One such project has been to provide new and improved government-based websites for States Assembly and Scrutiny, both of which have now been unveiled to the public.

The States Assembly website (www.statesassembly.gov.je) includes details of its members, history and procedures of the Assembly, provides a record of past sittings and gives information about propositions that have been debated and are due to be debated at future sittings. The Scrutiny Website (www.scrutiny.gov.je) provides all the details of Scrutiny Panel reviews, hearings, submissions, reports and results.

Initial discussions about the existing website took place with stakeholders regarding how the sites could be improved and enhanced, and eventually it was decided that a key element of the overhaul would be to significantly improve how information could be sourced from the websites, with the key objective of modifying and enhancing how information on the site could be extracted by those using the site.

Eight years after the original launch of the States Assembly website, we have now overhauled it completely and improved its functionality in line with the successful www.gov.je. The new website has been fully re-designed to enable users both faster and easier access to the information they are looking for, and as of today, users of the new and improved States Assembly website will now be able to:

• Search for propositions by year range and/or by the person who lodged it
• Search for all questions asked or answered by a particular member or Minister
• Sort members by parish, by seniority or alphabetically
• Find more information about propositions and voting, with an automatic link to the States Minutes and Hansard of the debate.

Updates implemented on The States Assembly website also extend to the Scrutiny website (www.scrutiny.gov.je), which has a similarly improved layout and better search access to all work by the Scrutiny Panels and the Public Accounts Committee including reviews, submissions and Scrutiny Reports.

The improvements are hoped to significantly enhance public understanding of the work Scrutiny does and to encourage more members of the public to suggest topics for review and submit evidence through the website. And, as with the www.statesassembly.gov.je, website overhaul, emphasis has been placed on making the information more accessible, transparent and manageable.

From a technical perspective, enhancing the two websites to provide users with the sort of search facilities and indexing that we were hoping to offer represented quite a challenge. The new sites were required to contain an on-going archive of information (historic records dated back to 1981), and therefore the safe transferral of both old and new information was of paramount importance. It’s common knowledge that the more information a site holds, the more difficult, (and slower), it is to retrieve, therefore what was required was a super-fast, intelligent and dynamic navigation-based search system that would go beyond the confines of the ordinary.

In searching for the latest advanced information and communications technology that would provide the solutions we were looking for, we were excited by the latest Microsoft FAST technology. When combined with Microsoft SharePoint, the integration of both software platforms seemed to tick all the right boxes.

Using the combined power of FAST and the simplicity of SharePoint, we were able to build into the websites a custom, search-driven application that would provide specific results based on user context that would provide visitors to the site with quick and accurate access the information they need.

In fact, the software went well beyond that, delivering a state-of-the-art search-driven user experience, with an engine able to accurately guess even the vaguest of synonyms entered by the user before filtering the results at high speed. The new websites have also been developed so that updates and improvements can be made by staff in-house, rather than having to rely on external consultants. This flexibility represents a cost-cutting measure that will also allow quicker response times to changing user demands.

To date, feedback received for the new and improved States of Jersey sites has been excellent, and particularly rewarding.

Michael de la Haye, Greffier of the States, responsible for overseeing the upgrades to both websites, commented,

“Whether you are a States Member, a journalist, a member of the public or a Department employee, it should now be easier to locate and identify the information you are looking for, in addition to other related materials that may assist in your research.

De la Haye is delighted at how the new filtering systems operate, in particular their simplicity. He also acknowledged the sites’ usefulness for highly detailed searching, how users have broadened their scope in using them and the increase in traffic. Other pluses, according to De la Haye, included the improved content management, and how easy it was for staff to add new content/navigation properties to the sites.

Meanwhile, commenting on the updated Scrutiny website, Senator Sarah Ferguson said,

Scrutiny has been evolving over the last six years and the original website has shown itself to be out-dated. The new website is intended to be more public facing with a focus on reviews being undertaken by Panels, so that members of the public can access these at the top level. Furthermore, users will now be able to see information on the status of reviews which will enable them to better follow the work of the Panels and the Public Accounts Committee.

One of the new members of the States, Deputy John Young, said,

I have been a regular user of the old States Assembly website for many years and I often felt that it was difficult to find what I was looking for. The upgraded search facility of the new States Assembly site is a great improvement, and will make selecting and finding information much easier for both for Members and the public. In my view, this is a very big step forward in e-government.

From C5’s perspective, the revamping of the States Assembly websites has been a hugely challenging and exciting project, to quote Irving Stone, both “agony and ecstasy”. Indeed, there were times when we felt as if we were working on the IT equivalent of the Sistine chapel; making something of a very high standard, which we weren’t sure we would ever finish!

Ultimately, C5 has provided one of the most advanced government-based search solutions in the world, and helped to ensure that Jersey has now one of the most transparent and accountable governments anywhere. The project’s conception has been highly complex, whilst the nature of its constant evolution provided plenty of challenges.

We believe that the end result has been a tangible success and have received a huge amount of positivity from both users of the site and those for whom we have undertaken the project. This aspect has been particularly positive and rewarding and will enable C5 to use the experience to apply what we have learnt to the management and design processes of similar projects in the future.

Despite the recessionary environment, successful projects such as this give C5 hope and expectation for the future, amidst the belief that the company can continue to grow and evolve into 2012 with a stronger and more experienced IT team that can continue to have a positive effect for businesses in the Channel Islands.

Case Study

So what has a year dominated by this sort of economic climate meant for C5? Information Technology (IT), along with Human Resources (HR) and marketing budgets, are often the first to be cut during difficult times. Despite this, we have managed to profit in 2011, by making strategic changes to our offering and adapting to the recessionary environment.

We made the decision to expand our Business Intelligence team to five fulltime consultants, who work with clients to help them understand the value of their data and develop ways that it can work harder for their business. The projects we delivered in 2011 included; Building data warehouses to track client profitability and assets from multiple sources; Replacing Excel based systems to create self-service, licence free reporting for high net worth clients; Liquidity reporting data warehouse; Automated Anti Money Laundering reporting; Automated FSA and JFSC regulatory reporting.

We increased our Director Team to oversee and manage the growth in our staff and client workload, whilst at the same time dividing C5 into smaller teams to ensure we keep our focus on detail and specialist skills. Culturally, these changes helped us to deal with our significant expansion whilst shifting us back to the essential vision that C5 was originally founded on – smart people doing interesting work.

We have also made efforts to develop our local partnerships, with companies like Foreshore, 2e2, JT, Ascent, Lime Green Creative and others to find solutions and ways of working together that benefit us all. This now means that as we enter 2012 we are better able to strategically align client solutions with our partners. Since taking a shareholding, we have been working more closely with Island Analysis. Based in Guernsey, Island Analysis provides a unique database of information covering 85 islands around the World that identifies best practice that can be adopted elsewhere. During 2012 we will invest resources to help them implement an online survey program and better collate the wealth of information they have already gathered.

In 2011 we have been sharing best practice with our current and future clients at our Breakfast Briefings, which we run on both Jersey and Guernsey, and provide a chance for debate and development. Additionally, at an international level we have been attending and speaking at Microsoft architecture sessions and Windows and SharePoint events around the world.

Market trends have affected the type of work we have been doing and we have adapted to suit client needs; for example we have supplied experienced resources to organisations that need to cover critical staff who are required to complete projects, but cannot increase permanent headcount in this economic environment. This is a reality of the recession at the moment and by being flexible in the way that we work, we have been able to support and sustain businesses through periods of change.

C5 has also diversified in terms of location and markets this year. Our Guernsey based team has been doing amazingly well, with a new office, new people and forward thinking clients. Our team delivered some fantastic projects in Guernsey, including introducing a SharePoint-based Document Management and Business Process solution for Generali International which received extensive local publicity. In Guernsey we have big ambitions for 2012 and are working hard to recruit new people to add to our growing team.

Equally, we have significantly developed our working relationship with our partners in Malta. Whilst we are committed to actively nurturing local talent, we sometimes need additional experienced and highly skilled resources to meet our customer demands at short notice or when we are fully committed to existing projects. That is not always possible locally, so having access to extra resources from Malta has been extremely beneficial for us and our clients.

Our Jersey and Guernsey teams have also been travelling worldwide working for clients with merger and acquisitions projects that need IT consolidation support.

We have also had some projects that have proved more complicated and difficult than envisaged! For example a Data Migration project for a Jersey Company, moving them from a legacy system, has taught us a lot about the complexity of this sort of scenario especially in regard to working with issues that are invariably linked to legacy systems. Ultimately we are delivering good results but have also made innovative changes to how we will approach this sort of project in the future as well as developing new techniques to test and check data.

The new States Assembly website proved to be a challenging project but has resulted in C5 providing the States of Jersey with one of the most advanced government based search solutions in the world. Whilst this was an extremely complicated piece of work that was constantly evolving, the result has been a real success story with a huge amount of positive comments. We have used this experience to learn lessons about how we will manage the scoping and design processes for similar projects in the future. We do accept that we don’t get it right all the time, but at C5 we believe what defines us is how we learn lessons and change our behaviour.

We have worked hard to improve our community engagement this year, with numerous sponsorships and events, and a real focus on education. In 2011 C5 participated in Global Entrepreneurial Week, spoke at Highlands College, provided support for Careers Teachers in both Jersey and Guernsey, sponsored students, started a bursary for local students and connected with Universities.

One of our most enjoyable activities was in support of Jersey Careers’ Jobs Fair where we spent time on our stand talking to students and their parents about opportunities locally in IT. We continued to provide work experience for both local schools and Highlands College students, and were proud that our most recent graduate from the IT for Business Course at Highlands has become a key member of our team.

It has become clear to us that the best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives are when business needs and community needs can be meaningfully aligned. By helping to develop skills and interest in Information Communications Technology (ICT), both the community and industry will benefit.

In summary, despite the recessionary environment, 2011 has been an extremely positive year for C5. We have seen good growth and have held our own against the competition. We have also taken on 23 new staff, and although we have had some leavers, overall we are finishing the year with a larger and stronger team.

So we now ask ourselves, what is next for C5 in 2012 and also for our industry? We are certainly growing as a sector and while this is encouraging, it does also mean that the focus on education and developing more of the right calibre of people is essential. And not only for us; securing the right IT resources will be essential in securing other business sectors who are considering relocating to the Channel Islands.

As a company, and as an industry, we will continue to support the growth of ICT in the Channel Islands and develop our role as thought leaders and contributors to the local economy. Great IT is the foundation and enabler for business and growth; if we can provide this and generate business, everyone benefits. On that note, C5’s aim for 2012 is to continue to have a positive effect on the Channel Islands’ ability to do good business.