'Government department hits deadline' shocker

Ordnance Survey has sealed a deal with content management company Interwoven to get its mapping services online in time for the government's 2005 deadline.

Until now, technical staff at Ordnance Survey have been using a general "hotchpotch of systems" including Coldfusion and FrontPage, rather than a dedicated content management tool.

And it is the agency's programmers - which by its own admission is not the best use of highly skilled staff - that have had to manage the content. The introduction of the Interwoven software means staff that produce content can also upload it.

As Ordnance Survey is a public-sector agency it is required to hit the 2005 deadline set by the government to get all its services online.

Ed Parsons, CTO at Ordnance Survey, explained that the Office of the e-envoy has already given its efforts "the green light". He argues the agency has "a reasonably good chance of getting there by 2005".

Although the value of the deal has not been disclosed, Interwoven is known to have beaten Vignette to win the contract. Parsons claims Interwoven's software is a better solution for integrating with the Ordnance Survey's existing Plumtree corporate portal.

David Ogidi, managing director of Interwoven UK, Ireland, argued the company's "unique branching capabilities" gave it an edge over Vignette. This technology allows many different applications and initiatives to be run from one server.

Ordnance Survey has already started migrating existing content to the Interwoven infrastructure and training-up employees. An estimated 25 content editors and 100 authors will be using the system by August of this year.