New Website For Rural Scotland

Background

The Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) is a £1.6 billion programme of economic, environmental and social measures designed to develop rural Scotland over the next six years.  Individuals and groups may seek support to help deliver the Government's strategic objectives in rural Scotland.  The Scotland National Rural Network website aims to connect rural Scotland in all its diversity to promote economic growth and community development.

The new website plays a central role in the Scottish National Rural Network (SNRN) which forms one of four linked UK rural networks.

The vision is that the new SNRN – one of the four linked-in UK country programmes - will bring together stakeholders to consider the development needs of rural Scotland, across regions and special interest groups alike.  The EU proposition was that this should be based around the development of an effective web-based communication tool to promote stakeholder activity and information sharing.

Following a tender process Sopra Group won the contract to host and develop the website, with content management services provided by the Rural Team at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Solution

Sopra Group was involved in all development aspects of the new site from building the structure/framework to design, implementation and hosting.  The new website now provides rural news and information, facilitates networking for those who live and work in rural Scotland, and enables them to be in touch with similar rural communities across the rest of the UK, Europe and further afield. 

As the timescales for delivery were extremely tight (around 4 months) Sopra Group worked closely with the client across a number of parallel streams to ensure all project milestones were met.  The new site was delivered on time and on budget – no mean feat considering the challenging deadline – and was officially launched by Richard Lochhead, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment in Scotland on 27th April 2009.

"Sopra were very good to work with towards the solution. They brought creative ideas together with a meticulous attention to detail.  We had one point of contact throughout and we could see that issues were being resolved and work driven forward," explained Angela Wiseman, Programme Manager, SNRN.

A key aim of the site is to ensure that rural stakeholders will eventually determine the site's content via the use of polls, discussion forums and the submission of written, photo and video content.  For this reason a light fresh design was felt to be central to the success of the site to encourage visitors to really 'get involved' from the start. 

With this in mind Sopra Group's designers focused on the delivery of the end product to ensure that the client's objectives for the site drove its design and development.  The end result is a website that is not only easy to navigate and meets strategic objectives, but also has a bright fresh look and feel. 
 
Since its launch the site has already proved to be a huge strategic success for the delivery of key SRDP messages with more than 30,000 visitors since launch.  Feedback to date on the design and function of the new site has also been excellent with positive comments having been received from stakeholders in Argyll to as far as Bavaria!

Benefits

The new website is already playing a major role in supporting the work of the Scottish National Rural Network in its aims to:

• contribute effectively to the UK National Rural Network in fulfilment of EU obligations under Article 68 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1698/2005;
• be sustainable for the duration of the Scotland Rural Development Programme (2007-13);
• contribute to Scottish Government aspirations for rural development as part of meeting the National Strategic Objectives, the high level targets relating to the Government's Purpose (in particular Participation, Solidarity and Cohesion) and the Purpose itself; and
• enhance Scotland's international reputation. 

Future Developments

Sopra Group continues to provide post 'go live' enhancement, support and hosting services for the new website and is also acting as the prime contractor for the moderation of the content in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

The website can be visited at: www.ruralgateway.org.uk