Contensis returns to the valleys

Our already strong client base in SouthWales has been augmented by an important new client. Rhondda CynonTaff County Borough Council have chosen to base the third-generation of their main council website on the Contensis CMS in its R5.1 Enterprise form. The system was already seen as a “safe pair of hands” as it has under-pinned the community portal operated by RCT CBC’s partner organisation, Shape-It.Org, for a number of years.

Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC have had significant praise for their website, coming first in Wales for accessibility for the years 2007 and 2008. The project will build on this, with developments in the areas of site navigation and introduction of multi-lingual functionality. There will also be an attractive new design aimed at emphasising the transactions which a resident of RCT typically wants to undertake. Many of these will be geographically personalised, through integration with the Council’s GIS.

The forecast of less generous economic and budgetary conditions across the public sector have also informed how the website will look and what functionality it will offer. The wider context in which the development is taking place is the increasing importance of a customer service ethos at the council.

To propel the new site forward as rapidly as possible, Rhondda’s Web Team will be undertaking a significant proportion of the development work. With the unrivalled flexibility of Contensis as a “developer’s CMS” this is a straightforward process. The open API and Web Control extensibility provide the ideal platform for Rhondda Cynon Taf to build upon for the future, bringing forward the return on investment.