squiz - westminster abbey presentation
DESCRIPTION
Presentation on the progress of redesigning and migrating the University of Bedfordshire website. Presentation given at Westminster Abbey in July 2011.TRANSCRIPT
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From a wind up toyto a jumbo jet...
Kris CollinsUniversity of Bedfordshire
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An introduction
• Marketing Manager sitting within the marketing department but with a huge interest in technical aspects
• Been at the university for 9 years and counting…
• The lead on the development direction of the website, digital communications, CRM and most other things, if it plugs in the wall I probably look after it!
• Prince2 and Agile project management trained and father of twins so good at organised chaos, multi tasking and telling off (if required)
Pre-project, fewer grey hairs….
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Where we started
• Currently using a python based product called Silva which sits on top of Zope
• Rather restrictive, development is slow as it is virtually unused by anyone else
• We’ve done a lot of custom development work to get it going
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The challenges we faced
• Downtime and lots of it... a complicated ZeoDB (!) cluster was the only answer for a more stable server set-up
• Poor interface with our existing services
• Lack of internal skillset to support Zope/Python (we did have one)
• Lack of buy in from Editors due to the poor CMS interface and experiences
• Poor workflow and management tools, we aren’t sure what our editors are doing within their pages…
• Strict QAA requirements for the publication and accuracy of course informationacross both print and digital
But, the open source ethos was good and we wanted to keep that!
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We need a new site!
• Increase in fee level will hit all Universities, we need to be ahead of the curve in our recruitment processes
• We’re very interest in personalisation of content for our visitors
• A noticeable increase in mobile usage over the last 12 months and our iPhone app is hard work
• We need to reduce dependent systems and running costs as our budgets are going to be squeezed! We currently outsource too many services
• Surprisingly, the THE top 20 website report was our saving grace…
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The process
• Brace yourself, it takes a rather long time, 6 months in total for the tender, funding allocation and selection process and a further 8 months for the build
• Full tender process gave us four shortlisted options
• Presentations from all shortlisted parties, some better than others (don’t accept conference call presentations!)
• The management options and flexibility within Matrix won over the webteam
• The Funnelback presentation won over all other interested parties, it's a visually stunning presentation from Al so ask them to do one!
Princess Leia!
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Progress so far
• Tight timeframe to fall in line with the Clearing period (18 August) so launch date is the 31st July
• Last migration complete, lots of tweaking to do before we go live!
• Full re-training is currently going on to move editors into the new system
• SITS IPP course data is going into the system as an XML feed and it sort of works as well!
• Lots of additional functionality will come in between now and Christmas as we take advantage of the new system
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Things to bear in mind
• Ask for more money than you think you need
• Get your editors on-side, you will rely on them more than you think
• Get sociable and prepare to buy a lot of coffee!
• Keep the board well informed and work with your Squiz project manager
• Keep the paperwork light and use an Agile approach as things change all the time
• Have a support network, you will need to moan and vent!
And lastly… don’t forget to take the praise when you deliver a fantastic new site, on time and on budget!
It’s a hard slog and easy to get sucked into business as usual and not appreciate what you have delivered!
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Demo of the build so far
Any questions?
Feel free to contact me:
T: @iamkriscollins
W: iam.kriscollins.co.uk