stability with modern technology
• Improves discoverability and availability of UC ANR content and knowledge
• Provides structured content model for better organization (makes it easier to find!)
• Facilitates outreach with members of the public
• Advanced search in the content hub
• Provides E-Commerce opportunities
• Promotes UC ANR branding consistency

Guiding principles for shifting from Site Builder to the IWP

• Consistent structure and framework with dynamically displayed content instead of hundreds of difficult to maintain bespoke pages
• Content curation and standardized tagging instead of unlimited and unmanageable tags

Core challenges of the migration

• Site Builder pages are not structured consistently, so some manual review will be required to migrate content to IWP
• Migrated content needs to be appropriately tagged to be published and findable

Please send IWP-related questions or comments to iwp@ucanr.edu. 

Sree Mada 
Chief Information Officer

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