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Pittwater Council

Pittwater local government area is situated at the northern end of Sydney's Northern Beaches and just 45 minutes north of the Sydney CBD. In 2005 Pittwater Council set about the process of implementing a new Content Management System (CMS) to manage both their Internet and Intranet sites, and micro sites such as the library. Pittwater Council required a web CMS solution that would offer; distributed authoring; standardised web pages; provision for meeting agendas & minutes (PDFs); events calendar for library, sports, exhibitions etc; specialty search tools for find a park / find a centre; integration with the existing online payment system; and integration with Pittwater Online Mapping. Council were also very keen to establish functionality for ratepayers to track both Construction Certificates and Development Applications. Squiz was selected to implement MySource Matrix as we offered a cost effective solution that would satisfy Council's immediate and future requirements. Squiz has delivered services and provided solutions to Pittwater Council since 2005.

About Pittwater

Pittwater local government area is situated at the northern end of Sydney's Northern Beaches and just 45 minutes north of the Sydney CBD. It borders the Narrabeen Bridge to the south; Tasman Sea to the east; Barrenjoey Headland to the north; and Coal and Candle Creek to the west. On 2nd March 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip, first governor of NSW, explored the southern arm of Broken Bay. He described this waterway as ''the finest piece of water I ever saw" and named it 'Pitt Water' in honour of William Pitt, The Younger, who was Prime Minister of England.

Challenge

In 2005 it was clear to Pittwater Council that a new Content Management System (CMS) was required to manage their internet and intranet. The CMS they were using at the time did not allow authoring to be shared amongst Council staff and the design was definitely outdated. To be successful, the chosen solution would have to deliver:

  • Distributed multi-user authoring
  • Standardised web pages to control website appearance
  • Easy posting of Council meeting agendas and minutes in PDF
  • An Events Calendar for library, sports, exhibitions etc.
  • Rich search tools to help find a suitable park by features and facilities
  • Integration with Council’s existing online payment system
  • Integration with Pittwater Online Mapping Service
  • Provision for micro websites

Council were also very keen to establish functionality for ratepayers to track both Construction Certificates and Development Applications. Following a competitive tender process Squiz was selected to implement MySource Matrix. Squiz offered a cost effective non-licensed solution that would satisfy Council’s immediate and future requirements well into the future.

Solution

As part of the solution, Squiz implemented a MySource Matrix Simple Edit interface (otherwise known as “front-end editing”) to allow general non-technical Pittwater Council staff to author and edit content in a simple WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor with little or no training. System administrators can precisely control the functionality and instructions available through the Simple Edit interface so users are not overwhelmed by too many unnecessary options.

Squiz was heavily involved in this project and provided the following implementation services to Council.

  • Server setup and configuration including installation of MySource Matrix CMS modules
  • Custom design for Council’s main website, including assistance with a re-branding exercise
  • Project management to keep things moving
  • Onsite implementation support
  • Assistance with the manual migration of content which was re-architected and rewritten
  • Customisation and configuration of templates (such as creating a custom form for online employment applications)
  • Assistance with retiring the existing web presence
  • W3C XHTML1.0 and WAI-AA WCAG 1.0 compliance
  • AGLS compliant metadata
  • Ongoing Service Level Agreement
  • Ongoing Squiz managed hosting

Squiz additionally delivered custom training sessions onsite at Pittwater Council including MATR 101 (MySource Matrix Fundamentals), MATR 201 (MySource Matrix System Administrator Concepts), MATR 210 (MySource Matrix Packages – CMS), STAN 102 (Web Standards and Accessibility Issues) and MATR 330 (MySource Matrix Designs).

Result

The Squiz / MySource Matrix solution delivered Council a distributed authoring environment where twenty decentralised authors maintain individual areas of content using a customised Simple Edit interface. More technical users such as system administrators additionally utilise the MySource Matrix Administration interface.

The clean looking home page effectively presents a vast array of options including quick links (such as meeting agendas and minutes), employment opportunities, Council notices, latest news and events. The online services offered by Council (such as rates payments, Development Application tracking and e-certificates) are prominently placed to ensure easy access to the services most often used by customers.

Several custom searches are available on the website including the very useful “Find a Park” which enables interested parties to search under the “type of park”, “park features”, “occasion” and “nearby facilities” categories using multiple options. Also featured on Council’s website is a Community Events Calendar which utilises a MySource Matrix Custom Form so community members can submit an event to be listed on the calendar.

Squiz has also created a customised design for the Pittwater Library using the existing implementation of MySource Matrix. Because MySource Matrix does not have per-site or per-user license fees Council did not have to pay any additional software costs for this new website.

Links http://www.pittwater.nsw.gov.au/ and http://www.pittwater.nsw.gov.au/library.

“Since 2005 Squiz has been the ideal organisation to provide professional web services to Council, including server setup and configuration, custom design, enhancing functionality as requirements change and training our staff as well as ongoing hosting and support under a service level agreement.”

Kylie Llewellyn – Web Administrator