VersalCode

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

Oakland County is committed to creating eGovernment products that are scalable and sustainable for the long term. For this reason, Oakland County created VersalCode, a set of web development modules that enable universal access to web-based resources. With this initiative, Oakland County simplified its web development processes through the design, development and implementation of standard modules for internally developed applications. VersalCode includes programming language independence/interoperability to preserve interactions between older and newer applications. VersalCode is also based on platform independence. This increases access to County web-based information and services by supporting browsing capabilities for various hardware/devices such as desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, handheld, Internet-enabled TVs, and so on. This approach ensures that the County’s eGovernment information and services are accessible to as many people as possible, no matter which device they use. The current proliferation of mobile devices and operating systems has created a fragmented marketplace for web-based applications. In this environment, Oakland County found it much more cost-effective to implement VersalCode rather than move forward with the development of native applications (device- or platform-specific applications). Future maintenance and development are also easier and more cost-effective without a large number of native applications to support.