Project Background
In October 2020, the Ontario Energy Board began a modernization journey focused on enhancing public trust, promoting transparency and accountability and delivering public value for the people of Ontario. We are driving towards becoming a best-in-class regulator with a digital-first mindset. Our storefront to the world, the bilingual OEB website serves as a main information channel for our distinct audiences: energy consumers, licensees and regulated entities and intervenors and other stakeholders who participate in our adjudicative processes and policy activities. Within these groups there are very distinct sub-groups, each with different goals for visiting our site. The OEB website, as our primary digital property, must continuously evolve to improve user experience for all groups, to stay aligned with Ontario's energy sector, and to be a trusted and reliable source of information.
The OEB last undertook a full website redesign in 2016-17, with a primary focus on improving the user experience for energy consumers. Since then, incremental changes and improvements have been done to keep the website up to date with current web development and usability standards, and government of Ontario legislation and technical requirements: Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), French Language Services Act (FLSA), Ontario’s Open Data Directive, 2019 (Open Data).
However, the OEB website serves a critical role in providing information about our rules and enforcement activities, policy work, processes, events and other regulatory information to the companies we regulate and acting as a central intake service for companies to file documents and reporting data. Feedback from industry and stakeholder users as well as internal users have revealed issues in usability, user experience and lack of transparency. Specifically, in evaluating oeb.ca website analytics, user experience feedback both informal (enquiries received by OEB, online user surveys) and formal (Electricity Distributors Association's 2019 Report on Ontario Energy Board Modernization, Top Quartile Regulator Report, OEB Strategic Plan), as well as expert reports (OEB Modernization Review Panel final report), we have identified key areas of improvement for the website that align with current and future corporate objectives. The main underlying issues are:
1. Industry content is segregated from general consumer content
- Creates navigation, usability, and search issues
2. Not fully leveraging the website as a modern communication channel with stakeholders
- Outdated processes
- Existing online tools not being utilized to full capabilities
3. Website doesn't provide enough information on OEB activities
- What drives OEB initiatives? What shape does the process take and what phase are we at in the process? What are the outcomes?
Phase 1 of our Website Enhancements project is currently underway and is focused mainly on #1 above - updating the architecture and navigation of the website, and minor design and content changes to accommodate the new merged navigation structure.
For Phase 2 of our Website Enhancements project, the OEB is looking to engage a vendor to modernize the efficiency of the OEB's Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer processes and improve website content for all users.
Purpose and Objectives
The underlying strategic objectives for Phase 2 are:
Improve Transparency
Improve transparency, currency and availability of information related to ongoing regulatory activities
Facilitate Strategic Plan
Reorganize website structure to better align with current and future priorities of the OEB
Facilitate Modernization Plans
Leverage the website as a channel to improve day-to-day processes and digital interactions between stakeholders and the OEB
Full details of the RFP document is available only through MERX at www.merx.com or 1-800-964-6379, MERX reference number 0000209426.
