In a recent operational decision by Nottingham City Council, it has been announced that the council will be migrating its website hosting and support from S8080 to Umbraco Cloud.
This decision comes as part of the council’s efforts to ensure best value and to stay updated with the latest technological platforms.
Key Details:
- Decision Title: Umbraco Hosting and Support for Nottingham City Websites
- Decision Value: £31,984 for a 2-year period, which breaks down to £15,992 annually.
- Department Responsible: Finance & Resources
- Decision Maker: Ross Brown, Corporate Director for Finance and Resources
- Date of Decision: 09/05/2023
Background:
The current website of Nottingham City Council is hosted and supported by S8080, a Digital Agency based in Cardiff. However, the version of Umbraco currently in use (Version 7) will no longer receive support from September 2023. This necessitates a complete rebuild and migration of the council’s sites to the latest Umbraco platform.
The council currently operates several websites on the Umbraco platform, including the main council website, Nottingham schools, early years, engage Nottingham hub, foster, council house, commercial services, and several others.
Financial Implications:
Staying with the current provider, S8080, would have required an investment of £36,177 for the new instance of Umbraco, configuration, and hosting. This would be in addition to the annual hosting and support costs of £47,043, resulting in a total cost of £83,211.80 + VAT over 2 years.
By transitioning to Umbraco Cloud, the council expects to make significant savings, with the total cost over 2 years being £31,984.
Other Options Considered:
The council had considered two other quotes before making this decision:
- Staying with the current supplier, S8080, which would have resulted in a total cost of £83,211.80 + VAT for 2 years.
- Opting for CTI Digital, which quoted a total of £104,400.00 for 2 years.
Both these options were rejected in favor of Umbraco Cloud due to the cost savings offered by the latter.
Additional Information:
The Finance department highlighted that the current cost of hosting the website through S8080 Ltd is £36,014 annually. By migrating to Umbraco, the council expects to save around £20K each year. However, since the council has already paid S8080 Ltd for web hosting up to 7 Feb 2024, efforts will be made to obtain a partial refund.
