Ucas updates system to improve online strategy
Education body signs up for new web content management system
Education body Ucas has signed a £133,000 contract with Mediasurface for a new content management system (CMS) to support its web site, intranet and extranet, and to help streamline the publication of information and advice.
The organisation, responsible for managing applications to higher education courses in the UK, chose Morello web content management software to underpin publication of the information pages of the main Ucas web site as part of a wider ebusiness strategy which aims to achieve 100 per cent electronic communications with all customers and stakeholders.
The Java-based CMS, which integrates with Oracle Application Serverand Sun Microsystems’ Solaris operating system, is part of project that includes a new design, refreshed content and a new information architecture.
Running Ucas’ three sites from a single platform is more efficient and will help with the targeting of information to its key audiences including university applicants, schools advisers and admissions professionals in UK higher education, says Andy Worrall, ICT infrastructure manager at Ucas.
‘Delivering targeted information underpins the redesign project and functional specification for the CMS,’ he said.
‘In an ebusiness context, Morello has the potential to work as a conduit for a range of services delivered via the Ucas web site. For example, the registration service could enable students and other interested parties to sign-on and receive information tailored to their needs.’
Some 98 per cent of Ucas applications are made online, but other parts of the business rely on paper, which will be alleviated with the new system.
‘We will be turning the publishing paradigm on its head by having a single source of information within the CMS and then deciding on the most appropriate publishing medium,’ said Worrall.
‘Ucas needed to change its approach to electronic delivery, as most advisory and information materials are first produced for print and then repurposed for the web site. This information tends to be generic across a range of diverse audiences meaning costly, bulky publications that lack the necessary customer focus.’
The Ucas site is subject to dramatic peaks. It has to handle up to 30,000 new visitors per hour with 2.2 million page impressions per day, rising to five million on the busiest days.
Worrall says on the day the A-level results were published this year, Ucas’ track application had to cope with 47 new logins per second.
‘The implementation will be able to build upon this level of service by improving the user experience even more,’ he said.
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