dorsetforyou.com enhances service with new information 'findability'
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From mid October, the Dorset For You Partnership went live with Semaphore, the taxonomy management, automated categorisation and taxonomy-lead search solution.
Sharing diverse information through a single online gateway is a key cornerstone of e-Government, and best-practice portals such as dorsetforyou.com. But search facilities can only deliver accurate information from disparate resources if all online content is classified into consistent categories. It is therefore mandatory for councils to tag content using terms from the official category lists by December 2005. Previously, the laborious and error-prone process of manually tagging online content fell to a team of 200 web editors in the councils which make up the Dorset For You Partnership, but Semaphore will automate this task, freeing up the councils' time and resources as well as bringing the portal into line with the eGovernment Metadata Standard (eGMS).
The real intuitive element to search is delivered by creating a regional taxonomy, or thesaurus, to supplement the terms of the official category list and ensure that the search function can translate the language of citizens (for instance, 'rubbish') to match government documents ('waste disposal'). Semaphore's taxonomy management tool will be used by dorsetforyou.com to underpin its search, also enabling the function to understand misspellings, slang and suggest synonyms.
Martin Bottomley, E-communications Manager for Dorset County Council, a member of the Dorset For You Partnership, explains, 'Following the launch of dorsetforyou.com in February, we conducted extensive usability testing and found that the search function simply was not delivering information accurately or quick enough. Dissatisfied users would either give up on the search function and trawl through the information themselves, or ring our council telephone lines. From both a cost and service perspective, this was not acceptable.
'Having assessed various technology providers on the market we found APR Smartlogik's combination of automatic metatagging and taxonomy software the most suitable offering. Their strong reputation in local government was also an influencing factor. The integration with our content management system GOSS iCM has gone very smoothly and we are in the final testing stage before going live in mid October.
'We are committed to extending the functionality and breadth of dorsetforyou.com, and the next step is to integrate other local information and services into the portal – such as fire, police, citizen's advice etc – to make it a true community resource rather than just local government. Of course, all added content must remain eGMS-compliant and our automated tagging solution gives us the scalability to make integration and compliance a smooth process.
'Currently, Semaphore is being applied to the external website only. But looking forward, we envisage extending the benefits of fast, efficient online access to our intranet too. This will hugely boost internal information sharing, and also allow the partnership to give online access to call centre handlers to improve call handling efficiency. We are aware that proper CRM is not just about those citizens who can ‘self serve' online, it is about improving service across all channels – and the reality is that many of our citizens want to reach us by phone.'
Jeremy Bentley, CEO, APR Smartlogik, added, 'We are proud to play an integral role in one of the flagship successes of eGovernment. Our recent research showed that almost 40% of councils in the UK have made no attempt towards compliant content categorisation at all; and only 22% are overtly conforming to the eGovernment standards that are key to delivering ‘joined-up' public services. The Dorset For You Partnership is a perfect illustration of the benefits of embracing information management – bringing substantial operational benefits as well as improving services to the public.'
Dorsetforyou.com has just been awarded Crystal Mark status by the Plain English Campaign, an independent pressure group that campaigns for public information to be written in a language that is easy to understand. The portal also recently won 'the best use of e-media' category at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Local Government Group Excellence Awards, beating off competition from across the country.
The Dorset for You Partnership was conceived because local people are often unsure which council provides which services in an area where there are three tiers of local government. Christchurch Borough Council, Dorset County Council, East Dorset District Council and West Dorset District Council switched off their individual websites in April, becoming the first partnership in the country to provide truly joined up services for citizens through a single online portal.
Related links to this article:
Dorset For You
APR Smartlogik
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