Elcom reinvigorates country music capital's website

Using Elcom's CommunityManager.NET development environment, the site will allow for certain services - such as rate payments - to be made available online in the future.

Mark Crompton, finance and IT manager at Tamworth Regional Council said it will also simplify the process of publishing and retrieving information.
 
"Our website has grown organically over the years, to the point where finding specific information can be difficult," he said.

"Coupled with the fact that the systems running our website have reached the end of their lifecycle, we had a 'perfect storm' of reasons to completely rebuild our web presence.
 
Crompton said the Council wanted to create a platform that will serve it in the future, and allow it to innovate with new online services as the need arises.

"As a regional council covering more than 9,600 square kilometres and a population in excess of 53,000, we are making it easier for customers that live hundreds of kilometres away from regional centres to access information and basic services online that can make a major difference to their lives," he said.
 
The Council's Internet Working Group chose Elcom from a group of five shortlisted vendors following an intensive research and qualification process.

According to Crompton, Elcom's modular platform offered features the Council needed today, and made it particularly easy for dozens of staff to publish content without having prior web development training.
 
"Elcom's software will allow us to see the most popular - and least popular - web pages, and to see at a glance which pages have been updated in a predetermined period, to help us better comply with information access regulations," he said.
 
Elcom founder and CEO John Anstey said some of the search technology developed for CommunityManager.NET will be particularly useful in a local council environment. 
 
"Users often search for information using their own terminology, which could be different from how it's referenced on a website," he said.

"For example, a user might enter the term 'tip' in a search for information on rubbish collection, but the information could be published using the term 'landfill'.

"The intelligent taxonomy technology we're using allows Tamworth to specify multiple instances of words that refer to the same topic, or range of topics, so that the relevant information is returned to the user at the first search."
 
Crompton said improving the web platform will give IT staff more time to focus on their core competencies, improving the web platform and worrying less about content and formatting.