Why GovCMS

What is GovCMS?

Transcript

Are you looking for a secure and cost-effective way to manage your organisation’s website? Look no further, welcome to GovCMS.

GovCMS is a whole of government, cost recovered, content management system and web hosting service. It was built by government, for government, and has all the tools you need to create and host websites and digital services which are secure, scalable, and accessible.

Content Management System

A content management system (CMS) is software which makes it easier to author web content and manage other digital assets. GovCMS is built on Drupal, an open source CMS used by over a million websites globally.

It is designed to meet the needs of government agencies and their digital services, with a flexible front end, and fast and efficient editing tools. GovCMS allows agencies to update their websites as needed to make sure their information is accurate and up to date, without needing a team of developers in-house.

With GovCMS, you get the same great features of Drupal, but with the added knowledge and support from the GovCMS team here at the Department of Finance.

Find out more about Drupal at Drupal.org

Web hosting

Web hosting delivers your content, including the website itself, and makes it available on the internet. For a website to be available online, the data including code, content, images, and downloadable files, need to be housed on a server. Web hosting services, such as GovCMS, provide the platform to house that data.

GovCMS hosting includes the hardware infrastructure on which your website runs, and the behind-the-scenes tools to manage how GovCMS websites are deployed, and when they need to scale. For example, GovCMS uses public cloud infrastructure so that when your website traffic spikes, the platform automatically scales-up, and when traffic is low, the platform idles down. This feature makes your website both resilient and cost-effective over time.

With GovCMS you will also receive access to a project space where your developers can manage your website’s code and configuration.

Service Choices

GovCMS provides both Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) products.

As part of our SaaS web hosting plans, we also provide the security, CMS software, and the infrastructure your website sits on. This ensures your website stays up and running and has the best practices in place with an aim to meet the standards set by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (who also trust GovCMS to host their website). GovCMS also uses leading cybersecurity tools to keep our SaaS websites protected against known and emerging threats.

Our PaaS web hosting comes with more options for customisation, but it requires the owner to maintain their websites software and security patching themselves. Managing a PaaS hosted website means you will need to have an in-house team of developers, or a commercial relationship with a third-party service provider.

By using a service like GovCMS, you’re taking advantage of an economy of scale. This means that because GovCMS provides these services to more than 100 departments and public sector agencies across all levels of government in Australia, we can spread the cost of running and hosting websites across agencies.

This allows us to provide subscribers to our smallest, cheapest, hosting plans, with the same level of support and security as our largest customers.

Have a look at our pricing plans

Why GovCMS

GovCMS hosts over 300 websites for more than 100 agencies across all levels of government in Australia. Our community is strong, well supported, and growing. GovCMS runs regular events and training which bring the community together to share best practice, innovate, collaborate, co-design and solve problems.

GovCMS allows you to manage and maintain affordable and responsive websites. It reduces the technology and compliance burden on your agency and provides a cost-effective option for managing websites and keeping them secure.

GovCMS also makes it easier to collaborate and innovate with other agencies and focus on providing high quality content and services to users. It helps to build communities with digital experience and bring people together to solve problems.

The benefits of using GovCMS include:

• Reliability – a quality onshore service, with an uptime of 99.95%, all the time. We experienced no down time during the COVID19 crisis.
• Affordability – a cost-effective service which saves your agency time and money.
• Flexibility – a scalable option which can adapt to suit your website needs.
• Monitored – support and critical assistance when you need it, 24/7.
• Security – be confident that your website is secure and compliant with government standards.
• Accessibility – meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
• Best practice – based on the Digital Service Standard which helps you build websites that are simple, clear, and fast.
• Community – a strong growing community where you can access, contribute, and share ideas to create a better digital experience.
• Open source – built on Drupal, on open source software used by over a million websites globally with a large community of developers, designers, and other contributors.
• Innovative – continuously improving to meet changing needs, with an ethos of innovation and growth.