Pennsylvania Overhauls Its Web Site To Help Businesses Grow

Pennsylvania is broadening its efforts to be recognized as a technologically savvy place in which to grow a business. The Keystone State’s various public-private technology partnerships and healthy business climate have been well chronicled in this publication. The state now is embarking on a strategy to establish and build a presence in cyberspace that businesses — and private citizens — will turn to routinely for information and business development resources, particularly where e-commerce is concerned.

Gov. Tom Ridge used his annual budget speech in February to announce substantial investments in Web-based services and other means with which to make interacting with government agencies “friction free.” A key component of the strategy is overhauling Pennsylvania’s current Web site (www.state.pa.us) and reintroducing it under the moniker PA PowerPort. The URL, or Web address, will remain the same. An initial version of PA PowerPort was scheduled to debut in April.

“PA PowerPort will become part of our everyday lives,” noted Gov. Ridge in his budget address, “a one-stop shop for the information we all need. Think about it — road maps and weather, your own e-mail account, local hometown news, online Yellow Pages, even today’s homework assignments for your children’s class. And, just as important,” he added, “it will make Pennsylvania employers quicker than their competitors. Through the PA PowerPort, they’ll be able to take their businesses online in one week when it takes their competitors months.”

Microsoft Corp. is partnering with the state in the site development phase by committing US$100,000 worth of consulting services to the state. When operational, PA PowerPort will function as an Internet portal, which is a Web site that organizes and updates news, financial market activity and weather. Portals also provide an Internet search engine and other services; in Pennsylvania’s case, the site will also offer communities across the state an opportunity to disseminate information and resources about their areas.

Portal services, such as news, weather and stock quotes, will be filtered to reflect Pennsylvania-specific information; the site will not be a source of national or international information. “We are interested in making the site available for other news sources in order to provide as much choice as we can to visitors at our site,” says George White, director of the Bureau of Desktop Technology in the Governor’s Office of Administration.

The core strength of the new site is the set of business development resources it will make available. Pennsylvania already operates the “Pennsylvania — Open for Business Website (www.PaOpen4Business.state.pa.us) that lets businesses complete and file the necessary forms required by state agencies when opening a business. “A company may then want to establish a presence on the Web, but the business may be in the technology industry, and it may not have much knowledge of how to get involved with the Web or do business on the Web,” says White. “When you would leave that Open for Business site, you would see a searchable, online listing of Pennsylvania-based companies that specialize in Web development, hosting services and other resources.”

Still another component of the portal is the PA Small Business Network, which White describes as a Pennsylvania-specific implementation of Microsoft’s B Central service, an Internet-based service that lets users build a Web page with basic e-commerce capabilities.
“Microsoft is willing to give that a Pennsylvania look and feel, and we can make that available as another option to businesses that to go that route,” he explains. “We also see the PA Small Business Network as being a starting point, but not the end point, for a new company’s activity on the Web,” White adds. “Then as their customer base grows and customers’ expectations grow, we see them spinning off to Pennsylvania-based Internet companies to help with the Web site development work.”

How local governments and economic development agencies will be able to participate in PA PowerPort is still being worked out, says White. “As we develop the strategic plan and the standards and guidelines, that will be a bridge we have to cross in terms of how much conformity and consistency we incorporate into this. We haven’t discussed the role of local economic development groups, but we are certainly open to their participation. That’s part of our research effort as we move forward.”