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BEI Resources (MID-BRR) Web Portal

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) support research related to the basic understanding of microbiology and immunology. This research is leading to the development of vaccines, therapeutics, and medical diagnostics for the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of infectious and immune-mediated diseases. The NIAID, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, had requirements to establish a central repository that would provide one-stop shopping for research materials for the broad community of microbiology and infectious diseases researchers.

XPAND utilized its DotNetNuke expertise and an aggressive approach to redesign the system and improve functionality. Redesigning the system involved rewriting and replacing all of the unstable legacy custom code and ensuring that the changes reflected the use of SharePoint Best Practices, while maintaining compliance under Section 508. The simultaneous re-development of the system and updating occurred as this very public site remained in use.

The new BEI Resources Web Portal provides users with a multitude of new features that simplify their interactions with BEI Resources. The site offers registered users a one-stop shop with easy access to the tools and information needed for obtaining organisms and reagents for research. Users now have several options for searching to find desired reagents or products (Site Wide Search, Advanced Reagent Search, Pre-Configured Collection and Organism Search features).

The Website also offers consolidated forms and links that researchers need for meeting regulations for shipments.

The main deliverables of this effort were:

  • A Scalable Architecture that can support 10x growth over the 7-year period of performance.
  • Extract, Transform and Load data from multiple systems (including legacy systems with poor data quality).
  • Batch Processing to "push" data back to other integrated systems.
  • Custom Workflow System for Content Management.
  • SharePoint and .NET based Web portal that could support multiple languages.
  • Enterprise Search Engine to provide a "Google-like" search experience.

The MID-BRR project also involved obtaining a "Medium-Impact" security Certification and Accreditation (C&A). This process of technical and non-technical evaluation of a system is used for the certification of information systems against documented system-specific security requirements, permits the designated approving authority to make risk-based decisions regarding the secure operation of the system, and allows maintenance of the accredited security posture throughout the system's life cycle. Although the typical time frame to secure a "Medium-Impact" C&A is up to 1 year, XPAND secured it within a record span of 6 weeks.