Cyber Media

Connexions Greater Merseyside

How CommonSpot’s ease of use enables GMCP to make the most of their websites

http://www.connexionslive.com

Introduction

Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership (GMCP) is part of a national network of Connexions partnerships; the government's support service for all young people aged 13 to 19 in England. The organisation provides support, information and guidance to young people and adults in order to raise aspirations and help them to participate in their own learning and personal development.

The requirement

Early in 2006 GMCP issued an invitation to tender for the design and development of the next generation GMCP website. Seeing it as a key marketing and information providing tool GMCP wanted a site that would cater for and appeal to their target audiences, whilst satisfying both usability and accessibility needs.

GMCP also required an easy to use interface for updating and editing by non IT staff; one that would allow content editors to access only the areas of the site they have been authorised to use and allow for approval of content prior to publication.

The solution

Our proposal was based on CommonSpot from PaperThin, a very capable mid-range content management system that suited GMCP’s requirements perfectly. Indeed CommonSpot is used by many Connexions partnerships across the UK, as it seems to provide an unbeatable combination of features and value in this sector.

CommonSpot has provided a stable, yet flexible platform upon which the site was developed. This expandable structure makes it easy to incorporate new features such as quizzes, flash animations and games, new discussion boards, new databases, etc.

CommonSpot’s WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor makes it easy for GMCP staff to add and edit content in the areas of the site each has been given rights to edit. With the design of the site locked down in templates, and comprehensive workflow and approval procedures in place, users can work on the site safe in the knowledge that they can’t break anything in the first place, and that there are fallback and recovery options even if they somehow manage to. This means that all that is required for staff to be able to safely and efficiently edit content on the site is a PC with a web browser (all major browsers are supported), an internet connection, and the most basic IT skills.

The final site features a contemporary design with intuitive navigation and easily identified colour coded sections. Along with some custom database applications that we developed for GMCP as part of this project, we also developed several custom interfaces to seamlessly integrate existing databases into CommonSpot.

The outcome

Both CommonSpot and the website were readily accepted by GMCP staff. They now take full advantage of CommonSpot’s user friendly content editing features to keep content fresh and relevant to their target audiences, and make the most of their website. We’ll let them have the final word: