A Message from Our CEO

GovOffice 4.0 – the Next Generation is coming!

GovOffice was launched in 2001 as the centerpiece of a unique public-private partnership to bring website technologies to cities across America. Founding partners included the International City-County Management Association and League of Minnesota Cities and Avenet, which developed the GovOffice technology. Eventually, an additional 15 state municipal leagues joined our partnership!

In those 16 years, we’ve seen local government websites evolve from being a novelty to a necessity. We’ve served over 1500 local governments in 44 states and stayed true to our mission of providing state-of-the-art web technologies that meets the needs of local government at an affordable cost. Now, we’re excited to announce that we’ve initiated a major development initiative to create the next generation of our technology. The new GovOffice 4.0 will meet the needs of our local government clients and your constituents well into the future.

This major upgrade will be implemented in multiple phases, which will help users absorb and adopt to changes over time. User interface upgrades will maintain a priority on ease of use. Current sites will be seamlessly upgraded to the new system with no or minimal disruption.

Phase 1 results:

• a faster, more responsive Admin system
• even faster client sites (we believe our current sites already load faster than our competitors!)
• a new Search system
• refresh of the Admin look & feel aimed at enhancing ease of use
• a state of the art code which can be extended rapidly to add new features in subsequent phases

Additional incremental upgrades will rollout new content types to meet the unique needs of local government.

Subsequent phases:

• new file (photo) upload software
• eNotification/eAlert system
• New, more robust bulk-mail/messaging system
• Upgraded Superforms & ePayment
• Document management/repository
• Customized content types, like Council Packets/Agendas

The initial version of GovOffice was informed by a “beta group” including 30 cities across the country. We continue to value and seek your input and ideas on how to make GovOffice even better. Please share your thoughts on how we can better meet your needs on our feedback form. We’ll provide further updates along the way.

Thanks for being our client, and partners in preparing for the next generation!

A Quick Guide to Common Web Terminology

Effective communication with your Web solution provider will help ensure your website meets your goals and expectations. Something as simple as misunderstanding common terms associated with Web projects can steer a project off the rails. So we’ve prepared this brief guide of commonly misunderstood terms to help keep you on track.

Read on to ensure that your next conversation with your sales rep, account rep, or tech support effectively conveys your Web needs or gets your problem solved quickly.

Design

Web design consists of the visual elements of a website. These include the colors, fonts, banner images, general layout, and so on. These elements are consistent across every page. Think of Web design as the frame, or template, where you place your content.

Content

Web content consists of everything not included in Web design such as text or images in sections (pages) and the labels and organization of navigation menus. Content can, and typically should, be different on each page of your website.

Content Management System (CMS)

The Content Management System (CMS) is where you make changes to your website content. You can manage every aspect here, from creating new sections, to adding new text, to uploading documents, to removing outdated information. This area is also commonly referred to as the Administrative Dashboard, or simply Admin. The changes you make here will be instantly updated on your live site.

Live Site

The live site is the website that visitors see. It takes all of the content you create in the Admin and displays it according your website design template.

Navigation Menu

This is where the names of all of your sections (pages) are displayed in an organized manner. It will allow your site visitors to efficiently move between sections and easily access the information they need. The navigation menu can be displayed horizontally, vertically or both but must be consistent throughout the site.

Section (Page)

A section can also be referred to as a page as it is one individual "page" of content on your website. As you develop the content of your website you will create many new sections. Each section should focus on one type of content, for example, a section that only has Minutes & Agendas or another that only has Police Department information.

Site URL/Domain

This is your website address. It will most likely look similar to www.anytownusa.com but can be customized to an extent.

Homepage

The homepage is the introductory page (section) of a website and is typically the main page a visitor will find when navigating from a search engine. The homepage is used to facilitate navigation to other (interior) pages on the site by way of the navigation menus, quick links, promotions, and other elements.

Responsive Web Design

A responsive website is designed to resize and display optimally on any device; desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphones. It resizes dynamically and allows desktop webpages to be viewed in response to the screen size of the device. For example, if you use a smartphone to view a responsive website, the content stacks into a single column, delivering your content in a vertical scrolling layout.

Do these words make sense to you?

Other questions regarding Web standards and communication? Let us know!