To consider and receive the report of the Director (Policy and Governance).

1.    Review options put forward for the website refresh project and approve the scope of works.

2.    Agree to a joint procurement process for a Content Management System (CMS) with South Ribble Borough Council with SRBC acting as the lead body.

3.    Agree the procurement route for the project, namely for the lead body to request and obtain a waiver of Contract Procedure Rules to allow a direct award to the provider offering the most economically advantageous solution following completion of market engagement, as opposed to carrying out a procurement exercise through the chest.

4.    Agree budget for the project based on indicative costings already received from various platform providers. Indicative costs for the CMS license, implementation, ongoing hosting, maintenance, and training range from £100,000 - £229,900 over 3 years and £160,000 to £320,700 over 5 years. These figures will be split across Chorley Council and South Ribble Council 50/50.

5.    Note the intention to review and the potential financial implications of resolving issues with self-service portals for specified services with a view to integrating them into our current in house developed MyAccount solution to resolve issues with single sign on and multiple account requirements for users.

Councillor Peter Wilson, Executive Member (Resources), presented the confidential report of the Director (Policy and Governance) which provides an overview of work that has taken place so far on the website refresh project as well as outlining options to progress the project.

Decision:

1.    Review options put forward for the website refresh project and approve the scope of works.

2.    Agree to a joint procurement process for a Content Management System (CMS) with South Ribble Borough Council with SRBC acting as the lead body.

3.    Agree the procurement route for the project, namely for the lead body to request and obtain a waiver of Contract Procedure Rules to allow a direct award to the provider offering the most economically advantageous solution following completion of market engagement, as opposed to carrying out a procurement exercise through the chest.

4.    Agree budget for the project based on indicative costings already received from various platform providers. Indicative costs for the CMS license, implementation, ongoing hosting, maintenance, and training range from £100,000 - £229,900 over 3 years and £160,000 to £320,700 over 5 years. These figures will be split across Chorley Council and South Ribble Council 50/50.

5.    Note the intention to review and the potential financial implications of resolving issues with self-service portals for specified services with a view to integrating them into our current in house developed MyAccount solution to resolve issues with single sign on and multiple account requirements for users.

Reasons for Recommendation(s):

1.    A new Content Management System will be the enabler for further change and transformation, allowing our users to access information and online services at a time and place that suits them, allowing for efficiency savings to be made by the reduction in the more expensive channels of face to face and telephone contact.

2.    A new website and review of our online services will support the delivery of the Council’s Digital and ICT strategies and will help to improve the services we offer to customers as well as allowing for the aspiration of channel shift to be achieved.

3.    A shared platform and procurement with SRBC will be a financial benefit for both authorities by sharing the cost of a solution, as well as being part of future aspirations for further shared services.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

1.    On commencement of the project we carried out user research with Internal users to understand our current solution capabilities to consider if our current solution could be retained. From the user research we rejected the retention of our current CMS solution due to its capability restrictions.

2.    Replacement of the internally developed MyAccount solution was also considered. However, similar to the above, user research allowed us to gain an understanding that the MyAccount solution is fully customisable and Chorley Council ICT developers have full control over the system, meaning it can be amended as required to meet user needs.

3.    Indicative costs from CMS providers have been received by Chorley Council individually. There was initially consideration of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 143