One of the struggles with the original systems was the tedious data management workflow. Someone in each organization had to be trained periodically to do data upkeep. With the updated system, a primary goal was to improve how the economic development organizations upload and publish data. Part of accomplishing this was using Census Bureau APIs to pull demographic data, and this integration already saving Bi-State and GCVAC time and effort in managing the system.
The original system was also not accessible on mobile devices—and even on some desktop browsers. The updated portal is a responsive web application that can be accessed on any browser on any device, making in-the-field data access possible.