Better Connected 2009: Success for Jadu ‘Web 2.0’ Local Authority Customers

The Better Connected 2009 report published today by SOCITM (The Society for Information Technology Management) has named 11 Jadu CMS Local Authority users as examples of good practice.

Topping the billing was Manchester City Council, who recently won the BT Online Excellence Awards for 'Best Local Government Website in Britain'. Better Connected 2009 names Manchester as an example of Good Practice no less than 5 times as well as being rated as a 'top metropolitan district'. The report also praises the high quality of Manchester's content, such that they only just missed out on 'Excellent' rating.

Also featured in the report were Jadu CMS Local Authorities - Lichfield District Council, Cheltenham Borough Council, Kettering Borough Council and North Warwickshire Borough Council - who were all highlighted as practical examples of Web 2.0. 

Cheltenham Borough Council has recently launched their new Web 2.0 website using the Jadu CMS, with the prime directive of being open and transparent with the community.

"Cheltenham BC emphasises the importance that it places on developing a sense of virtual community by devoting a considerable proportion of the home page to videos and photos from site visitors." (page 142) - Better Connected 2009

Adoption of Web 2.0 technologies has created greater user engagement with council web sites, leading to a greater level of individual interaction that would previously have been carried out over the telephone. This ultimately leads to a more efficient council service and a better return on investment in modern web content management systems like Jadu CMS, which is specifically designed for customer service and interaction as well as ease of use.

Rugby Borough Council, Staffordshire Moorlands Council, Waverley Borough Council, Wellingborough Borough Council, Monmouthshire County Council and Chiltern District Council, all Jadu CMS customers, were also recognised for their best practice approaches.

Suraj Kika, CEO of Jadu said "We are really pleased that so many Jadu CMS customers have been so highly praised in Better Connected this year. It's a direct reflection on how hard our users have been working to improve their customer experience using Web 2.0 tools. At Jadu, Web 2.0 has been our highest priority for nearly three years - now it's Web 3.0 and building on the semantic web."

The new Jadu CMS upgrade version 1.8 'Clearwater' system, recently announced by Jadu as 'the data web platform' is set to significantly increase adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in Local Government by offering tools that will allow the publishing of data held in back office systems.  

The new CMS also provides a public development framework, much like Google or Facebook APIs, enabling web customers to create their own applications, leveraging the content and data published by a Council.

"We want to ensure that Local Government is keeping up with the rapid pace of change on the Internet" says Suraj.  "Where content is king - it is data that is almost certainly underpinning the modern internet. Local Authorities are rich with important data that can enhance people's lives."

All 11 Jadu powered Local Authorities rated in the report as good examples publish to their websites using devolved content management.

Cheltenham

  • Example of good practice for participation. (page 87)

  • Example of the impact of web 2.0. "Cheltenham BC emphasises the importance that it places on developing a sense of virtual community by devoting a considerable proportion of the home page to videos and photos from site visitors." (page 142)

Chiltern

  • Number 9 in top ten of 'Chance of repeat visit'. (page 132)

Kettering

  • Rated as a top shire district (i.e. all those that are excellent or transactional sites and have achieved seven of the nine criteria for E sites).  (page 33)

  • Example of good practice for news value. "The news section is clearly promoted from the home page and is easy to read. There are also great features such as the RSS feed." (page 76)

  • Now utilising secure sign in on registration. (page 105)

  • Example of the impact of Web 2.0. (page 142)

Lichfield

  • Rated as a top shire district (i.e. all those that are excellent or transactional sites and have achieved seven of the nine criteria for E sites). (page 33)

  • Example of good practice for information. "What a great planning service home page! It could be argued that it is lengthy, but it's the most engaging and readable introduction to planning that I have seen. I love the map of planning applications, which is so easy to use and which really invites the user to try out the mapping and online facilities. Click on the map and you are instantly taken to the relevant planning application where you can view details or comment. Lichfield makes excellent use of innovative technology and you can sign up for e-mail alerts on planning applications, RSS feeds..." (page 58)

  • Example of the impact of web 2.0. "Lichfield DC offers planning application updates on Twitter." (page 146)

Manchester

  • Rated excellent on useful content (but not usability). (page 27)

  • Rated as a top metropolitan district. (page 34)

  • Example of good practice for information. "Lots of helpful information in the housing section. Information about mortgage rescue appears in a document called Housing Market - effect of the credit crunch publicised for a council meeting in October." (page 61)

  • Example of good practice for currency. "Lots of very up-to-date information, including meeting minutes from less than a week ago." (page 70)

  • Example of good practice for participation. (page 87)

  • Example of good practice for councils with a prominent blogger. (page 87)

  • Example of good practice for navigation. "Really clear navigation and good signposting to transactions." (page 104)

Monmouthshire

  • Example of good practice for news value. (page 76)
  • Number 3 in top improvers 2004 to 2009. (page 140)

North Warwickshire

Example of the impact of web 2.0. "North Warwickshire BC has in its A to Z list an additional search feature called 'Find a service'. This gives results as you type what you are looking for and presents search results as a tag cloud." (page 144)

Rugby

  • Example of good practice for information. "Overall, I felt that there was some really good and helpful guidance on housing issues that clearly aren't just related to council housing. I navigated to it simply and it was a very good experience. I did come across some useful guidance about mortgage arrears and there was a brief mention in a homeless strategy about how the council could make use of the new government scheme. This information was excellent overall." (page 61)

  • Example of good practice for accessibility. (page 110)

Staffordshire Moorlands

  • Rated as a top shire district (i.e. all those that are excellent or transactional sites and have achieved seven of the nine criteria for E sites).  (page 33)

  • Example of good practice for news value. (page 76)

Waverley

  • Example of good practice for home page performance. (page 120)

  • Example of good practice for resilience. (page 120)

Wellingborough

  • Example of good practice for accessibility. (page 110)

More details on the Better Connected 2009 report available on the SOCITM website.  

Published: 3rd March 2009