At a glance

<$50K
2022
Completed
CivicTheme, GovCMS, Drupal
Federal government
Discovery & strategy, Build & migration, Content & training, Hosting & maintenance, Support & optimisation, Technical advisory
Whole of government, Open design, Open source, Web development, Content management systems, Drupal Planet
Multidisciplinary teams, Agile delivery, Open standards & common platforms, Open source, Accessibility, Testing, Measure performance

Overview

AEIC’s challenge

The Australian Energy Infrastructure CommissionerExternal Link ’s public-facing website was built on GovCMS Drupal 7, which was coming to end-of-life. AEIC needed to build a new site on GovCMS Drupal 9. Read more about the challenge

AEIC’s transformation

Salsa built AEIC’s new website using CivicThemeExternal Link to save on time and costs. The relatively simple site was built within 2 months, using mostly out-of-the-box features. The implementation of the search functionality was the only customisation. CivicTheme is an open source, inclusive and component-based design system and Drupal 9 theme. Read more about the transformation

The outcomes

  • An extremely cost-effective website, using less than 50% of the proposed budget
  • A fast website build
  • A visually appealing website providing an updated user experience

Read more about the outcomes

“Salsa delivered the upgraded aeic.gov.au website ahead of schedule, using their CivicTheme design system to great effect for the website design. They engaged with us through discovery, design and content migration activities. Salsa is experienced working with GovCMS websites and I can definitely recommend CivicTheme and Salsa’s approach for websites that need to launch quickly.”

Matt Harris
Technical and Web Development Lead
Digital Experience and Engagement
Department of Industry, Science, and Resource

Screenshot of Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner homepage

Detailed case study

Below is detailed information on the challenge, transformation and final outcomes/benefits.

AEIC’s challenge — Drupal 7 website coming to end-of-life

The Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner websiteExternal Link was built on GovCMS Drupal 7, which was coming to end-of-life (EOL). AEIC needed a new website built on GovCMS Drupal 9, with a fast turnaround. AEIC went out to tender, wanting a like-for-like migration/rebuild.

AEIC’s transformation — a GovCMS D9 website using CivicTheme

As AEIC required a quick turnaround with minimal customisations, Salsa recommended using CivicThemeExternal Link to build the new GovCMS Drupal 9 website. CivicTheme is an open source design system offering a rapid build option with lower costs.

Salsa ran discovery workshops with AEIC focusing on mapping the site requirements to CivicTheme. AEIC did not require any changes to the website, and requested the same pages and colour palette for the new site.

The site was built using out-of-the-box CivicTheme components. There was only one customisation, which was the implementation of the search functionality.

As AEIC did not require any changes to the visual aspect of its site, and mostly CivicTheme out-of-the-box components were used, a designer was not required for this project.

Salsa’s accessibility expert, John Cloys, was engaged to ensure accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1) were met during the rebuild.

The site was small at 30 pages, so content was migrated manually (rebuilding each page) rather than using any large-scale content migration tools. The project took less than 2 months to complete.

AEIC was very happy with the final result, as Salsa completed the rebuild with a rapid turnaround and spent less than 50% of the proposed budget. The remaining funds were transferred to the Salsa Service Desk to cover ongoing future maintenance.

Salsa also provided training to AEIC content editors on how to use the CMS and CivicTheme components.

The outcomes — an extremely cost-effective, visually appealing site

  • An extremely cost-effective website build (just over $25K, about 50% less than proposed budget)
  • A visually appealing site providing a better user experience
  • A fast website build
  • The benefits of the whole-of-government platform GovCMS, including open source code (no licensing fees), access to the GovCMS community, and a highly resilient and secure platform

About the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner

AEIC provides resolution to complaints received about proposed or operating wind farms, large-scale solar farms, energy storage facilities, and new major transmission projects. AEIC also identifies and promotes best practices relating to the planning, development and operation of energy projects.