Consilium secures Selby district council contract

Consilium Technologies has announced the signing of a contract with Selby District Council to develop its next generation website.

The new website will see a significant expansion of the features currently available on the Selby website, providing a full A-Z of services, with facilities for citizens to request a service, and discussion forums for members and staff. It will also provide facilities for online forms, citizen feedback, councillors’ information, online payments, local news and weather reports. An unusual feature is e-cards, allowing site visitors to send electronic postcards with images of attractive locations within the District.

An innovative aspect to the design will be customised views of the site which are tailored for the needs of particular user groups, such as residents, visitors and business users.

Gary Molnár, Selby’s E-Government Officer said: “We were seeking a partner who thoroughly understood what we wanted to achieve and that could provide the support and guidance to help us get there. We were impressed with the thoroughness of Consilium’s approach and its close match with our requirements. In particular Consilium’s focus on working in partnership with District Councils gives the confidence that they will provide the support and guidance we need to assist the Council to achieve its e-government aims.”

Future developments will see continued development of fully interactive and transactional capabilities to enable full ‘Access to Services’ including e-Procurement, expansion of the online payments facilities, and dynamic links to back office systems.

In late 2001, Consilium published ‘A Guide to UK Council Websites’ based on its analysis of 200 local authority and local council websites.

The guide highlighted best practice and focused on what services are actually being delivered electronically through council websites.

(SP)