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Planning

First steps

  • Prior to signing a contract or beginning any new project, any group or individual embarking on a website development project is asked to contact Séamus O'Reilly at Duke Health Marketing and Communications (DHMC) and Aaron Nelson at DHTS to determine next steps and guidance on best practice, technical, and brand guidelines .

Deciding on a strategy

  • Having identified the need for a web presence, DHMC and DHTS can offer guidance to DUHS individuals / units.
    • Please browse this range of options which include creating a sub-site or additional pages on an existing departmental website; an intranet site; incorporating content into dukehealth.org; or creating a new stand-alone website.

Vendor engagement

  • Aaron Nelson at DHTS can provide a list of Duke-approved and recommended web design and development vendors, including Duke University OIT Web Services.
  • All DUHS units will be responsible for payment to third-party vendors.*
  • Prior to beginning work with a vendor, please facilitate a meeting between a departmental representative, the vendor, DHMC, and DHTS to discuss design and branding, applications, and other technical and security policies and requirements.
  • Third-party vendors must work with DHTS to ensure a new website built in Drupal can be hosted at Duke.
  • DHTS should be closely involved in all new DUHS web projects to ensure a smooth transition from vendor to Duke once the site is completed.
  • Vendors will need NetID credentials and VPN access in order to login to the website once it is hosted by Duke.

 

Existing Resources

Template

  • DHMC has produced an approved website template for use by DUHS clients.
  • The Drupal files for use by vendors can be obtained by contacting Aaron Nelson at DHTS.
  • In consultation with vendors and Duke Health Design Director Chad Roberts, the DUHS client can choose to pursue one of three options:
    1. Use the pre-approved template as is, adding unit-specific navigation, content, and images.
    2. Use the pre-approved template as a basis for the website with the chosen vendor adapting it for the DUHS client.
    3. Design and produce a new website from scratch.
      • In this case, the vendor and DUHS client should still work with DHMC Design Director Chad Roberts in adhering to the DUHS brand style guidelines.

Branding

 

Roles & Responsibilities

DHTS will provide the following services:

  • Web hosting
  • Server maintenance and repair
  • Application support for Drupal and Sharepoint
  • Security
  • Basic site provisioning (prep work to provide vendor, set-up basics)
  • Release Management (work with third-party vendors on release of new sites on duke.edu domain)
  • Specification/Review
  • Training for vendors and end users

Third-party web vendors provide the following services:

  • Web development / design
  • Web development updates / repairs (maintenance)

DUHS Departments / Units provide the following services:

  • Departments and units are responsible for drafting and updating content on their site.

Functional Requirements

  • Drupal is the CMS of choice at Duke University, and is the hosted CMS offered by DHTS Web Services. Consequently, Drupal 7 should be considered the CMS of choice. Please plan to engage with DHTS Web Services early and often on the process.
  • Integration with Scholars at Duke for faculty profiles.
  • Integration with Duke Events Calendar for events listings.
  • Integration with Duke NetID (Shibboleth) for authentication for the purposes of authoring and user management. Shibboleth is pre-configured and log-ins are available within Duke Health’s firewall only.
  • Integration with DukeAlert emergency system—this puts a red banner at home page top when the system is activated.
  • Google Analytics
  • Video served from YouTube
  • Ability to create unlimited administrator-defined categories and tag for use with all content and media.
  • Ability to create blogs and microsites within the site, e.g. for an event blog, investigator lab microsite.
  • Content migration: any bid should include a provision for migrating content from the current sites to the new site.

* In accordance with Duke University and Duke Health guidelines, all units are urged to obtain bids from three Duke-endorsed web vendors for all major web projects