BIS partner day - Features of the shared web platform

BIS.gov.uk Platform features Neil Williams, Head of Digital Communications Email: neil.williams@bis.gsi.gov.uk Twitter: @neillyneil Blog: http://neilojwilliams.net

Quick history
exBERR web service due for renewal &
needed a platform for convergence
Procured by competitive tender through OGC
Catalist framework, for BERR and partners.
BIS formed mid-project in June 2009.
Contract awarded to Eduserv for full service:
development, hosting & support
BIS shared platform launched March 2010.
Runs to 31 March 2014 (if extended in 2013)

What is it? BIS.gov.uk is a shared website platform which provides participating organisations with a flexible, features-rich enterprise Content Management System (CMS) and robust, resilient hosting and support at a fraction of the costs of going it alone

Participating organisations?
So far:
Export Credits Guarantee Dept, GO Science, Foresight, Council for Science and Technology, British Hallmarking Council, Shareholder Exec
Next up:
UK Space Agency, National Measurement Office, Competition Commission, Insolvency Service
Eligible:
All BIS partners plus FCO, DECC, Defra, DFE

Two types of customer
Convergence Partner A partner whose website will move to the platform as part of government-wide website reviews (web rationalisation and convergence), or who is due to close in the Arms Length Bodies review
- URL format www.bis.gov.uk/partner
Shared Service Partner A BIS partner or eligible other government department who chooses to move to the platform to take advantage of its benefits and cost savings.
- URL format www.partner.gov.uk

Partner scenarios Your own section in the BIS core site 1

Partner scenarios Your own site using readymade templates 2

Convergence Partner - Flexible Branding Minimal BIS branding helps users orientate when moving between partner sites. Mandatory for convergence partners. Your logo top left and in the page footer Your colours in the page background, buttons and highlights such as underlines

Convergence Partner - Flexible Branding
Available templates
Homepage
General page
Minister/spokesperson page
Policies landing page
Policy article
News landing page
Generic news landing page
Generic news
Speeches landing page
Speech page
Publications landing page
Publication featured item
Consultations landing page
Consultation page
Contact form page
Available side panels
Free Text / HTML
Related links
RSS feed
Twitter feed
YouTube videos
Flickr photos
(+ more when new partners join)

Partner scenarios Your own site using custom templates (sample only) 3

Platform : technology The BIS service runs on Sitecore 6 , a world leading Microsoft .NET based enterprise content management system. It’ll look familiar - if you can use Windows, you can use Sitecore Our platform was built and is hosted by Bath based Eduserv , a not for profit organisation with 20 years experience of public sector IT projects. It uses their virtualised Government Ready Platform data centre. Google Mini provides search tools for BIS.gov.uk and partners. Google Analytics provides COI compliant stats for every site

Platform : key features
Language support. Sitecore is able to manage content in any language.
Flexible roles and workflow. Sitecore's powerful workflow engine includes versioning, controlled approvals, incremental publishing, notifications and reminders. Share the BIS workflow configuration or design your own.
Validation tools. The site includes built-in validation to prevent the use of invalid and inaccessible XHTML.
Immediate and scheduled publishing. Ability to publish pages within seconds of pressing the button or at a scheduled future time.
Syndication tools. Ability to provide RSS feeds for any new or changed content. Ability to show sharing and printing options on every page.
CMS features

Flexible templates. Over 15 ready-made page templates with variable column layouts allowing for use of own logo and colours. Side panels that can be added and removed on individual pages or whole sections at a time.
Flexible information architecture. Ability to structure content based on hierarchy and metadata
Friendly URLs and redirects . All page URLs are easy to follow and in plain English. Ability to create unlimited short marketing URLs in form bis.gov.uk/campaignname redirecting to deeper pages.
Email alerts and newsletters. Ability for visitors to sign up for alerts when pages or groups of pages change. Ability to create and send email newsletters and manage subscriber mailing lists.
Added value

COI standards compliant. The platform has been developed to meet all of the standards and guidelines published by the Central Office of Information (COI) including AA level WCAG 2.0 accessibility, cross-browser compatibility and more.
TNA automated archival. All site content is copied to The National Archives web archive three times a year, and requests for pages which no longer exist are automatically redirected to the most recent archived copy.
COI performance reporting. The BIS digital team will work with you to report usage figures, satisfaction survey results and web management costs to meet COI requirements. Usage figures are verified twice yearly by independent auditors ABCe.
User tested by independent usability and accessibility experts
Platform : key features Standards compliance

Three bits of bespoke BIS-Eduserv magic
1. Cascading panels

2. Embed anything anywhere

3. Custom CSS stylesheets

Platform : service levels
Fully managed service. Full management of the supplier service levels by BIS on your behalf. Access (via BIS) to support with 10 second answering for 95% of calls and email service, 8am - 6.30pm, Mon - Fri.
Resilient hosting. Robust, infinitely scaleable virtualised infrastructure including full disaster recovery, automatic synchronisation and fail-over, 99.5% availability 24x7.
Secure data storage. ISO-2001 data security. Secure connection to the system (using SSL and VPN). Penetration tests annually.
Hosting and support

Platform: other benefits
High visitor figures. BIS.gov.uk attracted c. 530,000 unique visitors and 720,000 visits last month (9 Oct to 8 Nov 2010). This audience will grow as more sites join the service with mutual benefits for cross-promotion, reach, and value for money.
High search ranking. BIS.gov.uk has a Google PageRank of 8/10 and has natural search engine optimisation best practice built in (mandatory metadata, friendly URLs, an XML sitemap exposing pages to search engines).
46K subscribers. Email alerts and newsletters for the main BIS.gov.uk site reach a combined audience of just over 46,000 subscribers. We also have 12K followers on Twitter.
Audience and reach

Costs
5 price bands (micro/small/med/large/enterprise)
Eduserv costs
Setup: £2,590 to £6,152 (+ optional extras)
Ongoing: £700 to £17,000 annual management contribution £0 hosting and support for majority of partners
+ Share of ongoing development. Functionality will develop continually based on the needs and ideas of all users. Buy into what you intend to use.
+ Contribution to BIS change process management (£TBC, cost recovery of BIS UX & Tech manager)

What else can we share?
Content management
Huddle
BIS image bank
Surveymonkey
Disqus, Dipity and other plugins
Intranet?

(ask me later)
Questions

http://www.bis.gov.uk	201
http://bis.gov.uk	32
http://www.siteimprove.com	1
https://cms.bis.gov.uk	1
http://accessibility_checker.siteimprove.com	1

BIS partner day - Features of the shared web platform

by bisdigital on Nov 18, 2010

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BIS partner day - Features of the shared web platform — Presentation Transcript