New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (NYSDMV)

The NYSDMV is responsible for delivering essential motor vehicle and driving-related services, administering motor vehicle laws and promoting vehicle safety to the state’s 12 million drivers. The department has maintained a public website for over two decades, and their existing property received over 38 million site visits each year.

Any significant update to the NYSDMV’s existing web presence would be an undertaking that would impact their millions of users who regularly engage with their website, so the department had to get the fundamentals right. 

The department sought an agency with sufficient public sector experience and mastery of the Drupal content management system. OPIN, a digital agency dedicated to building Drupal-based solutions whose past projects include the Government of Bermuda website and various Canadian government sites such as the Canadian Transportation Agency, was a natural fit for the project.

OPIN’s New York team was required to provide cost-effective website maintenance, enhancement, and accessibility support for at least three years to improve the usability and performance of the NYSDMV website.

In accordance with the State of New York’s mandate to adopt Drupal for its government websites due to its cost-effectiveness and robust functionality, the NYSDMV needed a smooth transition to the new version of Drupal that would support their organizational goals and mission.

With emerging technologies and shifting expectations of digital services, the NYSDMV needed to update its existing web properties so it would better engage audiences and deliver services to citizens in a more user-centric manner. 

Building a more user-centric website required constant visibility into users’ actions and the roadblocks they face when trying to complete tasks throughout the website.

Performing regular user experience audits of the site in addition to ensuring full accessibility compliance at all times would support the department's goal of producing a more user-friendly experience for everyone. This is a particularly important goal since the DMV is a public sector organization that is involved in the day-to-day lives of so many citizens. 

The NYSDMV needed a team located in the United States to provide long-term maintenance and support, enhancement support, and accessibility support to their new Drupal 8 website. Thankfully, OPIN’s New York team, who would also go on to work for the New York Department of Financial Services, fit the bill.

 

To meet the NYSDMV’s need for on-call web development services, OPIN provided the DMV with a team of six certified Drupal specialists, in addition to a supporting project manager and product owner. The OPIN team’s ongoing support and development of NYSDMV’s web properties have so far included rigorous quality assurance, accessibility, and user experience testing to ensure all required enhancements are made.

OPIN’s commitment to the Agile development methodology provided a constant feedback loop that has proven indispensable to the NYSDMV, as it ensured all enhancements were aligned and prioritized in accordance with the department’s goals and executed in a timely manner. These enhancements include accommodations for security updates to Drupal, the modification of Drupal modules and updates to the Panoply distribution used by the department.

Additionally, OPIN’s dedicated Development Operations Support staff provides the department staff with peace of mind, ensuring all issues, system failures, and service interruptions are managed and resolved in accordance with the required service level agreements. 

OPIN helped contribute to the NYSDMV’s mission of regulating motor vehicles and drivers and sharing information by supporting and enhancing their web presence to better engage their audience while keeping the website on the cutting edge of Drupal development. OPIN’s New York team will ensure that NYSDMV’s goals continue to be met well into the future, by providing world-class development services and support long term.