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http://www.gabar.org

The State Bar of Georgia is the governing body for over 35,000 lawyers, judges, and law professionals. In addition to enforcing the ethical practice of law, the State Bar also provides resources and programs to aid its members both professionally and personally.

Situation
The State Bar of Georgia had plans to integrate an exciting new tool, Casemaker, to its website starting first quarter 2005. Casemaker is a vast online database that provides easy access to past case information to help lawyers and legal professionals put their cases together.

Seeing the new need to utilize the Casemaker tool, The State Bar of Georgia was inspired to take this opportunity to modernize its website with a fresh new look.

Along with the obvious aesthetic need for a new site, there were many problems with the old site that needed to be addressed. The first problem was that the site was very confusing to navigate and visitors had a hard time finding the information they sought. In addition, keeping the vast amount of content on the site current and accurate was a monumental task for the State Bar's staff.

Solution
After strong requirements gathering and analysis, Period Three implemented a plan to completely redesign and reorganize the State Bar website from the ground up using a new, more logical information architecture to improve usability. Several Access databases were rebuilt in MySQL and integrated into the website.

To tackle the headache of overseeing the website's content, Period Three built the new website using SimpleContent, Period Three's own Content Management System (CMS). Simple Content is a tool that is designed to empower our clients to make content updates themselves without needing to involve technical personnel. Period Three provided technical training for SimpleContent and took the hassle out of website upkeep for The State Bar of Georgia.

Results
The State Bar launched the new and improved 1,300 page website on February 24, 2005 and has received very positive feedback from it's members. The State Bar's Communication Department has found SimpleContent to be very easy to use and has been able to handle almost all website updates without needing to get the internal IT staff or Period Three involved.

In addition to the new website, The State Bar is also using Period Three's Swiftpress newsletter system to supplement its monthly print newsletter and promote its new website to its members