Website redevelopment for Oldham Coliseum Theatre

The Oldham Coliseum Theatre is looking for expressions of interest from web developers for the redevelopment of the Theatre’s website.

The website redevelopment brief document is available for download, and the deadline for responses is 5pm, Thursday 9 April 2009.

Key requirements from the brief

Setting up a new CMS and database, ideally using open source software.
Setting up new hosting for the site. Suppliers should note that email is currently hosted in-house by the Coliseum. As such, suppliers will be expected to work with Coliseum staff to ensure that hosting arrangements for the new site do not impact the current email hosting.
Developing a visual design for the new site that is fresh but does not alienate the Coliseum’s core, loyal, local audience.
Working with Coliseum staff to develop the content plan for the site.
Work with Coliseum staff to develop a Service Level Agreement that will clearly identify areas of responsibility and other contractual arrangements.
Suppliers must be willing to develop a friendly working relationship with an organisation that currently has limited resources to support online activities.
Implement a simple technique in the CMS to link out to a third-party ticket booking / ordering website.
Implement statistics / analytics for the site.
Training Coliseum staff in how to use the new CMS.

What the Oldham Coliseum is looking for in the supplier who’ll get this work

Oldham Coliseum currently has a small but dedicated ‘digital team’ to support the development of content for the site and carry out basic administration.

However, that team currently has limited technical resources available to do the ‘screwdriver work’ such as coding new templates in the CMS, server administration, domain management, hosting management, server monitoring, and so on.

Oldham Coliseum is seeking to develop a long-term relationship with a supplier who:

Will help with the screwdriver work.
Suggest ideas for ways to develop the content on the site.
Ideally be based in North West England, but this is not a deciding factor.
Understands the constraints the theatre has working with a limited budget and a small team, and be honest about the level of support they can provide given these constraints.
The budget the Coliseum has available for this initial piece of work is not a huge amount of money. As such, suppliers may think what is being is a too much for what is available. However, as already stated, suppliers should keep in mind that the Coliseum is looking to develop a long-term relationship.

Further information

For a discussion about this work and to find out more about Oldham Coliseum’s plans for their website, please initially contact Ella Wrendenfors by email: ellawredenfors@coliseum.org.uk.