SANTA ANA, Calif., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- New Idea Engineering, Inc. (NIE) - http://www.ideaeng.com) and its partner InfoSolutions (http://www.infosolutions.com) today announced that they have helped the local Orange County, California government implement FAST Search & Transfer's (FAST) Enterprise Search Platform (ESP) technology for the county's new and improved web site.
The County of Orange Information Technology Group, a public agency responsible for vital services to residents of Orange County, completed the first phase of the new site, implementing the new Vignette portal and Fast Search technology, as well as converting several pilot agencies to the new site, in just four months. FAST ESP will allow community members the ability to search the site more easily to locate information and interact with the county to reserve books, find park and recreation services, receive social services, and find quick and reliable answers to questions that arise in everyday life.
"With the support of the NIE / InfoSolutions team backed by FAST technology, our new search retrieval capabilities will have a significant impact on the delivery of information and services to our constituents," said Satish Ajmani, Orange County's Chief Information Officer. "Our residents demand - and our staff provides - first-class service. Since our comprehensive Web site encompasses online resources from numerous departments and agencies, we needed an infrastructure that seamlessly connects residents with essential information and services."
The Web site's new design and search platform connect Orange County's 3.1 million residents to online services and individualized content for each of its departments. From paying property taxes online to locating information on animal care services or acquiring a business license, residents can now benefit from one of the most robust and user-friendly community Web sites available on the Internet.
Orange County selected NIE / InfoSolutions to implement FAST's ESP technology due to the team's extensive knowledge of the enterprise search industry as well as the complexity and scope of the project. The new search design required mapping each department's and agency's internal language and acronyms into user terms and building drill-down navigation to ensure users can quickly find accurate and reliable results.
New Idea Engineering's President, Miles Kehoe, credits the project's success to the Orange County staff and the county's visionary information technology team. According to Kehoe, "Migrating the old static Web pages to Vignette and FAST saved development time and cost, but ruled out a simple, 'generic' search solution. Ensuring that the search engine focused on the central Web page content rather than solely on the built-in navigation keywords was critical for providing relevant information to end users."
InfoSolutions' President, Bob Berberich, added, "On a project as complex as this, it helps to have a diversified team with deep skills to draw upon. It allows for much more than connecting the technical dots; it enables a creative synergy that allows us to truly address the client's needs in both the short and the long term."
To see the new site in action, please visit the Orange County Web site at http://www.oc.ca.gov.
About Orange County
The County of Orange (http://www.ocgov.com), California is the fifth largest county in the United States. The county's Web sites cater to a diverse mixture of citizens, tourists and businesses.
About New Idea Engineering
New Idea Engineering (http://www.ideaeng.com) was founded in 1996 to provide vendor-neutral search consulting, needs analysis and vendor assessment, integration tools and services, and Search Best Practices to companies implementing search technologies. In addition to offering consulting, training, and company-specific assessments, their articles, white papers,
Enterprise Search newsletter and
blog have led the professional services industry for years.
About InfoSolutions
InfoSolutions, Inc. (
http://www.infosolutions.com) was founded in 1991 to help clients find innovative, search-driven solutions to a variety of information management needs. They are an Alliance Partner with FAST, selling and providing a full range of services in support of FAST technology. InfoSolutions specializes in designing and implementing FAST-based solutions for Government Agencies, Commercial Publishers and Non-profit Organizations.
Media Contact:
Theresa Shafer
tshafer@ideaeng.com
408-252-9676