Harlow Council
Drupal 8 Upgrade
Content Migration
Improved Engagement
Brief
The Harlow Council re-platforming project was part of the Council's digital transformation programme and involved:
- Tight budget constraints
- Upgrade/ re-build in Drupal 8 from Drupal 7. The existing Drupal 7 site was not responsive, had a number of accessibility issues, and a dated design
- Open Tender process through the GOV.UK Digital Marketplace to appoint the right partner
- Migration of website content and data from a legacy Platform to new CMS (Drupal 8)
- Step Change in functionality, including the development of an Intranet for Harlow Council staff
Solution
- Solution built from users perspective, rather than a council one
- Re-design using mobile first design principles
- Flexible page layouts using the Drupal Paragraphs module
- Solution launched onto Acquia Cloud Professional service
- SSO integration with internal system
- Solr search integration
Technical highlights
- Delivered the project on time and within budget
- Visits are up 30% in February 2020, compared to February 2019
- The percentage of customers choosing to use online versus phoning in has increased for some of Harlow's key services, like booking a bulky waste collection (up 5% since February 2019), reporting a missed bin (up 9% since February 2019) and requesting a new bin (up 6% since February 2019)
- Harlow Council are seeing a reduction in phone calls and are seeing an increase in the number of people reporting online, rather than calling in, which saves the Council money
- Provided a platform for future growth
