Local Charity takes control with
Open Source Software.
Executive Summary
WEBCAS, a local charity based in Wokingham, were dissatisfied with the lack of control of content on their web site. Updates to the site were handled by a web
design contractor, in an ad-hoc fashion and constituted an ongoing cost to the charity. The hosting of their web site was contracted to a service company and provided only for a single e-mail address which was shared between all WEBCAS staff. This often resulted in e-mails getting lost or being misplaced. Leaflets and other handouts were produced by a local contractor, and although the charges for this work were reasonable, WEBCAS did not have access to these documents in their original editable format. The lack of technical expertise
inside WEBCAS exacerbated these problems. Open Source Migrations Ltd (OSM), a local solutions provider was asked to provide recommendations. Our findings were as follows:
Solution Goals:
Return control of
website content to WEBCAS staff
Provide additional
individual email accounts and flexible control over these
Provide solution
for drafting/editing documents
Minimal capital
outlay
No overall
increase in operational costs
Solution Items:
Lease of a
dedicated Internet server.
CMS Made Simple
for web site content management
SCALIX Community
Edition to provide e-mail services on the same server
INKSCAPE on the
desktop to produce leaflets and handouts
Benefits to WEBCAS:
The dedicated
server costs are less than the previous totals
Full control of
the web content, ability to update the site as required
Full control over
email accounts with no “per mailbox” charges
Ability to produce
their own leaflets and handouts on demand
Reduced
operational costs due to publications as above
Open Source CMS
and E-mail solution
WEBCAS was suffering from a number of technology related problems. As with many small organisations and businesses, their IT infrastructure had evolved rather than been planned. It grew organically via donations of hardware and software. Also, as with many SMB's, WEBCAS lacked internal IT resources and had a very limited IT budget.
During our Initial discussions with WEBCAS, they indicated that their main problem was their inability to update their own website. The only mechanism they had for this was to pay a web developer to make changes for them as and when required. They had experienced difficulties in getting the developer to make the changes they wanted in a timely fashion - the update process was slow, mistakes were made by both parties due to poor communications and lack of understanding, and additional costs
were incurred.
During our initial meeting with WEBCAS, they also highlighted their problems with e-mail. All of the WEBCAS staff that needed access to e-mail had to work via a single shared e-mail account, sometimes resulting in messages being “lost”. Their Internet service provider offered
additional e-mail accounts, but only on a “per-mailbox” basis which meant the costs of additional mailboxes was prohibitive.
OSM recommended that WEBCAS lease a dedicated web server of reasonable capacity as a base hardware platform, and install on this a Content Management System
(CMS) to manage the website content, and Mail Server software to manage their email accounts. Typically a moderate capacity server with reasonable bandwidth connectivity can be leased for an annual cost of £600 upwards. At first WEBCAS considered this option to be too expensive but quickly realised that there were considerable cost savings when compared with both their existing operational costs and also when taking into account the hidden costs of other options. The ability to make updates to their web site on a timely basis was a large benefit, as was the unrestricted number of mailboxes.
Following OSM's standard supplier evaluation and selection criteria, Newbury based Twang.net were selected to provide the dedicated server, their key strengths being flexibility and an excellent track record. Accordingly, a dual CPU HP/Compaq server with 1Gb RAM, Raid 5 SCSI
drive array was provided and installed in Twang's London facility. As for the Operating System, CentOS 4.3 was installed according to OSM's specifications.
The installation of the web content management application “CMS Made Simple” (CMSMS) and the Scalix e-mail server were straightforward compared to the
commercial and technical problems of obtaining an Internet server. The web based administration of both systems simplified the configuration problems to the extent that a working system was ready for the customers data in less than half a day. Configuration of Scalix had one “interesting” effect. Before you can login as administrator, it is necessary to enable Popups. One only remembers to disable this later when visiting a web site that misuses Popups. Aside from this minor necessity, configuration of the additional accounts only took a few minutes.
The customisation of CMSMS and migration of WEBCAS's existing web site to CMSMS required slightly less than one day. A significant portion of this time was taken in establishing the strengths and limitations of the CMSMS template system. It was determined that it would be simpler and quicker to create new templates, rather than modify the existing default/example templates. Two templates were developed for the CMSMS version of the web site. A “splash page/home page”
template and a general interior page template. Once these templates were debugged and in place, it only took two hours to upload and complete the CMSMS enabled version of the WEBCAS web site.
Leaflets and Publications
As part of their advocacy programme, WEBCAS commissioned the production of a number of printed leaflets via a local contractor. These were created at a reasonable cost, however WEBCAS were not provided with the originals in editable form. Consequently, when any changes or additions were required this had to be completed as additional paid work via the contractor. This came to light when WEBCAS asked if it was possible to place one of the leaflets on the web site for downloading and
viewing. A quick check of the document indicated a file size in excess of one megabyte (far too large for easy or fast downloading). OSML suggested that if WEBCAS could supply the original text, it could be re-set using the open source desktop publication tool (DTP) “Inkscape” and saved as a PDF for downloading from the web site. During subsequent discussions, WEBCAS expressed a willingness to learn to use Inkscape, resulting in a combined training morning for both CMSMS and Inkscape (MS Windows version), giving WEBCAS the skills to maintain their own website and control the production of their leaflets and handouts.
Summary
WEBCAS gained control of the content of their web site and the production of their leaflets and handouts through the use of Open Source Software. Besides being in control of the website, they will achieve cost savings by using Open Source Software to run their combined web site and e-mail server, and also by using Inkscape as opposed to proprietary products such as Adobe Illustrator®
which would have incurred significant license fees (circa £400 each) for the charity. This use of Microsoft Windows® compatible Open Source Software on the desktop also demonstrates the flexibility and cost savings that can be accomplished with a mixed
proprietary/OSS computing environment.
Software Inventory
Centos 4.3 i386
Scalix Community
Edition V10
CMS Made Simple 1.0
Inkscape 0.44 (Stable)
for Windows
Total software purchase
and license costs: £0
For more information
on how Open Source Software can benefit your business or
organisation, please contact OSML at: 0870 3831044, dw@osml.co.uk
