Further to our decision to use Drupal as the underlying platform to replace the Bristol City Council website we have asked our existing systems partner, to assist with the initial implementation. This will be a piece of work to design and configure the system. The council will put the required infrastructure in place and build our website on the new platform.
Replacement of the web site is a critical project for the council that supports many of our major change programmes. In particular, it enables the reduction in the cost of our service delivery by moving to cheaper channels such as the web, delivering substantial savings. The project is already running very late and we now need to progress it urgently to deliver a solution this summer and more quickly realise the efficiencies in these follow projects.
We are committed to the principle that the future development of the new web site, once in place, will use a much more flexible approach and be accessible to local companies. After engaging with the local developer community:
- we have changed our choice of technology platform, selecting an open source technology solution (Drupal) that is more widely supported by local suppliers.
- we will be putting in place a commercial framework to enable local suppliers to bid for future work to further develop the site. We anticipate having this in place by July this year.
We recognise that some of you will be disappointed not be able to bid for this initial piece of work, but we are look forward to being able to work with some of you more closely in the future.
To kick off the next phase we are holding a meeting at the council house on Tuesday 8th March, 4.30pm to 5.30pm. We will be running through the envisaged future programme of work for the new platform and the proposed procurement process. Register here: http://bccwebfuture.eventbrite.com/
Luke
