Planning Officers Society
The Planning Officers Society (POS) represents the most senior professionals and managers of planning functions in the English Local Authorities. POS provides a single credible voice for local authority planning practitioners to pursue good and effective planning practice within local government. The principal work of the Society is undertaken by a series of Committees which relate to the various planning and related matters for which heads of planning in local government in England and Wales are responsible.
The Brief
The scope of the project was to cover the design, build, and implementation of a new content managed website for the Planning Officers Society.
Specific objectives included the following:
- Deliver a centralised, simple website administration to reduce operational costs.
- Provide simple, secure, and manageable content editing with no dependency.
- Deliver an accessible, usable website design helping visitors find information quickly and easily.
- Increase site visibility and audience engagement, drive membership sign-ups.
- Facilitate effective communication with members, develop an active community.
- Enable effective delivery of restricted access ‘members only’ website content.
- Deliver centralised administration for POS membership accounts.
The WORKSsitebuilder Solution
The WORKSsitebuilder CMS solution for the Planning Officers Society provides a powerful yet simple system to empower non-technical staff to create and update site content and imagery easily. A range of content types and community features were deployed for managing e.g. articles, news, events, FAQs, formal documents, membership accounts, committee groups, forums, polls etc…
Membership features facilitate the management of registrations, access rules, and the simple administration of member accounts, including configurable workflow and email e.g. for approval, invoices, and renewals.
A user-centred approach to design ensured usability and accessibility demands were met, and a clean easy-to-navigate website was delivered.
The Result
WORKSsitebuilder enables POS to easily create, categorise, and publish website content in the correct channels, with the appropriate access rules e.g. for each committee group, and site visitor or member type. The non-technical solution has enabled POS staff to keep website content accurate and up-to-date ensuring the right information gets to the right people at the right time.
Long-term cost savings have been achieved through reduced training and website administration overheads.
Improved search engine positioning and audience engagement has enabled POS to steadily increase site traffic and membership levels.
A modular system was implemented allowing for the progressive development of the website overtime as POS objectives and website requirements have evolved. Recent developments have included design updates and the development of extended membership features and administration tools.
