The agency produced an ICT strategic plan defining key objectives including: consolidate infrastructure, streamline the delivery of services and improve the purchasing of ICT while reducing cost to Government.
Driven by meeting the objectives in the ICT strategic plan the NSW DFS launched a project to consolidate the delivery of web solutions. A cluster of servers powered by an open source software stack running the Plone content management system, was deployed with an architecture designed to support 20-30 websites. To date, the shared web platform currently provides multiple agencies with affordable public facing websites and portals along with support and maintenance. The DFS selected PretaWeb to provide high level comprehensive managed services for the platform, in addition PretaWeb carries out web development and design work, end user and technical support for individual client agencies.
Costing comparisons reveal real savings reflected in improved budget outcomes, together with reduced management time the agencies are able to redirect resources to frontline services. One agency alone saved $63,000 relative to a lowest quote received from a private sector organisation for an upgrade to their website. More agencies are able to join the DFS shared web platform at significantly reduced cost, effort and risk, when compared to running their own systems.
The total cost of ownership reductions are realised in two ways; firstly shared managed hosting allows many websites to reside on the same group of servers. This reduces maintenance and support expenses as costs are shared across individual websites owned by separate agencies hosting on the servers.
Secondly all software used to power the web environment are open source resulting in zero licence fees, this includes the Linux operating system, Apache web server, Zope application server and Plone content management system. The savings gained with the zero licence fees allows that money to be directed towards more functionality when developing the web solution and/or funding of ongoing support and maintenance.
A major outcome of the platform is the ability for smaller agencies with limited resources, to use leading edge web technology. Agencies can now effectively manage the increasing amount of information requiring rapid dissemination to citizens as the Plone CMS enables non-technical people to easily create and manage content. They have unlimited access to hundreds of open source plug-ins such as RSS, events calendaring, Google mapping, social bookmarking, video/audio sharing, blogs, online polls and more. The result— all agencies on the GCIO shared platform are using Web 2.0 technology to improve public services cost effectively.
Security is a high priority in government, which is a prime motivator for selecting Open Source and in particular Plone. Plone is built with security in mind at every level of it's architecture and has the lowest occurrence of critical security incidences of any major open source CMS. The PretaCloud service with built in security monitoring, 24x7 security response service and regular security audits gives the GCIO peace of mind.
An additional benefit of this project is the whole of platform enforcement of compliance with the Government’s website directive which includes meeting W3C accessibility standards and consistent branding.
The platform is used by the following NSW agencies:
- NSW Health
- Aboriginal Housing Office
- State Transit Authority
- Independent Transport Safety Regulator
- Parramatta Park Trust
- Parramatta Stadium Trust