We have been planning for some time that the best option in order to fix our web presence, is to completely start from the ground up and essentially ‘starting again’.
To fulfil this vision, we knew we could not fit our wishes around the processes or infrastructure we currently have and has been in place since 2008. We would need to start with a blank canvas or clean slate and build everything from scratch exactly to the way we require now and in order to achieve these aims for the future.
To that end, we secured an investment bid last year from the organisation to help us achieve that vision, part of which is the procurement of a platform and associated infrastructure.
We need to break down our content and focus on making that available to multiple end-points in whatever way our user’s demand. That could be as basic as viewing a website on a mobile device or requesting specific information with Alexa/Siri, or having specific updates/information available in your car or TV.
Of course, it is not all about the platform alone, there are various other aspects of the vision that we need to tackle. Everything from using CDNs to image optimisers, SEO and personalisation – and indeed our own organisation’s culture.
Rather than continue to try and build more and more extensions on top of previous extensions (and there are many!), we have decided to build on a new plot and build with solid foundations so there would not be a need for extensions any time soon.
But enough of the analogies…
We have spent a lot of time thinking about our requirements and what we are looking for out of this procurement process. One of the things we hope will be useful to help potential suppliers is to understand some of the issues we face currently and the problems we are trying to solve. Some are technical limitations and others are our processes.
These scenarios are included with the procurement Invitation to Tender available to download from Public Contracts Scotland.
Our procurement is now public and we would welcome submissions from all suppliers who feel their solutions can help us achieve our bold vision. Any queries should be directed to Procurement via Public Contracts Scotland.