Using an external agency to create web pages

Departments are free to employ an external agency to undertake their web pages creation and maintenance. Before deciding which agency to use, please discuss the issue with your Departmental Editor/Publisher and take the following steps to assess the agency's ability:

• Visit the agency's web site, what are your first impressions? Do the pages take a long time to download? Is it easy to find your way around? Do you want to be associated with this agency? If the agency does not have a web site, would you want to give your business to an agency that doesn't have a web site? Ask to view previous web sites they have created.
• If the agency has been recommended, identify the basis of the recommendation. Did the sponsor experience any difficulties with any aspect of the project?
• How many people will be working on the project? How large is the organisation?
• Check copyright issues. Hampshire County Council must own the copyright of your pages even if the agency develops them.
• Don't forget to discuss how the maintenance of the web pages will be done. IS there a Service Level Agreement?
• Make sure the company read and understand the Hantsweb Standards to save time and resources.

Once you have chosen the agency you wish to work with, they should understand that they MUST produce pages that follow the corporate image. Refer the agency to the Hantsweb Corporate web standards document as a basis for their work.

Next: Who can create your web pages?

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