WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM & IMPLEMENTATION PARTNER

The University has an ageing and outdated web presence which is the result of years of under-investment. It isbased on an end-of-life, bespoke web content management system dating from 2004 and a largely ungoverned operating model with over 1,400 content editors. Notwithstanding some recent interim design changes to afew top-level pages, our website is visually dated, unengaging, and lacking in interactivity and personalisation.Beyond the top-level pages, content is inconsistent, fragmented and poorly presented. In the absence of aseparate intranet, our externally-facing website also contains considerable internal content, making it large,unwieldy and difficult to navigate. Many of the 1,170 sites contained within our overarching University websiteare out of date, unnecessary, or internally-focused.

We have reached a critical point where we need to radically overhaul our outwardly-facing digital presence,transforming it into a fit-for-purpose communications platform. Our website is one of our most importantcommunications channels with a truly global reach: during 2018, the site was accessed by 4.7 million usersundertaking almost 12 million sessions. It will be instrumental in communicating our new brand identity,enhancing our international reputation and conveying the uniqueness of our offer to an international audience.

The HE environment has changed significantly over the past decade and the political uncertainties andchallenges now faced mean that the sector has become increasingly competitive. External stakeholders (futurestudents, potential faculty members, collaborators, funders, influencers) will all form a view of the University,not simply from what we say, but from the way in which we say it. Our young potential student audiences inparticular are digital natives - they do not remember a world without the internet. Rapid access to information;an integrated, multi-channel digital browsing experience (web, social, and mobile apps all fully integrated witheach other); multi-media content and personalisation are baseline expectations. The technology underpinning our incumbent CMS (CentOS 6) will go out of service in November 2020. Thispresents a hard deadline for implementing a new CMS. Relying on our existing CMS beyond the November2020 deadline would open the University up to a number of risks, given security patches will not be availableafter this date. Data security is of particular concern given that our current CMS is used to store internal as wellas external information.

The University have split this procurement into 2 Lots. Lot 1 relates to the CMS technology solution, and Lot 2 isfor an Implementation Partner who will provide all services to successfully deliver the project.

Both services may be provided by the same organisation, however, it is recognised that technology providersmay outsource implementation services to their partner networks. In this instance, it is required that thesubmission to Lot 1 is made by the technolo