With a population of some 150,000 people, Campbelltown City Council is the twelfth largest Council in New South Wales. In the 2001 census, almost 50,000 or up to one third of the population were using the Internet each week. This statistic is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years as availability of Internet access and broadband increases.
This clearly demonstrates that communicating over the Internet has become increasingly important, and the trend is set to continue. Enabling business, residents and tourists to interact with Councils on a 24 hour seven days a week basis has become an essential ingredient in the overall communications mix.
As people are increasingly using the Internet to interact with Councils, the demand for efficient and effective methods of creating, displaying and publishing information becomes a high operational and communications priority that cannot be ignored.
Campbelltown City Council recognised this trend, and devised a new Internet strategy to enhance the way it provides information online. The new site is now managed by a secure, easy to use content management system enabling non technically skilled staff to rapidly update all site content.
The site also incorporates a fresh design to project the Council and community image, and a dynamic navigation system for users to quickly find information.
Campbelltown City Council Deputy General Manager, Barry Daley, said that the new web site was proving popular with staff using the system and with users, including local residents, tourists and other visitors.
“For a large community orientated organisation like Council, the web site is an important means of providing timely information,” he said. “The fact that our staff can make immediate updates to the site ensures we are able to inform the community straight away about issues that affect them.
“Our Council has found that there are increasing expectations for more and more information to be available electronically. The site allows us to progressively add information as it comes to hand or make alterations as needed. We are continually working to improve the site and are looking at a range of enhancements, such as supporting the Festival of Fisher’s Ghost Association in creating a mini-site for the Festival, which is Campbelltown’s biggest and most popular community event.
“We are also looking at doing more business online but at this stage our focus is on ensuring timely and accurate information is available.”
Since increasing the online communications capability, the web site usage has increased by around 300 per cent**.
To learn more about online communications, contact Teena Riley at Campbelltown City Council telephone (02) 4645 4476 or Stuart Sheridan at Balance Design on (02) 9922 1099 or visit www.balance.com.au .
* Copy supplied by Balance Design
** Source: WebCentral site statistics server August 2003.
