Case Study: Small Business Administration

About the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. They recognize that small business is critical to our economic recovery and strength, to building America's future, and to helping the United States compete in today's global marketplace. Although SBA has grown and evolved in the years since it was established in 1953, the bottom line mission remains the same. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Guam.
The Challenge
The original SBA websites were very difficult to navigate and users were having a hard time finding the information they needed. They would have to perform a search in order to find what they are looking for, which was time consuming and very unfriendly for the user.
The Solution
SBA wanted to re-design their sites and move them to Drupal so that users could have a better experience on their site that was more personal and self-serving. They came to Promet Source looking for this solution. They chose Promet because we have worked on complex front-end development and theming of Drupal sites with a similar level of complexity. SBA needed Promet to perform front-end development, aid in Drupal module selection, and consult on other aspects of their sites.

Why Drupal

SBA wanted a new site to be developed quickly. They knew that Drupal had amazing out-of-the-box capabilities, which fit their needs exactly. The ability of Taxonomy to easily organize and filter their content to meet the user’s needs, as well as the ability to easily create complex menus also aided in the decision to move to Drupal. The final selling point was the fact that many respected organizations’ and institutions’ websites, such as WhiteHouse.gov, use Drupal.

Implementation

The site went through a major content re-write and all the content was managed on a parallel Drupal site while development was being done. Throughout the process there were several snapshots of the content migrated to the development environment. The development of the site was split into two major areas: the main SBA site and SBA Direct. Promet was responsible for the SBA Direct web site theming and creation.

The SBA Direct redesign had the following requirements implemented:

1. Relevant Content Targeting: This allows users to select specific topics and sub-topics to find the topic that is relevant to them. Content is refined to show the most relevant pages in descending order, aiding the user to find what they are looking for in a quick, efficient manner.
2. Tools: Users have access to a toolset as a panel that is a way to view supplementary information on the topics and sub-topics that the user has selected.
3. SBA Direct Search: Users can enter specific keywords in the search box to search through their relevant content.
4. Navigational Tags: In order for users to view similar related content, they can click on a content tag found at the bottom of each node.
5. Navigational Tabs: The navigational tabs are found at the top of the SBA Direct page and give the users a clear indication of the location in the site.
6. Map Visualization: This map displays local offices, partners, and lenders based on the ZIP code entered in the “Location” category. The map has two display options: a list or map. If the user selects “map”, the page will display a local map with pinpoints associated with all the local offices, partners, and lenders arranged by proximity. If a user hovers over a pinpoint, a phonebook entry will appear for the local office, partner, or lender. Users can also select/deselect specific types of locations.
7. Persistence: Users are only allowed to enter data for the three categories, “Location”, “ Tell Us About You”, and “Learn More About”, once. The necessary information is stored as part of a cookie. Persistence from session to session minimizes user frustration and system ineffectiveness.
8. Content Rating: The site uses content rating to organize the pages based on content relevance and content value. Only the most relevant pages are displayed at the top of the primary window pane. Content relevance is based on the information architecture and associated tags. Content value is a numerical value that improves the content displayed on the SBA Direct pages. The value is based on the content analysis performed for the broader SBA.gov redesign.
9. Integration with CRM System: The system integrates with the CRM system to provide real-time data pertaining to SBA offices, partners and lenders which is then used in the map functionality. SBA Direct also integrates with the events management function within the CRM system.

All requirements were created with the intention of creating a positive user experience that allows the user to quickly and easily find the information they are looking for directly on the site, rather than performing numerous searches.

Issues in Implementation

1. A major issue in implementation was the use of the Categories module. It would hijack much of the Taxonomy module causing many of the Views and Panels arguments to not work. By using Taxonomy instead of Categories, we were able to resolve this issue.
2. Another issue was that the server is Windows. We ran into many issues running the site on Windows but were able to have these issues resolved by our partners in this project, DRT.
3. Another issue was the lack of a SVN.

Modules Used

• Panels: The parent site is made of Panels while the SBA Direct site is made from .tpl files. We created a single Panel which utilizes taxonomy term references to load data based on URL arguments.
• Views: The front page was created almost entirely out of Views
• Views Slideshow: Used for the rotating banner of the SBA parent site
• Views Custom Field: We needed the fields to display based on more advanced logic than what was provided in the standard views module
• Taxonomy: To categorize and organize data

Design

The new design was provided by an outside company, Limina. Promet was given flat image files which we cut into HTML/CSS and implemented into a Drupal theme. We implemented two separate designs for the two branches of the site. First, a panels-based framework for the main site with the main site design and second, a .tpl based framework for the SBA Direct portion of the site. The main site’s design goal, was to maintain a constant as well as clean and modern look and feel throughout the site. The SBA Direct's design goal was to provide the same but in a sort of console or user control panel sort of fashion as opposed to classic web interface.

Features and Highlights

Modal Pre-Filter: One of the requirements for the project was to attain a zip code from users before they could see the website. The design requirements stated that there must be a popup modal which asks for a zip code and a few optional selections to be entered before seeing the website. This was accomplished by utilizing the jQuery UI modal function. Once submitted, the user is able to see SBA Direct with their nearest SBA offices and articles filtered based on their selections, as well as a left hand navigation with pre-selected options based on what the user chose.
Remembering Selections: We handled selections remembered in a 2 stage process utilizing URL variables to accommodate bookmarking as well as session storage to retain current user selections.
Taxonomy: Our use of Taxonomy was very complicated, requiring a combination of out-of-the-box functionality as well as custom modules.

Results

Working on an extremely tight deadline, Promet was able to deliver exactly what SBA was looking for. The site works exactly as designed and the client has expressed their great satisfaction with the new site. The SBA Direct site has recently gone live and users are finding it much easier to navigate through the site and find what they are looking for.
About Promet Source
Promet Source is a Drupal web application development company. Custom web development is central to our mission at Promet Source. Whether partnering with a fortune 500 company or a small start-up, we create websites and applications that address the specific requirements of each of our client's. Our modular approach to web design enables our applications to scale efficiently or integrate with existing infrastructure. Promet Source’s success in delivering complex applications on time and on budget has been the hallmark of our success.