Scotland Online
Fife Council Case Study

December 2006

Fife Council goes live with Scotland Online

Background

Fife Council, one of Scotland’s largest local authorities, has appointed Scotland Online on a two-year contract to upgrade and maintain its award winning community website www.fifedirect.org.uk.

The site, which was originally launched in 2004, provides residents and visitors to Fife with a wide range of information not only on Fife Council, but also on the Kingdom’s public services.

Employing over 22,000 people, Fife Council is the third largest authority in Scotland.  With a budget of £580 million per year it is responsible for delivering all local government services in the region. 

The Brief

Fifedirect, which was developed by Fife Council in partnership with Scottish Enterprise Fife, NHS Fife, CVS Fife and Fife Constabulary, is divided into 12 main sections and includes topics such as Community Safety, Education & Learning, Business, Travel & Transport, Local Democracy and People & Lifestyle.

Since its launch fifedirect has proved to be extremely popular with over two million hits per month and it has recently been upgraded in order to meet demand.

The Solution

Scotland Online already delivers a range of services to a number of Scotland’s local authorities including Dundee City Council, Midlothian Council, West Dunbartonshire Council, Glasgow City Council and Clackmannanshire Council.

The company has hosted fifedirect since 2004 and has been re-appointed by Fife Council to provide a full hosting service, including web server access, data server protection and firewall protection.

David Hunter, executive chairman of Scotland Online, said:

“Fifedirect provides an excellent service to the community it serves and it was named as one of the top six Scottish local authority websites by SOCITM (the Society of Information Technology Management). 

Fife Council provides in excess of 900 individual services to the people of Fife and a key element in this service delivery is the fifedirect website.

“In the years since the site’s launch the Council has been presented with a number of new challenges in terms of delivery. We were delighted to have secured this contract with Fife Council and we have now designed and implemented a new hosting infrastructure that will meet the future demands and challenges that fifedirect will no doubt face in the coming years.”