Because the Internet site would grow completely in a volunteer setting, a 5-phase building block approach was proposed to achieve a web site which would meet the church's goals without undue disruption. Baarns used their business consultancy experience to get commitment from the entire organization from the top down and was enthusiastically received. The project is currently in phase 2. The long-term plan is to implement in stages that can be assimilated by the organization and once consolidated, then move on to the next phase. Phase 1 was an entry point system to establish a presence. Phase 2 follows with sophisticated graphics, added content, ease-of-use features and the first implementation of self-serve publishing.
Phase 1 of NorthRidgeNet was a frameset solution with five main sections for information. The content was derived from existing brochures about the church's ministries and was not updated as regularly as needed.
Launched in March of 1999, Phase 2 was a re-build to allow ease of updates and room for future expansion. The original 5 sections were expanded to over 15 while smoothing the flow of navigation. Visuals, contracted out by Baarns, were added with a graphical theme matching the church's design and signage. Information-flow challenges were addressed with functions writing a sitemap and all page-level navigation.
Active Server Pages were used as templates for content submission to facilitate adding additional pages. Weekly changes can be made with functions that consistently write the content on various designated pages. Simple text files managed by routines on various pages allow various non-web people to contribute relevant content for specific sections of the site.
Server-based forms gathering using IIS CDONTS gives people all Web users a tool to communicate with the various staff members and ministry leaders.
Take a look at www.NorthRidgeChurch.com to see for yourself how this long-term project is working out.
If you have similar requirements to those described above or you can take advantage of the Baarns expertise for your Web site, then Contact Us.
