Page 429. London Borough of Sutton The Executive - 10 September Report of the Executive Heads of Customer Service and Policy and Communications

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1 Page 429 Agenda Item 18 London Borough of Sutton The Executive - 10 September 2007 Report of the Executive Heads of Customer Service and Policy and Communications WEBSITE AND INTRANET Ward Location: Not Applicable Author(s) and Contact Phone Number(s): Area Served: Executive Decision Report Summary Nick O'Reilly Executive Councillor(s): John Drage (Resources) and Tony Brett Young (Communications) and Colin Hall (e-government and ICT) Without major changes to our website technology, management and maintenance of its content and adoption of ways of working that utilise the transactional capabilities, we will not be able to use the web (both Internet and Intranet) as an enabler of efficiency and greater community engagement. Whilst improved web services alone will not deliver this, without the improved web services it will be much harder to facilitate such improvements or to drive increased take-up of online services. This report proposes that a new website package be purchased which will enable much greater flexibility in our use of the website. It is also proposed that this is accompanied by a focused piece of work to update and improve the content of the current website with a view to the new website being operational from April 08. The costs of the new web technology will be covered through the Invest to save budget. Detailed work on potential savings through new web-based services provides evidence that this is achievable. Recommendations We recommend The Executive: 1) Note the progress made to date with short term actions to improve the existing website. 2) Note that a reformed group of web content managers will commence a rolling programme of updating website content prior to a new Content Management System (CMS) implementation. 3) Agree to the implementation of a replacement Content Management System as a matter of urgency at an estimated cost of 210,000 to be funded through additional prudential borrowing as an invest to save scheme, amend capital estimates and release financial provision in this sum. 4) Agree that we seek to consolidate the different web-sites for council services back within a single website, using tools to provide any required different styles, and that for partnership work we consider on a case by case basis the merits of having a separate website versus providing a micro-site within the main council website.

2 Agenda Item 18 Page 430 5) Agree the addition of 51,000 to base estimates from 2008/09 to support the additional software maintenance costs of a new CMS system and the newly created Customer Services Web Officer post. Again this should be covered through the Invest to save provision. 1. Background 1.1 The Medium Term Savings project work around efficiency is identifying the opportunity for significant savings in the processing of transactions. Critical to achieving these savings is the provision of a high quality website to the outside world and to staff. 1.2 The website is not a single system or piece of software but is comprised of a number of different tools and components. A detailed review of the current website was undertaken that concluded the following: In respect of the technology: the underlying content management system and design templates are not fit for purpose for a modern website or to drive both customer and staff self service, they limit how information can be displayed. Several areas have established their own web sites outside of the LBS website to give them the required flexibility; and transactional web services need to be improved to enable online forms, e- consultation, further online payments and web enabled modules of back office systems. In respect of the content: the devolution of content creation to service groups has not been wholly successful with several areas submitting content which is not fit for purpose for the website; and our existing web services limit the way we can use citizen engagement tools such as blogs and social networking facilities, provision of message boards or chat rooms and being almost entirely static text and images. These limit the extent to which we can meet our e-government (IEG) obligations for citizen engagement and e-democracy. In respect of the support arrangements the work required to maintain an acceptable standard of web service could not be managed within the team of two staff located within the Communications Team. within that team, there was no technical escalation available to the post holder with responsibility for technical development of the website. In June CMT considered the results of the SOCITM annual benchmark identified activities that can be undertaken relatively quickly and within existing budgets. More fundamental changes were identified that would take longer to achieve, and needed further research to establish the best approach and likely cost, the results of this research are the basis of this report.

3 Page 431 Agenda Item The research undertaken has followed three strands of activity, with some further surveys and reference contacts with peer councils, initial discussions and demonstrations of web products in the marketplace and internal research within the Council. As part of this we issued surveys to 166 councils asking for their experience and received 76 replies. 2. Issues Progress with Short Term Actions Technical 2.1 An e-forms package has been ordered and is expected to become available from September A temporary post will be created to develop a suite of Sutton interactive forms based around a library of existing forms used in other local authorities over the period October 2007 to March Efficiencies will flow from integrating the eforms with back office systems for which provision of 80,000 over 2007/08 and 2008/09 is contained within the existing capital programme. 2.2 A planned upgrade of the online payments system is in progress. Internet payments continue to grow with over 7,500 transactions in the first quarter of 2007/8 compared to a total of 18,000 for 2006/7. The main area of growth has been with miscellaneous payments where we have already received more income this year than the whole of last year. 2.3 Further training is in planning for greater use of the SNAP electronic survey tool, implemented in August Management of the website technical officer post has now transferred to the IT section, within the Resources Group, to provide increased technical support for that function. Content 2.5 The A-Z of services review will commence in October following the re-establishment and training of content managers within service groups for all areas of the council. 2.6 Proposals to carry out further content authoring training ( 5,000) and the setting up of a content author self help group will follow the initial review of content. We are in the process of reviewing and adapting Plain English guidance used by other councils to produce meaningful content. 2.7 A content author review group consisting of 'web champions' from all groups has been formed. Led by the Communications Team, this group will focus on an audit of existing web content. 2.8 A new post to champion the external user requirements, to sit within Customer Services, has been created and recruitment to this post is in progress. Outcome of Further Research Microsoft Content Management System (CMS/MOSS) 2.9 Further research has demonstrated that continued use of the current Microsoft Content Management System will be more costly, take longer to achieve changes and require more effort and staff to maintain and develop in future. This product has

4 Agenda Item 18 Page 432 been replaced by Microsoft and would mean implementing new software called Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) In investigating MOSS, our current website support supplier was unable to provide estimates of the likely cost to deliver a configuration that would meet the Council s requirements. We checked with an alternative supplier who confirmed that MOSS was more of a toolkit, with little out of the box functionality, than a true website content management system. The amount of work to implement this would be similar, if not more, than to implement systems with more functionality and that require less configuration and ongoing support Using the national e-government register of systems a survey was carried out and produced 20 replies. In summary over half said they were unhappy with the product, found it difficult to deploy and would not recommend its use without a dedicated IT team. Almost all said it was difficult to develop and had spent in excess of 170,000. Other comments included concerns with system bugs, inability to support standards and its lack of functionality compared to other more modern products The initial licensing costs of the Microsoft CMS were relatively low. Whilst it was expected that additional cost would be required to deploy the product, what was actually achieved within the budget was significantly short of expectation. There is nothing in our research to suggest the new Microsoft product, MOSS, will be any more cost effective than the previous product. It was therefore concluded that the Microsoft tools are not the most appropriate for our future website services. Alternative Systems 2.13 The research undertaken has shown there is a number of emerging website content management systems that have a rapidly growing user base, many of which contain the extra features that we cannot currently use. These features include facilities such as blogs, news-feeds, user forums and polls, web video and audio casts, pod-casting, alerts, photo galleries, local events and local weather feeds. Many of these are included in the core system, but some may be provided as optional extra features, with additional cost In order to quantify the likely costs and the implementation timescale we considered three of these systems in more detail. These were Tridion (11 users), GOSS (33 users) and Immediacy (29 users). The order of magnitude costs and development effort for each of these based on a combination of council references and initial discussions with the suppliers were broadly the same. Informal quotes have ranged from between 120,000 to 140,000 to cover both website and intranet. The higher range included costs for automatic content migration tools, which otherwise could be a labour intensive task In comparing the functionality of our existing CMS system to one of these products the Immediacy system had 21 features available out of the box that either do not exist within our current CMS system or need considerable programming to achieve. Our existing CMS system also fared much worse on some accessibility tests for features such as translation, text to voice conversion, large text options, high contrast colour schemes and the ability to personalise the system with common short-key access In addition to the software and implementation costs we will need to buy new servers; these will allow us to build and test the new website and intranet whilst the existing products remain in use. In any case, the current servers are reaching the end of their useful life and so this is a cost which would have to be borne in the near future.

5 Page 433 Agenda Item 18 The conclusion is that based on the order of magnitude costs for the content management systems we will need to invite tenders for any replacement website system. The initial investment for a replacement Content Management System will be in the region of 180,000 with ongoing costs of around 15,000. The next step is to develop a business specification and, subject to confirmation of funding resource through this report, invite tenders for the supply and implementation of the new web content management system. Typical Workload to Implement the new system, including Content Migration 2.17 The time it takes to implement such systems was found to be dependant on the approach chosen by each council. Typically this was between 3 and 6 months, with shorter timescales if existing content was migrated as is, and up to 6 months if content was first reviewed and out of date content updated or removed Some suppliers offer automatic content migration tools that can simplify the process of content review Prior to implementing a new system the reformed web champions group and the new Web Officer in Customer Services will commence a rolling programme of updating website during October and November. Once a new content management system is identified to assist Groups with further content review and migration three temporary posts will be required for a period of 3 months, to be in place for two months prior to implementation (February 08 and March 08) and one month after implementation (April 08); to be funded from the project budget at an estimated cost of 30, In respect of design, we propose developing a number of templates, allowing more variation in the look and feel of the site. To progress this we can commission Alchemy to develop up to 5 conceptual designs that will be included as part of the business specification, requiring suppliers to demonstrate how their system could use and enhance such designs as part of the tender process. Size and Location of Web Team 2.21 The research undertaken shows that web teams vary in size from as little as 1 to as many as 15 posts. The average size of team in English Unitary, London Borough, Metropolitan Districts and Counties (ie excluding shire and 2 tier districts) was 4 posts. In London Boroughs who responded to the survey this ranged from 1 ½ to 11 ½, with the average size being 4.2 posts With the addition of improved content, and with additional features to manage, for example interactive message boards, SMS texting, preparing audio and video content and many more interactive forms it is expected that in the long term we may need a larger team. However it is proposed that we review the impact of adding a third member of the team before proceeding with any further growth. Single Customer Facing Website 2.23 It has proven to be very difficult to quantify the costs of developing the 8 different websites we now know the Council has. The Council actually has a web presence on at least 14 different websites and has 24 different domains registered. Some of the domains are not registered in the Council s name. Of the 24 domains only two have the.gov.uk suffix which is the correct suffix for public services, with 11.org, 8.co.uk and 3 other domain suffices Of these 24 domains 8 do not contain the name Sutton and 6 are registered neither to Sutton or one of our employees; thus we do not control the domain. Those without

6 Agenda Item 18 Page 434 the Sutton name include reusenotrefuse and stopclimatechange ; both have valuable Sutton specific content and did not need a separate domain registration. Of the 6 registered in other parties names at least one of these is valid as the Smarter Travel domain is registered with Transport for London under the joint initiative, others registered with the designers of the website may mean they could refuse to reregister and we could lose all our content. Where existing domains are not in our ownership we will take steps to seek the transfer the ownership to the Council Many of these websites are out of date, with possibly the worst example being the Sutton Stars website which is still active, although it is an old advertising campaign for some senior posts in Adult Social Services and Housing that were filled some considerable time ago. This further demonstrates that devolving the ability to create micro-sites and register domains leads to a situation whereby we lose control of our web presence, with the likelihood that people surfing the web find out of date content An impact of this is that our customers find it more confusing to find information from Sutton, having to either know which of these separate sites to use or to follow links from our main website. It was not easy to find all of these links from our main website, with just 3 of the 9 extra websites linked from the Sutton homepage. It will be more difficult to encourage citizens to use our web services if they have such an array of websites to use, with a different one for different services. Also users of one site are less likely to see another service they may want as often this is on a totally different site The internal impact is the fact that having such a multiplicity of sites incurs greater costs in development and maintenance, and requires authors to know different content management systems The intention is that as we develop the new website we seek to reconsolidate the different web-sites used for purely council services back within a single website, using micro-site tools to provide any required different styles. For partnership work we will continue to consider, on a case by case basis, the merits of having a separate website versus providing a micro-site within the main council website. User Community and User Features 2.29 The work to prepare this report has not included any consultation with the user community; this is a task that will be carried out by the new web customer services officer when they are appointed. The research has however confirmed that all the features that are typical of other community sites are available in a new content management system, including the use of audio and video, message boards and blogs The one additional facility that will incur additional cost on top of the main content management system is for a text messaging service. This would allow bulk mailing to promote events, activities and engage with young people; allowing users to register and reply by text message. The outline costs for such are 7,500 to develop, per bulk text message campaign, plus an 8-10p charge per text thereafter. It is intended to include such a facility in the scope of the tender. Building the Business Case for a new website 2.31 A survey of 15 London Borough websites shows Sutton having the lowest number of pages visited per head of population at just 2.03%. This compared to 9.64% at Brent and an average of 4.50% for all 15 councils. Similarly we had the lowest number of unique visitors at 53, councils had over 100,000 unique visitors a month with

7 Page 435 Agenda Item 18 the rest between 61,000 and 94,000. This shows there is considerable untapped potential for delivering services online In contrast, the 2005/6 survey of broadband use showed 47.7% of the population of Sutton with Broadband access. This shows there is a significant gap between ability to access the website and actual take-up. Following an upgrade to their site, the London Borough of Merton has seen the numbers of unique visitors increase by 35% and pages visited increase by almost 500% in the last two years and are currently averaging more than twice the number of visitors and over 2 million more pages visited than for the Sutton website Where we already have web-based transactional services these are proving to be popular. Since the launch of e-payments, Sutton has seen a steady growth in the number of transactions being completed online with collection values rising from 0.4 million in 2005/6, to 2.2 million in 2006/7 and already over 1 million in the first quarter this year. Without this it would have been difficult to achieve the reduced opening times and savings in the Cashiers service Research into integrated e-forms undertaken as part of the Medium Term Savings Project is demonstrating potential savings of 1.3 million if high levels of take-up were achieved, most of which was in terms of reduced staff time processing, but included some costs of printing and postage. Having a more functional, easier to use and better managed website will be one of the key enablers of these savings, helping to achieve a higher take up rate and reduce the return on investment period These 1.3million savings arise mainly from reduced staff costs, and from reduced paper and postage costs. These arose from a study of the existing use of paper forms by a number of services, with the potential to reduce staff time spent transcribing and inputting the data from the form: Service No. Forms Staff Hours Housing Benefits and Council Tax 68,000 10,800 Personnel 39,900 14,500 Contact Centre 2,500 Parking and Penalties 8,700 1,100 Register of Electors 81,200 4,700 Complaints 500 Adult Social Services 18,800 6,600 Housing Strategy 1,500 1,125 Planning 2,000 Highways 2,500 1,200 Education 2,700 Note, not all services could estimate the No. of Hours 2.36 The current costs of these services are million for staff time and 272,000 for paper and postage. If we achieve a 5% take up in year 1 this would result in 66,287 a year, every year. As take-up grows the savings in future years would also grow; the more we can promote the use of the internet (both e-forms and business transaction portals) the faster these savings can be realised. These savings will be cumulative year on year, thus a further 5% take up would result in a total saving of 199,000 at the end of year 2.

8 Agenda Item 18 Page This research is supported by work undertaken by the North West e-government Group where an independent study identified the following transaction costs and savings potential: Access Channel Median Cost Web Saving An integrated web form 0.17 NA A web form requiring manual input A Face to Face Reception A telephone contact centre Proposed Timescale 2.38 It is proposed that work to develop the business specification and prepare for a tender exercise is undertaken in parallel to this report being submitted for approval; thus if approval is granted there will be a minimal delay in proceeding to the next stage The value of this procurement falls below the European Union OJEU limits, however it will require some form of competitive tender process; even if we can seek to do this through the OGC framework contract in order to achieve choice we would want to use the mini tender process that exists within the framework. We expect the tender exercise to take approximately 12 weeks with the final selection being taken either shortly before or after the Christmas period. The implementation would then commence early in January with an expected timescale of three months. 3. Financial Implications 3.1 The financial business case for development of the website is founded in the potential for reduction in staff time dealing with processing payments, handling money, transcribing the content of paper forms into computerised systems and dealing with information requests either face to face or over the telephone. Savings are also achievable through reduced postage, paper and stationery costs as well as bullion and banking charges. Although it may take two to three years to get take-up to a level of significant savings potential, none of this will be achievable without the up front investment in the web services. The same is true of internal efficiency potential through the Intranet. The Front/Back Office MTSP will come forward with proposed efficiency targets for 2008/09 but these will only be achievable if the work to redesign the look and feel of the Sutton website and its underlying content management system is achieved within the remainder of the current financial year. 3.2 It is expected that we will need to undertake a formal procurement exercise to select a new web Content Management System, and as such the final costs will be quantified during that process. The required investment to achieve delivery of a new website and Intranet is estimated to be in the order of 369,000 one-off costs. These are summarised from the detail in the body of the report as follows: Short term Actions Longer Term Actions Software, hardware, implementation and migration services Staffing - eforms - Content Management system 29, ,000

9 Page 437 Agenda Item 18 - Web Officer - Temporary e-forms Developer 25,000 20,000 - Temporary Content Migrators 30,000 Integration 80,000 - Training 5,000 - Sub totals 159, ,000 Grand total 369, Funding of the short term actions agreed by CMT ( 159,000) are to be contained within existing revenue and capital estimates and an allocation of 25,000 from the efficiency pump priming provision as follows: Capital scheme: Document Management 49, / /09 Integration 30,000 50,000 Sub total - capital 79,000 50,000 Revenue 5,000 Pump Priming 25,000 Total 109,000 50, It is recommended that the remaining unfunded balance of 210,000 to progress the longer term actions be funded by additional prudential borrowing as an invest to save capital scheme to be recouped within a two year payback period from substantial savings to be identified through the MTSP Front/Back Office efficiency project. Capital estimates need to be amended in this sum and financial provision released. 3.5 The ongoing revenue implications of both the short and long term actions are summarised as follows: Short term Actions: 2007/ /09 onwards New post Web Officer 25,000 45,000 Long Term Actions: Software maintenance - 15,000 Total 25,000 60,000

10 Agenda Item 18 Page The part year cost of the new post of Web Officer in 2007/08, funded from within the existing efficiency pump priming provision. The ongoing full year costs of this post will need to be added to base estimates from 2008/ Software maintenance costs resulting from the implementation of a new Content Management System from 2008/09 can be partly met from existing revenue provision for the current CMS system software maintenance. The net increase of 6,000 will also need to be added to base estimates from 2008/09 as revenue implications of capital spend. 3.8 The total additional revenue costs are therefore 51,000 per annum and will need to be included in revenue base estimates from 2008/09 onwards. There are further possible revenue costs that may arise such as the introduction of a text messaging service (see para 2.42) but these costs will become clearer as the project progresses and tenders are returned. However it is expected that the improvements recommended in this report should generate scope for revenue savings that will exceed both the additional capital and the ongoing revenue costs. 4. Influence of the Council s Core Values 4.1 The web services are critical to achievement of the actions in the Sutton Plan and have the potential to make a major contribution to our core values 5. Contribution to the Achievement of the Council s Corporate Goals 5.1 These proposed longer term improvements, in particular the implementation of a more flexible, easier to use and more function rich content management system can contribute to each of the Council s nine priorities. However its main focus will be to act as an enabler for priority one (efficient and effective) in terms of enabling both faster service delivery and reducing costs by having data entered once, at source by our citizens, customers and service users. It will also provide new opportunities for priority six (active and inclusive communities) to engage with our community in a greater variety of ways and through the one access channel that is truly available as a 24 by 7 service. For each of the other priorities a new, more modern and flexible website can act as an improved channel to communicate with and respond to our community. 6. Background Papers Website and Intranet Report to CMT 6 th June 2007 Document5 V3.0