Stockport Council Case Study
The Solution
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council engaged J2 Interactive to assist in the consultation and implementation of new website strategy solution that would provide greater levels of self-service, usability, technical functionality and scalability
The project took a holistic approach to the configuration, management, availability, security and scalability of the internet services. With experienced Alterian partner J2 Interactive providing essential direction and consultation support, Stockport Council selected Alterian Content Manager – Enterprise Edition (CME) to deliver a cost effective solution that would help Stockport put its customer requirements at the heart of its website.
‘The primary objective of the website improvements was to ensure that through a number of different ways of working, Stockport Council provided an outstanding level of service to its customers. The key was remembering at every stage that the technology was serving the individual needs of Stockport’s citizens, rather than just the communication needs of council.’
Comments Andrew Kirkham of Stockport Council
To develop www.stockport.gov.uk into the primary communications channel, Stockport drew on flexibility of Alterian Content Manager. Publishing within Alterian Content Manager (CME) Stockport can deliver a variety of content types from images, document, pdf’s, media files etc, for multiple uses on the website, from a simple navigational menu.
Stockport was able to migrate thousands of critical informational resources into a single CMS framework which enabled content be stored and searched using the terminology expected by Stockport’s customers rather than the preferred council terminology. Reflected both on the public facing website and internally, customers can now search and find content where they most expect it to be.
‘Previously visitors might have given up online and contacted the council direct for information, now the new website provides a clear and straightforward navigation that is customer centric and presents vital information in a manner which the citizens expect. Our website now talks the customer’s language and puts information where they expect to find it; bin collection in refuse section etc. Internally, the change has created a mindset shift, making our whole organisation more keenly interested in understanding our customers. This change is reflected in our adherence to accessibility standards and use of Alterian for content enrichment that makes it both more relevant for visitors, but also easier to find through the use of intelligent searching.’
Comments Andrew Kirkham, Stockport Council
With further improvements underway to increase the robustness of the website, Stockport is looking forward to eradicating legacy resilience issues. The introduction of new hardware combined with the scalability of Alterian Content Manager architecture, has already seen increases in speed of delivery, whereby new peaks in traffic have seen up 100,000 page requests in a few hours ably handled on the new website.
Stockport MBC is also expecting to benefit from a new transactional approach to services. Working jointly with J2 Interactive, the Council has already moved further towards satisfying its objectives to become a self-service website. Using the interoperability of Alterian CME combined with the functional capability of ecommerce solutions means Stockport’s citizens will be able to confidently use the website to make payments for essential council services, such as council tax and bills. As Andrew explains,
‘Alterian Content Manager has the technical scalability to provide integration with additional services from J2 Interactive that included streamlining the transactional capability of the website to enable immediate interaction with service specific ecommerce systems. This means our citizens can simply visit the website and make a direct payment for a number of different services including parking and Council tax bills.’
Stockport MBC is also developing further solutions for delivering services with Social Media and Smart Phone technology.
‘Working with Alterian Content Manager at the core of the Stockport’s website, the council is already providing great customer usability and access to interactive council services. More importantly, the scalability of Alterian means that we can continue to develop the website from this point onwards to ensure Stockport Council keeps its citizens, businesses and visitors at the heart of their communications strategy.’
Concludes Andrew Kirkham ( Head of ICT )