Bay of Plenty Polytechnic unveiled its new look website today utilising the latest in content management systems.

The polytechnic marketing and communications manager, Maggie Hope, says having an effective website is important for a diverse education provider.

Visit the new website here: www.boppoly.ac.nz

'The new website has been designed to set the foundation to enable the site to grow and add new functionality along the way,” says Maggie.

'It is imperative that we deliver a product that is user-centred and presents a compelling and consistent message, that its content is up-to-date and provides users with the information they are looking for – whether that be potential students, parents, teachers, potential employees, media, industry, government or community.”

Consultation for the project took a couple of months of careful planning by the project team and involved students, staff and community through a series of workshops, small groups, individual usability tests and more.

The site was developed completely in-house and is testament to the skills and abilities of the polytechnic staff.

'The ‘do it once and do it right' mantra was how the team approached the entire project,” says Maggie.

'Months of hard work and dedication has really paid off and we're thrilled with the results.”

The hands-on phase began in January after several months of testing potential content management systems.

The polytechnic chose to use a flexible, open source content management system, Drupal 7.

It is utilised by organisations such as The White House, Beehive, NZ National Library, Inland Revenue, MTV UK and Mattel.