West of England Combined Authority

Bringing about digital transformation for a major government authority.

The West of England Combined Authority is made up of three councils in the West of England: Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset.

JBi Digital was appointed to build an industry leading website for the Combined Authority, bringing together each of its existing websites and brands under one roof:

1. The West of England Combined Authority
2. The West of England Growth Hub
3. Invest Bristol & Bath (IBB)

The key challenge was to combine the Combined Authority’s separate websites into a single, unified online home, while maintaining a distinctive look and feel for each sub-brand.

Defining user and business requirements through a collaborative Discovery phase

A collaborative Discovery Phase was essential to identifying the best possible approach based on a strong understanding of the Combined Authority's user and stakeholder priorities

One of our key challenges was the management of a large group of stakeholders at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We interviewed 20+ stakeholders from around the world, including multiple partner country representatives and project managers, in order to understand their individual objectives and key messages.

We also led a series of UX workshops which focused on information architecture and brand messaging.

We worked flexibly to accommodate logistical differences such as different time zones, using a combination of written statements and user surveys to support language barriers.

A mixture of quantitative and qualitative UX research informed us as we delivered an optimised info

Reviewing all existing content and creating a consolidated sitemap, optimised for residents, businesses and stakeholders

We conducted a full audit of each website’s content, working with the client’s teams to identify which pages should be retained and removed.

Our SEO team then ensured that all content was migrated in an SEO-friendly manner, with 301 redirects added for all deleted pages.

In total:

• 5,300+ pages and PDFs were migrated and consolidated into 1,600+ indexed pages
• The IBB website was consolidated from 245 pages to 65 pages

Based on the outputs of this exercise and the insights gained during the Discovery phase, we were able to produce a full sitemap covering all three websites.

Bringing together each of the Combined Authority’s websites on one CMS, with distinct brand identities for each

Based on the Combined Authority’s brief and the outputs of the Discovery phase, we recommended that the website be developed using a WordPress multisite CMS.

This achieved the following:

• Each site has its own distinct brand identity
• Each site’s teams are able to manage and edit their sections using a unique CMS
• Each site’s teams are able to manage access and permissions for their respective CMS
• All sites are able to use the same library of bespoke modules and widgets
• Each site is able to use its own unique plugins, CRMs and APIs
• Building the website in this way has given the Combined Authority a scalable, future-proof platform which allows its internal teams to tailor their sections to their audiences’ unique needs.

This multisite architecture was tied together by a dynamic website header, which you can read more about in the following section.

JBi Digital continues to support the West of England Combined Authority through a long term digital partnership

The JBi team is now supporting and maintaining the Combined Authority’s website on an ongoing basis as part of a long term digital partnership.

The website complies with WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, and we have provided documentation and training to the Combined Authority’s teams in order to ensure that all new content and imagery added to the site remains within the guidelines.

We have also created an optimised hosting solution, providing significant cost-savings in comparison with the previous arrangement, which involved various hosting providers and multiple domains.