Three Rivers District Council

Three Rivers District Council, situated in south-west Hertfordshire serves a population of over 85,000. The authority is responsible for a range of local government functions and services and employs around 300 staff.

The Brief

The scope of the project was to cover the design, build, and implementation of a new integrated content managed website and intranet system for Three Rivers District Council.
Specific objectives included the following:

• Deliver an accessible, usable and engaging website for effective information and service delivery to local citizens and other site visitors.
• Provide an integrated solution for efficient delivery of information to service the website, intranet and contact centre, minimising duplication and reducing administrative costs.
• Facilitate integration with existing online services provided by Northgate Information Solutions, for transaction services e.g. waste & recycling; environmental health; council tax; rates etc…
• Enable non-technical management of all web content and ensure a robust, stable, and secure platform to reduce administrative, support and maintenance costs.
• Facilitate the production and workflow of formal documents (e.g. agendas, minutes…) previously created offline using word processors.
• Provide a standards compliant system e.g. to support compliance with Bobby accessibility standards, and meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.

The WORKSsitebuilder Solution

The WORKSsitebuilder CMS solution for Three Rivers provided an integrated platform enabling the client to take control of publishing relevant, accurate and accessible information through the website and intranet.

The non-technical system enabled Three Rivers to easily manage multiple content types and features for all service areas as well as for example, FAQs, community noticeboard, council meetings, documents etc…

Following top level aesthetic design guidelines captured during requirements gathering the design team produced an attractive and intuitively structured website using CSS style sheets and XHTML throughout, allowing users to access information quickly and accurately. All design work followed best practice standards to ensure accessibility, usability, and optimisation for search engines.

The Result

The integrated CMS website and intranet system successfully met and exceeded the expressed objectives and project goals. WORKSsitebuilder has enabled Three Rivers to achieve increased efficiencies, improve internal communications, and increase audience engagement online helping site visitors quickly find up-to-date, accurate, and relevant information.