Communicating our Presence

Over the past 12 months, the Company has made a significant investment in upgrading its website, CRM and supporting information systems. The website, in particular is critical to how we project our Company to potential members, as well as existing members and charities searching for our philanthropic support. Ever since we created our website 15 years ago, we have debated updating it as its original look and feel was deliberately “dated” reflecting the broader Livery – whilst as a company, we had become more “modern” and web tech had materially advanced. However, the associated cost of rebuilding our site was not warranted. 

But we have now taken advantage of the software system used by our website reaching the end of its supported life and forcing us to make a step-change to the latest version. The work approved by Court in June 2025 has addressed immediate operational risks, improved accessibility and laid firmer foundations for the way we support our strategic pillars of Fellowship, Education and Philanthropy. It has been a busy but productive time since, and the priority now is to consolidate the gains and investment.

In brief, the upgrade programme has delivered three important benefits: it has reduced technical risk by moving core systems to the latest supported technology; it has improved the website experience, especially for mobile users; and it has created a cleaner platform for future content development, data management and operational support.

What changed

The upgrade gave us the opportunity to change the layout of website pages which made it more mobile-friendly whilst in parallel we began rationalising 15 years of accumulated content, amounting to about 1,000 pages.

The programme has been managed by Freeman Dr Simon Davey, working with PM Patrick Chapman, Freeman Jonathan Shepherd and PM Steve Cant. The main technical changes were delivered by our new support contractor, Circle Interactive, who now provide the ongoing help we still need. The structure of the content was developed by means of defining then using differing personas to test journeys through the site, whether for a charity seeking pro bono support, a prospective member learning about the Company, or a member booking an event. The team are now continuing to update the content, time permitting, following the same user persona based approach.

What was delivered

The new website had a soft launch in mid-December 2025, followed by a formal relaunch on 16 December. The team sought to minimise disruption through targeted email updates before any major changes and providing general information on updates through the Newsletter, an approach that will continue well into 2027.

The website upgrade was successful and well received. A structured Post Implementation Review confirmed the value of the work and the associated content clean-up has been vigorous and rigorous, but there is still more to do.

Further work is also under way on the wider technology stack and on the security of the CiviCRM system. These areas are important because they support the reliability, safety and sustainability of the Company’s membership information systems.

Email upgrade

The next major challenge was reducing the cost of the Company’s email system and rationalising the related tech. Although the change was not visible to most members, it particularly affected those who use a @wcomc.org email address for Company purposes.

By switching supplier, we now have a significantly more cost-effective system. The savings matter because the Company will need professional technical support going forward, rather than depending heavily on a small number of technically skilled members volunteering their time.

What comes next

Our technology strategy is to provide the tools, data, training and support that enable ways of working which best support the Company’s effective delivery of its main strategic aims:  Fellowship, Education and Philanthropy.

The biggest challenge for 2026-27 will be dealing with aging content. This will require a rolling programme of content upgrades, beginning with mapping who owns which content. Early work is focused on the Clerk’s office and the membership pipeline, in support of the Membership Committee.

The future focus is sustainability: keeping systems easy, simple, cost-effective and manageable. To achieve this, the Company will need clear strategic intent, agreed operating standards, appropriate external technical partners, strong value-for-money discipline, and continuing leadership in the way technology, data and compliance are managed.

These are proverbial fine words and good intentions. The reality is somewhat tougher. The Company can no longer rely only on the goodwill of a small number of technically skilled volunteers. The Information Systems Sustainability Group will help prioritise, empower and enable the work needed to ensure that our systems are safe, work well and make a difference.

The Company is unlikely to have substantial funds to invest in information systems, so it must make careful, strategic choices about how technology supports its long-term sustainability and wider objectives. The past year has shown what can be achieved through focused effort, a dedicated team and practical support. The task now is to keep that discipline in place.