August 2005

A report to Cabinet by the Acting Head of Paid Service on 8^th August 2005 provided details of a web services review that had taken place and sought approval for expenditure of £580,000 for the procurement and implementation of a web service solution

it was agreed that the quickest tender route would be through the government catalogue (GCat). In order to meet timescales, the project was also phased. Phase 1 included prototyping the new system in 2 “pathfinder areas”, following phases would include the delivery of the full functional platform, migration of static data and the implementation of the more complex transactional areas.

The GCat route proved to be ineffective as no tenders were received.

Following the unsuccessful GCat process, an appraisal process was undertaken of potential solution providers.

December 2005/January 2006

Recognising the original project was under resourced (reflected in the fact that no one bid). Several CMS providers were evaluated and as it was so close to the creation of the new joint venture company it was proposed that the procurement of the solution would be undertaken by Service Birmingham once they were in place; as they would be responsible for maintaining the solution in the future.

March/April 2006

Joint Venture Company - Service Birmingham created.

April -September 2006

JV settling down period. Original project closed and new project commenced. Further work undertaken on CMS providers by Service Birmingham and the city council's web team.

September 2006

Project recommences. Fatwire agreed as supplier. Phased approach agreed.

May 2007

The Phase One pilot, prototyping the new system in two `pathfinder' areas was partially implemented in May 2007 and some functionality was held over to be included in later phases. Phase 2, delivery of the full functional platform commenced but was later delayed by the loss of critical staff.

December 2007/January 2008

The decision was taken to pause the project in order to review requirements. the initial experience and centrality to the Excellence in People Management and Customer First Transformation projects led to the recognition that to be successful a full assessment and specifications of requirements was required.

March 2008

A revised plan was created with changed scope to include the necessary web elements of Excellence in People Management and Customer First Transformation projects with a completion date of October 2008

October 2008

System testing was due to conclude in October 2008; to be followed by content migration which was due to be concluded in December 2008. As the testing volume was unknown further work was required to quantify testing volume and review process for migration.

Decision taken by Corporate Management Team to partially automate content and revised timeline for content migration to be completed by March 2009.

July 2009

Update provided to Finance and procurement, Overview and Scrutiny Sub Committee - attachment 3. Anticipated go-live date August 2009.