Integrating 'Joined Up Services' for Oxford City Council

BOCC has recently integrated the CINTRA Searchlight search functionality with the Oxford City Council website search and A-Z of Services facilities.

The Oxford City Council site search now provides a single point of access to information in Oxfordshire. Both the site search and the A-Z of services facilities joins-up content from all of the district and county councils, local police authority, NHS and community organisations so that an Oxford City Council website visitor doesn't need to know which service provider provides a particular service - even if it's not Oxford City Council.

The A-Z of Services facility integrates with the CINTRA API to deliver content for both the Oxford City Council website and provides data and links to relevant service content from the countywide partners in realtime. BOCC has also undertaken similar integration work on the West Oxfordshire District Council.

BOCC developed the Oxford City website approximately 3 years ago, which included the provision of our content management system, application support services and dedicated web server hosting.

April 2008

Union Professionals Community Portal Launches

Unionlearn with the TUC has launched the new Union Professionals site, funded by the Union Modernisation Fund (UMF)* and developed & hosted by BOCC. The aim of the site is to provide information on targeted professional development opportunities, backed up by an online meeting place for professional networking.

BOCC has made further advancements in developing Web 2.0 technologies by creating an integrated online community portal, combining networking, collaboration and sharing capabilities between union officers. The site includes the following three main aspects:

• A searchable database holding profiles on union officers and staff.
• Seamless integration of a third-party email-marketing tool.
• A secure community extranet site.

*The UMF is a Government grant scheme established by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to provide financial assistance to independent trade unions in support of innovative projects, which speed unions' adaptation to a changing labour market and new ways of working. Union Professionals is one of the first round funded projects, which was launched on 15 July 2005.

December 2007

Oil & Gas UK Sustainability Development Report

The Oil & Gas UK Sustainability Development Report moves to a completely online version of the annual report for the first time. BOCC has visually designed and developed the web based version of the report, which aims to encourage greater engagement and dialogue with stakeholders.

The new-look report has been redeveloped as a dynamic and interactive web-based reporting tool to allow users to navigate through the different sections of the report and obtain detailed information and data analysis on the social, environmental and economic issues affecting the UK oil and gas industry.

The report features a 'Feedback Tool', which encourgages users to view the report and then get in touch with Oil and Gas UK to tell them what you think about their approach, performance and intent.

Oil & Gas UK website developed and hosted by BOCC.

December 2007

Union Learning Fund New Call for Grant Applications

unionlearn with the TUC - opened this years round of the Union Learning Fund (ULF) call for grant applications. This year the process has been changed to accommodate for a brand new requirement - where applicants submit a pre-qualification expression of interest (EOI) form, prior to selection.

The form is then reviewed and if approved the applicant will be invited to complete a full bid application. BOCC worked with the ULF project team to define the scope of work for the changes required to the system for this new approach. The applicant completes a Microsoft Word Document off line and in their own time. They can then upload their completed form via the online interface. BOCC developed a mechanism to extract all of the data from the form in Word and import it dynamically into the underlying SQL database.

On approval, the full bid application form is generated dynamically from data submitted via the EOI form. The final application only contains the relevant sections that the applicant needs to submit based on information already provided.

Completed grant application manangement system and database developed and hosted by BOCC.

November 2007