Website Design
Saving thousands in website costs Traditional procurement of a website for councils could range between £25,000-£100,000. Tewkesbury Borough Council purchased theirs for £150.00. Government Business explores how Tewkesbury Borough Council launched www.tewkesbury.gov.uk in 2013, but the way that websites are used has changed rapidly and considerably since then. Over those three years, the council’s website has become difficult to navigate, it is ‘clunky’ and it is unresponsive to mobiles and tablets. It appears – on the face of it at least – that the local authority is living up to the stereotype of being old-fashioned and behind the times. This could not be further from the truth. As part of the Tewkesbury Borough Council Plan 2016-2020, council members approved an exciting new digital strategy that would introduce a modern, new and fresh way of working to the local authority. The council’s ICT operations manager, Matthew Reeve, explains: “Our councillors wanted to demonstrate a strong commitment to delivering excellent online services and identified the website as the number one project to improve our customer and stakeholders’ experience. “There were two options open to us: one, continue with our existing provider and upgrade our package; or two, go out to the market and start again. After some consideration, we agreed with councillors that it would be simpler and
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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 23.6
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s new website is currently under construction, due to go live on 30 November
“Because of this, we were not looking for any complex functionality. We were simply looking for something clear, concise and accessible. And because the self-service portal and the main website would be separate, there would be no need to store any of our customers’ personal data on the new website, which gave us greater flexibility when choosing who would help create it.”
more cost effective to begin afresh. Because the old website was based on proprietary software, making significant changes and upgrades would come with a substantial price tag. Going out to the RESEARCH market and shopping around The council’s old website was meant more options for us expensive. The rolling annual l i c in terms of cost as well as contract to maintain the n u Co design and functionality.” website cost £6,100 per s r e year and the annual memb an d e THE BRIEF cost of hosting the v o r p l a ap t i g i So, the search began website through an d ew for a reasonably-priced, internet service provider citing n hat would x e t dynamic website (ISP) was £7,000. y g strate ce a modern, A total of £13,100 per that would not only be quick, easy and year – a significant introdu d fresh way amount accessible for customers for a small n a w ne g n i to use but also, importantly, local authority with a k r o of w very quick and easy for rapidly declining budget. officers to keep updated. The council’s project Reeve continues: “We were team discovered that, in the on the lookout for a website that would last few years, a number of online complement our existing self-service portal services had evolved that allow users to - a separate website where customers can develop websites rapidly. They deliver pay for services and report issues. All we high quality, online solutions for a very would need from the new website was the low cost. By using a ‘software as a simple functionality to signpost visitors service’ (SaaS) approach, these websites to the correct locations so they could can be almost instantly deployed then easily complete the reason for their visit. customised with branding and content.