The story of VisitEngland & open source

Alison Lewis-Jones

Digital Marketing Manager

Agenda

Scene setting

Digital strategy

Our journey with open source

Outcomes

WHO WE ARE & WHERE WE WERE

Setting the scene

Short introduction to VisitEngland

National Tourist Board

Established 5 years ago

Changing external stakeholder environment

Small organisation

Our inherited legacy infrastructure

But with contracts ending…

DEFINING OUR DIGITAL ROLE

Digital transformation strategy

What is our opportunity?

“We aim to be a modern, dynamic tourist board

responding to the environment in which we operate.

Digital progress presents us with a significant and

pressing opportunity to develop the way that VisitEngland

supports the growth of English tourism.”

Our priorities for digital transformation

Taking an integrated approach to communications and services

Delivering ‘more for less’ by optimising our infrastructure

Targeting our marketing efforts to avoid duplication of effort

Taking a co-ordinated content-led approach to digital engagement

Investing in facilitating and enabling the sector to optimise for digital

How could we achieve this?

THE JOURNEY WE WENT ON

Open Source

Key drivers for us to consider open source

With limited budget we wanted to invest in people instead of proprietary licenses and software

Ability to allow multiple content authors

Potential for multiple domains to service campaigns or potential for local destination sites on different domains

The progressive and successful growth and implementation of .gov.uk

Didn’t want to be locked in to costly long-term solution

How did we make the decision?

Through our strategy we defined what we wanted to achieve – Audience research

– Stakeholder research and consultation

Examined existing infrastructure, processes and costs

Analysed internal user requirements

Sought advice from our IT department

Created a development roadmap and phased delivery plan

Director and Board sign off

What were the pros of open source for us?

Flexibility long term

Multiple users access to CMS

Built the CMS for our requirements

Good support network for bugs and fixes

Lower operational and integration costs

OUR FUTURE & KEY TAKE OUTS

Outcomes

What is our experience so far?

Easier and more user friendly CMS allowing increased team productivity

Better website health in search leading to increased domain authority

Starting to change internal culture and nurturing a more co-ordinated content-led approach

Key take-outs

Not an easy decision, do as much research, consultation and get as much advice from as many sources as possible

Define your resources and requirements both short and long term as much as possible

Open source isn’t just for small sites