The Auros Blog

Why Umbraco works for the public sector: Value, Freedom & Opportunity

This is not a blog post specifically pushing websites, content management systems or even Auros’ (excellent) services. It’s not even a blog post about why the public sector should embrace open source software (although clearly they should if they haven’t already). If you are a public sector organisation this is a blog post about how Umbraco can help you!

Okay, let’s take a moment to look at some key public sector potentially aspirational online objectives:

• More for less – provide better services for less money
• Channel shift – move from traditional expensive service delivery methods to “self-service”
• Make access to data more open

Other things I think public sector should be looking to do online:

• Mobilise power of public sector – lots of skills out there waiting to be harnessed
• Promote culture of sharing, re–use and collaborative development
• Take advantage of latest cool technologies to aid objectives up ^there^

I believe that Umbraco can be a valuable tool in helping you to achieving all of these goals.

Now for the money bit…

Value

We already know that embracing open source software can significantly reduce costs and free up resources to spend on things that really matter - i.e. delivering services.

A typical public sector web project cost (TCO) calculated over a 3 year period would historically (in the dark ages!) include the purchase of a CMS product and on-going licensing and support for this period.

TCO = Product Purchase + 3 Year License/Support + Implementation + Training + 3 years hardware/hosting

Removing expensive commercial products, licensing and support from the equation can save in the region of 1/3 of the overall cost.

Losing this large expense means it’s possible to avoid the long procurement cycles associated with capital expenditure. On larger projects this can also mean keeping overall cost between EU procurement thresholds.

Wake up the money bit has finished! We can definitely see that cost is not an obstacle getting in the way of Umbraco adoption.

Now for my #1 reason why you should choose an open source alternative (*cough* UMBRACO *cough*). It’s because it gives you…

Freedom!!!!

Freedom from vendors

Free from the vice like grip of software companies who pressure you to upgrade to their latest version when changes aren’t in line with your static business requirements. Free from the catastrophe of a vendor collapse because you own the software.

Freedom to collaborate

Free from the ties to only using a single supplier. Free to work more collaboratively with implementation partners, members of the Umbraco ecosystem and of course your own internal online teams.

Freedom to innovate

Free from the constraints of out of the box software. Free to take advantage of business flexibility to evolve software your requirements change. Freedom to take advantage of the prototyping potential and rapid speed to market that Umbraco brings.

Opportunity

This is really an opportunity for a number of reasons.

Firstly it’s an opportunity to mobilise the sleeping giant, a large number of like-minded individuals working on very similar projects with similar goals throughout the public sector. We’re talking in house developers, external consultants, web agencies, designers and more.

Secondly Umbraco is already a well-established product and is not resting on its laurels but growing apace. Umbraco version 5 is being released imminently and brings with it enterprise architecture and scalability. Now is the ideal time, this is your chance to get involved in shaping a product to deliver YOUR requirements.

Thirdly Umbraco promotes teamwork and giving back to the community. Everyone can make contributions to the core product and value adding packages. The key tool in the Umbraco arsenal is this ecosystem which provides an awesome focal point for collaboration on web projects.

You know it makes sense

Maybe I’ve only told you some things you already know, maybe you’ve had your eyes opened and will now consider it as the serious contender it deserves to be. But believe me, this isn’t just about CMS implementations, this is about how Umbraco can be a vital part of public sector organisational objectives, online strategy and vision.

I'm not saying that open source is the answer for absolutely every situation and I'm sure there are circumstances where requirements do directly correlate with a commercial offering, budgets aren't tight and collaboration isn't a key consideration.

What I do know is that I've been involved in a huge number of public sector website implementations and I can't understand why more public sector organisations aren't using a product which seems perfect for their needs.

Anyway I know that progress is inevitable and it won’t be long before we reach a tipping point where the landslide of Umbraco adoption in the public sector begins in earnest, if it hasn’t already!