“In the new city portal of Wil we have successfully realised the legal requirements and recommendations for accessibility as well as a high level of service orientation. With the help of contentXXL the city of Wil is able to assign information processing to the responsible public offices for the first time. This has lead to better content realized in less time. Those responsible in Wil are satisfied with the results and have commissioned us to continually expand the system. We are currently working on expansions of the event calendar and news area and a room reservation system will soon follow“, Martin Kaiser, General Manager of Online Consulting AG.
At the end of 2007 the new town of Wil’s, portal went online with the Business Content Management System (CMS) contentXXL. The new website contains everything a modern municipal website should offer its citizens: virtual town hall/online desk, navigation respective of life conditions, address directory, event calendar and accessiblity to all content even for blind citizens. The IT service provider Online Consulting AG, located in Wil, Switzerland realized the town portal, having already developed the first website for the city ten years ago. Online Consulting applied its city and community solution, eGov@online, which it developed based mainly on contentXXL.
Today, demands are high on public authority websites. Apart from being totally citizen service orientated, the website must also be completely accessible for users to all information on the internet, irrespective of their physical abilities and/or technical equipment. In the autumn of 2007, the city of Wil was faced with the challenge of creating a new town portal that made it both convenient and easy for citizens to interact with the local authority, supply comprehensive information and at the same time meet legal requirements for accessiblity such as “equal opportunities for the disabled”. Furthermore, the thematic classification according to a navigation respective of life conditions recommended for eGovernment needed to be implemented. The principal of this navigation ignores the administrative structure and consequently complies with “customer” requirements in accordance with the daily life of the community (for example birth, re-location, and marriage).
Fig.: The Accessible town portal of the town of Wil
Online Consulting AG from Wil, who developed the first website for the city ten years ago, was commissioned.
With its branch solution eGov@online for cities and communities Online Consulting provides standard software that meets all the requirements of an internet portal for a public authority in Switzerland. The foundation of eGov@online is the Microsoft .NET based CMS contentXXL, which provides numerous features such as an event calendar, address directory, a navigation respective of life conditions and an online desk which have been expanded by special functions from Online Consulting.
Service for citizens
The city of Wil internet platform informs the citizen about everything concerning the local authority and provides a complete address directory as well as an online desk. This allows interaction between citizens and the local authority. Documents are ready at the online desk for downloading or e-mailing. An event calendar not only allows the employees of the local authority to enter events but citizens also have this opportunity. Events entered by citizens have to be activated by the local authority.
Accessibility
In Switzerland public authorities websites have a duty under the heading of “equal opportunities for the disabled” to ensure that blind citizens, with the help of a special reading device (screen reader), can read the website. eGov@online fulfils this and other requirements (like table free designs, zoom layout for texts and pictures, separation of content and layout and dynamic content) due to the high level of accessibility of contentXXL.
“In the new city portal of Wil we have successfully realised the legal requirements and recommendations for accessibility as well as a high level of service orientation“, explains Martin Kaiser, General Manager of Online Consulting AG. “With the help of contentXXL the city of Wil is able to assign information processing to the responsible public offices for the first time. This has lead to better content realized in less time. Those responsible in Wil are satisfied with the results and have commissioned us to continually expand the system. We are currently working on expansions of the event calendar and news area and a room reservation system will soon follow.“