GOSS clients Exeter City Council, North Yorkshire County Council Gloucestershire County Council and Chichester District Council have been recognised as representing best practice websites by achieving "top 20 most developed website" status in the latest SOCITM report. This accolade recognises the latest developments in useful, usable and used websites.
Better connected 2010: a snapshot of all local authority websites, with a forward by Martha Lane Fox, Digital Inclusion Champion, listed Exeter City Council as one of only 11 sites to reach four-star status. Over 40% of the 45 clients who use GOSS iCM (intelligent Content Management) to run their website received a three or four-star rating. Gloucestershire County Council, North Yorkshire County Council and Chichester District Council were identified as having narrowly missed four-star status by one single criterion. Chichester was also noted for its Shaw Trust accreditation for accessibility and was listed among the top Shire districts.
Web 2.0 usage was also acknowledged. During the winter of 2010, Swansea City and County, Nottingham City and dorsetforyou.com were recognised as having the best use of Twitter to provide service up-dates, with dorsetforyou.com also praised for their use of YouTube, London Borough of Hillingdon for their use of Facebook and West Berkshire District Council for the quality of information and up-dates available on their website.
Rob McCarthy, Managing Director at GOSS Interactive comments, "It is pleasing to see this level of scrutiny is afforded to Local Authority websites. While private sector counterparts are often seen as leading the way, this report highlights how our public sector customers are representing the latest developments in useful, usable and used websites.
"Local Authorities are under increasing pressure to do more with less. And central to this strategy is the ability to increase the number of services delivered online and the volume of uptake - self service is the key to driving efficiencies. This is the key factor that will drive Local Authority web development over the next 12 months and beyond. We are working hard with our customers to create and maintain websites that are useful and usable, to promote better citizen service and engagement, whilst driving down costs.
"Many congratulations to all our clients and non-clients for their hard work in producing and managing their websites."
How can GOSS help you achieve more than 1 or 2 stars?
- Fully integrated forms package at no extra cost.
- HR and Jobs module
- Report it Now functionality
- Easy to manage content ensuring easier retrieval of content
- Customer Service module including Smart FAQs
- ePeitions and Consultation module built in
- iSuggest automated metadata management tool
And is it used in over 50 local authorities in the UK.
