Case Studies

The Challenge

Each division within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) operates its own web and intranet environment, but their division specific services are limited in one or more of the following ways:

• They are not designed to provide cross-division collaboration.
• Access is typically limited to devices within the HHS network or Virtual Private Network (VPN).
• They provide little to no support for users external to the organization.
• They provide limited collaborative services, even within their own division.

The Solution

The Web Communications & New Media Division of the Office of the Secretary has implemented the HHS Enterprise Portal, a collaborative workspace, to address the challenges in the following ways:

• The portal provides a single platform available for all users within the entire organization. Because of the portal’s built-in support for external authentication services, users use the same account credentials of their existing intranet systems.
• A wide range of collaborative tools, with an emphasis on document sharing and publishing, are an inherit part of the portal’s service offering.
• Collaborative units, called “communities”, are not limited to those found on an organizational chart. They can be of any size or make up allowing for any possible configuration of virtual team.
• Accessibility is no longer limited to within the HHS network or VPN, rather access is available via any computer with high-speed internet access.
• The system is not limited to employees and authorized contractors of HHS. Selected interns, vendors, members of the academic community, employees of other federal agencies, and members of state and local governments can be granted access given the appropriate management approval.

CTAC’s role:

CTAC was brought on board to provide on-site turn key management of this enterprise solution. CTAC’s responsibilities and activities include:

• Governance Strategy and Advisement
• Program / Project Management
• Enterprise Level Application Administration and Support
• Database Administration and Support
• Infrastructure Planning / Application Architecture and Design
• Usability Concerns / Information Architecture
• Custom Development (Java and .NET)
• Integration of 3rd Party Systems
• Training and Consultative Services to Portal Content Managers
• System Monitoring, Testing, Adjustments and Tuning