Collaborative Portal Development

Centric develops a lightweight, highly flexible CMS solution

The Business Need

A Michigan-based education application exists to dramatically increase Michigan’s college participation and completion rates, particularly among low-income and first-generation college students. The tool works to coordinate college access resources and supports the creation, expansion and sustainability of community-based programs dedicated to increasing college access in Michigan.

The project started as an initiative of the governor’s office and is growing into an independent nonprofit organization. The project needed to create a presence on the web to establish their identity as a strategic movement in education, to communicate with stakeholders across the state, and to expand the understanding and impact of their network. With limited organizational capacity, the client required a website that was affordable and user-friendly, but also provided a clean, professional design.

Centric’s High-Impact Approach

Centric consultants provided the client with the right blend of project management, web development, and graphic design experience to perform all aspects of the project lifecycle: discovery, detailed design, development, testing, and delivery.

Centric implemented a content management system (CMS) based on Joomla, and provided a modern and professional graphic design and user interface:

• Powerful and user-friendly content management system
• Scalable hosting and architecture
• Interactive membership map and directory
• Event and calendar listing
• Website analytics

Results

Even as a start-up organization, the client now has a powerful and professional presence online that establishes their brand and provides a platform to communicate with their stakeholders across the state.