The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has obtained a content management system that could support a more streamlined web publishing strategy.
It has signed a deal with not-for-profit IT services group Eduserv to obtain the Sitecore content management system (CMS) on an unlimited user licence.
The department said it will support the rationalisation of its partners websites, one of the key objectives of the Transformational Government strategy.
Julian Mitchell, public sector manager at Eduserv, told GC News the deal would apply to BIS and all its agencies, such as Companies House and the Insolvency Service, about 20 executive non-departmental public bodies, four advisory bodies and the tribunals under the department's wing.
"Instead of having their own website and having to manage it themselves, they would be referenced as part of bis.gov.uk and hosted under the BIS site," he said.
In addition, other BIS partners would be able to sign their own deals to join the site. Mitchell said "attractive prices" would apply.
The service, which is scheduled to go live in March 2010, will enable approved users to get remote access to provide content for their areas of the BIS website. Hosting will be on Eduserv's Government Ready Platform, which has been used for BIS's interim website.
Mitchell said the service will reduce costs for the partner organisations while enabling them to retain control of their content. It will also make them less vulnerable to losing skills if the people who set up and manage their own websites move on.
Paul Reynolds, ICT deputy director at BIS, said: "The pricing model of the contract means we can work with our partners to rationalise and host their websites for a small setup cost and no annual service charges. This will be very cost-effective in the long run as we work to meet the objectives of the government's service transformation agenda."
Mitchell said the contract will run until 2014, but did not disclose its value.
