Background

The primary responsibilities of the Courts Service are to manage the courts, support the judiciary, and provide a high quality and professional service to all users of the courts. These responsibilities require the Courts Service to deliver detailed information on the operation of the courts system to the public and legal profession.

The wide range of information which the Courts Service must gather and communicate poses a significant challenge that is compounded by the dual needs for ease of access and a medium common to all parties.

System Dynamics was engaged to deliver a content-centric website (courts.ie) that matched the information requirements of the Courts Service.

Solution

Working closely with the bsuiness unit and the IT department in the Courts Service, System Dynamics established the key requirements of the website, indentified the relevant content repositories, and put project controls and structures in place to ensure the project would be delivered on time and to standard. IntraDynamics, the System Dynamics proprietary content management tool, was taken on by the client becase of its ease of adoption.

The website has been developed through various phases and has been extended in each phase. It is AA compliant and dual language. IntraDynamics has been used for numerous other websites under the Courts Service remit. We have also rolled parts of the site out to mobile users.

Benefits

The creation of the new content management system for the website had an immediate effect on the content delivery of the Courts Service to its users:

• Information on the site is available through a single portal interface.
• Information that was previously difficult to find is readily available.
• All content is managed easily and consistently through a content management engine by Court Service users.
• Information that is not managed centrally (e.g. the Legal Diary) is available to the public as soon as it is published through the website and to mobile devices.

The website has been very favourably received by users. It was the winner of the Best State Body website award, on two occasions, at the Irish eGovernment awards, a competition which attracted over 260 entries.