Young Scot

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Young Scot

As an existing partner and sponsor, Fujitsu had already been supporting Young Scot by hosting the first website on a shared server at one of its secure locations. Fujitsu offered further support and began working with Young Scot and its web application company Storm ID.

The Challenge

Young Scot is the national youth information agency for Scotland. Established in 1981, its primary purpose is to support young people in making informed decisions and choices about their lives.

Young Scot has traditionally supplied information in the form of a hand book that is given out to school students. It also produces a quarterly magazine and offers a membership card that gives travel, leisure and retail discounts across Europe. As part of its multi-channel delivery strategy it wanted to open up more interactive methods of communication so that it could engage young people in debate and encourage active citizenship.

In particular, it wanted to provide equal access to information, regardless of geography and ability. The obvious answer was a web site and the first one was set up in1999. This quickly became extremely popular and Young Scot began developing ideas for a more comprehensive and interactive site. Having gained funding from the Scottish Executive Modernising Government Fund, it began seeking partners who would help it to achieve its vision.

The Solution

As an existing partner and sponsor, Fujitsu had already been supporting Young Scot by hosting the first website on a shared server at one of its secure locations. Fujitsu offered further support and began working with Young Scot and its web application company Storm ID. Fujitsu advised on the technical specification that would support Young Scot’s ideas for the portal. Fujitsu then took responsibility for secure hosting, arranged the transfer from the old website and began providing statistics on usage.

The Benefits

www.youngscot.org was launched in May 2002. It has over 2000 pages of information, 17 channels, a live news feed and personalisation options. It contains up to date information on all aspects of daily life as well as entertainment options, SMS text alerts and search facilities. A postcode geo-distancing facility allows users to identify services in their local area; they can also become members of Young Scot online.

Not only is the site innovative, it is fully accessible, suitable for slow browsers and compatible with disability browsers. “The portal allows us to connect effectively with young people, how, where and when they want. In addition, we are much more customer focused” saidLouise Macdonald, Communications Director.

“Preparing for the portal was a catalyst for change. It led us to review our administrative processes and our communications strategy and it made us change the way we connect with young people. Before, we were simply giving out information. Now we have direct communication on a one to one basis because the site allows direct feedback so easily. Young people have much more say and are much more involved.”

Feedback from individuals and focus groups has been extremely positive and local teams of young people across Scotland have been trained to write local content for the portal. Live, structured debates take place on the discussion forums on issues such as young people and democracy, the euro and protection of the environment.

The Implementation

The portal took 18 months of careful planning which involved other sponsors such as Storm ID, BT Scotland and Microsoft. With input from Fujitsu’s experts, Young Scot was able to ensure that the portal met all European and Government standards for interoperability and exchange of data.

The Expertise

“In the run up to the launch we were all operating under pressure. Fujitsu was clearly experienced at working within a partnership and was very responsive” said Louise Macdonald. “The first reports we received from Fujitsu enabled us to identify which elements of the site were the most popular and this has been essential in identifying further areas for development.”