Overview
Overview
Background
The Website search function used across much of the University had not been actively managed for a significant period of time. In early 2012 it was identified that the free search service used at that time required to be changed in order to comply with the latest EU regulations.
The process of changing search engine uncovered a number of issues that could not be resolved with the current solution. During year 2014/15 some further work was undertaken to better understand search engine requirements, progress with developing proof of concept work and deploy enhancements to the existing service. This work fed into the project requirements for the procurement of a new Search engine (UWS005).
Concurrently, delivery of EdWeb - the new central content management system (CMS) - and the Edinburgh Global Experience Language (EdGEL) - a design framework for branding and design guidelines for developing web applications within the University - provide opportunities to provide a better user experience, with the search engine being able to take advantage of and implement a better and more usable service.
The search engine procurement project (UWP014) was undertaken to gather requirements and procure a new University-wide search engine. The project resulted in the conclusion of a signed SaaS agreement with the approved supplier ready for implementation.
This project has been initiated to implement the new search engine.
Scope
Implementation of the procured applications, documentation and services (as outlined in SaaS agreement) in accordance with the Business Requirements Specification.
Out of scope
This project does not include any work not outlined within the SaaS Agreement. This may be considered for a potential second phase.
Objectives & Deliverables
The deliverables are prioritised using the MoSCoW prioritisation method:
M=Must Have; S=Should Have; C=Could Have; W=Want
- (M= has to be satisfied for the final solution to be acceptable in terms of delivery dates, compliance, viability etc.
- S= high-priority requirement that should be included if possible -workarounds may be available
- C= a nice-to-have requirement
- W= want but will not be part of this project)
| Objectives & Deliverables |
Priority |
| O1 Implementation and Integration of the solution with existing University systems |
|
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D1. Implementation plan aligned to deployment through DEV and TEST environment prior to implementation in LIVE. Supplier hosting team in place to handle implementation and future patching and upgrades, including coordination with UoE to progress through environments. Secure, locked down portal in place. |
M |
|
D2. Search Solution installed and integrated with the current systems and sources of data:
* Using EdWeb's protected content as the starting point **There are projects planned to investigate EdWeb integration with Events Booking, so potentially using API or feed in EdWeb as a source A register of recommendations and future actions regarding integration investigations and recommendations (for points under D2) will be delivered. |
Various |
D3. The solution will meet the criteria outlined in SaaS Agreement including:
|
M |
|
D4. Quality Assurance completed aligned to criteria outlined in D1 (above), SLA, and SaaS Agreement. |
M |
| D5. Search Solution UAT completed aligned to scenarios and tests aligned to criteria in D1, SLA, and SaaS Agreement. | M |
| O2 To provide skills and understanding in service and support teams on the solution | |
|
D6. Training package and plan developed, signed off and rolled out including courses for:
|
M |
| D7. Documentation supporting on-going training and development approved and in place. | M |
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D8. UoE support staff (in business and Information Services) trained in development of the system, the built in administration interface and associated support arrangement (including SLA / escalation). |
M |
| O3 User Acceptability Testing and Go-live preparations | |
|
D9. Go-live checklist completed and signed off including:
|
M |
|
D10.Supplier Support Team in place and UoE support staff enabled to:
|
M |
| D11. OpsWiki updated and rolled out | S |
| O4 Go-Live and Ongoing Support | |
| D12. Search solution deployed to LIVE | M |
| D13.Implementation Warranty (Acceptance Period) completed (28 standard days after Implementation Completion Signed off) | S |
Benefits
- Ability to integrate University content repositories, apart from websites, easier and in a standardised way. This will provide flexibility in creating collections with related data, to enable more contextual search results. The University will have a search tool that meets it's mid to longer term requirements.
- Compliance with the latest EU regulations.
Potential benefits, pending on user research outcomes, implementation restrictions, integration capabilities and feature research, within the procurement phase from Funnelback include:
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Faceted navigation easily refine search results to only the most relevant information and answers, highlighting content to customers they might not have considered before, while simplifying the overall search process.
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Custom result summaries display search results according to content type in widgets users can directly interact with, such as thumbnails and contact cards for UoE staff finder. Include call to actions such as ‘contact now’ or ‘book now’ and allow search to reduce customer transactions to one singular effort.
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Scoped search elect which content or content repository customers can explore from, with a specialised search option independent to the global search. A unique search tool, such as a ‘course finder,’ ‘staff directory’ or ‘publications library,’ can be configured to hone in on any content source or form, speeding up the user’s search experience.
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Predictive segmentation instantly provide demographic profiles obtained for each new or returned website visitor, personalise all points of user’s website engagement with only the most relevant content.
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Dynamic content widgets automatically populate sections of web content according to the actions and unique profile of each user, such as a ‘relevant blog posts’ list or a localised ‘upcoming events’ widget. Set parameters to where the information is to be retrieved from and how it is to be displayed, and allow Funnelback to personalise the entire web experience as users’ navigate UoE site.
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Geo-spatial search, upweight search results in response to a user’s locational data, tailoring the search experience with reference to a location in time and space. Automatically serve up content tagged with a corresponding geolocation, power a ‘store locator’ widget, or display search results on a map.
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Funnelback can search multiple repositories and databases, enabling instant access to only the most relevant content, sourced from anywhere in the digital landscape.
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Promote specified content with a set of manufactured search results that will appear when triggered by a searched phrase or keyword. This configurable feature can display rich content or a call to action, speeding up conversions.
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With this nontechnical, easy-to-use tool, transform the search engine into a powerful marketing tools set, allowing UoE to tweak which content ranks above others.
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The system ensures misspellings, acronyms and related search query terms always return what the user was looking for.
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Brings to light topics related to the user’s search query in a road sign style navigation panel, and switch on and off as required without the need for the manual entering of suggestions.
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Search analytics gain unique insights depicting the behaviour of users when interacting with UoE website search, including top searched queries, unanswered queries, click summaries and locational data.
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Content auditor provides a birds-eye view of UoE website content with all the insights needed for improvements, including reports detailing metadata and reading grade quality, as well as ‘duplicated content’ and page response times.
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Supports WCAG compliance with Funnelback’s in-built accessibility auditor, examining millions of URLs on a regular basis and providing advice on how to resolve any failures.
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SEO auditor optimises UoE content and enhances best practice for content authoring with Funnelback’s advanced SEO auditing tool, obtaining a detailed analysis of how and why UoE specific pages are ranked, and intelligent suggestions for how these can be boosted.
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Trend alerts help UoE stay ahead of the curve, Funnelback will observe for anomalous spikes in search traffic and deliver alerts and updates when these occur.
Success Criteria
- Successful deployment and launch of hosted search solution before the end of March 2018
- Enhanced everyday user experience with the University’s Search Engine*
- Improved solution for back-end management of Search Engine**
*Quantitative data analysis gathered prior to procurement (Oct. 2016) will be used as a benchmark
**Data will be gathered from Search Engine back end users post roll out
Milestones
See also - Milestones log
Further information can be found at the links below;
- Funnelback: http://www.funnelback.com/
- Funnelback documentation: http://docs.funnelback.com/
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