The Department of Communications leads the Australian Government’s policies and initiatives for digital technology and communication services. In early 2015 PreviousNext was contracted to develop the Department's new website using Drupal.
Challenge
With a focus on developing a more cohesive communications strategy to enhance the way people engage with and access the Department of Communications (DoC), the DoC wished to migrate to Drupal from their legacy CMS platform. They wanted to streamline their content publication workflow and aggregate all the sites under their control, desiring an outcome that would allow for an easy content editing experience. This would empower all staff to create and edit content without relying too heavily on the DoC internal web publishing team.
Solution
Requiring a solution that would be intuitive and flexible, PreviousNext architected the new site using the forked version of the aGov Drupal distribution for govCMS, migrating the main DoC website and several subsites into a single hosting platform. Based on a customised version of the default theme, the new site provides a content management interface that makes it easy for site editors to facilitate the speedy processing of large volumes of content updates. It also contains special functionality to provide community consultation and feedback.
Outcome
In light of new guidelines drawn up by the Digital Transformation Office, the DoC website highlights a shift in the Australian Government’s approach to digital-first services. This outward shift in thinking demonstrates a more agile approach to project development and an embracing of open source technologies.
communications.gov.au