Government

SilverStripe has the platform, professional services, experience, and vision to produce leading government websites and web-based systems.

We provide the software and professional services to create:

Initiatives and requirements for bringing government online are challenging and changing. SilverStripe has experience, skills, and offerings surrounding these initiatives and requirements, and we proactively support and progress them. For example:

Open Data

One of the pillars of open and transparent government is open government data and information. Opening up this information for access and re-use has considerable and widespread benefits to government, industry and the public.  SilverStripe is a strong proponent for Open Data, and is very supportive of the New Zealand government's mandate for open data. 

SilverStripe has been involved in the open government data initiative before the term was widespread, beginning with the National Broadband Map project in 2007. Our software has also been used for data catalogues, such as data.govt.nz and geodata.govt.nz. These embrace a best practice of pointing to data stored elsewhere, rather than forcing copies of data to be managed. Our work for the NIWA Ocean Survey 20/20 open data system (read the case study) sets the global standard in terms of approach, technical quality, and interoperability for geospatial data.

Standards, compliance, and interoperability

Working with government requires knowledge and skill in achieving compliance to a number of standards. Our technology and services support meeting:

• e-GIF standards
• New Zealand Government Web Standards
• Australian Government Web Standards
• Global Web (W3C) Standards, such as HTML5, CSS, and WCAG (Accessibility)
• The New Zealand Public Records Act
• Software security best practices
• Use of open standards and data formats, such as open geospatial (OGC), HTML, and XML

We provide a comprehensive professional services offering to define, create, and support government websites, content management systems, and web-based systems.

Web Strategy

This involves us gaining an understanding of your agency objectives and user needs, identifying how new processes, technology, and current best practices can improve your organisation, and mapping out a phased approach to effectively deliver on these. Our strategy services relate to the context of creating websites, intranets, web-based applications including systems integration, and open-data systems. More about web strategy.

Information Architecture

No matter how great your website content is, if your users can't find what they are looking for, you're not communicating effectively. Information architecture is all about enabling the user to find relevant information quickly. This process may involve audits, interviews, card sorts, and wireframes. More about information architecture.

Usability

Your website must be intuitive and easy to use, and for this to be the case, you must understand who your users are and what they want to do. We perform interviews, surveys, and testing to produce various deliverables, such as personas, user stories, and wireframes. These deliverables inform how to design and develop a successful website, and provide insight into how to refine and improve an existing website. More about usability services.

Design

SilverStripe has designed a large number and wide variety of agency websites. With creativity, we ensure our deliverables provide contemporary design, good function, and expresses the authoritative nature of government content and services. We have a strong understanding of the principles that apply to the web, and create Responsive Web Design that work beautifully across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices. If required, we can supply photography and develop logo or brand guidelines. More about design.

Front End Development

This service is all about turning great design into great code. We have experience developing complex government websites and web-based applications with elegantly created, standards-compliant markup (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WCAG, and Government Web Standards). This compliments the other services we offer, particularly design and development.

Testing

Testing is a part of all projects and is particularly important to maintain the credibility and expectations the public has of government agencies. We work with agencies to identify the particular types of testing that are relevant for a web project, and then can supply various types of testing via different skill sets across our organisation, including usability testing, software integrity/functional testing, performance testing, and security testing.

Accessibility

Agencies have obligations to provide website content and online services for users with varying abilities, including visual, motor, and auditory impairments. SilverStripe’s accessibility knowledge and testing services enable agencies to confidently meet these expectations to contemporary standards. We have strong knowledge of WCAG and Government Web Standards and best practices for supporting users with various disabilities, and have produced numerous websites that deliver a high level of accessibility, such as the Open Polytechnic online enrolment website compliant with WCAG-AA (read the case study).

Software and hosting architecture

We help agencies (and their suppliers) to architect complex websites and web applications on our software platform. We also support good design of code management, hosting, and deployment practices. This enables the domain knowledge of a government agency to combined with our deep knowledge of web and Internet best practices. Through this combination of knowledge, innovative, cost-effective, and successful projects are formed.

Development

Government websites and web-based applications are trending towards the complexity of software. SilverStripe has a large compliment of software developers who understand how to build modern web-based systems. We are proponents of open source software, interoperable formats, and use an Agile methodology. Our staff are very familiar with integrating a variety of proprietary and open source software products to achieve online services and complex geospatial systems.

Developer mentoring and support

We provide prompt and tailored mentoring and support to developers. This may be in a one-on-one or small group environment. This may be for one-off situations, or to provide ongoing assistance throughout the duration of a project. Such developers may be employees of a government agency, or working for a company supplying services to an agency.

Hosting

We provide hosting of production environments, code repositories, and public data in hosting environments that are on-shore, virtualised, resilient and fast. Our offering comes complete with various service levels ranging from business hours to 24/7/365 coverage. New Zealand public sector agencies are best served through the Common Web Platform, a highly secure, robust, and feature-rich hosting platform. We can also provide technical advice to government agencies who require to host our solutions elsewhere — for example, on-premise on either a Microsoft Windows or an open source Linux environment. Read more about hosting.

SilverStripe CMS for websites and intranets

SilverStripe CMS is a web content management system, world-leading in its usability and technical architecture. It delivers websites to agencies that can be self-managed, attractive, and well-built. It can be hosted on Linux and is also certified for running on Microsoft Windows. It provides all of the features you expect from a CMS including page management, inserting images and videos, workflow and security management, responsive/mobile design, and can even be used in te reo Māori. New Zealand government specific functionality already exists, and is currently being further developed to deliver the New Zealand Government Common Web Platform. For general information on our CMS visit silverstripe.org/introduction

Screencast highlighting general capabilties of the CMS for government websites:

Short video showing how our software supports being used in New Zealand's indigenous language, te reo Māori:

Open Data Systems and Portals

We are familiar with a collection of open and (OGC) standards-based geospatial software and how to integrate these with the SilverStripe Framework. This technology enables agencies to release and share vast amounts of data, following a number of emerging best practices. We can enable data to remain stored in disparate proprietary and open source software, avoiding the need to duplicate the data to make it publicly accessible. This approach produces a unified location in which to access the data in raw form via standardised web services, and it enables discovery and general understanding of the data through an effective web-based visualisation. See NIWA OS 20/20 open data system case study for more information and to try it out.

SilverStripe Framework - the web-based platform underpinning it all

SilverStripe Framework is a modern web programming framework that underpins all of the work we do. It is a highly flexibility and powerful platform on which to build self-service portals, transactional systems, and web-based applications. Through the use of different products, customisation, and development, it provides government agencies to meet their broader goals. Read more at silverstripe.org/framework

Licensing, commercial support, and developer community 

All of our software is free, and available under a recognised open source BSD software license, and all comes with the commercial backing of our company. In addition, our open source community and public documentation ensure a vibrant and global pool of developers and suppliers, or your own internal resources, can make effective use of our software.

The Common Web Platform is a Platform as a Service offering for delivering New Zealand government websites. SilverStripe Ltd is under contract to Department of Internal Affairs to provide the platform. The platform was announced in February 2013 and will be available by mid 2013.

The platform includes:

• A managed hosting infrastructure jointly provided by Revera and SilverStripe, including backups and disaster recovery.
• SilverStripe CMS, tailored and enhanced for New Zealand Government use.
• Templates and modules to quickly build websites.
• The facility for agencies and their suppliers to fully customise website design and features, and CMS functionality.
• A source code management and sharing platform.
• A commercial service solution including online management portal, helpdesk, professional services, code reviews, software upgrades, and service levels.

Please watch the following introductory business and technical summary of the Common Web Platform which was given to audiences over February - March 2013. The video is presented by Bene Anderson (DIA) and Sigurd Magnusson (SilverStripe). This video will be updated once the solution is available.

More information:

• Technical resources, including screencasts, a demo, and source code are available.
• The ict.govt.nz website provides a broader context and description of the Common Web Platform.

New Zealand Government Agencies

Central Government 

• ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area
• Commerce Commission New Zealand
• Data.govt.nz
• Electricity Authority
• Health Quality and Safety Commission - Read Case Study
• New Zealand Geospatial Strategy
• Geodata.govt.nz 
• Marine Biosecurity Porthole
• Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment - Intranet
• Ministry of Science and Innovation - Read Case Study
• National Animal Identification and Tracing
• Social Housing Unit
• State Services Commission - Intranet
• The Lowdown
• NIWA OS 20/20 - Read Case Study (Open Geospatial Data System)
• New Zealand Qualifications Authority
• Parliamentary Commissioner of the Environment
• Privacy Commissioner
• Victims Information
  
• LGOL Elections 2011 - Read Case Study
• Plus many more by other New Zealand-based Web Development and Web Design agencies

Local Government

• Central Hawke's Bay District Council
• Gisborne District Council - 2012 top ranked council website
• Greater Wellington Regional Council - Read Case Study
• Horizons Regional Council
• Hurunui District Council
• Nelson City Council - Read Case Study
• Metlink - Read Case Study
• Tasman District Council
• Taranaki Regional Council

Australian Government Agencies

Federal Government

• Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy - Map
• NOPSEMA
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Tariff Finder

State Government

• Victoria
• Public Transport Victoria Journey Planner (Metlink Melbourne) - Read Case Study
• Public Transport Victoria
• New South Wales
• Department of Premier and Cabinet - multiple websites, private and public:
• DPC Intranet (private) Community Engagement and Events Division
• Inspector of the Police Integrity Commission
• Office of the Inspector of the ICAC
• Region.net (private)
• Service NSW
• The Governor of NSW
• COAG Funding Database (private)
• Grants Database (private)
• Keep Them Safe Database (private)
• Risk Assessment Database (private)

• Western Australia
• Small Business Development Corporation

Local Government (via partners)

• Illawarra Bushland Database
• Let's Talk Business
• Serpentine Jarrahdale Shire
• Southern Councils Group

United States Government

• NERSC.gov and es.net - US Federal Super Computing Facility - Read Case Study
• Democratic National Convention 2008 (Inaugural Barack Obama presidential campaign) - Read Case Study

Global Community

Countless other partners, agencies, and internal teams make use of SilverStripe software as part of our wider global open source community. 

Note: The list of agencies using our software is a public list of information, and does not represent an endorsement by an agency.

SilverStripe can be attractively contracted through its membership on various procurement panels:

New Zealand Syndicated Web Professional Services Panel

In September 2012, Department of Internal Affairs established a cross-government initiative to reduce the costs and increase the effectiveness of government websites. The panel provides simpler procurement rules, consistent contracts, and a degree of comfort that agencies are working with a trusted supplier. This Web Professional Services panel is open to a wide range of agengies.  A full schedule of eligible agencies and further information is available at the ict.govt.nz website.

SilverStripe Ltd can be contracted under this panel across six separate skill areas:

• Information Archicture
• Usability
• Design
• Front End Development
• Testing
• Accessibility

Australia Federal Goverments Panels

SilverStripe Australia Pty Ltd is a member of the Online Solutions Services Panel run by Department of Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy. Our membership on this panel enables any Australian Federal Government agency to contract with SilverStripe. More Information.

Best Council Website: Gisborne District Council

gdc.govt.nz is one of a dozen council websites built by us, and was in 2012 named the Best Council Website in New Zealand by ALGIM, who reviewed and ranked 80-odd council websites based on adherence to a large number of best practices and government web standards. The site also won the People’s Choice award from council web managers across the country, partly based on a positive reception to our visual design work.

Positive Societal Impact: Ministry of Health

Ministry of Health’s campaign for youth depression at thelowdown.co.nz won an Internet Industry Award (2009) for positive societal impact, and the same site was also a finalist in the TUANZ awards. The site contains an innovative visual design and user experience, together with video content and an online anonymous counselling service. Read more.

World Summit e-government Award: National Broadband Map

The National Broadband Map, created for the State Services Commission to publish open data about internet supply and demand in New Zealand, won several awards including the 2009 World Summit Award. Read more.

For New Zealand government enquires, please contact:

Sigurd Magnusson
Business Relationship Manager (Wellington-based)
moc.epirtsrevlis@drugis
021 42 12 08
(04) 978 7332

For Australian government enquiries, please contact:

Shane Weddell
SilverStripe Australia General Manager (Brisbane-based)
ua.moc.epirtsrevlis@selas
03 8352 4431

For other enquiries, or if you cannot reach the above, please contact Tim Copeland, SilverStripe Head of Sales, on (New Zealand) +64 4 978 7331 or sales@silverstripe.com