East Cambridgeshire District Council has developed a transactional website with long term strategic development and implementation support from Socitm Consulting. Thanks to our expertise in web services development, the Council has a website capable of the effective delivery of customer services and a strategic plan to further improve online customer service delivery in the future.
The project issues
The Council initially wanted to develop an information-only website with the longer term intention of introducing the full range of online transactional services. With a small ICT Department, the Council lacked the internal resource to develop or manage a website strategy. Initially, Socitm Consulting was asked to produce a phased website development strategy. Subsequently we were commissioned to support the implementation and further development of the website strategy on a continuing basis.
The Socitm Consulting solution
The first requirement was to produce a project plan for the development of an effective ‘brochure-ware’ website which would serve as a platform for the future development of e-commerce and transactional services. The report included a strategic review and development plan, a review of information and content management, technical specifications and details of implementation, project management and maintenance resources and costs.
Once the Council had implemented this first phase, we then helped to develop the strategy for and to implement transactional functionality in the areas of payments, planning, e-forms, hosting and search engine capacity. These projects were managed and supported by us in conjunction with other projects for the Council, including the development of CRM and EDRM systems, the development of an elections information website and the implementation of a county-wide network.
There are a range of further developments in progress, including the implementation of GIS functionality and a redesign of the website.
The benefits to the client
By providing ongoing strategic and technical website development support, and thereby removing the need for a permanent website strategic manager and technical staff, we have enabled a small Council to develop and implement a highly cost-effective long term e-government strategy. The Council have been able to implement a transactional website on a phased basis, enabling more effective and efficient delivery of customer services.
Project identification
Client organisation: East Cambridgeshire District Council
Client contact: Andrew Killington, Corporate Director, 01353 665555, andrew.killington@eastcambs.gov.uk
Lead Consultant: andy.grant@socitm.gov.uk
Project no: 3440