Case studies
Our recent projects include work for HM Treasury, the Coal Authority, the Collect Britain online museum collection, the Choice prospectus for 14 to 19 year old Londoners, the Your London web portal and London's online schools admissions system.
Brief descriptions of these and other projects are included here. You can also read full case studies for a number of these projects.
British Library
Brief: Provide a Digital Media Solution for Collect Britain, one of the largest online museum collections in the world.
Delivered: Consultancy, Development, g-Media, g-Serve, Hosting, Support
Visit the Collect Britain website (link opens in a new window)
Collect Britain involved the digitisation of more than 100,000 images and sounds relating to Britain's heritage. The showcase has 19 themed collections, which include drawings and illustrations, paintings, stamps, regional dialects, colonial history, wildlife sounds, songs from the Victorian Music Hall, maps and plans, photographs and more than 50,000 pages of newspapers from the 19th century.
System Associates provided its g-Media digital library solution to categorise, describe, process and publish approximately 2 terabytes of digital media. Development of the website provided a searchable index of all assets, including a method of searching Victorian newspapers for articles relating to a postcode or location, despite the newspapers pre-dating postcodes. The solution is capable of processing 2,000 40MB objects over a six hour period and it can effectively handle 1.5 million items.
Read the full British Library case study
Choice
Brief: Develop a pan-London, online prospectus for 14-19 year olds.
Delivered: Design, Development, g-Seek, g-Serve, Data Management Services, Hosting, Support
Developed by System Associates in five months, Choice is an online prospectus containing information from more than 600 schools, colleges and work-based learning providers. It has the potential to be used by up to half a million young adults across London and is making it easier for youngsters to research further education opportunities.
Course information is fully integrated with a GIS mapping solution and Transport for London to enable easy journey planning to course and training venues. At the time of development, the project was the largest of its kind in the UK.
"This is a very valuable service to all young Londoners who will be able to identify at the touch of a button, the full range of learning opportunities available to them. London has a significant number of young people who are outside both education and employment and the online prospectus will help them to access courses and gain new skills." - Lord Adonis, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools.
Read the full Choice case study
Coal Authority
Brief: Provide a Content Management System for publishing information on the public information website, intranet and e-commerce site.
Delivered: g-Serve, Design, Support
Visit the Coal Authority website (link opens in a new window)
The efficient and accurate provision of information, such as coal mining reports, is crucial to the Coal Authority's operations. As you might expect from a modern public service organisation, the Coal Authority has made extensive use of the internet to publish much of its information.
The Coal Authority approached System Associates to provide a content management system when the Authority's IT team was struggling to keep up with the vast amount of information that needed to be available online. More devolved responsibility for content was a clear requirement.
Our g-Serve product is now being used to provide content to three Coal Authority online areas:
- The main website
- The CA intranet
- An e-commerce site for the provision of coal mining reports.
Read the full Coal Authority case study
London eAdmissions
Brief: To develop an online school admissions system for London.
Delivered: Consultancy, Development, Design, Data Management services, Hosting, Support
Visit London eAdmissions (link opens in a new window)
By September 2006, to meet e-Government targets, all local authorities were required to allow online schools admissions applications. London had been providing a pan London schools admissions service since 2002 and the procedures for this needed to be integrated into an online solution. An initial feasibility study calculated that, by using a pan London solution, costs could be reduced by more than 50 per cent when compared to each borough procuring and implementing their own local system.
London eAdmissions is the only online service which joins up the admissions services of multiple local authorities. It provides an easy to use website for parents to submit an application for any state-run school in London, guiding them through the online application process and sending reminders to
ensure an application is submitted by the cut-off date. A back-end system provides all London boroughs with the ability to manage and monitor the applications. In an Independent Supplier Review, this solution was considered to be the most usable of all eAdmissions systems in the UK.
Read the full London eAdmissions case study
HM Treasury
Brief: Provide a highly secure, responsive and reliable website to deliver the Budget and other important information.
Delivered: g-Serve, Budget and Pre-Budget Support, Hosting and Managed services, Security services - hosted until October 2008
Visit the HM Treasury website (link opens in a new window)
When the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivers his Budget twice a year, it not only affects the lives of the whole nation, it creates an enormous requirement for immediate information from Her Majesty's Treasury, by reporters, MPs, businesses and the general public. The result is a huge surge in traffic on the HM Treasury website immediately after the Budget speech is delivered.
System Associates' content management system, g-Serve, powers the thousands of pages of content on the HM Treasury website and provides a secure repository for embargoed Budget and Pre-Budget content. In addition, System Associates provides a robust, secure hosting solution which is optimised every year before and after the Pre-Budget and Budget announcements.
Our team of Government cleared security specialists are also put on high security alert to ensure maximum security checks take place before each major announcement.
Local Directgov
Brief: Develop Local Directgov, an extension to Directgov, which directs users to local authority online services.
Delivered: Consultancy, Development, g-Serve, g-Seek, Hosting, Data Management services, Support
Visit the Local Directgov website (link opens in a new window)
Local Directgov was launched at the beginning of 2006 after just four months of development. Users can enter a location (using postcode, address or local authority) and the service they require and the website launches the appropriate page from the local authority's site. The service is supported by a sophisticated database application, which manages and monitors approximately 150,000 channels into local services. We also provide a mirrored hosting solution, which has provided 100 per cent uptime since its launch.
"The Local Directgov Programme is making a significant contribution to local e-Government. It will prove an invaluable aid to local authorities, helping them to meet efficiency targets, increase traffic to local authority websites and encourage citizen take-up of those online services. When fully developed, it has the potential to revolutionise how citizens interact with government and offers a more customer focused, joined up approach." Jim Fitzpatrick, Minister for Local e-Government.
Read the full Local Directgov case study
NCSL
Brief: To provide an online collaborative learning site for school leaders, with single sign-on integration.
Delivered: Consultancy, User Registration, Single Sign-on, g-Serve, Development, Support
Visit the NCSL website (link opens in a new window)
The NCSL portal employs sophisticated internet technologies to deliver training and qualification programmes, access to learning resources and a forum for discussion for learning professionals and school leaders. The portal is driven by our g-Suite content management system, a user registration system and a single sign-on solution that allows users to browse between a number of third-party applications without having to re-logon.
The site has received a prestigious e-Government Award for the successful implementation of a strategic e-Government initiative.
"It's now the largest learning portal for education professionals in the UK. Features such as the user registration system, which allows school leaders to sign up for courses and track progress throughout their career, are really innovative and highly effective. Services that were previously performed by the DfES and NCSL offline have been integrated into the web content management system, so that they're now offered online and are instantly available to a greater number of teaching professionals." - Jonathan Dale, Assistant Director of Online Learning, NCSL.
Recycle for London
Brief: To provide a content management system to support the Recycle for London Awareness Campaign.
Delivered: g-Serve, Development, Hosting, Support
Visit the Recycle for London website (link opens in a new window)
In support of an awareness campaign to encourage greater uptake of recycling services and to inform Londoners about the recycling services provided across London, System Associates provided a content management system from which members of the Recycle for London team could publish content to a dedicated campaign site.
The website features a powerful postcode search facility which enables Londoners to locate their nearest recycling facilities and services, in addition to other tools such as an online visitor poll and an eCard facility.
The initial site was launched within 3 weeks of the project commencing and continues to support the campaign as it evolves.
Your London
Brief: Lead Development Partner for Your London, the official web portal project for London.
Delivered: Consultancy, Design, Development, g-Serve, g-Seek, Editorial Services, Hosting, Support
Visit the Your London website (link opens in a new window)
Your London is an ambitious e-government programme to provide a single website that brings together a vast range of information and services across London. Users can easily locate information from relevant borough councils, as well as find their nearest facilities, such as hospitals, parks and open spaces, chemists, cash machines, police stations and cash machines.
SA developed the portal and its content within five months. Since the official launch of the website, we have continued to develop a number of applications and services. These include major new pan London initiatives, such as the first joined up online schools admissions system and an online prospectus for London's 14-19 year olds.
Your London has received considerable praise and has won and been nominated for a number of awards.
Read the full Your London case study