TSI Web Services Content Syndication

A recent article in Computer Weekly, has highlighted the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) content syndication service for safety alerts as a 'Smart Project'.

BOCC created the web services connector to allow secure, authenticated syndication of consumer product recalls and safety warnings directly to local authority websites.

Three ways of syndicating the TSI information were developed:

• A web service direct to local authorities' websites
• A web service written in Javascript, and
• Setting up separate council-branded website.

TSI has estimated that the 200-plus councils with responsibility for trading standards would need an extra 68,000 officer hours per year if they had to create and upload all the content needed individually.

BOCC developed the Trading Standards Institute's flagship product 'TS Interlink' - a secure news, document and mail system extranet for trading standards officers - in 2003. Since then the system has been extended and enhanced - offering further services and information to the Trading Standards community.

Databases and website hosted by BOCC.

April 2007

West Oxfordshire Rated One of the Top 12 Websites

The West Oxfordshire District Council website has been rated as one of the 12 best in an annual review of all the 238 shire district council websites in England.

The Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM) - the professional body for public sector IT - reviews local authority web sites every year in its authoritative publication 'Better Connected'. The 2007 edition has just been published, and the Council's website has been held up as an example of good practice throughout the report.

This is the second year running that SOCITM has given high praise for the Council's website. Last year the website was commended for its overall design and usability, and about the 'My West Oxfordshire' area of the site.

BOCC redesigned and redeveloped the website almost 18 months ago. The brief required an appropriate design for the largely rural district and to cater for new online services, such as:

• Online payments
• GIS driven local information system - My West Oxfordshire
• Interactive online forms

Website and databases hosted by BOCC.

April 2007

NHS SDO Programme eCAS Launch

eCAS is the electronic submission and monitoring system for commissioning research projects for the NHS Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) Programme. The new online system is for use by researchers and their organisations to:

• respond to SDO calls for proposals
• electronically submit outline and full research proposals
• peer review submitted proposals and reports
• manage projects online
• maintain a central repository of research data and files

eCAS also works as the contact and project data management system for the SDO Programme.

eCAS has been developed to make the commissioning experience more efficient and user friendly for applicants and administrators alike. Previously a combination of paper-based and electronic systems were used to undertake the commissioning.

March 2007

Subscriber Management System

unionlearn produce a magazine called 'The Learning Rep', which is sent out on a quarterly basis by the six regional offices. BOCC has developed a web based subscriber management system for unionlearn to centrally maintain the magazine recipients.

unionlearn recently started to use an external mailing house to send out the magazine. This created the need for a centralised database, which allows the six regions to continue to maintain their own subscriber data.

BOCC created a new Microsoft SQL database that resides on the secure database server. A secure web based interface was developed to allow authorised unionlearn regional users to carry out a range of administrative tasks, which include:

• Manage data sets
• Add, edit and delete data
• Create custom fields
• Download data as a CSV formatted file
• De-duplication of data
• Approve / edit data changes made by the mailing house

Application development and hosting by BOCC.

March 2007