LOC Consulting

VisitBritain (formerly the British Tourist Authority) has defined the web as the most important channel to market.  A key strategic imperative is to "bring the web to the heart of all marketing activities".  The Next Generation Websites programme was initiated to improve the EnjoyEngland.com and VisitBritain.com consumer facing websites to attract more visitors and appeal to a wider range of customer types.

LOC were engaged by VisitBritain when it became clear that development of the EnjoyEngland website had fallen behind schedule and lacked a delivery structure or management control.  Following a healthcheck that highlighted a number of issues and recommendations, LOC were asked to manage the delivery of the project, introducing leading-practice methodologies and controls to put the delivery back on track.

The project team, led by LOC technical resources, have defined and created a bespoke architecture and delivery framework, using emerging technologies to deploy a fully integrated websites solution and Content Management System to guarantee ease of maintenance, ease of upgrade and scalability.

In parallel, LOC resources have created and managed a business analysis team that has, amongst other achievements, streamlined and standardised the requirements capture and change management process, introduced a robust testing methodology and managed the execution of system test and UAT plans.

The first new website, enjoyengland.com, was launched on 18 September 2006.  The launch of the larger visitbritain.com, comprising 50 localised international sites, completed successfully in April 2007.