Aberdeen Council Case Study

Objective

The Council requirement was for a CMS that could power their staff intranet and integrate with other applications including a staff telephone and organisational directory, classified adverts generator, an A-Z of services, etc. Each of these applications represented custom code functionality, written by the internal web team, with each application then seamlessly integrated into the Intranet. 

It was extremely important that the chosen solution was easy to use and would allow the organisation to empower employees within the different departments to maintain and update their specific area with ease.

Solution

Activedition "ticked all the boxes" and was selected because of the extensive out of the box functionality, while at the same time providing Aberdeen Council with excellent value for money solution. Activedition enabled the Web Team at the Council to quickly and successfully extend the platform delivering enhanced efficiency benefits.

Activedition partner Lighthouse Design were chosen to produce the templates for the intranet. It took three months to complete the project from initial implementation to final live date.

The largest task undertaken by the web team was to validate the information on the old system and then to undertake a content migration programme to the new intranet site -a considerable but well executed programme of content cleansing and categorising was required. The content was also delivered on the intranet site with accessibility in mind.

The intranet, branded "The Zone", was launched in June 2005. With assistance from the dedicated Activedition Training Team, ACC have trained 170 users to maintain and update the intranet site.

The design of the intranet Home Page required to be dynamic and to communicate priority news and actives throughout the organisation. Information Architecture, navigation aids, extensive site search capability (including content and documents) were crucial to establishing usability of the highest order.

With the organisation now empowered, employees more aware and knowledge at their finger tips the Council are looking to realise further year on year efficiency savings.

Since launch, the Council has been awarded the Accessibility+ mark from the Shaw Trust.

Any website carrying this mark has been tested by people with a wide range of disabilities and found to be totally accessible. The Shaw Trust web accreditation process is rigorous, with over 60 hours of testing by disabled web users.

Further success for the council's website is that it has been ranked top Scottish local authority website for performance and functionality by Sitemorse - the leading web auditing, bench-marking and certification service.

The website appears at number 22 in their league table of 460 UK local authority websites, scoring a total of nine out of 10 across a range of tests. The only other Scottish local authority in the top 50 comes in at number 46.

The council's website has been commended in this year's SOCITM (Society of Information Technology Management) Better Connected 2009 survey of local authority websites. The website has been singled out as a 'Top Scottish Unitary Authority' because it meets five out of the nine criteria for the highest 'excellent' category. No Scottish site is rated excellent - in fact there are only eight sites out of over 460 in the UK which meet that standard.

The council was also commended in the SOCITM report for using best practice because it has the Shaw Trust accreditation.

Client Testimonial