Announcing our new website: Building awareness of The Open Group’s standards and certifications

By Patricia Donovan, The Open Group

Those who have already visited The Open Group website today may have noticed it has a new appearance. And if you haven’t, please visit it now!

Yes; we’ve refined the design and encapsulated the information accumulated over the years into an easily digestible and navigatable site. But the real change is in the approach to how we use it as a business tool. In many ways, our new website is an extension of the mission we set for ourselves nearly 25 years ago: to drive the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow™ by giving people access to the information they need most, in the way they expect to find it.

You may recall that in 2010, we sent out surveys asking your opinions on what our members find to be important and what features and activities they value, as well as thoughts on compelling images, colors and other visuals. The new website, and some of the other communications you are now seeing from The Open Group, are a direct result of your input.

The new website is easier to scan, read and navigate, enabling visitors to find what they need quickly. Just as importantly, our key messages and value propositions are evident and clear. We are confident that our new web presence will improve The Open Group’s visibility and reputation as the global thought leader in the development of open, vendor-neutral standards and certifications — which will increase awareness for the valuable work done by the members who make up The Open Group Forums and Work Groups.

Additionally, the foundation has been laid to make the website a more agile, more interactive, Web 2.0 site — a tool that evolves organically, enables us to add features we were unable to offer previously, and allows us to meet your needs in real time.

I hope you will visit the new website at the same address, www.opengroup.org, and acquaint yourself with the new site. We’re quite proud of it, but we know there’s still work to do beyond today’s launch. In the coming months, we hope to continue improving the site so that it best serves you, our members.

In the meantime, please note some of the pages you may have previously bookmarked may no longer work and need to be bookmarked again; and for a time you’ll still be able to access material on our former site. Finally, please send any web feedback to webfeedback@opengroup.org.

Patricia Donovan is Vice President, Membership & Events, at The Open Group and a member of its executive management team. In this role she is involved in determining the company’s strategic direction and policy as well as the overall management of that business area. Patricia joined The Open Group in 1988 and has played a key role in the organization’s evolution, development and growth since then. She also oversees the company’s marketing, conferences and member meetings. She is based in the US.