KBroker

Joined-up A-Z of services for local authority websites

K-BROKER A-Z is a joined-up A-Z of Services application for local authority websites. KBroker A-Z works by discovering relevant information about council services published on a council’s own site and the websites of its partners. This information is aggregated into a single A-Z index that can be shared by all sites.

The combined A-Z can then be accessed by users of the council website, and is displayed within the normal look and feel of that site. There are multiple entry points to the A-Z so each partner can present it on their site with their own branding.

The A-Z is an off-the-shelf application for joined-up working with other councils. The ODPM has identified joined up A-Zs as a required priority outcome for council websites in the run up to December 2005 (Source: ODPM Defining e-Government Outcomes for 2005 to support the delivery of Priority Services and National Strategy Transformation Agenda for Local Authorities in England, Version 1 0.) KBroker A-Z has been designed specifically to meet this requirement for councils, working either standalone or in collaboration with their partners.

The A-Z works with the existing website, without the need to change that site’s structure or to push content into any centralised repository. Whichever content management system or other web publication method is used, KBroker A-Z’s service gatherer agent is able to catalogue all service entries.

Even as pages are added, removed or updated, the A-Z will be kept up to date automatically. The complete A-Z can be deployed by Open Objects for the website in less than a week. Once running, the A-Z will also provide logged feedback as to how users are accessing and using council service information, enabling content creation to be targeted even more closely on real needs.

Open Objects develop Kbroker search-based solutions for web, intranet and extranet, including corporate use and e-government solutions.
Kbroker solutions are used by a wide range of UK government customers, including county partnerships, district and borough sites, as well as national sites such as Inland Revenue and the Home Office.

About KBroker
KBroker is the name for a family of search applications developed by Open Objects Software. Each application works on its own or in combination with other modules for an integrated information access solution.

KBroker Modules for Local Government include:

KBroker Portal: search portal for local government websites and community websites.
KBroker FAQ: FAQs and recommended links for signposting and deep linking between websites.
KBroker A-Z: joined up A-Z of Services for local authority websites.
KBroker Classifier: auto-classification of content using the LGCL (local government category list).
KBroker Directory: deep indexing of online directories for museums, library catalogues, etc.

Accessibility
KBroker applications meet Bobby and WCAG Guidelines 1.0 Level Double-A standards for accessibility.
KBroker Portal is a solution to provide joined-up information access from a council’s public website. KBroker Portal incorporates an ultra-reliable and powerful search engine that can index all content on websites, plus content on any other websites to provide a unified search facility for the region. The solution is available either for installation on a council’s own servers or as a completely outsourced webservice.

Users coming to a council’s site are presented with a single point of access to find relevant information on that website, and the websites of partners. It is easy to incorporate information from any websites, including parish sites, district and borough sites, police, county, local news sites and national sites. The index is automatically maintained by KBroker Portal and requires no input or changes by any of the websites covered.

In addition to a wide portal coverage, instant close-up search of important areas is provided, such as committee minutes and agendas. The portal knows about key areas of the website and can promote these in a context sensitive way for users.

KBroker Portal works with all types of content management system and other web publication systems. The search is compliant to the e-Government Metadata Standard (eGMS) and includes the ability to boost document relevance according to tags from the Local Government Category List (LGCL). KBroker Portal can be deployed rapidly and will bring sustainable benefits of joined up information access for your user community.

Open Objects Software, St. John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 4WS. Tel: 01223 422200; fax: 01223 422201; www.openobjects.com; info@openobjects.com

IM@T Online January 2005