Rotherham MBC selects Jadu CMS to support delivery of its ‘Customer Access Strategy’

Published 3rd July 2009

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) is working with web content management system (CMS) provider Jadu to create a customer centric website to enable citizens to use the latest web technologies to access and interact with council services.

The new website, to be launched later in 2009, is part of the Council’s Customer Access Strategy for 2008 – 2011 enabling citizens to contact the Council in the way, time and place that is most convenient to them. The new website will offer the capability for a two-way communication between citizens and the Council with Web 2.0 technologies such as video, Flickr and YouTube sitting at the heart of the Jadu CMS. The new site will also provide effective links to RMBC’s partner organisations such as the Police, Primary Care Trusts and local businesses.

“We wanted to make the Rotherham Council web site the ‘channel of choice’ for our customers. Jadu provided a very strong option across all areas – meeting the requirements, quality and price. They quickly gained our confidence that they could deliver the vision we are working towards.” says Mark Gannon, Transformation and Strategic Partnerships Manager for RMBC.

“We’re delighted to be working with RMBC to create a truly customer-centric website that is built around the citizens rather than the needs of the Council or third parties,” says Suraj Kika, CEO of Jadu.

RMBC will be using Jadu CMS for Government and a suite of integrated products including Jadu Galaxies Professional, Jadu XForms Professional, eConsultation and Jadu Intranet to consolidate a number of disparate systems into one Enterprise CMS. For improved availability, business continuity and resilience, RMBC will use a hosted solution that utilises the 'Jadu Enterprise Hosted Software Services' provided through Jadu’s partnership with Rackspace.

Web development and implementation is currently underway with RMBC setting up customer panels to involve different customer groups in the design process. Web design will be deliberately ‘evolved around the customer’ rather than the organisation to maximise customer engagement.

“‘Jadu’s design will provide a fresh approach that is ‘non typical and mould breaking’. This will help to meet the needs of the customers who are increasingly aware of what technology can do,” adds Mark Gannon, Transformation and Strategic Partnerships Manager for RMBC.

“The Council has ambitious aims to improve the customer experience and promote the benefits of web based services, helped by involving customers themselves in the design phase. Once live, the new CMS will further help the Council to publish new content quickly and easily, unlocking efficiency and productivity savings.” says Suraj Kika, CEO of Jadu.