Russian Parliament Begins Open Government Era with Bitrix

Bitrix, Inc., a technology trendsetter in business communications, announces that its flagship product, Bitrix Site Manager has been chosen by the Russian Parliament – the Duma (http://www.duma.gov.ru) as the platform for its official website. The product's functionality, usability and security positions the website as one of the world's leading parliamentary online resources by openness, security, and integration with social networks.

The Duma's recently launched website was developed by Intaro, a Bitrix Gold Certified Partner. It features a range of cutting-edge content management technologies, making the website a comprehensive online representation of the parliament, connecting it with the public.

It contains a continuously updated database of nearly 25,000 official parliamentary regulations with custom filters to simplify the discovery of desired information. Beyond that, analytical and research materials which are collected and used by Duma members are made available to the public through the site – thus the rational basis for laws proposed and passed is given much more transparency. Other popular and important features include rich personal profiles of Duma deputies and a special mobile version optimized for viewing the content on mobile devices.

Improving transparency and building effective communications with an online community is further enhanced through web-based TV available on the website. Visitors have the opportunity to watch parliamentary sessions in real-time, choose recorded videos and selected speeches, and get a digest of Duma activity with a video summary of the results of the latest sessions.

The new Duma website made a huge step with social networking. Now it features social bookmarks and links to connect content to popular networks like Facebook and personal blogs seamlessly. The Russian Parliament also launched a dedicated Twitter account (http://twitter.com/dumagovru) that delivers real-time updates for users of this social network. At the same time, parliament members can keep their own blogs, adding extra transparency to the parliamentary procedures.

The website is tightly integrated with no less than nine third-party applications and databases to provide visitors a universal interface for information discovery. The website's security relies on the Bitrix PRO+PRO™ security framework and is approved by respective governmental authorities to meet internal data security regulations. The website's content and structure is designed according to Jacob Nielsen's recommendations depicted in his publications regarding the best web usability practices. The improved usability has resulted in a six-fold decrease in error probability and 30% increase of speed in performing typical website operations.