TMP Government: Digital Marketing and Media Solutions

TMP Government helps take Recovery.gov to Web 2.0

TMP Government is set to help Americans track the dollars spent through the Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. In mid-July, the General Services Administration, acting on behalf of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, awarded the redesign of the Recovery.gov website to TMP Government as a member of the team led by Smartronix, Inc. The team also includes KPMG LLP and Synteractive Corporation. Since the Board is committed to making the new stimulus funds-tracking site available by October, the team is making innovative and interactive improvements on an aggressive schedule.

The Smartronix Recovery.gov 2.0 team plans to design, procure, install, configure, secure, operate and maintain an entire Web infrastructure (including development, test, staging and production components) to support tens of millions of users. The team also must provide a business intelligence platform for reporting and advanced data visualizations for hundreds of thousands of recipients. The solution must be robust, fault tolerant, secure and highly available.

TMP’s focus is on the design and usability, deploying the latest interactive techniques to ensure information that’s easy to find and to understand on a giant scale.

Seeking an “award-winning” web designer

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which is responsible for spending oversight under the ARRA, sought “an innovative, award-winning, Web-design and implementation firm with expertise in user-focused, data-driven Web designs." Smatronix, Inc. felt that TMP was the right partner. TMP Government has won many Web design awards, including Webby awards, the industry’s highest honor. A list of awards is available at www.tmpgovernment.com/awards.

TMP is ready to design a site that clearly captures and transmits information on stimulus fund expenditures, impacts and results in an intuitive, user-friendly way. TMP’s experience with building large government websites complements the excellent project and technical management of the Smartronix, Inc. led team. TMP has plans for a compliant site that is not only transparent, but enables citizens throughout the nation to see how their Recovery Act dollars are spent.

Tracking an investment in America

To understand the value of Recovery.gov, consider the scope of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It specifies appropriations for a wide range of federal programs, targeting “investments towards key areas that will save and create good jobs immediately, while also laying the groundwork for long-term economic growth.” Broadly speaking, the Act addresses many major issues that affect our entire way of life:

• Create a framework for clean, efficient, American energy.
• Transform our economy with science and technology.
• Modernize roads, bridges, transit and waterways.
• Overhaul education for the 21st Century.
• Dispense tax cuts to make work pay and create jobs.
• Expand access to healthcare and lower costs.
• Provide assistance to workers hurt by the economy.
• Save public sector jobs and protect vital services.

Tracing dollars to the micro level

Different federal agencies, such as the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Energy, decide who will receive award grants and contracts. Sometimes a state government receives the money, but other times, the funds go directly to a school, hospital, contractor or other organization.

Once agencies make these decisions, they deliver that information to the Recovery.gov team, which makes the information available on the website where everyone can track where the money is going. Users of the revised Web 2.0 sites will have even more ways to track funds by state or even by Congressional district. They can look up the names of federal contractors and other recipients of federal dollars. Beyond this transparency, Americans can participate with the site: sending in comments, thoughts, ideas, questions and responses.

Recovery.gov will graphically and verbally relay the big picture about expenditures while tracing dollars down to the smallest grant recipient and contractor. This task has brought forth expertise from TMP Government, backed by interactive experience from its parent company TMP Worldwide. Since TMP Worldwide is a Top 40 Digital Agency (Ad Age, May 2009), Recovery.gov 2.0 will benefit from the latest public and private sector Web design practices. TMP Government is committed to developing a state-of-the-art Recovery.gov website that demonstrates how this unprecedented effort to jump-start the economy touches the lives of every American.

To view our portfolio of websites and other work please visit: http://www.tmpgovernment.com/portfolio.aspx