Resource takes CPS brief to create on-line system

Resource Design has been appointed to create the Crown Prosecution Service’s entire on-line presence, including its website and intranet, as the Government department seeks to centralise its communications.

Resource will start work immediately on the intranet and the entire project is scheduled to go live in January 2002.

It is the first time the consultancy has worked for a Government department, and the project is designed to kick-start the growth of an ‘on-line legal community’.

Resource’s work is intended to centralise the CPS’s information resources and strengthen communication across its 42 geographical centres in England and Wales, says Resource Design director Ian Firth. ‘We are keen to generate a “legal community” from the CPS’s on-line user base of around 6000 [people].’

The revamp of the CPS’s core website is designed to make it ‘more friendly, modern and accessible’, says Firth. ‘We will seek to keep the design within the CPS’s corporate guidelines,’ he adds.

The consultancy has also been briefed to create an on-line version of the CPS’s weekly publication, Inform, which will serve as a more up-to-date news service than the magazine in its existing print format, Firth explains.

‘The CPS is hoping to introduce more authors on-line to update Inform more regularly,’ he adds.

According to CPS on-line project manager Elaine Gale, the print version of Inform will be phased out. ‘We want to introduce a cultural change at the CPS with the on-line Inform bulletin, to encourage staff to take responsibility for publishing their own news through a new medium,’ she says.

Resource won the work after an unpaid pitch involving credentials and written proposals against three unnamed consultancies.

The website and publication are aimed at lawyers, barristers and others working in and around the legal field, as well as CPS staff.