A few people have been asking about what’s happening with the website and why it’s taking so long to get a new one up and running, so I’d like to cover that in this update.
The main problem is one of complexity. The existing site has lots of stuff on it that really shouldn’t be there. These are mostly things that are critical to the business and are better placed in a more professional environment with guaranteed availability and support. That includes things like community class bookings and season ticket purchases. By removing them from the website, we reduce risk and also make the new website an easier (and cheaper) task to rebuild.
While it might look like nothing much has happened, we’ve actually being doing a lot in the background to prepare for the new service.
Our season tickets (along with our new matchday tickets) are now with TicketCo and we’ve removed the online hospitality booking system which simply didn’t work properly (we’ve just reverted to email). We’ve just about moved all of the community class bookings off to a system used by the Junior Academy and the Foundation (it’s called MyClubHub). We still have some classes running on the main site though and once they come to an end we can remove them and we should be good to go.
We can then start the redevelopment work. Ideally, I would have liked those services to be removed earlier but we’ve had to put new arrangements in place, introduce new systems and processes and allow everyone time to get up to speed with the new stuff. Remember, we don’t have dedicated staff doing this as a day job. We rely on our volunteers who all do a fantastic job so the last thing I want to do is add to their burden. Besides, one thing I’ve learned over the years in IT is not to change too much at once.
It’s also important to stress that the website is just a part of our plan to grow into a modern digital business. It is linked to a number of other digital marketing initiatives that are designed to help us generate interest and additional revenue. So we’ve added a couple of new volunteers to our team (Ritchie and Scott) who are well-versed in technology and digital communication. Websites don’t run themselves, so we need to make sure we have the right skills in place to keep the site running and the content fresh. Ritchie and Scott – along with the rest of the team – will help us do that.
In terms of timescales, by the end of this year we should have all the extraneous stuff off the website and we can start on the redevelopment project. A draft specification for the new site is currently being reviewed internally and we’ll also be discussing with our key stakeholders like you (our fans), our sponsors, the Trust Board and so on to make sure it delivers what they need. The plan is to get that signed off by the end of December.
By the time we engage a developer, rewrite all the content (which we’ll need to do ourselves), sign off the design and test that all of our functional and non-functional requirements are being met, I would imagine we are looking at a launch time of February or March 2024 for the new site.
To help us make sure the new website delivers what you want, we’ve got a short survey that we’d ask you to complete if you have the time. It will only take a few minutes, but it will help us enormously to ensure we are delivering a modern, professional website that serves our fans, sponsors and customers.
In the meantime, we’ll do what we can to update the information on the existing website so that it is up to date and continue to post match reports, details of forthcoming matches and so on. We’ll also continue to work on revamping the club shop and adding more modern payment options.
If you ‘ve any questions, please drop me a line at it@stirlingalbionfc.co.uk
You can access the survey here – New Website Survey (google.com).
Robert Clubb (Director)
