Information management solutions

The Matthews intranet website contains a myriad of content management and administration tools, file downloads, and general company information. Any employee can self-register for a user account and browse or download information appropriate to his or her geographic location and position within the company.

The Human Resources Department initiated the project with a desire to make its performance review and merit increase processes more efficient, as well as to provide instant always-on access to various forms, reports, policies, and company news items. The intranet is custom-designed to integrate with ADP employee data, and allows HR managers to quickly update 3,000 employee records on-demand within six mouse-clicks of logging into the system.

The application is secured by HIPAA-compliant data encryption and is built on the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework with a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 back-end database.

"Olszak provided us with a highly customizable business solution by building a user-friendly intranet tool to enable our 200 managers located throughout the U.S. to conduct performance reviews and grant merit increases on-line for 1,500 non-exempt employees from what had been a completely manual performance management system. In addition, the back-end administration tool enables our own HR staff to easily run uploads from ADP to maintain current employee data as well as add and delete static content and downloadable files and run reports as needed. This new tool has become the central resource for all HR information thus saving significant time for managers and employees who access it as well as for members of the HR team."

Marcy Campbell, SPHR
Regional Human Resources Manager

Download a project information sheet

The mission of Tobacco Free Allegheny (TFA) is to change community norms regarding tobacco, making it unusual to use, see or be negatively impacted by tobacco use or secondhand smoke. TFA has been the primary contractor for tobacco prevention and control in Allegheny County since 2002. To this end, TFA works with area agency service providers to track a large amount of information about its educational and advocacy events, as well as about its counseling work with thousands of individuals to help them quit smoking. This information must all be tracked in a detailed fashion so that TFA can track its performance and report back to the state.

Olszak designed a information management system that serves three main purposes:

• Ensure that all TFA service providers have direct always-on access to the forms they need to complete to log their activities in a detailed fashion
• Validate the information entered by service providers to ensure its accuracy and completeness
• Report the entered information to TFA in various ways, including bulk exports of granular data for analysis and communication to various interested parties

The TFA information management system is built on the .NET 2.0 Framework and is supported by a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 back-end database.

The Mon/Fayette Expressway, PA Route 51 to Interstate 376, is a $2 billion urban, limited-access expressway under development by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC). It is one of 26 major projects as classified by the Federal Highway Administration. To ensure that expressway designs were compatible with community goals and plans in five sensitive geographic areas, Design Advisory Teams (DATs) were established.

Olszak is the designer and administrator of a publicly-available website and a private project web portal for DAT members — a group that includes PTC project managers; design professionals from various engineering firms; an Olszak team of facilitators and project support staff; and locally-nominated public officials, community group leaders, and community residents. The two sites share a single file-sharing structure and back-end Microsoft SQL Server data source, and present upwards of 75 percent dynamic database-driven content. The web portal incorporates numerous functions for collecting and sharing public comment, project documentation, and event information. With 150 user accounts, nearly 500 downloadable documents, and over 22,000 visits logged between the membership portal and publicly-available website, this website project as a whole serves two overarching purposes: (1) compile, organize, and make available a complete and meaningful record the DAT processes, and (2) maximize the utility of available information for project managers, DAT members, and the general public.

Download a project information sheet

Visit the project website: http://www.paturnpike.com/monfaydat/

The Mid-Atlantic Network of Youth and Family Services (MANY) is a membership organization that provides training and technical assistance programs. Like all nonprofit organizations, MANY needed to ensure effective management of stakeholder information in order to maximize the effectiveness of their communications. Additionally, they wanted to enhance their web presence and reinforce their brand and mission by expanding the capacity of their public website as a resource for both members and non-members alike.

Olszak designed a custom web portal that allows MANY to track its key information:

• Detailed informationa about its individual and organizational members
• Current and historical event registration and sponsorship information
• Email blast tools that maintain membership listings and track individual distributions of information
• A file management tool that allows MANY to maintain an accurate library of resources for its membership

Additionally, Olszak connected the web portal to the MANY public website and re-designed its navigation elements. MANY is now able to autonomously maintain the news items, calendar events, membership directory, and knowledge center resources. The public website has registration and login features that restrict access to members-only resources as defined by MANY.

Faridy Veisz Fraytak, PC (FVFPC) needed a way to maintain some common public website items such as news items, staff listing, and a project portfolio. As a full-service architecture firm, however, they also had some special needs that required a customized solution to both the presentation and management of its information.

While simultaneously re-designing the the FVFPC web presence to an interactive platform, Olszak built a secured staff web portal and secured client extranet. Taken together, these tools helped FVFPC accomplish the following objectives:

• Manage and publish a detailed project portfolio including large image galleries to its public website.
• Communicate up-to-date bid listing information to interested parties across a number of projects
• Provide secure resources to its clients on an individual basis via an extranet that houses any types files that FVFPC would like to make available
• Maintain a one-stop-shop for its staff about client, project, and bid information to increase the accuracy and completeness of its records

Visit the project website: http://www.fvfpc.com

The Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD) is a special purpose area-wide unit of local government that was authorized by an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature (Act 77 of 1993). RAD provides grants from half of the proceeds of the Allegheny County Sales and Use Tax, and works with citizen boards and government officials to monitor the assets for effective operation and development. RAD grants are distributed to civic, cultural and recreational entities, libraries, parks and sports facilities.

Olszak is designing a secure, browser-based application management system that will allow RAD to capture and manage all of its applicant information — including historical information from its old MS Access-based system. The new system will also allow RAD to easily upload financial information about its applicants provided by other sources.

The applicant management system will provide the following main functionalities for RAD:

• Minimize technology overhead by combining a number of databases into a single source of information
• Peform detailed validation and error-checking of information submitted to RAD and entered by its staff
• Allow multiple RAD staff members to be working on different parts of the application process at the same time
• Secure its information in a licensed data center that ensures maximum uptime and daily backups

As part of a $500 million infrastructure investment program, Duquesne Light is scheduling over 150 outreach meetings with community groups to present their plans and garner feedback.To facilitate seamless communication between project managers and a presentation team of over fifty other Duquesne Light representatives, Olszak designed an extranet web application by which project managers and other speakers could log on and manage the meeting process.

Project managers can enter and track comprehensive meeting information from start to completion -- including all staffing, needed materials, and contacts with the meeting group.The presentation team of more than fifty individuals can each logon and schedule themselves for available meetings and then be reminded via a custom email system of their upcoming obligations.

The primary function of the application is quality assurance/quality control. Both Olszak and Duquesne Light project staff are guided through a 13-step process that ensures all needed resources are deployed outreach meetings -- each of which vary in presentation topics, venue, and audience. This business logic is enforced through various prompts, alerts, and restrictions within the user interface. Duquesne Light project managers can also fully manage extranet access and their presenter roster.

The application has a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 back-end database and is built on the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework.

Download a project information sheet

Olszak partnered with the Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA) to offer a publicly-accessible online library of social enterprise resources comprised of data collected through research funded by an anonymous foundation. Olszak managed the implementation process of putting the library online and allowing access through both the Olszak website and SEA website. The Library includes reporting functions and update tools so that the content can be continually updated by project staff. The Library is coded in PHP and uses a MySQL back-end database. It has over 1,000 searchable resources, and hundreds of users have registered for accounts.

Visit the project website: http://db.olszak.com

Olszak has developed and administered a number of web applications for PennDOT transportation projects. In addition to project and traffic information — including contact lists, calendars, schedules, and technical documentation — the applications incorporate public feedback systems that collect information through various methods — such as comment forms, surveys, and opt-in mailing lists — according to sets of user-defined criteria. The applications involve both custom-built databases, and retro-fitted existing databases for web-readiness and web-access. These project websites are programmed in ASP.NET and use a mixture of Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server database formats as back-ends to the application frameworks.

The completion of the Allegheny County Comprehensive Plan entails a two-year process of public outreach, during which the project team is tasked with reaching 700,000 county residents. Olszak is maintaining and updating the county contacts database to include comprehensive planning support groups — such as resource panels, committees, municipal officials, legislators, and the general public. Olszak has also designed a custom database to monitor and record public outreach meetings. The database was received and is being maintained in Microsoft Access format.

Visit the project website: http://www.alleghenyplaces.com/

Olszak developed a database of over 5,500 records containing information on public officials, community groups, businesses, property owners, and the general public. The database consolidated records from several separate and disconnected data sources (including public records, feedback from public meetings, and contact logs). Olszak updated the database over the course of the four-year project for use in public official briefings, newsletter updates and the distribution of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The database also incorporated comment and response forms for capturing public opinion, and produced quantitative and thematic analyses of public comments. The database was designed and built in Microsoft Access format.

Visit the project website: http://www.maglevpa.com/

Olszak compiled nearly 400 records containing information on public officials, community groups, businesses, and the general public. The database also incorporated comment and response forms for capturing public opinion, produced quantitative and thematic analyses of public comments, and was used for meeting notification and community outreach efforts. The database was designed and built in Microsoft Access format.

Visit the project website: http://www.spcregion.org/CATS/

This database included over 1,700 records that Olszak compiled from contact information for public officials, community groups, major employers, and public meeting participants. The database was also used to track meeting invitations and participants for major project teams and committees. Another component of this Microsoft Access database was the incorporation of names and addresses from the general public derived from public meeting attendance and phone/email/mail inquiries.

Visit the project website: http://www.portauthority.org/grow/capital/MultiModal/multimodal.htm